The following morning we struck camp; laughing at the slow, stiff movements and pained, hungover looks that plagued our group. The tents proved every bit as difficult to break down as they had been to put up leading to small frustrated mutterings and no small shortage of lighthearted teasing.
We paused briefly for breakfast, then began transferring bags, sheets, tents and bodies back onto the cramped confines of the Ragga Queen before saying goodbye to the Island and its surprising wealth of local wild life.
As the boat gently drifted away from the Island I was once again taken by its small size, pristine beauty and the unique flavor of the adventure. As you might imagine, a plethora of movie references and great cinematic moments filtered through my mind – always an entertaining narrative and realization: that epiphany that you’re living the adventure often delivered as fairytale across the world’s silver screens.
The day was beautiful with hardly a cloud in the sky. The sun kept us warm and left us relishing each opportunity that arise to pause and dive into the water to fish, snorkel, hunt for conch, or just generally relax and cool off.
As we neared our first snorkeling stop I was relieved. The weather was fantastic, the group with the exception of one bratty girl, was an absolute delight and the adventure was unfolding nicely. I’m always wary of any sort of extended duration tour. While something like the Raggamuffin tour tends to only attracting the more laid back, younger and heartier traveler – all it takes is one or two people to really turn what should be a 3-9 day adventure with new found friends into an absolute nightmare. As you can tell from the photo above things were rather tight and personal space was at a premium. That said, everyone took it in stride and worked to chip in.
Our first stop was along a steep wall along the reef. As I first jumped in and looked down, I felt my stomach surge towards my throat. The water below me was some 20-30 feet deep on a steep incline, drifting quickly into a dark blue abyss. The seafloor was covered in coral, fans and schools of fish and I couldn’t help but think I stood a good chance of seeing an open water shark.
Allowing my nerves to settle, I began to explore the area. The sea wall offered a great opportunity to see a different type of reef life. Some of the fish were different, the corals were slightly different and the general feel of the place had its own unique flavor. As we snorkeled around the area I made my way along the wall watching rays and schools of fish go about their daily business. Eventually, I made a wide loop that took me into the shallow water – that which was 4-10 feet deep – and towards the areas where the reef broke free from the sea. There, in the shallower water I was greeted by large spiny sea urchins, vibrantly colored, albeit smaller, coral dwelling species of fish and even a lazy sea turtle enjoying the open sea grass. The video I’ve included above is shown in near chronological order, and while you may recognize it from my previous post – it covers all 3 days.
Tired and hungry I made my way back to the boat for lunch. After a quick meal, it was time to set off again. Sail up, bodies sprawled across the decks, the subtle sight of soft white lines decorating our bodies where we’d missed a spot of sunscreen.
Our next stop was similar. This time, however, it was a series of small sea mounts that rose from the ocean floor (about 30-40 feet) to a depth of some 10 feet below the surface. The mounts were small but packed with coral and sea life.
Once again we struggled into our fins, held our breaths and jumped over the side before fanning out in all directions to explore. Some were armed with spear guns, others with cameras. As we slowly explored, we found ourselves pointing off into the blue, motioning, and trying to speak through snorkel filled mouths. All the while sharing little discoveries – a large school of 5 or 6 barracuda, a lazy sea turtle taking a nap on the ocean floor or a particularly beautiful fish.
It was during a foray in towards one of the larger mounts – one with significantly shallower water – that I came across the largest barracuda I’ve ever seen. You’ll notice him in the video I posted above, though the size doesn’t really come across. Easily four feet in length the monster oozed predatory confidence as it slowly, ever so slowly drifted through the shallow water.
Eager to get video and see it up close, I followed. All the while wondering….was it truly a good idea? After all, the plastic housing for my camera reflected the glint of sunlight and was lined in bright dive orange rubber, looking more like a giant fishing lure than anything else. Luckily, neither I nor the Barracuda listened to the nagging voice in the back of my head – leaving us both to watch each other warily, enjoying the moment.
From there it was back onto the boat for more fishing, sunbathing and drifting. Pausing periodically to hunt for Conch, Lobster and to give the captain an opportunity to put his spear-gun to work. We feasted on fresh lobster, conch and fish ceviche, fresh fruit and cup after cup of fruit punch before eventually arriving at our second destination: Tobacco Caye.
