Belize

After being properly bribed at the Mexican border two guy pals and I arrived in Corozal, Belize. In the first 24 hours we encountered crazy kids on bikes, pawn shops on every corner and folks sniffing paint thinner being chased across the streets by a shirtless man with a knife in one hand and a barracuda in the other.

Needless to say we all needed a few beers to adjust to this twilight zone of a town.

En Route

Mexi Art

In the town of Tulum Mexican art and crafts were visible everywhere. The colors and textures displayed were a feast for the eyes and my only regret is not being able to purchase any of it (diving gear does not allow for much spare space in one's luggage). One day I will return there. With an empty suitcase and a wad of cash.

Holy Cenotes

I love cenotes. The clarity of the water with sunlight filtering down, casting dramatic shadows on the impressive limestone rock formations are utterly spell-bounding. These freshwater sinkholes & entrances to underwater caves were revered by the ancient Maya and played a significant role in their civilization. It is easy to see why.

To many divers the mysterious enticement of a cenote beckons and instills an urge to explore what lies hidden beneath, and the underwater caves in the Yucatan Peninsula are slowly but surely being mapped by dedicated cave divers revealing a complex underground connected system. Some of these caves are frozen time capsules where archaeologists have discovered significant findings (click here for a video).

Below you will find images from Gran Cenote, Calavera and Angelita. Especially the last two I was enamored with. Calavera ('The Skull' or 'Temple of Doom') has a permanent halocline and Angelita...Oh, Angelita...A thick cloud of hydrogen sulfate makes you feel as if you are diving in a dream world. And if you are wearing any silver jewelry make sure you take a good look at it after you've surfaced: The chemical reaction between your silver bling and the hydrogen sulfate is not permanent but it sure is interesting!

Banco Chinchorro

During my time in Mexico I had the opportunity to dive Banco Chinchorro, the largest coral atoll in the Northern Hemisphere. If you have ever seen the film 'Alamar' you will have experienced what this place feels like...It is remote, in the middle of the ocean with absolutely stunning waters and treacherous reefs that have caused several shipwrecks in the past.

I received a rare invitation from local friends to return there and live for a week and fish alongside the men for lobster and barracuda. How I wish I could have gone.
I would have been stringing up my hammock on my pal Nestor's creaky porch and getting schooled on how to filet fish at neck-breaking speed whilst feeding their guts to the crocodile under the hut on stilts.
Nestor is the old man whom portrays the grandfather in Alamar: He is real! ...And he is just like in the film (which says something simultaneously about both his acting skills and his superior fishing techniques)

Then Hurricane Ernesto happened.
We took all necessary precaution in Xcalak and got off mildly (compared to others) but the fishermen's huts in Chinchorro were completely eradicated. All that remained were the poles that their shacks sat upon in the lagoon, a devastating blow.

In the end I did not get to take Nestor and the captains up on their kind offer and will never know what it is like to live under such extreme conditions in the open seas. Instead I will have to watch 'Alamar' again and again, I highly recommend it!

Thumping Tarpons

An often visited dive site in Xcalak is home to a large school of tarpons (Megalops atlanticus) reaching lengths of six to seven feet. These incredible silvery giants live for up to 55 years and many times underwater I have heard them make a sound using their swim bladder, a 'boom' that they produce when disturbed by one another, an impressive sound when swimming in the midst of a school of hundred large fish! Their swim bladder has multiple functions, including as a breathing organ: If a tarpon cannot access the surface it will perish because it is there where the gas exchange takes place. If you have ever seen a tarpon 'roll' at the surface then you know that they're basically coming up to "take a fresh breath of air"!

Next to that they can survive in both fresh and salt water environments due to their unique swim bladder.  The individual below I photographed at La Poza, a trench-shaped dive site with a current attracting several schools of fish, most notably the enormous tarpons. They are beauties.

Xcalak

Just off the border of Belize, nestled in between mangroves and the Caribbean ocean, lies Xcalak. With a population of about 400 inhabitants this remote fishing village has hardly any of the amenities that are readily available in the nearby town of Mahahual, 65 km away. Instead pick-up trucks sell a variety of produce in the streets several times a week and marine radios are used in lieu of phones by the villagers. I came to live here for five months in a house on stilts dubbed the Purple Palace whilst I was working and studying at a Dive Center situated on the Xcalak Marine Park.

En Route

Coba

During university I attended a Meso-American archaeology course and despite the professor's dull and dry three hour long lectures I became fascinated - to the point that I dragged my poor mother to a Meso-American pottery exhibit in Barcelona and babbled on and on about each individual artifact present.

So when a group of the volunteers were gunning it to Coba I tagged along and walked around the area for the afternoon. Ball courts, temple pyramids and stelas aplenty but when I searched for any of the information stored in my brain in regard to what I learned in uni I came up with a Big Blank. I am not sure whether this says something about my brain storage capacity, the boring professor or the course itself but oddly enough, I remember the price of the required academic textbook.

It was a lovely afternoon meandering around the ruins in Coba with bicycle crashes, friends with blisters on their feet and topped off by pizza and beer afterwards.

Off the Grid

Eight months were spent working and living in Mexico. The first 3 months at a marine conservation base located in the Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve where coral and fish surveys were conducted on the Meso-American Barrier Reef.

Cedric of course enjoyed himself immensely.