SUNDAY, MARCH 30th, 2008

Today is a day to relax with family and unwind from the 2 day journey to Belize. We whip up a fresh breakfast of eggs, toast, and ham, after which.

Next, Harold, Tim, and myself take a trip downtown to see Israel and drop off my dive equipment. We make arrangements for snorkelling and diving in the Hol Chan Marine park the next day before taking a quick tour of downtown San Pedro. The three of us bought wide brimmed grass hats before heading back to the villa for the ladies, kids, and a quick refreshing dip in the pool.

The rest of the day is spent in San Pedro, having lunch at Estelle's, and walking down the beach, followed by cruising the streets of SP in our golf cart.

Before we know it, the day is getting long and we quickly do some grocery shopping and head home for a dip in the pool and a bite to eat.

Just a relaxing enjoyable day in the sun...

MONDAY, MARCH 31st, 2008

Once again, we wake up to a quick breakfast of eggs, ham, and toast. Harold, Tim, and myself head to the Mata Rocks dock and are met by both Israel and Peter in the Protech boat. Introductions are made and away we go to the Hol Chan Marine Park. Peter and Israel brief us on the history of the park and explain what we're going to do.

Harold and Tim snorkelled with Israel, while Peter and I decided to dive the site and get all the kinks worked out of my equipment and weights. A good thing too, as I forgot to account for the added bouyancy of the wetsuit that I brought. Normally I wear a 3mm farmer john shorty, this time I brought a 5mm shorty with full length sleeves. Ooops!

On the dive, I saw a few jellys right as I hit the water. We also saw a group of tarpon, and the usual pelagic suspects. The one thing that I really enjoyed about this dive were all the outcrops. The thing that I disliked was the moderate current, but once again, no big deal.

Next, we headed over to Shark Ray Alley where we had a blast. My brother in law, Tim, especially enjoyed this part, as did my father in law, Harold. Harold is a nervous swimmer to begin with, never mind sharks and rays in the wild. Israel playing with the sharks and rays immediately put him at ease I think. Good times all around!

Next thing you know, it was the afternoon and we were getting dropped off at the Mata Rocks dock again. We walked the few blocks back to the villa when Tim told us he was stung twice by jellies as he hit the water at our fist stop at HCMP. Once on the ankle, and once on the inside of the arm. No big deal he said, he barely even felt it..... cool!

The rest of the day was spent playing in the pool and cruising the streets of San Pedro again. Once again, we went grocery shopping. We had lots of fun in the evenings with the golf carts!

TUESDAY, APRIL 1st, 2008

The crunch is on for me to complete 10 dives (9 dives and 1 snorkel) before the end of my trip. I don't know if the weather is going to hold out and keep the waters calm enough for me to dive, so I decide to do a tally of 4 dives today.

Breakfast as usual today, pancakes and fresh fruit! I hitch a quick ride in the cart to the Mata Rocks dock where Israel is once again waiting for me to arrive. I think I only had to wait once for him to show up, and only becuase I was 20 minutes early!! We go to pick up another diver at the Victoria House, a very nice guy from Texas by the name of Erick.

We are quickly briefed by Israel that we are heading to the Paradise Canyons. I'm feeling a bit sick on the boat, something I haven't felt in years, I guess it was from being away from a boat on the open ocean for so long. Thankfully, I hold on to my breakfast. At the site, we are instantly greeted by several playful nurse sharks and a few groupers. My max depth was 94 feet and the dive lasted for a duration of 45 minutes. I'm quickly impressed, as I love spur and groove / canyon style dives. For me, they are only trumped by wall dives.

We head back for our surface interval. Erick and I go into the lounge at the Spindrift for a softdrink and get out of the heat and chat a bit. Before we know it, it's time for our second dive of the day.

Israel briefs us that we are going to Dardanellos Canyons. Again, I'm not feeling well on the boat, but better than earlier in the morning. Max. depth I went to was 92 feet and the duration of the dive was 51 minutes. A great dive, once again!

We drop Erick off and I head back to Protech with Israel, where I meet the rest of my family for lunch at Caliente's. Great food there as well, better than Estelle's I think.

Lois and Harold jump into the boat with Israel and myself for their first ever open water dives in the ocean. Their certification dives were done in a cold freshwater lake here in Manitoba.

We're briefed again and head off to Esmeralda. This time, I didn't feel sick... starting to get my sea legs again! I don't think there was a I dive that I didn't see nurse sharks or rays on. Israel did a great job with my in-laws, and they felt extremely comfortable with him. He took the time to make sure they both got to the bottom safely with their ears equalized. I can't say enough about Protech! My maximum depth was 61 feet and the duration was 38 minutes.

We headed back in, Harold was turning green from the seas, and so both my in-laws opted out of their second dive. I on the other hand, went out with Israel on my 4th dive of the day to Toffee Canyons. It was explained that once upon a long time ago, cruise ships used to anchor here. Upon descending, I immediately take note of a huge block with an anchor point on it. It's tilted at an angle, which Peter later explains was originally sitting level until storm surge moved it. The block was approximately 5 feet, by 5 feet, by 4 feet, and looked to weight an incredible amount. There was a lot of damage on this dive from storm surge, in the end, we cut the dive short as it was getting dark, murky, and I was getting cold and tired from a long day of diving, and I also knew that I needed time to get ready for the "April Crawl". With over 1200+ PSI left in the tank, we ascended and packed it in for the day. My maximum depth was 52ft and the duration was 41 minutes.

Izzy dropped me off at the Mata Rocks dock, and I wearily walked back to the villa. I showered and decided to have a quick nap with my 6wk old daughter before heading out.... little did I know that this would be a fatal decision. When I woke up, it was almost 7PM and we still hadn't even ate yet. We quickly ran out and bought groceries and had dinner. By this point, it was 9PM and I was sacked. (Sorry again everyone! :()

Stay tuned for more.....