Tobacco Caye
The small (albeit significantly larger than our last) island was home to a series of docks, a small forest of large coconut trees, small restaurant, series of cabanas and small circular beach bar.
We quickly set to setting up our tents in a small clear space in the middle of the island, before grabbing a Belkin – Belize’s delicious local beer – and setting off to explore the island. Some 5 minutes later we found ourselves back at the dock eager to snorkel off the dock.
The area surrounding the island itself was sheltered by the reef behind it and offered a large expanse of smooth shallow water sea grass which stretched out and away from the island on the remaining 3 sides. The grass itself attracted large schools of fish and a large number of rays and the incredible looking eagle rays which are black with white spots, a long streaming tail and in many ways look like a manta ray. The eagle rays are an absolute delight to watch – not only are they graceful and beautiful, but they periodically leap free of the water, throwing themselves several feet into the air.
As with the day before, the sunset on Tobacco Caye was every bit as incredible. This time framed by sailboats, a small panga, and picturesque palm trees. We ate a delicious meal with fish and shrimp before settling in for another night of stories, drinks and jokes before crawling into bed. Stiff and exhausted from a long day swimming and relaxing in the sun.
The following morning greeted us with more blue skies and warm weather. After breaking down our tents and re-packing the boat we set off once more. This time on the final leg of our trip to Placencia.
The trip itself was fairly lazy. We paused several more times for seafood and caught a few fish by line. With each stop the number of us that jumped overboard to explore diminished until there were only 3 or 4 of us left that dove in at every opportunity. We swam, laughed and relaxed for the remainder of the day before arriving in Placencia about 3 or 4PM. We disembarked and set to the task of finding accommodation.
It was Christmas eve and the town was quiet, although not completely shuttered. Before long I found a small budget hotel with a room for $40 BZD ($20USD) a night. To my delight the room had 3 beds, and a private bathroom. The shower didn’t offer warm water (not unusual in Belize), and consisted of a PVC pipe with a small turn nozzle. It was more than I needed.
I settled in, read my book, grabbed an evening meal and then dozed contentedly. Life was good.
The morning was damp. The occasional sprinkle fell to challenge our merry mood. Despite the weather’s best efforts we could sense that the storm had blown itself out and was able to but threaten more rain, clouds and wind. The cold front had claimed its three windswept days and now the cycle began anew with sun breaking through the clouds on the horizon with rays of golden light.
The trip I’d booked was the three-day two night Raggamuffin Sailing trip from Caye Caulker, down through the Cayes and along the 2nd largest barrier reef in the world to the small peninsula town of Placencia. We left on Tuesday and would arrive on the 24th – Christmas eve. The all-inclusive trip cost $350 – which included a $50 premium for travel over the holidays/Christmas.
We loaded our bags then slowly piled onto the small motorboat that would shuttle us out to the still small, albeit slightly larger sailboat which would be our home for the next 3 days – the Ragga Queen.
With an old battered pirate flag flying, we set sail and with our backs to Caye Caulker began a new adventure. As we sailed south the sun slowly began to break through the clouds. Bringing with it a warmth that left us all pinching ourselves – trying to remember that it was currently late December. With a grin and a shrug we stripped down to swimsuits and lathered on sunscreen.
The sailing was easy and the three-man crew took care of most of the work. We’d help periodically as they raised sail or made small adjustments, but beyond that we were mostly left to our own devices. We mixed, mingled and got acquainted with each other. Told stories, played card games, napped, read and fished from the stern of the ship. Before long we noticed an odd structure – seemingly rising out of the water. The fishing shack which during low tide sat on an exposed sandbar rested on pillars: sandbar completely submerged. The small structure was fascinating. Not because of its complexity, but rather the fact someone had not only managed, but also decided, to build a structure literally in the middle of the ocean. In many ways it reminded me of the structures built for the movie Waterworld, only far less complex and obviously still anchored in sand. The building itself though was an odd reminder that we were sailing in shallow water – a poignant reality I had learned several nights previous when the ferry I was riding on ran aground multiple times.
