April, 2017

Breathing Deeply in Belize

What an amazing trip to Belize with a fantastic group of women. My first girls' trip? Here's a kick off to a week of nature above and below the ocean.

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Safely landed in Belize.

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Write your caption here.

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Our lovely cabins at Tobacco Caye, off the coast of Dangriga. This tiny little island has a mere 20 permanent residents so with 12 of us showing up we more than doubled the population in one fell swoop. We took over these six lovely cabins, leaving about two dozen accommodations for any other lucky visitors.

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On our deck at Tobacco Caye, guarding it from pirates. Folk tales tell us that these little islands got their names from pirate-era smuggling but I'd take that with a grain of salt. In actuality,, Tobacco Caye was more likely named for its early tobacco plantations.

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The graceful Eagle Ray.

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Rochelle mimicking the eagle ray.

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When you look at the map, Tobacco Caye is listed as "Tobacco Caye Paradise". Not hard to understand why...

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Conch litter. Conch is one of the most common catches here and instead of harvesting the meat at sea and throwing the shells back into the water (apparently dead shells are bad for the live conch), the fishermen bring their catch back to Tobacco Caye, scoop out the meat and toss the shells aside. These left over shells end up being used as a barrier to protect from erosion which is plaguing all these little islands since they lost some or all of their natural erosion barrier: mangroves.

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Nothing interesting out here, I'm heading back to the land.

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Now here is something worth investigating! I wonder who would be the winner if these two got into a tussle...

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Sunrise at Tobacco Caye

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Marci saving a bird...she didn't see the barracuda behind her.

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On to our next home at South Water Caye, a 5.5 mile journey by kayak.