Belize serves unspoiled Caribbean beauty

BY VICKI SMITH
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Needle-nosed ballyhoo fish leap from the water, lured by the wake as Capt. Bobby Halliday motors off Ambergris Caye. The turquoise waters here are so clear you can see blades of sea grass and lobster traps more than 20 feet below the surface.

Halliday has been guiding fishing trips through these waters for years, making some customers so happy that they gave him the two 60 horsepower engines that power his boat, the Blanca Lilly. He slows to troll and, suddenly, even more is visible below: parrot fish, angel fish and a 5-foot bull shark, silent as a shadow.

He rigs up our fishing poles in more than 30 feet of water, and we quickly land a pile of Spanish mackerel, yellowtail snapper and a fighting barracuda. Halliday pries a mackerel from a hook, spilling blood on the deck.

When I step back, he laughs.

"That's when Bobby's having a good day, when there's blood in the boat," he says. Then, he nods to my husband. "That's a good catch, man."