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he'd made of the inhabitants of a single sponge.  Then Rodolfo Zamora talked about the warbler migration we'd observed last night and how rare it was to have witnessed it.
 
Tuesday, April 29, 2003
   Traveling overnight, the ship docked at Santo Tomas de Castillo, Guatemala, and cleared customs.  By 7 a.m. we were in minibuses heading toward the Mayan site of Quirgua (pronounced Kiti-wa).   Unlike most of the other sites, there are no pyramids at Quirgua.  It is noted for several enormous steles, one stands 26' tall, that are carved with images of Mayan kings advertising their connection to the gods and their military prowess.  These were carved and erected during a 60-year period from A.D. 746 to 805.  Ruben Gomez, a Guatemalan guide, whom we'd met earlier at the hotel in Copan, escorted us.  His narration was excellent but could not match the enthusiastic presentation of David Stephens, whose group we soon joined. Again it was hot and humid and we consumed many half-liter bottles of cool water.

   Lunch, back aboard ship was in the lounge as we again got underway and headed for another part of Amatique Bay, the mouth of the Rio Dulce.

   Paul elected to take the "short" river-gorge Zodiac cruise combined with an hour in Livingston; Rosemarie decided to stay aboard ship.  The Rio Dulce connects Livingston with Lake Izabol, an area where wealthy people from Guatemala City have weekend homes and moor boats.  The river itself, at least the lower area where we explored, is a narrow body of fast-flowing sweet water surrounded by rocky cliffs and rain forest.  We saw gulls, cormorants, pelicans, buzzards and cattle egrets.
   The town is isolated from Guatemala's road system.  The river is its sole connection to the outside world.  Fast speedboats ply the river bringing food, construction materials and all material goods.  The population is called Garifuna, a mix of escaped African slaves and red and yellow Carib Indians.   The language draws on Spanish and English, but is a language unto itself.  Paul found an Internet Café that was working and responded to or deleted some 80 waiting e-mail messages.  A strong on-shore breeze picked up and swelled 1-2 ft seas into which half-loaded Zodiacs shouldered the mile long trip back to the ship, which could not approach more closely because the outflow from the river shoaled the harbor.  It was a wet and bouncy ride.  On the way, our driver spotted what he thought was a lost, floating, belly-bag. As he turned and approached, it looked more like a baseball cap.  In fact it was a Portuguese Man O War's sail.  In the light of my camera's flash, it glowed.  We signaled the following Zodiac to come over and check it out.  They did and confirmed our identification.
 
Wednesday, April 30, 2003
   This morning the Sea Voyager anchored off a beach near the town of Dangriga, Belize.  After breakfast we took the Zodiacs ashore to board mini-buses bound for the Cockscomb Basin Jaguar Preserve.  Our guide was a Belizean, Lascelle Tilleti, who gave a history lesson on the former British Honduras, now Belize.  He is a naturalist, recently nominated to the board of the Audubon Society.  At the Cockscomb, we split into separate groups, some going on more rigorous 2½ hour hikes and others opting for shorter, more level walks along the river.  Neither group really expected to actually see jaguar as they are relatively few (25-30 jaguars spread over 400 sq km.) and are largely nocturnal.  We did see a great variety of plant species in the jungle/rainforest and a number of birds and insects.  It was hot and humid and we all soaked through our clothing as we consumed innumerable half-liter bottles of water in hopes of staying hydrated.
   On the way back we stopped at a Maya women's co-op selling handicrafts.  The proceeds of this shop help support the nature preserve.  We bought a wooden mask.
   After lunch aboard ship we re-positioned to Sapodilla Lagoon for Zodiac cruises and kayaking up the Cabbage Haul Creek.  This is an area of red mangroves that gradually gives way to a savannah and pine forest as it becomes drier up stream.  We saw a number of orchids, one of which the naturalists are still trying to identify.  On the way back we picked up a pair of tired kayakers.  The ocean swells bounced the Zodiacs around a bit on the trip back to the ship and we all took some spray and arrived back pretty well wet through.
   At re-cap, during cocktail hour, Naturalist David Cothran showed some microscope images on the TV display and talked a bit about insects.

Thursday May 1, 2003
   Before dawn (around 4 a.m.) we were awakened by the pitching motion of the ship as she maneuvered around the offshore reefs of Belize on the way to Lighthouse Reef, a planned snorkeling site.  Apparently the seas were so rough that the captain decided to shift to a more protected anchorage.  The ship sat quietly above a small sandy patch after several tries at anchoring.  The downside was a longish 2-mile Zodiac ride through some choppy seas to a lovely sandy beach at Half Moon Cay, the southeastern most cay of Lighthouse Reef.  The reef was just 150 yards offshore and was quite shoal making the fish viewing very easy.  The only problem was a 1-knot current setting us toward one end and at that end, some clouding of the water from the turbulence.  Most of us stayed at the other end, where it was clear and swam gently against the current to remain stationary.  I won't attempt to identify all the multi-colored reef fish that were seen, but there was quite a variety.  Returning to the beach, we enjoyed cool drinks on the sand as we waited for the Zodiac shuttle.  A colony of Red-footed Boobies and Magnificent Frigate birds are nesting at the other end of Half Moon Cay.  A short hike down a well-marked trail took us to a viewing platform that rises to treetop elevation for a bird's eye view of the nesting site.  Numerous fledgling Booby chicks could be seen as the Frigate birds swooped overhead.  Paul took both stills and a short piece of video. (We now have 134 Megs of stills stored on the laptop.  Each picture requires about a half Meg of space, so there are 268 pictures so far.  I also have an hour and a half of video.)
   We passed on the afternoon snorkel opportunity from an anchored Zodiac at another part of Lighthouse Reef.

Friday, May 02, 2003
   Paul's left upper eyelid is a bit swollen.  At first we suspected the cerviche served last night on the sundeck at sunset as having provoked an allergic reaction like flat fish (flounder sole, halibut) sometimes do to Paul's eyes.  The kitchen assured us that it was freshly caught Black Snook (one of the fish we saw snorkeling).  This was probably not the problem.  The doctor gave Paul some chlor-pheniramine anti histamine pills.
   The morning cruise up the Siban River with David Stephens yielded a few birds, a couple of lizards and not much else. We hoped to see manatee but did not.  One of the other boats did glimpse some nostrils (about all you ever do see of the sea cow, unless you look down from a height as we do in Ft. Lauderdale where the animal's bulk can be seen beneath the surface). However, the sea was calm and the ride pleasant.  We caught a bit of spray on the way back to the Sea Voyager, so everything is again wet. Lunch was a nice paella, with gazpacho soup and 

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