SWIMMING WITH SHARKS

When we booked the holiday one rainy day in Sheffield, we added a full days snorkeling tour round Caye Caulker. Nothing could have really prepared us for this adventure.

The previous evening we had, had to go to the snorkelling centres office to get fitted with flippers. They were very strict on using all the correct equipment, but it worried me a bit as I had never used flippers before.

We started our day with a local delicacy called fryjacks, Errolyns Home of Fryjacks was near to the hotel. Deep fried bits of loveliness – I thought they would be really greasy but they weren’t. Mine was refried beans and cheese, Pete had egg and cheese. A big vat of green salsa you could help yourself to ensured that I was happy.

It really set us up for the day! Heading towards the meeting point we had time to tickle the tummy of a puppy, who was chomping through some discarded banana bread.

Our captain for the day was Captain Shane, accompanied by Rookie, and someone else I couldn’t remember their name. As well as someone he called Keanu Reeves, with no sense of irony. We all sat on the top of the boat, it was our Duran Duran moment. Everyone from our travel group had decided to do the trip, so we had the boat to ourselves.

The first place we visited was an area where manatees hang out, it didn’t disappoint, we got to see one, but how close we got was safely managed, which I was happy that they did put in guidelines.

This isn’t my picture but this is what it looked like. It was just chilling on the sea floor. Belize is considered a manatee hotspot, which was lucky for us. Each time we went in the sea we had to put all the equipment on, then back on board someone would pour water over us to get rid of the saltiness. Then they would come round with pineapple and watermelon to take away the taste of the sea. It all seemed very luxurious.

Our next stop was to Shark Ray Alley, which sounds far more ominous than it was.

Someone from the group shared these photos with us, so not only did we see sharks but we also saw stingrays. It was a bit of a leap of faith to jump in and swim with the sharks but before we did go in Captain Shane explained that they don’t eat people. This was reassuring – they were nursing sharks. They are a protected species in Belize. Whilst they tend to be docile if approached too closely they can bite quite badly.

Our next stop was to Hol Chan (little channel in Mayan), a substantially sized marine reserve. There were reserve staff dotted around to make sure everyone was keeping to the rules.

We saw so many fish. Captain Shane would bib down under water and point out the various fish and their names. The only time I have ever seen fish like that is an aquarium – it was unbelievable that we were swimming alongside them.

We had one more stop and then everything went a bit crazy on the boat. Rum punch was cracked, one of the crew made the best salsa we have had so far, the others had shrimp cerviche. Moments earlier they had been so engaged and excited about the marine life, now they were chomping down it. Captain Shane at one point was pouring rum down people’s throats, we didn’t do that. Heading back at sunset, on top of a boat with reggae blasting out, having a few sips of rum punch. This was certainly the life!