Fish Bite

Last weekend the volunteers took a trip out to San Pedro.  Thanks to Ramon's Village resort and their generous discount for missionaries we could afford to stay at a nice resort with hot water and air conditioning (yes, it's still hot here).  I've been to San Pedro several times but this trip I was able to see a few things I haven't seen before. One of my fellow volunteers took us to a local rum maker who gives free samples.  After trying coffee, coconut cream, blue hole, and chocolate rum, it's hard to resist making a purchase.  It's so delicious!  We also went to feed the tarpons off a pier on the laguna side of the island.  It seemed simple enough after we watched the local Belizean demonstrate.  You simply hold the little fish out about 2 feet over the water and the tarpons jump out of the water and snatch it from your hand.  The tarpons are about 4 feet long and their mouths are about 6" in diameter.  Each of us took a turn.  The hard part was waiting holding the bait over the water and watching about 10 tarpons swarming just below the surface, just waiting, waiting, waiting.  A few of us were successful.  A couple people dropped the bait because it was slippery.  One girl jumped and screamed when the fish jumped, dropping the bait.  When I stepped up the guy told me not to let the bait slip because it was the last fish we had.  After waiting a minute I could feel the bait fish slipping so adjusted the way I was holding it, using my thumb and two fingers.  I made a joke about how the fish was going to take my whole hand since I have such small hands.  When one of the tarpons finally jumped his mouth did go over part of my hand when he took the fish.  It's kind of startling just because the fish are pretty big and you're holding the bait in your hand.  I didn't think anything of the way he snatched the bait from me until I looked down and saw blood on my hand!  Being from the United States I assumed they would not let people participate if the fish have teeth!  Well, really the teeth are just like sandpaper (so the guy said) but it was enough to draw blood and give me a funny story.  By Tuesday I had a couple of students ask me about my shark bite and who got the shark off of my hand!  Oh boy.

A fish LITERALLY jumped out of the water and bit my hand!  :)