(Daniel) After a good nights sleep, we awoke to the sound of Selvin pulling up outside on his scooter.  I jumped up, pulling on some clothes before going out to meet him.  The captian had already left, taking the bus to Belize City, where their boat was moored.  Having noticed the Wolf still sitting outside the bus depot, Selvin invited Nick and I to join him for breakfast at his father in laws house a few blocks away.

Over a magnificent breakfast of eggs, ham, tomatoes and flour tortillas, we discussed Selvins recent achievement of Divemaster, and listened as his father in law told us tales of diving for lobster in the beautiful water of the Cayes.  Selvins extended family all seemd to be somewhere around the house working on repairs following the recent hurricane that had hit the area.

With our breakfast finished, we headed to the workshop where our mechanic was finishing up the welding for the shock mounts.  Selvin waited patiently, as the job went on and on, with one problem after another delaying the completion.  Several hours later, we finally pulled out of the bus garage, and to waves from the locals who had all heard of us by now, we left the tiny fishing village of Sardineha for a new and different adventure.

The drive to Belize city only took around 45 minutes, with stops for a single police checkpoint, and several huge speed bumps.  All the way Selvin told us how bad a place Belize City was, and that we must be very careful.  I joked with him that a city of 70,000 people could not be that bad!  Croydon has over 1 million and still isn’t classed as a city in England. The whole country of Belize only has 250,000 people, and I have been to music festivals with almost that many people in attendance!

Feeling immortal like only we big country folk can, I drove into the city.  It was tiny, no bigger than an industrial estate.  But although there were few people, I did see that the look of poverty and desperation was in many people eyes.  This was obviously the refuge of the down and outs of Belize.  The gangs and pushers,  in some areas soldiers with machine guns patrolled the streets, the picture was worse than I had expected.   The local leader was known as Honest John, so everywhere, were signs stating "Vote for Honest John."  The scene was a bit like a comin book story.

Over a conversation with Nicky last night, I had told him that we would be under pressure to organise ourselves with the various high priority jobs that needed doing before we left.  After the extended delay of finishing the repairs to the Wolf, we were under even more pressure.  My advice to Nick last night had been that he should go and sort out his business himself, and that I would attend to finding a place to store the Wolf, also sending an email back to the Home team in England with details of our location and plans.

I gave Nick one of our CB radios, taking one for myself, as Selvin and I headed first to the fishing co-operative where the rest of the crew were waiting to leave.  The radios worked fine as I separated from Nick, things seemed to be going smoothly.  At the co-operative, I met the crew, Although they had names, everyone seemed to refer to each other by nicknames. There was the Captain, who I had met the day before with Selvin, Spongebob and his brother Ariel, Rabbit, and Mr Crab.  Mr Crab had a deformed arm and hand with 7 fingers split into two groups leaving a distinct claw, his elbow was located jut past his wrist, and his arm was shorter than the other, giving him a look of a folded crab claw.  I pondered at the co-incidence that this man was a lobster fisherman, the words of Buddah’s teachings about Karma came to mind.  All of the men were very pleasant and welcoming.  

After the introductions, the radio blared in my pocket, it was Nick telling me that he had found a cheap ticket and was attempting to find an even cheaper one at a different office.  I told him that I was about to go to the Police station to ask about secure parking and that I would keep him informed.

There now followed a farcical journey around the town on foot, as one place after another refused the responsibility of the Wolf.  The police were the least helpful, more worried about the knife on my belt than advising us.  As we walked around the tiny city, I was approached again and again by druggies and wasters, trying to test my metal and looking for an opportunity to take advantage.  Groups of Men called to me from aross streets, or as I passed by them,  was I a soldier?  Was I a Policeman?  Would I lend them a dollar?   Having travelled the world mile by mile, I held no fear of the people, more of an alertness that heightened the senses, but I wondered how Nick was handling the attention?

Eventually the Raddisson Hotel agreed to let us park in their reserve car park, this would be gated and under guard 24 hours.  The only problem was that I was now on the other side of town, and had no way of alerting Nick to these developments.  The handheld CB radios had gone out of range long before, but the vehicle mounted unit with it’s 2.6 meter whip antenna could possibly have sent Nick a message.

