Hiking & fishing and orher things...

What a day to be young! Thursday (2/18) a few of us decided that a nice hike up into the mountains to visit 2 of the local waterfalls would be a nice way to spend the day. Tricia, Bruce (from Maine) and Isabella and Paul (from Austria) climbed into my car and headed west over some of the worst roads I’ve ever seen, through orange and banana orchards, and finally to Mama Woots which is the jumping off point for both trails and the falls. We paid our BZ$10 (remember that the exchange rate is always 2BZ to 1U.S.) each at the ranger station and hiked off to Antelope Falls. Well you had to be more of a mountain goat to get to this place! Now Bruce and I are left and right of 60. Tricia is 55 and Isabella and Paul are 25. Bruce and I found it a very hard climb, huffing and puffing the entire way, and must have sweated of 10 pounds each. I even landed on my butt once because of the slippery mud all along the route. Tricia seemed to be running the trail, with the youngsters right behind her. They would take a break, waiting for Brice and I to catch up, and be all rested and ready to go when we got to them. Of course we took our break and had to catch up once again. The trail seemed like to rise straight up in the air, with several points seeming equally as steeply pitched downward, and one spot where there was even a rope to help pull yourself up. After about an hour of hiking we reached Antelope Falls. I’d like to say that the hike was worth it but Bruce and I were pretty beat up. Between us we don’t have even 1 good knee when we started and had less now. Actually though it was very pretty. Thank God it wasn’t sunny, with the temp around 70, and a nice breeze blowing, otherwise I think the other 3 of our group would have had to carry us 2 old timers back to the trail head. Well we got back in about 35 minutes because the return was mostly downhill. Lunch was provided by Tricia and was delicious egg salad sandwiches on homemade pumpernickel bread. We had hoped to find Mama Woots open so we could buy a well needed Belikan but no such luck. So after about a 30 minute lunch rest we headed up the Bocaweena Trail for Bocaweena Falls. This hike was a bit flatter which made for a more enjoyable hike of about 30 minutes each way. There was some climbing but nothing like Antelope Trail. Bruce and I were still playing tail-end-Charlie and doing a bit more huffing and puffing, but nothing like Antelope Trail. We finally arrived at the falls. I was the only one adventurous enough to take off my shoes and wade in the stream. It sure was soothing to my barking dogs! We wandered about taking pictures and sitting on rocks for a good 30 minutes, putting the thought of the hike back out of our minds. I think by this time the young whippersnappers were a bit pooped too. Finally we summoned up our courage and headed back. Actually the hike back wasn’t too bad. About ½ way back I stopped at a couple of coconut palms and grabbed 2 thinking I’d enjoy them tomorrow (Friday and I still haven’t machete’d them open yet and its Saturday now). I got them back to the car and we all climbed in for the return trip. On the way back we stopped at one of the orange groves and picked a couple dozen. I cut 2 and shared fresh orange wedges with everyone. Boy were they good! Nice and juicy and sweet and a source of well needed energy for all of us. We arrived back at Kismet about 4-1/2 hours after we started out. Bruce and I started popping Advil by the handful because our knees were telling us what old fools we were and that we were going to pay for our foolishness tomorrow. But a couple of drinks later, he drinking Belikan and me iced tea, and with the Advil kicking in, weren’t feeling too bad. Gee I wonder what our next adventure will be?! (It’s Friday now and neither of us is suffering at all).

Friday brought with it a new challenge. I decided that it was time to learn to use my throw net and start fishing. For those of you who don’t know, a throw net is a large (6-10 feet) circular net with weights at the bottom and a draw string that closes the net once it hits bottom and you pull it back in. Bait fish, and sometimes, as in Peter’s case, larger fish as well. I’ll take anything I can get but it’s mainly for catching live bait. Well there is a knack to throwing the net and having it open to its full circumference before it hits the water. Mine is 8 feet in diameter so it’s a medium size net. I’ve never thrown one before but I’ve watched many a time, bit never really paid attention. I was just waiting for the end result. It didn’t look too hard though. Well…guess again! My buddy Bruce and I took the canoe down to the lagoon where Peter fishes. Might as well start in a spot known for producing eh? (Dang! I’m hanging with the Canadians too much!) We pulled the brand new, never been used (or even taken out of the box) net from its handy plastic storage box and, as guys, and tossed the instructions back inside, confident that we’d be throwing like champs in a short time. You know what’s coming now don’t you? You’re right. Our throws were awful. They were anything but the fluid motion throws we’d both witnessed other fisherman using to catch bait. When we threw the net didn’t open at all, or the net tangled, or it partially opened, snagged on our ears, or pulled our hats from our head as it went by. Anything but the circle that it should be. God only knows what we must have looked like! Probably something like the Special Olympics… It was pretty humiliating! Thankfully there was no one around to see. So, after much frustration, we gave up and walked the net into the water where we saw baitfish jumping. After a couple of minutes we gave that up too. We thought we heard the fish laughing at us a few feet further than we could get the net. As we dragged it in though Bruce looked into the new and low and behold it held a single silver fish about 1-1/2 inches long. I said the fish must have felt sorry for our miserable efforts and decided one of them should surrender itself. But hey, we’ll take it. Of course I’d forgotten my bait bucket so Bruce added some water to a discarded soda bottle and in the poor unfortunate fish went for use later. I’d promised Bruce a trip to the “Oh my God” tower so off we paddled into the lagoon. Nice trip and Bruce was thoroughly impressed with the view from the top deck. He took a bunch of pictures so he would have the 30 view when they are put together back in Maine. So back in the canoe we went. I decided to try my hand at trolling while Bruce paddled. A few minutes later something hit the bait bit didn’t take the hook. One of the problems I had trolling was that 4 of the dogs had come with us and were swimming all around the canoe. I didn’t want to snag any of them so I was constantly reeling the line in to clear the way. When we got into the main channel of the lagoon we headed west for a bit more sightseeing. A couple minutes later success! I had a fish on the line and a nice fight on my hands. I finally got it to the canoe and saw that it was a medium sized mangrove snapper. Really nice eating too. I’ve eaten plenty during the 12 years of Belize holidays. And…my bait was still in tacked. Cool! The possibility of another fish on the grill. But that was soon a wash when, after a few casts, my line snagged on my reel and the prized bait went flying off into the distance. Well, back to Kismet. I used my catch to make ceviche which we will enjoy Saturday night with a couple of Belikans. I sure am looking forward to it because I sampled it during the night and it’s delicious!