The next day they went down to Ambergris Caye in Belize to the town of San Pedro - a town that has recently been discovered by movie stars and is well known for the exceptional snorkeling and diving in nearby Hol Chan Marine Reserve.

"There are hundreds of nurse sharks that swim up to you. We jumped out of the dinghy and right beneath the dinghy was a huge Goliath Grooper, about 5-feet long," said Jean.

"- he keeps getting bigger each time you talk about him," added Stan. Either way, it was a pretty quick jump back into the dinghy.

They crossed over to Belize City and went inland to San Ignacio, near the Guatemalan border, and to Che chem Hah, a cave filled with Mayan artifacts that was once used by the Maya as a storehouse for grain as well as a ceremonial center for rituals.

200 miles of barrier reef - an area second in size only to Australia's Great Barrier Reef - parallels the coast of Belize and is about 50 to 60 feet deep. Turneffe Atoll one of Belize's three offshore reefs, was a beautiful protected anchorage on the way to Lighthouse Reef.

"The sun was shining into the depth of the Hole like it was shining into eternity - it was just incredible," added Jean.

Stopping at Half Moon Caye National Monument, they saw some spectacular birds - the most impressive being the many frigate bird with a 6-foot wingspan and the red-footed Boobies.

Unfortunately, they had run out of propane for cooking and had to make a run to pick up fuel, propane and ice.

"In Placencia, if you want ice, you buy it by the bag," said Stan. "We followed the man into an icehouse piled high with ice. The man takes a shovel and shovels it into the bags. We had about 40-lbs of ice. Try taking that into the boat on a dinghy!"

Once refueled and re-provisioned, they anchored offshore near the aptly named Monkey River Town. They took the dinghy into town - a remote area that doesn't even have a dirt road to speak of - and continued up river through the Belizean jungle to see the howler monkeys in the trees. Monkey River Town, once had a thriving banana plantation industry and begs the question, which came first, the monkey or the banana?

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