Visitors from Houston

         Our dear friends from Houston, Al and Kelly arrived today (Tuesday April 26) and I met them at the water taxi station in Belize City while Cheri tended to Namaste’. (A water taxi is a long, heavy, open boat with 400hp to 600hp motors on them used to shuttle 30 or 40 people between the more populated cays). They had brought us quite a load of supplies and it took 3 dingy loads to get it all to the boat.

     Kelly and Al got to do some S.C.U.B.A. diving on Wednesday and Thursday out of Caye Caulker, then Friday we sailed back to The Lodge at St George Caye where we hooked up with Len and Kim on Boomerang (a really beautiful and well outfitted catamaran). Fred Goode and the Lodge staff exceeded our expectations  (from our visit earlier this month) by another outstanding meal preceded by a “bonfire on the beach happy hour”. Al and Kelly wanted to dive the St George area of the reef so they discussed it with Fred at dinner and planned their trip for tomorrow. Another decision made that night was that we were enjoying it all so much, we would hang another day in St George before heading back to Belize city so Al and Kelly could catch their plane back to Houston.

Cucumber Beach Marina

We have been here since Sunday May 1 when we dropped Al and Kelly off. We had a fair amount of maintenance –preventative and otherwise- to do so a week or so spent here would be time well spent at a dock. We installed a new battery charger, did a little upgrade on the solar panel frame, installed a powerful wash down pump so we didn’t have to do the bucket thing over the side when we wanted to scrub the deck (like after bringing up a muddy anchor), installed a new fusing system for our inverter so we could use the new waffle iron (Kevin, this was the real reason we came here, the rest of the stuff could have waited), repaired the autopilot gyro that had broken on a trip to San Pedro earlier this month and gave Namaste’ a real good fresh water scrub down. We did get to play some too—A trip to the ruins of Xunantunich and a visit to the most incredible Belize zoo with Paddington. Paddington was a real sport as he and Cheri climbed “el Castillo”, the highest structure in Xunantunich that  dates between 800 and 900 AD (see picture). He also “fit right in” at the zoo. The Belize Zoo was started in 1983 when 17 animals were left from the filming of a natural history documentary. Many of the rest of the over 100 animals (all indigenous to Belize) were confiscated from people who had tried to keep them as pets or injured animals found and taken to the zoo. Each exhibit places the animal in a spacious natural habitat.

     Two things need mentioning here:

       If you have seen one ruin you have NOT seen them all. Each is different and each has some special feature about it. Additionally the guide you get if you choose to go that route can make an enormous difference in your visit. Our guide, Mark, was an archaeologist turned tour guide and he was outstanding. He also went with us to the zoo and spent time at EVERY exhibit explaining the animals and their history. More than one person told us that the Belize zoo was rated number 6 in the world and having been there, we believe it.

Tuesday May 11

    We are headed out tomorrow to do the atolls and more exploring of the reef. Our plan is to stay out until the middle of June when our friend Mark Yenchko will be coming to stay a week with us. The adventure continues...

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