Caye Caulker 2007.
My cousin Ampi Alamina just emailed me this photo she took of one of my favorite characters on the island DODO." He posed for me and showed off his beautiful blue eyes" she says. Dodo is a second cousin to both her & I (her ma & my pa brother/sister). He is the grandson of our first generation fore-father Louis Alamina, who was one of the top three pioneers of Caye Caulker along with the Reyes & another family. Dodo's father Marshall Alamina & my grandfather Valentin Alamina were Louis' sons. This family is still remembered in Caye Caulker history as being some of the best boat builders from Belize. Cay Corker got it's name from the boats that would come to be repaired or built here. Ampi's boss made a black & white of this photo of Dod's and said, "he is the salt of the earth".Dodo has lived his entire life on Caye Caulker as a part-time fisherman and a full-time drunk. He makes no apologies for his lifestyle. He told me that when his father died and left him all what is now valuable real estate, he promptly sold it, bought a sailboat and drank the rest away. "Nobody else is gonna enjoy spending my inheritance" he says, "I made sure of that" Dodo, shunned by most of his relatives his generation, discarded as a foolish drunk "he had everything he wanted before & after his papa died, he left him a small fortune in land"they say,
"he drank it all away"In fact, a lot of people might not know that the land which sits behind my house and faces the main street where the internet cafe is next to the main central park, once belonged to Dodo. He had a little wooden house there where he lived for many decades, that piece of art which has now been grazed and the lot instead crammed with a huge cement building, gift-shop, restaurant, internet cafe, apartment rentals and assorted houses.He has found new alliance with the younger Alamina clan, my generation, me & Ampi being two of his biggest fans for living life at his own pace, with his own style "regardless of what the neighbors might say" worry free & doing what he loves best, putting on a good buzz. For over a decade now, Dodo and I have bonded. When I am on Caye Caulker, he visits me each morning that he may find me up early in my hammock garden in front of Tinas, sometimes I see him waiting. The first matter of the day is usually what assorted selection of fine alcohol was left behind from the party last night at the hostel. After clearing the shelves and him taking his bottle of choice, mostly rum but anything else that was available too, we sit side by side on the swing chair or hammocks and discuss any current events and past history that might arise. He also gives good advice. When I told him once that T-Rex was bringing me trouble, he said "Get rid of him immediately, kick him out! you're an independent woman."He has a wicked sense of humor and if you're too slow in deciphering his mumbled words, you might miss it. In exchange for a half-empty bottle of rum, he would bring, fish, oranges, sea-grapes, cocoplum, breadfruit or whatever "Jah" had rewarded him with. We bartered.
A few years ago when T-Rex & I sailed on a weekly basis from Caye Caulker to Placencia stopping to overnight on deserted mini islands jutting out from the reef, I decided to give Dodo a fishing thrill as he can still be found on many pier tips fishing during the day or at night enjoying one of his two loves, besides, he was a pro who coached me on how to tie my lure or what kind to use to catch a specific fish.So even with paying guests on board, I decided to invite Dodo along on this 2 night/3 days fishing & camping adventure. It comprised of going towards Placencia with 2 nights camping at different islands, an overnight in Placencia, & the return night somewhere anchored offshore behind a mangrove patch, making it, for us "crew" a 4 nite/5 day trip. Now, I had no idea how Dodo would tolerate being around me constantly for near a week but any doubts were soon washed away in the surf as he gleefully accepted. 
The following morning, he was the first to be ready to bo
ard the boat. He had brought assorted fishing tackle and a small plastic bag with a single shirt and toothbrush. He triple-checked that I had brought a couple bottles of rum on board.
