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Monday, February 7, 2011

Belize Part 4

After a few hours in San Pedro went visited the Hol Chan Marine Reserve office and got a quick tour. From there we went and snorkeled in the reserve itself.  This area has a very high flow of tourists and the species that inhabit the region are accustomed to it. They aren't shy at all and they will often get very close in hope for food.  I remember as soon as I jumped off the boat there was a grouper almost as big as myself just chillen under the boat, 3 feet away from me.  I wanted to go after him but we were in a protected area and I didn't want to be fined, or lose a limb.  We swam in a channel that was close to 30 feet deep, the deepest we had been in all week by far.  We didn't seen any huge fish other than a few groupers and rays, but there were more schools of fish than in other places.  There were also caves in the reef that we were able to swim through if you could free dive the 20 feet down.  On the way back to the boat we ran into a turtle grazing on the seagrasses.  He didn't give a fuck.  He swam right up to us, looked at us, and kept eating like a retarded cow in a barn.

Without any break, we hoped back onto the boat and jetted over to shark ray alley.
Shark ray alley was another part of the reserve, but with slightly less traffic due to the shark aspect.  I was all over that though.  The water was fairly shallow, 7-10 feet in most places, but that didn't stop the sharks.  We mostly saw nurse sharks, they were everywhere.  Anywhere from 3-7 feet.  I grab onto a few because they were so timid, they didn't bite they just scurried off.  We saw some pretty big rays as well.  Some were missing tails and had bites taken out of them, it kind of made me second think grabbing onto the sharks.  So instead I grabbed onto a stingray.  He almost got me with his tail.  We chased nurse shark to nurse shark, and ended up a few hundred yards away from the boat in some deeper water.  All of the sudden I saw people fleeing towards the boat. I swam in the direction they were swimming from and there was a bull shark.  A FUCKING BULL SHARK.  WTF.  I DIDN'T SIGN UP FOR THAT SHIT.  It was close to 10 feet long, it was fatter than Chris Farley.  I froze for a second and then swam closer because I wanted a picture really bad.  I'm a dumbass.  The bull was must have been full because he swam right by me and off into the depths.  At that point the boat captain had heard about the bull shark and called us in.  
As promised, here are some pictures:








That's all for tonight.  Thanks for reading.

18 comments:

  1. That sounds pretty awesome, and great pictures too. Followed :D

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  2. I have to agree. I really enjoyed the pictures.

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  3. Amazing photos man. I'm incredibly jealous.

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  4. looks like fun and nice pictures!

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  5. That looks like a lot of fun. I'd love to do something like that. I've been snorkling before but nothing that nice. Just some small fish here and there.

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  6. Dude crazy vacation. But awesome pictures man! Liked the shark.

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  7. Wow freakin awesome pics! Looking forward to more posts!

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  8. Nice pics! It looks like you had an awesome and exciting day. I wish that I also have a day like this.

    Also I love that little flash at the bottom of your blog. I was like ere fishy fishy fishy... :)

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  9. Ahh.. the great underwater world.

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  10. "It was close to 10 feet long, it was fatter than Chris Farley."


    Haha, oh man, I'm using that quote!

    But still, thats adrenaline-pumping, getting near a shark!

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