18th January
1st day at dive camp today. Having coped with last night's fire ant infestation (up the walls, under the beds, coming through the walls) we woke up, packed and headed down to the pier. Goodbye to all the homestay Mums, and off we set. A fairly bumpy boat ride till we got to the Caye, and then a drive through the mangroves, down a really small channel which is the border between Mexico and Belize. Fredi gave us a bit of a talk about what we might see, and to my excitement, 5 mins later I saw a Caribbean round stingray in the water. Great excitement, first one of many I hope. Arriving at camp was amazing. Beautiful wooden cabanas right on the beach, surrounded by palm trees laden with coconuts, mangroves all around, and the reef in the distance. Settled in this afternoon, put up the sandfly nets around the bunk beds (not sure how I managed to nab a top bunk - but the ladder is quite steep, and no protective bars) and then had a whole bunch of security and risk lectures. Seems like diving is a dangerous sport, both in and out of the water!! All grouped together at the moment in the classroom/dining room writing journals - and out of all these young people I am the only one doing a techie blog, all the rest are using pen and paper! And since my phone automatically updated, I have lost my word programme, so having to use my Gmail to write drafts for when I get the internet again!! Be impressed boys!!