I attached the antenna, and switched to the agreed channel.  Using the handset I sent out a message for Nick, telling him that I was at the Raddison Hotel, and that he should come to meet me at the National Fishing Co-Operative.  To my surprise, a faint voice came back across the radio, Nick had received my message and would meet me at the dock.  I quickly unpacked water, fins, masks, speargun, t-shirts and washing stuff.  Also a few items of food, and our cameras.  I then put the Wolf into a full lockdown, with every piece of equipment packed into lock boxes, all the immobilisers armed, and all doors locked and padlocked.  I had packed our supplies into bags, and with the help of Selvin, Rabbit and the Captain, returned with these to the Co-operative, where Nick was waiting.

Nick had managed to find a flight ticket, but had not yet purchased it, as he did not have enough cash.  It was early evening now, meaning that the sun would soon go down.  I needed to get cash also, so I told Nick that I would accompany him back to town, while he went to buy the tickets, I would use the ATM, we would then meet up again as soon as possible to leave the dock for the Cayes.

After a walk back to the centre of town, Nick got his cash, then headed off to the travel agent which we could see just further down the street.  We agreed to meet again in 30 minutes, but as he walked away, a pang of fear crept through me, something instinctual, I ignored the feeling without noticing, but it certainly didn’t go away.

As I cued for the ATM, I started to notice the area around me.  Everywhere people had started to look more sinister, as the sun disappeared and night transformed the city from a Caribbean shanty town, to something altogether more foreboding.  The pang of fear grew again inside me.  I started to remember my conversation with Nick the night before, where in a moment of slight annoyance, I had told him to go and sort out his own business in the city, while I fixed mine.  My turn came at the ATM, I took out 400 Belize, or around £100.  This would be enough for a while, as I walked out of the ATM, the transformation of the city was almost complete.   There were no tourists, the decent looking people going about their business had gone also.  Any shops still open, operated through bars across windows.

30 minutes came and went, Rabbit and I walked across to the street where we could see the Travel agent, but Nick was no-where to be seen.  We waited as another 10 minutes passed, then walked to the travel agent.  He was not inside, and the staff, who were inside the closed offices had not seen him.  I looked at Rabbit, he was worried.  He began frantically calling the Captain to ask if Nick had returned to the boat.  The Captains phone was not receiving calls.  We walked at speed to the opposite side of the dock, where we could see the rest fo the crew preparing the boat.  Nick wasn’t there.  I had left one of the handheld radios on the boat.  Rabbit suggested that we return for this, then try to contact Nick, as he would definitely have this switched on.

As we walked back to the boat, my mind began to run through the scenarios possibly responsible for Nick disappearance.  Images of men pulling up in a car, and bundling my little brother in at gunpoint continually came to mind.  I tried hard to tell myself that this was not likely.  Rabbit looked scared, as did the others when we explained what had happened.  The whole crew abandoned their tasks, going out into the city at a jog to search for him.

An hour had now passed, with the radio switched on, I continually sent out messages to Nick, trying desperately to discern a reply from the white noise laden with muffled voices.  I began to panic, visions of the consequences and heartache haunted my mind as I swore to myself.  Cursing anything that I could think of. The various groups of men that had pestered me before now became my targets, as I questioned them about seeing a person with Nicks description.  All the time my instructions to Nick rolled over and over in my mind. “You go and sort out your own stuff!”  Just then I spotted something, a green t-shirt in the distance, It looked like Nick.  At a full sprint, which sent more than a few people into doorways and jumping out of my way, I ran up to him, almost taking his arm off a s I grabbed him. 

I was furious, but the kind of relieved fury that comes from fear of something terrible.  Nick had simply not realised the assumptions which we would come to if he did not return.  He had gone to a different travel agent a few streets away, and had returned late to find us gone.  I was not about to let him out of my sight, and as Selvin, Rabbit and Ariel arrived on scene, we all accompanied him to collect the tickets from the agent, returning to the boat together, and casting off in the dark.

I had intended to contact home via email, to let people know our whereabouts and movement for the next few days.  In the excitement, I had abandoned this task, which would now leave everyone from Nii to the Home Team, wondering where we had gone for days to come.

The boat sailed out for two hours to English Caye, where we docked for the Night.  As we sailed we had got to know our crewmates, and as the night whiled away, ne by one the other went to sleep, leaving only Spongebob, Nick and I talking.  Our new friend who had started out looking like tough fishermen, were soft hearted wonderful men.  All of the devout Christian brothers, non drinkers or smokers, they enjoyed their jobs immmensly, and welcoimed the opportunity to show others how they lived their simple lives.

I fell asleep on the deck, with a pleasant mosquito free climate easing me into a deep slumber rocked gently by the calm seas around us.  Tomorrow would be a new and very different adventure.     

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