tobacco caye

We had a short clinic on Friday, where I got to see my first kid since I have been here. Exciting stuff for this future pediatrician. We headed off on the local bus to Dangringa where then we planned to take a boat to Tobacco Caye. The trip there went off without a hitch and was as comfortable as it could be in a old beat-up school bus. We were talking amongst ourselves (Matt, Tim, Kara, and Emily - the other students here with me) that Belize is a school bus graveyard or at least retirement community. You see buses everywhere and I even saw one from Hennepin County, Minnesota in Independence. Crazy. The boat ride to the Caye was bumpy but definitely worth it. Gorgeous postcard Caribbean sea water and scattered Mangrove covered islands. Tobacco Caye itself is this tiny little island that you can walk around in 10 minutes tops. It is covered in beach houses and palm trees. I think it use to be a mangrove island that they settled and then dredged up sand to make it inhabitable. This is happening all over Belize. Kind of sad really as tourism is encouraging the development of islands on the reef at the expense of the native habitats. Mangroves are important hurricane barriers from what I recall so it shall be interesting to see what happens as development continues.

Anyway, the reef is very accessible from the beach at Tobacco Caye and we spent the weekend snorkeling, spotting all sorts of sea life. The reef was awesome, although you could definitely see evidence of coral die-off and I couldn't help but wonder what it had been 10-15 years ago. Thanks to Jimmy for telling me to bring my mask and snorkel - it definitely got good use although I think I actually ended up taking his... oops. When we weren't snorkeling we were relaxing in hammocks and on the docks. We met the locals which turned out to be interesting characters as well. We were going to stay longer today, but it stormed all night long last night and it looked like it was continue to storm today. We didn't want to get stuck on a tropical paradise - work duties to do - so we caught the morning taxi back to Dangriga and the caught another school bus back to Hillside. A great weekend and I am glad I had the chance to see Tobacco Caye. Although, the first day I was a little sad and I sat and pondered how much Jimmy would have loved the place and how we were not getting to share in the moment.

Below is a map of my trip so far. Enjoy.



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