We're back in Placencia, Belize after a week or so out at the Sapadilla Cays with our friends Rich & Jan on Slip Away. We did a lot more of... you guessed it... snorkeling! We scoped out the area for scuba diving but didn't find anything that warranted getting all our gear out. The routine was: boat chores in the early morning, snorkel late morning till lunch, come back to the boat to eat, then snorkel and spearfish all afternoon! Every other night we'd get together for dinner. The spearfishing was good and Jon dutifully filled up our freezer with fish again. After a few days, our backs were aching from the weight belts bending us at the middle and our necks were stiff from laying in the water looking forward with our masks. But the weather was so settled and the snorkeling so interesting, that we just kept moving from cay to cay exploring the reefs. The anchorages were often rolly, which is annoying, but the water is so much clearer out at the barrier reef that it's worth the inconvenience of having to hold on to your cup of coffee in the morning from time to time. On one of the calmest days, as we approached Rendezvous Cay, the water depths quickly shoaled from 100 feet to 10 in one boat length. I'm usually up on the rail next to the mast so I can get a good view of what is directly in front of us so we can avoid any coral heads. The water was so glasslike that I couldn't read the depths and even though we were really in 10 feet, it looked like we'd be scraping the bottom any second! The shallow snorkeling that day was fantastic and so full of incredible colors of sponges and soft corals. The sun feels even hotter when the wind is calm, but being all covered up from head to toe with a full wetsuit, you can lay in the water for hours and get no sun!

While the water is full of interesting things to see, the cays however, are not. Belize has hundreds of little islets to anchor behind but they're so small that you really can't do much on them. There are lots of herons, pelicans, some song birds, frigates and osprey on them, and usually a few fishing shacks that the native fishermen use periodically, but not much else. We really enjoy hearing the birds calling to each other and chattering in the morning. Unlike the long, gorgeous beaches of the Eastern Caribbean and Bahamas, there are practically no beaches here. So, we're missing that balance and also the ability to take walks and do things ashore. Placencia is cute, and the mile long sidewalk is good to stretch your legs, but it isn't practical for exercise per se. We've been walking on the paved road here which is about 2 miles long but it is stifling hot and not long enough. This is making us start thinking of heading on to Honduras where there is more land to explore and inland travel is desirable and popular. There is a marina on the mainland that cruisers frequent for a little luxury and it can also serve as a good base for leaving your boat and exploring some of the mountain parks of Honduras. The marina has wifi, a nice looking pool, air conditioners you can rent and best of all, a place to just be tied up safely so we don't have to worry about the weather or the anchor dragging for a change!

We have a few things to do here in Placencia and then we'll get moving on checking out of Belize and getting ourselves positioned to head to Honduras. If we go out to one of Belize's atolls first, that will improve our sailing angle for the overnight to Guanaha- the most Eastern Bay Island. In the meantime, several of our cruising friends are anchored around us and we've been so enjoying getting together and sharing our experiences. We keep anticipating splitting up, but so far, we're all still here. This is the richest part of cruising.

There's a French style ice cream place here called Tutti Fruti and it's tops on our list for things to do today along with taxes, laundry and hopefully a Skype call to mom. It was pretty funny making our first call on Skype to Charlie yesterday- I think he was a little surprised to hear our voices- you'd think we'd come back from the dead! It certainly is cheaper than the phone, but it's a little more like talking over a radio than the fluid conversation that you get with a true phone connection. Hopefully it'll be like everything else, and just keep getting better and better.

Well I think that's all the news from here. I never thought I'd say this but... I'm envious of anyone who's getting to wear polarfleece right now!