Hi, all!
Mike and I flew from PDX on October 13th, had an overnight in Houston with a quick meet up with beloveds, and arrived in beautiful Belize the next morning.
I got to ride in the copilot's seat from the international airport to San Pedro Town on Ambergris Caye where we shopped for groceries...
...then hopped on a boat for the 14 mile trip to Tranquility Bay Resort on the secluded north part of the island. Paradise! Our little cabin on the beach was lovely and the view speaks for itself.
The others in our travel group were 3 high school friends of mine plus 2 spouses - Jennifer, Susie, Mike, John, and Cherie - and they arrived over the next 2 days to the same warm welcome we had.
The staff took good care of us including the boat captain, the office staff, the housekeeper, the restaurant staff, and the beach cleaner and cook, pictured here with the overwater restaurant and bar.
We ate breakfasts (included in the price) and some of our other meals there and prepared others in our cabins.
Over the next week we enjoyed moonrises and sunrises, lots of birds, and beloved blue water activities.
For Mike, blue water joy means flyfishing. He caught a satisfying amount of bonefish starting the 1st afternoon.
He saw more sharks in the flats than permit, spent hours casting to big tarpon that gathered around the dock lights at night (some exciting bites but no landings) and caught several nice jacks.
Most of us went kayaking at some point (Cherie and John pictured here).
One day Susie and her husband Mike and I went diving; divemaster Pablo was outstanding and the finger canyons very near the resort were amazing (Susie pictured here).
Mixed in with the beautiful corals and gorgonians and bright reef fish we encountered a hawksbill turtle, some huge rays, and a life first for all of us - this massive loggerhead turtle.
Another lovely day was spent on the sailboat Sirena Azul.
We made 3 awesome, varied snorkeling stops where we dove for conch for our ceviche, snorkeled with nurse sharks and big jacks (Susie and Jennifer and friends pictured here)...
...and saw some amazing fish including this one I'd never heard of that had massive 'wings' and walked along the bottom on modified fins - a flying gurnard.
Tranquility Bay is one of the few places in the northern cayes of Belize where you can snorkel from shore and some days I was wet more than I was dry. We were blessed with lovely weather; here are 2 photos I took of the restaurant and cabins from the water - the 1st on a typical sunny with some clouds day and the 2nd during a pounding downpour; there were a few of those, mostly at night.
I'll finish with a few more favorite underwater photos, all taken while snorkeling from shore.
A school of grunts
Beautiful column coral feeding and a blue headed wrasse
A tiny coral shrimp
Baby sargeant majors
An octopus that entertained me for half an hour, roiling along, changing colors, and sucking itself into tiny holes
At the end of this wonderful week the 2 Mikes flew home to Oregon. Susie, Jennifer, John, Cherie, and I continued our adventure, heading west into mainland Belize. I'll post about that in the next few days.
You can find the complete photo collections for this trip HERE.
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