6-18-2017 Snorkeling Trip By Sailboat

Cara's mother had seen our blog posts about Caye Caulker when friends would come visit Belize, and she wanted to do something similar. So, that meant a snorkeling trip in Hol Chan Marine Reserve. A sailboat is definitely the most relaxing way to get to and from the snorkeling spots, so we went out with Raggamuffin Tours. 

Apparently we were lucky to have just the right number of people so that we got to go out in their catamaran instead of one of
their smaller boats - perfect!

Our first stop was the Hol Chan Cut, which is a narrow channel in the barrier reef through which boats can pass. These Blue
Tang fish were hanging out in the shallower waters before the break.

The GoPro waterproof case fogged up so Cara didn't get any photos of the deeper area, but we did see things like a Barracuda and a Moray eel.

A nurse shark at our second stop, Shark Ray Alley.

Horse-Eye Jack to the left, and rays at the bottom.

They fed us lunch, and we hung out for a while, and Deedra was loving the whole experience.

Our third and final snorkel spot was Coral Gardens.

This is normally our least favorite snorkel spot because we don't often see much here, but this time we saw a juvenile Green
Sea Turtle. Yay! Cara was hoping her mother would get to see a sea turtle.

Here is a short video of the sea turtle:

The forecast for this day was a little iffy, but it turned out to be beautiful. On the way back they fed us chips and conch
ceviche (fresh salsa for Cara).

This time upon returning to Caye Caulker they let us off at a new dock north of the Split, and we took a ferry boat from here to
the dock on the back side of the island south of the Split. This operation is relatively new - it didn't hit our radar a couple of
months ago. Anyway, we learned later that night that this place is called Koko King Restaurant & Wet Lounge, and their
ferry to/from the main part of the island is free.

The ferry boat

Later that night, while we (Cara and Eric) were walking around we spied this little crab crossing the road holding a flower.

How cute is that!?

We figure he must have been on his way to see his sweetheart.