(This is much different than being layed on, or lei'd on, which would be more enjoyable)
This is a pretty typical house. You'll see houses that look better and worse than this. They have some really nice ones, and some that make this look upscale. It's a bit humbling when you see the laundry hanging out and you realize a family of six probably lives there. Tammy's thoughts of a six month stay are quickly snuffed. About 5:30 p.m. we get to the boat and start getting unpacked. They've done a nice job of elevating the beds so that we can get our luggage underneath. Here is a picture of the Nekton 'Pilot' from later in our voyage. It doesn't look like their 'glamour shot', but then again, what does?
Additionally, I have this photo of one of the pontoons from later in the voyage. It looks pretty cool, almost like a submarine.
After our second dive of the morning we take a skiff over to an island that is a bird sanctuary, for the red footed booby. Really, even I couldn't make that up. These photos are best viewed if you can zoom out, as they are panoramic (one vertical, one horizontal) and they show the island very well.
These next photos are just some that I happened to like. I like it when you get the contrast of a well colored foreground image with either the blue or black background.
Now, when I take this picture I'm moving in nice and slow, making sure I don't get too close, don't harass or startle it. Then, one of the divemasters (I don't want to embarass anyone named Mike) decides to glide in over me. No problem, but then he turns to see who he just swam over, and hits his tank on something. This startles the shark, who rises up out of the alcove, then smacks his head on some coral (which breaks off, and then falls, hitting him again) before he/shee turns around and comes up at an angle. Towards me.
At this point I'm about ready to wet my wetsuit. A divemaster in Florida told us once that most diver shark bites are from nurse sharks, because the divers annoy them. This is going through my brain. Fortunately, the shark just wants out and it turns straight towards me and brushes by on it's way out. Sure, it's no jaws, but that is little consolation when you're hanging in the water like a neoprene wrapped slim-jim with an 8' shark bearing down on you.
On a later dive of the day I get this great picture of a pair of Indigo Hamlets. We've seen the standard version in other locations, but Belize is the only place I've seen these.
We also get to see a turtle, a fairly rare occurrence. It's not the best photo, but these little reptiles can move
I also get the obligatory mean looking moray shot.
You don't see moray eels freeswimming very often during the day. This one was out and about and suckered me down to 100' before I gave up.
We also see a Slipper Lobster on the night dive. I've never seen one of these before, but they look strange.
Finally, here are two macro shots. The first is a flamingo tongue. (Thanks to Anne Bostelaar for the correction).
The second is a picture of some extremely small crabs on some coral. It looked pretty neat.
We stopped and watched a Cricket match going on across from the hotel we parked our gear at. It was exciting, for a game I don't understand. You can also see some of the town in the background, in case you thought I was exagerrating earlier.
We also took a bus up to see the ruins of Altun-Ha. The correct sequence of a conversation is something like this:
"Where are we going?"
"Altun-Ha"
"Gesundheit"
Here is a picture of it from the tallest structure, which is really a huge dirt mound in which some of the stone has been exposed.
Finally, we do a van tour of Belize City, and Tammy stops to get a picture of this church.
It was made out of brinks used as ballast by English ships coming over, and supposedly is the sight of the only Engish coronation of a king outside of England. The coronated (is that right?) at least one of the 'Mosquito Coast' kings here, so it's not a king of England or anything.
We fly home this night and get in about midnight. It was a good trip, and I heartily recommend a live-aboard for Belize.