The fishing was decent, though slow going. The first day we caught two – a decent sized barracuda and what I believe was a Spanish Mackerel – both served as the foundation for a delicious dinner later that evening. Unfortunately, despite no small amount of time spent manning one of the two lines – I ended up skunked. Still the fishing itself was plenty rewarding, as I watched the barrier reef and various islands slowly slip by.
We paused several times during the first day – dropping anchor seemingly at random just off the reef. The water was typically between 8-25 feet deep and crystal clear. Eager to explore we pulled on our fins and snorkels, paused briefly at the side of the boat and then jumped. The water’s embrace was warm – a delightful contrast from what you’d expect which made the transition far easier than I’ve grown accustomed to in the Pacific, Atlantic and even northern Sea of Cortez.
It never ceases to amaze me how big a difference fins make when snorkeling. Truly, they’re more a necessity than anything. Recalling my childhood dreams of being a Marine Biographer I double checked my Flip Ultra Video camera and marveled once again at how well the $35 underwater case was working out. Then without thinking, snorkel in mouth, I turned my sights to the seafloor, only to quickly get a mouth full of water and a quick reminder: snorkels and ear to ear grins seldom make good bedfellows.
The reef was rich with life – while not as tame and prolifically populated as the Hol Chan marine reserve, the reef was still awash in life and color. With vibrant coral, giant sea fans and sprawling beds of light green sea grass the reef was an absolute delight. Make sure to take a few minutes and watch the video at the start of this post. I’m afraid that all I have is underwater video, no photos.
As I made my way carefully into the shallower water, I paid special attention to the currents and my fins. Careful, ever so careful, not to make any contact with the reef or plant life. It sounds easy enough, but given the ebb and pull of waves, long sweep of fins and 5-7 feet of water it quickly became a challenge. We took great care to stay horizontal in the shallower water – keeping our feet, and fins well away from the seafloor where they might potentially do damage that would take years – if not decades to heal.
We snorkeled for half an hour – or was it an hour? – before making our way back to the boat and relaxing as we quenched our hunger with ham sandwiches and fresh conch ceviche. Then, settled in for another brief sail before a series of quick pauses, this time in much deeper water, where those willing set out in search of conch for dinner. Unfortunately, most of us found the water too deep and the conch too hard to spot – still we searched, swam, and enjoyed as the captain and crew who had more free diving experience made to 20+ foot journey to the sea floor and back easily. Later, the captain an ex-fisherman mentioned that during his fishing days he would regularly make 90+ foot free dives.
As the sun began to race towards the horizon we reached our destination for the evening. A delightful, tiny speck of sand with a deep water dock for the sailboat, 7 palm trees, and a small one room hut for the island’s steward. With 15 passengers and 3 crew, our little boat was overloaded. There was ample sitting room during the day, if you didn’t mind getting a bit cozy, but not even the faintest chance of fitting us all at night.
Luckily the island had room (if just barely) for 7 tents. We paired up, unloaded the tents, gear and sleeping pads, then set to assembling our tents. Some teams did better than others, leaving a few to grumble, huff, and curse gently under their breath as we all struggled to figure out just how the slightly off-center, somewhat worn tents had been designed.
Hartmut – a gentleman from Germany, my tent-mate and a friend I’d bump into during later travels – and I quickly got our tent assembled and began to wander the island. Despite its small stature the island was absolutely gorgeous.
The island’s white sands were soft, warm in the afternoon’s fading sunlight, and a beautiful white that picked up the hues of the sunset and seemed to blend seamlessly with the lapping waves.
The locals themselves – mostly seagulls and pelicans – were also quite hospitable. Lazily sharing the island with us, and periodically taking flight to feed or just circle the island in an incredible show of grace.
The pelicans themselves, while wary, seemed comfortable with visitors. More than that though, they seemed almost eager to show off their natural agility and skills.
Antsy, I wandered a bit more – pausing at an old tree stump that now held a dried coral fan and several conch. As the sun set behind it – I held my breath in anticipation.
As we paused, enjoying our dinner of fresh seafood and garlic bread the sun continued to set. As each minute passed it revealed new beauty, new colors and my smile grew.
