As the day wore on, the wind and waves calmed down. The water was remarkably clear giving us a great view of the reef 60 feet down. We watched purple sea fans waving in the current and schools of blue tangs foraging among the coral heads. Spotted eagle rays glided gracefully along the reef. A hawksbill sea turtle surfaced for a breath of air before “flying” away.

What is there to do here? Well, San Pedro is trying hard to catch up with the rest of the Caribbean, with bars and nightclubs along its beach and all three of its main drags — they do have names, but everyone calls them Front, Middle and Back streets. But it’s still all about the sea: being on, under or above it, gazing at it or eating things that until recently called it home.

It was a week with a jam-packed itinerary of activities: snorkeling, zip lining, cave tubing, visiting Mayan ruins, deliciously colorful meals (local cuisine as well as restaurants with more ambitious takes on the former), small planes and lots of laughs. It was a perfect first taste of Belizean culture, cuisine and most of all its people – who are just as friendly as the brochures and guidebooks tout.

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Once at the cave mouth, it's on with torch-lit helmets, followed by a leap from a small rock cliff into the river to swim inside the cave. For the next few hours we swam and climbed our way deeper and deeper into the rock mountain. Along the way, our helmet torches illuminated enormous atriums of stalactites and stalagmites, and the fact you must either climb or swim to get to each chamber made it all the more awe-inspiring.

For such a small country, Belize looms large in the dive world. This Central American gem harbors some of the most unique adventures in the Western Hemisphere. The world\'s second-longest barrier reef, the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef, stretches out parallel of the Belize coastline for more than 300 miles.

Unafraid of tush-ular retribution, I was able to relax and let the swirling current float me past tall trumpet trees draped with thick vines. Giant blue herons wafted across the water, wings spread wide, as dark green turtles slipped from the rocks in a flurry of yellow butterflies known as sulfurs.

I've stumbled onto a fairly remarkable game of hooking barracudas on green tube flies from the beach, and for the life of me, I can't figure out why anyone would trade this in for catching little bonefish on the flats. Frankly, I can't understand why you'd trade this for the guaranteed frustration of chasing permit on the flats.

For most of the year, tiny Dangriga town is a slow-paced spot for fishing and citrus farming. But each November it provides the backdrop to Belize's flamboyant brand of thanksgiving.

The ancient Maya loved fishing and paddling. They were so eager to access the water sports off the coast of Belize that they dug a narrow channel across the dangly southern terminus of the Yucatán Peninsula as a shortcut for their canoes.