Stan Goes Snorkeling

I forgot to mention that I am staying in Caye Caulker an island off the coast of Belize City. It is much smaller with a backpacker feel than the more touristy and expensive Ambergris Caye. Caye Caulker really only has one main dirt road lined with restaurants, hotels and shops and where golf carts, bikes and bare feet roam the grounds.
Today, Stan and I went snorkeling since Belize has some of the best underwater life in the world and is best known for its Blue Hole. Stan tried on his snorkeling gear, but preferred to go without in the water. I just carried him in my hand as we explored under the sea. We encountered green turtles, manatees, barracudas, eels, sting rays, nurse sharks and all sorts of fish.
The manatees are also called sea cows because they are so big and slow. They swim as though they are just strolling by sight seeing. Their nearest relative is the elephant and they weigh around 800 lbs and eat a 1/3 of their body weight in sea grass each day. They are listed on the endangered species list because man hunts them for their flesh. One manatee could probably feed a small village in Africa for a month. One manatee swam up to us and then Stan tried to swim down to get a closer look, but just kept sinking and so I had to put him back in my hand. You can see both of us in the picture below with the manatee. My guide Carlos from Carlos Tours fed the nurse sharks fish so that they would come to our boat. Then we jumped into the shark infested water and watched them eat. Carlos even caught one of the sharks in his bare hands and turned it upside down so we could pet it. Sharks really have been given a bad rep over the years. They only become aggressive if you taunt them or if you look like a seal when surfing... at least that's what Carlos said to convince me to jump in.Carlos then played with a sting ray and held it for us that we could pet this animal too. I tried to avoid the tail since that can shock and kill you. If you approach sting rays from the front, they are pretty harmless. When you approach them from behind, they can get defensive and sting people. All in all, Stan thoroughly enjoyed his day out in the water. However, he is starting to lose some of his hand stitched threads. The travels are taking a toll on his body and so we'll see if he can hold up for a year.

After seeing so many fish, I started craving sushi, but I couldn't find a sushi place and so I dined on $15 lobster again for dinner. Btw, the lobster in the picture is actually much larger than the one I ate. Tomorrow, we will attempt to head back to Guatemala in one day by taking a 7 hour bus down Belize to Punta Gorda and then a boat over to Livingston