Underwater Adventure

Countries tend to blend into one another at their frontiers, and in terms of scenery that is certainly true arriving in Belize from Mexico. However, in all other respects, the two places couldn't be more different on first meeting. Apart from the peculiarity of hearing English spoken again, or at least a barely comprehensible creole variant on English, the whole atmosphere of the place seems positively Caribbean rather than Central American. Perhaps that will all change as we venture inland, but life on the Cayes (the island archipelago) is all rastas, rum and reggae music. The people are distinctly creole looking hereabouts and their houses of a style I've not encountered before - gabled buildings of clapper board, frequently raised on stilts and entered via an external stairway that gives access to a shady first floor verandah where you can hang your hammock. They even have a picture of the Queen on Belizean banknotes, smiling out at the laidback life here from a strangely youthful looking face.

We've been chilling for a couple of days on Caye Caulker, a small island behind the Great Belizean Barrier Reef. This place used to be a hippy hangout in the 60s, and is now a centre for some of the best diving and snorkeling in the World. Not being a great fan of swimming underwater I was a little apprehensive about giving snorkeling a go, but I took the proverbial plunge and it's been a hoot. Swimming with nurse sharks and sting rays, as well as vast shoals of indeterminate multi-coloured fish is an experience that makes you want to go home and start studying marine biology. As you cruise around the coral reef in a sail boat drinking rum punch on your way home to the accompaniment of a setting sun, you have to wonder how you're ever going to return to normal working life and the great British weather when this big adventure is finally over.