Words cannot describe the incredible beauty of the sunset as it set the sky afire. The leftover clouds – those straggling behind the cold front – picked up the sun’s evening song and magnified it ten fold. The waves of the ocean gently moaned as they slowly tickled the white sandy beaches – turned golden by the sunset.
It had been a good day. An incredible one, that I’ll remember for the rest of my life – but as the sun set and we settled in around a campfire I quickly realized that the day held one last surprise. As complete darkness settled over our small island, with the fire slowly burning down – I sprawled lazily across the sand and looked up.
The stars were incredible – so vivid, so densely packed and so bright that I could hardly contain a soft sigh. Living in the city, the stars are always dim and far away. On the rare occasions I escape into the countryside camping or return back to my parent’s home in Prescott I can always count on vivid stars but even those barely compared to the sight that greeted me.
It was as though the galaxy itself sat just out of reach. The depth and richness of the stars something beyond the norm, something special, something incredible. Then breathing slowly, eyes roaming the sky I saw the first shooting star. Then another. Then a third, a fourth, a fifth…they blazed across the sky in incredible arks. As luck would have it – I was witnessing what I believe was the Ursid meteor shower. The view that night alone made the trip well worth it.
Stay tuned for part II of this post covering days 2 and 3. Can’t wait? Check out my Belize photo stream on flickr. Q9VRSZ4BCZXJ
Howdy friends, it has gradually come to my attention that Arizona is an often overlooked powerhouse for independent, travel minded bloggers and travel based social media personalities. Many of us cross paths online via twitter, blogs or social forums on a regular basis – but seldom put 2 and 2 together/meet face to face.
For a group that highly values social interact, meeting new friends and stories of adventure, this just doesn’t strike me as acceptable. The solution? An Arizona Travel Blogger meet up. I’m not talking about anything fancy – just coffee or a beer, a few hours of conversation and a chance to share wisdom while putting names with faces, blogs and twitter handles.
Date: The date is yet to be determined, but the aim is late February/Early March. Do you have definitive can/can’t dos? Please share them.
Location: Let’s aim for the middle: The Phoenix area. Likely somewhere in Scottsdale, Tempe or Chandler. This should serve as a good central location for both both Flagstaff and Tucson people. Have a favorite venue in one of these cities – do share. Keep in mind, wifi is a must. Personally I’m a huge fan of Goldbar (Tempe).
Coordination: I’ve set up a Google wave to help facilitate organization. I’ve also suggested we coordinate on twitter via the hash tag #aztw and am collecting e-mails for major announcements.
Spread the Word: So, here’s the challenge. Let’s make sure we don’t miss anyone. Are you aware of travel tweeps, bloggers or industry personalities that might like to join? Make sure to either send them to this post, or get me their e-mail and I’ll reach out to them.
I look forward to the opportunity to meet you all face to face. If you have any additional thoughts/feedback/etc. don’t hesitate to shoot me a message or respond here. Let’s make this happen!
There have been a number of major, but subtle changes made to the site over the past month. My hope is that while subtle, that these changes will drastically increase your viewing and navigating experience while on the site.
The most obvious of these changes is site performance based. I’ve spent the last few weeks transferring all of my hosted websites off of my previous host – Ipowerweb – a company I was with for over 7 years and had, unfortunately recommended for years. This also has to do with the bad – which I’ll get into in greater detail in a moment. The end result of this move, however, is a ten fold increase in website speed and performance.
The image above is a screen capture of the website performance statistics offered by Google Webmasters. Note the point mid January where performance changed dramatically and stabilized. The graph displays with the following blurb, “On average, pages in your site take 1.0 seconds to load (updated on Jan 27, 2010). This is faster than 89% of sites. These estimates are of low accuracy (less than 100 data points). The chart below shows how your site’s average page load time has changed over the last few months. For your reference, it also shows the 20th percentile value across all sites, separating slow and fast load times.”
If you’ve been a long time visitor, you’ll note that up until two weeks ago 8-15 second load times and periodic timeouts were somewhat regular. I specifically targeted a new web host that guaranteed a higher level of performance for their mySQL servers – the part that was killing blog performance on Ipower. That webhost is Dreamhost. As I write this all of my sites and content has been transferred and running smoothly. If you experienced any brief downtime over the last month, I apologize. The construction/transfer period should be over!
