Water Activities @ Caye Caulker

There are many options. The two that most interested me were manatees and snorkeling. Unfortunately, the two don't go together. Oh well.

I LOVE MANATEES.
I believe the obsession started sometime in elementary school. I thought they were the cutest animals on earth – fat, slow, an adorable face. I still think so.
I know they have them in Florida, too. But I've never been out there. I think (if I recall correctly) that they had them at the zoo in Singapore. But that's the zoo, not the real thing.
I WANT TO SEE WILD MANATEES.
So, I came to Belize. Sadly, I can't remember who told me about the manatees in Belize, but whoever it was, thank you.

After convincing Nao and Yoshiko that they couldn't leave Belize without seeing the manatees, we decided to look for a tour together. It's easier when you're not looking solo, since these tours don't run without enough people.
I personally wanted to join Mr. Chocolate's tour. He's a hard-core manatee lover, and the founder of the natural reserve (Swallow Caye) where we'd be going to see the lovely creatures. He must be an expert, with loads of useful manatee info. However, Yoshiko found a cheaper one...what else did I expect from these long-term gung-ho Japanese backpackers?! Seriously, she was planning on walking the last 3km from the bus stop to the airport on her way back to Japan because she didn't want to pay for a cab at the end of her trip.
So we ended up on that one. Cheaper but not cheap; it still cost BZ$114 each. Why are water activities so expensive everywhere???

The boat ride to the reserve took about an hour through peaceful waters. Saw some dolphins along the way.
Once we got into the reserve, the engines were turned off and all of us were on a keen lookout for the manatees while the captain rowed us through.
Someone yelled, "There's one!" I looked over to where he's pointing, seeing nothing. Same thing happened over and over. But it seems like I wasn't the only one having problems with spotting the manatees; none of my friends have seen it either. We were getting quite frustrated.
And then there was a god, or some sort of higher being. We were extremely elated when we finally saw our first manatee. They're underwater, so we couldn't see them very clearly, but they're manatees nonetheless. Definitely manatee shaped.Once we saw one, we kept seeing more. We even saw a mother-baby pair!!! I was such a happy child : )

On our way back to Caye Caulker, we made a couple of snorkeling stops. The water was colder than I'd imagined, so I stayed in only for a short time. I even skipped the second stop, being too cold and deep for my liking. My friends, both divers, didn't seem to mind the water conditions at all.
Apparently, we were supposed to make a third snorkeling stop full of rays. For some reason though, the tour didn't stop and we were driven back to the docks. But we paid for the 3 snorkel stops, didn't we??? After complaining to the tour operator, the captain took us out again. I guess none of the other passengers cared to snorkel with the rays. To be honest, I didn't mind seeing them, but I didn't need to swim with them. Especially after what happened to that Australian crocodile handler. Scary.

That evening, Nao and I moved to Yoshiko's guesthouse. Better quality for a cheaper price.
And they had the cutest puppy there!

The following day, my friends went out to dive. Belize is supposed to have one of the best diving sites in the world, famous for the Blue Hole and Hol Chan. Having no license, I couldn't join. Why didn't I bother to get my PADI certificate before???
So, I spent a very lazy day in Caye Caulker, just wandering along its few streets, reading at the docks, and eating pineapples.

All in all, the visa was expensive for the short time I spent in the country, but I think it was totally worth it. I'm really happy that I came to Belize. Sad to be leaving tomorrow, but coming back for sure!