The Journey - Thursday December 16

Thursday's fishing report, written second leg Friday, over Merida, Mexico

We woke up early to a cool morning in Belize City on Thursday ready to do some fishing. We had some breakfast at the hotel restaurant and grabbed some box lunches to take on the boat. Finishing around 7 am, we met George in the lobby and were on our way to the marina.

Arriving in the marina, we met our fishing guide, Claude, and loaded the boat with our things. From there it was a quick departure for a long, but enjoyable ride to the first river to fish. The initial ride in the boat took us through a long canal dug by the British in the seventeenth century. They used this canal to connect the interior rivers with the ocean in order to float trees logged out of the interior. It's actually a fairly sad story. Apparently the British logged most, if not all, of the interior forests and didn't replant, leaving nothing for the future generations.

I simply wanted to tell that story in detail, but I will summarize the rest of the day. The fishing was slow, but we caught fish, so I've had worse days! Jerry reeled in a very large snook first thing in the morning and a black snapper a little later. I hooked a pretty good size snook myself and another small one later. Our guide additionally added a fish to our catch, for a total of five good looking fish. Additionally, the boat trips through the rivers allowed us to see Mangrove tree jungles and many animals including several species of birds as well as crocodiles sunning on the river banks. In the water we saw needle fish swimming near the surface, many jellyfish close to the ocean inlets and even a manatee. So, certainly not a wasted day.

Later in the afternoon, we headed back to the marina where Claude fileted the big snook for us to take back to the hotel restaurant for dinner. We sat and had a few beers and some "turkey" (Very good Caribbean Rum made in Belize) with the fellas at the marina where we told our fishing stories and talked for a while. After that, George took us back to the hotel.

Upon arriving at the hotel we gave the snook filets to the restaurant staff to begin preparing for us. We were told by the guys to have them prepared three ways: pan fried, blackened and grilled. We passed that along to the restaurant and were told to come back in 45 minutes for dinner.

The fish was amazing and went with the "stewed beans with rice" very well. Over dinner is where we decided to skip the Mayan ruins and simply head back to Mexico today, Friday.

After a long day out on the water and in the sun, I worked a little on the website and headed for bed, ready to get back on the road, or in the air.
Just a quick comment on Belize itself. . .Belize is unlike any other Central American country. I hinted at it slightly in my reporting on my phone conversations with the airport staff. It has much more of a Caribbean feel than anything else, especially with the Creole influenced English being spoken. The people are very friendly. Belize City is something you only stay in as a jumping off point for fishing or during tours of the country/Mayan ruins. Otherwise, you definitely want to stay out at one of the Cayes, most likely Ambergris, which is the most popular. I would definitely like to go back and do some more exploring. . .I suppose as I would with most of the countries we have visited.

-Marc