A huge thank you goes out to Glenn Jimerson at Vista Web Media for all of his help and time transferring the site over.
Second – More good!
In addition to a new webhost you may have also noticed a number of layout changes as well as the addition of entire new page to the website. Earlier this week I added the “Travel Videos” page which you’ll find linked to above. This page replaces the old “Photography” page which took you to a page, then forcing you to click a link which re-directed you to my main photo gallery on Alex-Berger.net. Don’t worry though! The “Photography” link has been re-located to the right hand side via an image front and center which you’ve no doubt noticed. The image links directly with my flickr gallery – which is where I upload select shots (compared to my self hosted gallery which has ALL of my travel photos). This also brings me to one of the other added benefits of the new webhost. My old photo gallery is now…well usable. It, like all mySQL database driven portions of the site was painfully slow in the past. No longer.
I have also re-designed my RSS button to be both more visually stimulating and to provide a cleaner sidebar. Search has been re-arranged, and several of the other sidebar elements have been slightly tweaked.
In the page/nav bar at the top of the site – you’ll noticed that About is no longer an option. It hasn’t gone anywhere, I’ve simply moved it from 2nd on the list to 4th and renamed it “Alex Berger” which I feel is more relevant. I’ve done a similar thing to “Audio” which is now “Podcasts”.
Lastly, more on the Travel Videos page: You’ll notice that the page is little more than a list of youtube videos. I recently realized that I have over 180 uploaded videos on youtube. Of those, fewer than 20 are polished travel videos. In an effort to make it easier for viewers to find my polished, final products – without removing the various individual travel clips and other (must see) material I have uploaded – I’ll continue to add my travel compilation highlight videos to the “travel videos” to improve access to the content.
Third – The Bad and an Apology
I mentioned above that I’d been with Ipowerweb for years (Since 2002). For the first couple years, they offered great services at a great price. Performance was good, tech support was responsive and the solution was incredibly powerful for the money. Needless to say, they built up a lot of good will with me. So much so, that when I registered a second hosting account a few years ago – I opted to set it up with them. I’d also maintained an affiliate account with them for years and referred friends, family, etc. who were interested in a decent hosting solution – boy was I wrong.
I’d run into a few major headaches when they changed control panel platforms, or got bought out by new corporate parents – but by and large after a brief headache every 6 months or so they’d fix things and assure me that everything was not only good as new, but that they’d be rolling out new features and services to help.
3-4 years ago things really took a nose dive. The company was purchased and transferred to a new platform which resulted in major downtime, and while told it would improve performance – did the complete opposite. You can read some of the exchange from 2008 here. At the time I was lied to, blamed for the poor site performance [common theme] and eventually assured that the company was going through great lengths to fix the problem.
In January of this year I had another bout of performance issues. Some of you may recall how debilitating they were. Eventually I was contacted by Ernie Lopez who in addition to having a management role in Ipower was “Manager – Quality Assurance, Engineering” for Endurance International Group who as I understand it, own Ipower and a large network of other hosting providers. I had a series of conversations with Ernie about my frustrations, before eventually agreeing to be put in a beta test program. According to Ernie, endurance had purchased Ipower in 08′ resulting in the huge fiasco mentioned above, and was hard at work improving network structure, performance, etc. he flagged my account with Premium support, added Akamai and Gomez to the account, and put me in contact with David Brazzell at Ipower.
Thinking that the issues would be completely resolved and expecting a strong improvement in performance, not to mention impressed by the top tier people who were helping me with what was being couched as an a-typical issue, I continued to recommend Ipower as an affiliate. Boy was I wrong. After an initial burst of attention and help – communication died off with everyone except the premium support contact who i’d been put in touch with. Even that was canceled by late October of last year. After an initial test on the Akamai software – the stats David passed on to me showed that instead of improving performance it had added more than a second to load times. Which were still floating around 10 seconds. 10 seconds is a lot of load time for a site. In fact, it has probably cost me tens of thousands of views over the years. Each time I’d complain to Ipower I got the same bullshit. It’s your site, it’s you, etc. – here’s an example:
“You’re very welcome. I understand that this type of issue can be frustrating, especially due to the difficulty in being able to accurately replicate your issue over a different network.
