On our honey moon to Belize I didn’t want my wife, Stacia, and I to have a typical Belizean experience. Instead I set out in a search for wilder activities. Our passion for the wilder side of life led us to Vince and Cherie, the founders of American Crocodile Education Center (ACES). The excitement started on our first night in San Pedro when we were invited to join Vince, Cherie and Evan on a mission to set a crocodile trap for a troublesome and large crocodile. The night did not end there; we followed by heading to relocate a crocodile that had previously been captured. The excitement of capturing a crocodile in an enclosure and then having to relocate it further up north to an area not inhabited was exhilarating, not to mention that we had a croc lying on our laps. On our way to the area they choose to relocate the croc the cart broke down. Thankfully Carts Belize came to our rescue and we are absolutely grateful to them for that.
On the second night we ventured to a location where there have been reports of people feeding a large crocodile, let me tell you feeding wildlife is a huge issue on the island. That night we caught “Gumby”, an 11’5” American Crocodile. The poor croc even had some missing teeth and was living in a sewage retention pond.
Our adventures didn’t seem to end just yet. On the third night we joined the entire crew, including the local vet, Laurie, and went to do a Crocodile Scientific Investigators (CSI): Belize Tour. We rode in the boat spotting a couple of crocodile eye shine and Vince even jumped out and caught a couple, that was such a treat. I even got a chance to assist Vince, and caught a couple of smaller crocs. We collected the crocs data such: as length, location, habitat, the crocs were then tagged and released. We even got to check up on some crocs that had been previously tagged by Vince and Cherie that was quite an excitement. Over all the experience was priceless. We would like to also thank Xanadu Island resort for a great stay.
