Paget’s Belize Journal #36

December 24: This is the Life

I know that Oregon and Massachusetts and many other spots
also had good viewing for this beautiful, bright full moon and
it sounds glorious, but it’s hard to believe it could get any
better than my experience here.

We went out to Southwater Caye
about 2:00 in the afternoon. Those of you who have been on the
distribution list for a while may remember this is a tiny little
caye (maybe 12 acres) also partially owned by Therese’s family.
The Pelican Beach facility there is called the Pelican’s Pouch.
This is where I went snorkeling the first time and where Dawn
and I went snorkeling when she was here. And where they have
the one-winged pelican that has to be hand-fed.

This trip was also to include snorkeling, but from a “big
boat.” Friends of Tony & Therese, Hugh and Teresa, run
a wonderful small hotel and restaurant in Belize City and also
a dive service. Since Hugh has a big new boat and his financial
partner and his wife were down from the States to check out his
investment, this was a good chance to show it off. They motored
down from Belize City (a two-hour trip) and met us there. (We
went out to the caye with Ishmael, same as before).

The boat
is beautiful, can carry 60 diving tanks (so 30 divers on a one-day,
two-tank trip) and has plenty of room for them to move around
and fiddle with their gear, etc. But, because the boat is bigger,
it can’t go to the really shallow places where Ishmael can go,
so I was a little more nervous. And I didn’t do much snorkeling
this time, kept swallowing water and snorting and it wasn’t fun,
so I decided to get out of the water and just sunbathe. The other
six adults and three children had a good time though and saw an eagle
ray that roamed around for quite a while so even Rebecca, the
6-yr-old, got to see it. I stayed onboard and drank lemonade
and made sure the captain’s mate (a young Belizean also named
Tony) was doing everything just right.

Then we went back to the dock and to the hotel for showers.
Now this facility is a real island facility, composting toilets
(but one in most rooms) and outdoor showers from the limited
supply of water gathered by rooftop collectors. Since we were
only staying over one night (and hence would have an opportunity
for a real shower soon) we all showered just enough to get the
salt off and called it good. Change into some tropical lounging
clothes and back to the boat for cocktail hour, with shrimp and
Chardonnay, watching the poorer tourists admiring us. Even though
it’s clearly a working boat, it was almost like being on a yacht.
And as close as I’m likely to come so I enjoyed it immensely.

THEN, we went to the spit on the south end of the island to
finish our wine and watch the moon. Sunset here is about 6:00
pm so we were just in time for a glorious moonrise. I’m sure
it was no brighter reflecting off the snow in the cold north
than it was sparkling and shimmering down a beautiful fan of
light on the water. With no ambient light from manmade sources,
the light even seems to be a different color. And we had an incredible
bonus light show. To the west behind the Maya Mountains there
was a spectacular lightening storm over Guatemala with several
low banks of clouds between us and the storm. So the flashes
lighting up behind and between the clouds also provided a grand
show of nature. It was a very odd feeling to look to the east
and see that big, serene floating moon and then look to the west
and see dramatic flashing and cracking and roiling clouds. And
truly feel myself as a tiny person on a tiny island.

Unfortunately, the beautiful storm dumped lots of water and
caused some more problems for this part of the world, but we
didn’t know it then, so continued with our idyllic interlude.
Eventually the staff came out to the spit and said if we didn’t
come to eat, we wouldn’t get any dinner, so we ate quickly and
went back out to watch for another few hours. A beautiful, peaceful,
quiet (!) night, up early and back out to the spit to go wading,
drink coffee and talk some business. Breakfast of toasted bagels,
cream cheese and lox. Which, by the way, goes beautifully with
fresh papaya and pineapple. Now I know they really only live
like this occasionally and much of it was for the benefit of
the financial partner, but wasn’t I lucky to be included? If
I can’t be with my family for Christmas, this is surely the next
best thing. Happy Holidays to all.

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