I did run some further testing on your site today, and tried running load time tests on your site after disabling the loading of all 3rd party images, java code, and youtube references using firefox plugins, and comparing them to load times of the site in it’s entirety without any stripped content.
I loaded the site ten times with each configuration, then removed the highest and lowest result, to get the following average load times:
stripping java, 3rd party images, youtube: 2.76 average load time
no stripping: 4.52
Given this information, and as you mention, the dynamic nature of your site, the load times that I experience seem within expectations. “
The above was a final response in an extended exchange – after I complained about severe periods of major slow down. Slowdown that impacted all of my sites equally, was obviously a mySQL database overload issue, and which also was directly visible when looking at the performance of their myPHPAdmin cpanel. Hell, when working on transferring my databases to Dreamhost, the buddy helping me ran into the same timeout and agonizing speed issues – just trying to navigate their phpMyAdmin site and generate a backup was nearly impossible. Honestly, what kinda of shit company is doing such a piss poor job providing database servers that even their backend sucks – then has the balls to turn around and tell the customer that it’s their fault and that the piss-poor database performance is “normal”? Also, keep in mind the google webmaster tools data. On Ipower = 10 second average load time. Same EXACT setup/site on Dreamhost = ~1 second average load time. That goes beyond fishy, straight into the realm of dishonest.
Long story short – I’ll never recommend Ipower again. Worse, I find myself now in a position where I am deeply embarrassed to have ever so much as recommended them. So, to those of you who are current using Ipower on my recommendation. I am deeply sorry and I owe you an apology.
To anyone considering using Ipower webhosting? Don’t. They’re cheats, liars and crooks. Just glanced at their profile on Yelp – not that I needed further confirmation – but it looks like I’m not alone in my estimation of the company.
Thank you all for reading this blog and sticking with me through thick and thin, fast and slow!
Having already mentioned my delightful case of food poisoning in my previous post, I’ll refrain from re-telling the story and instead focus on a few snapshots I took around Caye Caulker during my remaining two days on the island. You’ll note that the photos are often a bit dark and gray. This is due to the large cold front which was rolling through the region.
Despite the gray clouds, slightly cooler weather and rain it was still enjoyable – though it was cool enough to merit a light jacket from time to time.
With a water bottle in hand and slightly pale tint to my complexion I meandered through the city pausing to take in the town’s small quirks and subtle beauty.
The good news was, though, that despite the weather – at least a few of the locals decided to hit the beach for a bit of sunbathing.
From there it was on towards the gap in the island where one of the most flavorful boats I’ve seen in a long time was tied up. After all, what boat is complete without “No War” painted on the side, a reclined, palm frond sun shade, and live baby palm trees growing along the deck?
From there it was down a small dock – where the local birds seemed to be relaxing watching their own version of island TV.
As the day wound to a close (and my appetite finally returned) I found the “World Famous Jolly Roger’s Grill” – only open in the evenings, Jolly Roger’s was set up in a roadside stand along the main drag. It consisted of a few beat up pick-nick tables, a small table for preparing food and the long grill pictured above.
My host – Roger – promised the best fresh grilled lobster in town at a great price. A bear of a man, he had a a friendly smile and boisterous voice as he called to passing travelers and locals alike – wishing them well and inviting them to pause for a meal.
As I sat, watching Roger and his wife prepare the meal, I enjoyed the soft sound of rain drops hitting the hut’s tin roof. The fresh smell of cooking food, fresh sea air and rain heavy in my nostrils I felt both refreshed and invigorated.
Curious about the meal? I’ll yield the floor to Jolly Roger himself and let him introduce dinner! Just click play and enjoy the video.
As I chatted and slowly worked my way through my dinner, rum punch and desert I was quickly joined by a gaggle of travelers as Roger’s quickly filled up. Several of which I knew – some of the girls from the night before, who were also booked on the Raggamuffin Sailing trip we’d be leaving on in the morning – while others were new friends, like a family who had met up with their daughter and were exploring Belize. We mixed, mingled and socialized for a a stretch before I found my way back to the hostel, pulled out one of C. Descry’s books and turned in for the evening.
