Today I did something I never thought I would do: spent practically the whole day on a boat at sea. We booked a tour with a local company to do a bit of snorkelling off the Belize Barrier Reef, and to try and spot some West Indian manatees.

There were only six of us on the trip altogether: us, a European couple in their thirties and an older couple from America. We met our guide, Salvador, who showed us to our transport at the end of a jetty. The boat was way smaller than I thought it was going to be: a little engine powered fishing style boat, with just enough room for us, the driver and our lunch (which, from the look of the boat, I was pretty sure I was going to be seeing later!)

It was actually a fairly smooth journey on the way out there, and our guide stopped to show us a bottle-nosed dolphin swimming past, and two huge baby osprey sitting in a nest at the top of a really tall tree in the mangroves. It took us about an hour to get out to Swallow Caye where the manatees live, but on the way Salvador pointed out Chapel Caye, which is an island privately owned by Bill Gates.

Arriving at Swallow Caye, we were met by the guardian of the protected reserve, who was a man in a hut in the middle of the sea with the speedboat - what a job! We cruised around a bit with the propellors of the boat on slow, and then Salvador cut the engine and used a large pole to navigate the boat around the mangrove waters. This is because the population of manatees dropped, as they used to curiously come up to boats, and get injured by the propellors. Within a few minutes, we had a sighting of a baby manatee, or at least its nose. We then went to another feeding spot further out to sea, where we saw several HUGE manatees rising out of the water to breathe while they were sleeping. It was so weird seeing them, as it is a bit of luck whether you see any on a trip at all, as they are kind of elusive!

For lunch, we went to a private island called St George's Caye. The really rich people who own property there only visit once or twice a year for holidays, so it was so quiet, and completely deserted. I waited on the grass by the water while Matt took photos, enjoying the sunshine. However, when I looked down, I had a red boot of fire ants covering my left foot, biting me! I must have distrubed their nest, and it burnt like hell! I was hopping around, swearing and trying to flick them off, while Matt stood watching and laughing. I swear this is becoming a theme of the trip: me getting myself into disastrous situations while Matt looks on, amused!

Anyway, back at the boat, we travelled to our first snorkelling spot, just off the Belize Barrier Reef (the second largest in the world). You can see the waves breaking off the top of the reef from above the surface, as there is dry reef poking out above the water. It's really weird to see waves breaking in the middle of the ocean, with absolutely no land around.

We jumped straight off the boat and our guide got into the water too to give us a guided tour of the fish and coral. He pointed out and named loads of tropical fish, and the visibility was so good even though it was really deep. The coral was as beautiful as the fish - it was just like swimming in Blue Planet Aquarium! My favourite of the fish we saw was called a Juvenile Yellow-tailed Damselfish (if you want to look it up) and Salvador handed me a shell containing a Flamingo's Tongue Snail to hold, which was pretty weird! After heaving my way back into the boat with little dignity, we went to the second snorkelling spot where you can apparently spot poisonous lion fish, although we didn't manage to find any.

We then rode the boat back to Caye Caulker for our last night there. It was a bit more choppy on the way back, and the engine did cut out in the middle of the sea, but we made in back to dry land in one piece! I actually really enjoyed today, even the sailing part - I think I have found my sea legs at last!