Turtles, sharks, and stingrays

When Kelsey and I went inland to the track meet two weeks ago, the rest of our group went snorkeling and sailing to Caye Caulker, an island right near San Pedro. Today it was our turn! The boat left at 9 and we were there in plenty of time to claim two bean bag chairs on the front of the boat!  Once everyone was on board, we set off for Hol Chan. In Mayan, Hol Chan means a little whole in the channel. That's exactly was this spot is in the ocean. You can tell that you're there because the water is even bluer than normal. 

We got our snorkel and fins on and jumped into the water to see all sorts of fish! We saw a turtle, tons of fish, eels, eagle rays, stingrays, nurse sharks (they don't have teeth), and jelly fish. They said we ended up seeing more fish than normal and it was very cool to watch them swim below us while we snorkeled along. 

After we all got back on the boat, we headed to shark and ray alley. This is exactly what it sounds.. A place with a lot of sharks and a lot of stingrays. In order for us to be able to see all the sharks, one of the guys on the boat starting throwing raw fish into the water. It didn't take long before there were swarms of fish fighting each other for food. Some people got off the boat to watch them eat from underwater, but I stayed in the boat so I could watch it up close. Underneath the sharks were all sorts of rays and blue tangs (what Dory is in Finding Nemo). Once the sharks stop getting food they are no longer interested so they swim away. Everyone got back on the boat and we continued sailing for about an hour to Caye Caulker!

Caye Caulker isn't as developed as San Pedro. They say it's like what San Pedro was like 10-15 years ago. Everything is even slower and it feels a lot less touristy. There's a part of the island called the split  that was created during a hurricane. Kelsey and I walked there first to take a few pictures and then we stumbled upon a middle eastern restaurant to eat at for lunch. 

We had two hours to kill on Caye Caulker, but we decided to just go back to the boat to nap. We hung out in the sun for awhile until everyone else returned and then we started the sail back to San Pedro!

The sail back to San Pedro took about an hour and a half and was great! We got to lounge in the sun and just relax and enjoy the ride. Another successful day in paradise in the books!