Caye Caulker, Take 2 - 3/26/07

Okay, so we've been busy. Plus, it seems for the past week and a half all computers in Blue Creek have been allergic to Blogger. I can finally post, yay! It won't let me upload pix though, so those will follow. A quick recap on what has been going on.

• Third Quarter officially came to an end on March 9th
• We had our biannual Science Fair on March 15th
• We had a school holiday on March 16th - 3 day weekend! Woo Hoo!
• I sent report cards home on March 19th with only one student in serious danger!
• My class went to the zone elimination spelling bee in Trinidad today while I stayed back to teach my two high school Spanish classes. Easy day!
• Today there was no class again as the junior high traveled to Orange Walk Town for the PSEs (the Belizean version of the WASL).
• Easter Break is coming up! We will be out of school from April 5-10. Fun fun! We are planning to visit Playa Del Carmen in Mexico and stay at the Quinta Sol – about two hours closer to us than Cancun with a similar beach.
• Melissa has been keeping busy with 3 book studies and being an all around AWESOME person.

So, things have been pretty busy around here. Luckily though, those PSEs don't have near the impact on our schools as the WASL back home. Only Standard 6 students take it (Grade 8) and it has no effect on what happens in the classroom or graduation - it's just a measurement by the government for demographic reports.

Also, we recently got back from an awesome trip to Caye Caulker. I just love that island! It is so relaxing. We once again stayed at the Barefoot Caribe - which lucky for us does not accept reservations so we're almost guaranteed vacancy whenever we show up on the island. Most places were full of Canadians celebrating their spring break. We went on a an all day sailboat and snorkeling tour of the Barrier Reef, leaving from Caye Caulker and heading North to Ambergris Caye. We visited the Caye Caulker Marine Reserve, Shark Ray Alley (with rays and nurse sharks), and the Hol Chan Marine Reserve off of Ambergris Caye.

Hol Chan is the Mayan term for "Narrow Passage" and describes a break in the reef leading to open ocean, with the white caps of the waves crashing over the reef marking the barrier between snorkeling waters and the deep blue sea. In the center of this channel is a buoy that we're not allowed to swim past, because the current moving through the reef is strong enough to carry you out to sea. We swam along the edge of this channel, looking down on the huge coral and animals, only to look up and see that we had moved beyond the magic barrier created by that buoy. Hmmm….now if I were the guide, we would not be this far out. But the current was not strong and we swam all over, it was so much fun!

We sailed slowly on the way back, enjoying about five gallons of rum punch while getting to know the other people on the boat. At one point, the boat slowed a bit and one of the guides jumped out with his flippers on and came up with two live conch. He pulled them out of their shell on the side of the boat and cut them up for the fresh conch ceviche he made for us to enjoy. Conch shells are beautiful, but the animals themselves are UG-LY! At one point, the guide pulled a clear, worm-like piece out of the center of the conch and swallowed it, calling it the "power of the conch." He did the same with the next one and gave it to a tourist to swallow – which he did. No thank you, sir. I'm on vacation, not Fear Factor.

The Canadian group we met was fun enough to make plans with – we all got together for dinner at the world-famous streetside barbecue of Jolly Roger. I recommend the Barracuda. It wasn't quite as much fun as the night before however, when Melissa and I decided to go from restaurant to restaurant across the island to see who actually had the best rum punch. In the end, I decided it was that one place across from the big palm tree along the sandy road near the beach. Mmm…that one place.

So, until our next entry! Write us, we love hearing from home! Oh, and Angel, email me. Everything I send to you still bounces back. Talk to all of you later!

Love,

N8

A Taste...

We are in Caye Caulker again for the weekend. As Nathan mentioned in his Cancun blog, Blue Creek can't seem to let a month pass without a three-day weekend. So....here were are! We don't have the pix on-line yet, but when we get them, you'll see what a great trip this has been for us the second time around!! We went snorkeling at 3 different sights, saw sharks, HUGE rays, moray eels, and sooo soo much more. The coolest part of that? We did it on a sail boat! It's been a beautiful two days so far and we are getting our island tans back. We will write much more about it later. This is just a taste of what is to come...