Let me explain, this area is one of the best places in the world to see manatees, the gentle, blubbery sea cows and mermaids of legend. Chocolate is their local champion. He is a Belizean celebrity and is huge in the manatee world!! He is an 80 years old, wiry, white haired and white moustached, island born son of a fisherman. He remembers his father killing Manatees for their meat and hearing them squeal like babies, and so never ate them himself. He started life as a fisherman, moved into driving water taxis and then in mid-life decided to dedicate himself to the protection of the manatees. As a result of his efforts at lobbying the Belizean government, there is now a 9000 acre national marine park and protected zone for the manatees, 45 minutes by boat, south of Caye Caulker. It is called the Swallow Caye Sanctuary. The park HQ was a hut on stilts – see photo. 
The bright sunshine made a welcome change as the open boat sped southwards, catching glimpses of dolphin as we went, the waves on the reef to our left and emerald mangrove islands to our right. Chocolate slowing the boat at times to point out things of interest.
To be honest, we spent an inordinate amount of time, looking for the bloody things. With the engine off, we spent hours with Chocolate punting the boat along, as engines can hurt and frighten the manatees. I had lost interest a long time before we saw some, We had to stand precariously on the prow of the boat to get a good view. Imagine huge seals crossed with grey hippos with flippers, languidly grazing underwater on the sea grass, surfacing occasionally for a nano second to breathe, Not the most exciting of animals to watch, and why sailors of old found them enticing….. must have been a long boring voyage! Chocolate loved them unconditionally, his enthusiasm undiminished after all these years. Not only had he got the marine national park created but had spent years fighting attempts by a cruise-line company to buy an island and destroy their habitat – he won!
His punting was incredibly energetic for a man of any age, let alone 80! At one point he fell of the front of the boat and we had to haul him back in, Apparently, he had never fallen in before, but it didn’t put him off, he immediately went back to punt and we floated around for a few hours more.
The journey back was very bumpy as the wind had gotten up, this didn’t stop Chocolate stopping off at the reef for us all to have a quick snorkel off the side of the boat.
I must admit that despite the fact that the manatees were dull, it was great to see them and they are lucky to have a Chocolate.
He stressed a number of times that his one remaining worry was that as he was 80, he hadn’t yet found anyone to continue his work after he has ‘passed’ Long live Chocolate!!