We took of on first day's sail towards English Caye, the small caye near Belize City with the lighthouse to guide ships in the channel. On the way there, it took us about six hours since we are traveling leisurely and stop every so often to take a swim. Dodo poured himself a few drinks during that time and would go sit at the back of the boat with the captain. He kept one hand with a steady death grip on his drink balancing it somehow as to not to have even the slightest spill even as we swished and swayed on the waves under a cloudless sunshine day with perfect trade winds blowing. In the other hand, he loosely held his personal hand line . The special silver spoon lure glistens like a diamond from afar, bobbing & weaving above & below the surface a good distance behind the fast moving boat. The fishing reel is a tightly closed bottle that would float if it falls overboard, his line wrapped around & tied to the center of it. The bottle he keeps firmly buried under the soul of his foot.
He once yelled at a guy who almost ran over him with a golfcart "knock me down if you want eediot, but not my liquor".
Fresh on the adventure and as soon as we passed Caye Chapel we got a hit on the line, Dodo hands it over to me to reel in because I've told him enough times that gives me the biggest thrill. As I'm pulling in the fish and before he could even see what it is but knows from the first thug, says to me, "that one's a grouper" and sure enough it was. Whenever we got a hit, he would say "mackerel" or "barracuda" or "bonito" or "Jack" and he was dead on right everytime.
From the first night on English Caye, the guests loved him and he told fishey stories of the glory days when he use to frequent these same fishing grounds and islands we young ones were now exploring. We sat by the campfire along with the lighthouse keeper Mr. Cabaral who has been on that post for over 30 years, and his sons who were in training to take over once he dies. Since Mr. Cabral is over 85 years of age, I don't think he is waiting for a government retirement to leave.
The second night as we were sitting on the dock at Tobacco Caye eating fresh fish sauteed with onions & garlic in a lemon butter sauce, spanish rice and green veggies with the rest of our guests, Dodo asks an elderly man from the island who had recognized him and hadn't seen him in about 40 years, if he remembers the massacre that occurred way back on South Water Caye, the now posh little resort island within swim reach from us but a half hour off the coast of Dangriga town. Of course, we all love a story especially when we are sitting under the moon & stars on a dock, so we all perked up to listen in to what was becoming now horrifically intriguing.
As the storey goes & confirmed by his friend, one of the pioneers of that little island had several workers on the small island as well as his wife and children living there for years on end. He would be the one to go into town to retrieve necessary supplies. Story goes that one day when he had come back from fishing and diving conch & lobsters, he found his wife and a worker in bed. He went berserk and hacked everyone on the island to death with a machete. This must have been the real pirate days.
All went smooth on the trip down South and we arrived late evening when the sun was setting behind the mountains in the distance, and with charred bodies and dry cracked lips anxiously docked at the main pier by the gas station looking tanned and fatigued. A lot of energy is drained out of you when you are lieing on the top of a moving sailboat listening to Caribbean music, eating fresh ceviche, drinking rum punch & swiming among some of the most pristine corals found anywhere.
Upon arrival, we all had a chance to go on land and party, and after all the guests had left the boat including Captain T-Rex, Dodo & I decided that it might be more fun to just stay on the back of the boat seating area, buy a bottle of rum & cokes from the gas station, and to live vicariously by watching all the revelers spilled out from Janice's bar on the beach at the foot of the dock. Any dark area was used for illicit secret action and we had a birds eye view. We will save walking around for early in the morning when we have to go to the store and re-stock the booze and other supplies.
As we drank and toasted to "Cuba Libre" Dodo spilled some of his most intimate life egged on by me. I asked him if he ever wanted a wife & children and he said "a wife wouldn't understand the love I have for rum. The children " well, in my younger days two married women became pregnant with my baby but they got rid of it so the husband wouldn't find out about us, , I don't miss children, I've had a good life". I leaned in and asked him to repeat what he just said, in case I didn't understand him. I was a bit stunned. Prying even further, I said, are the women still alive on Caye Caulker. Him already slurring, "one of them, its so&so, so& so's wife. The other one, she died a long time ago". My jaw dropped, I wouldn't have expected that from the church faithful. That confirms my suspicions contrary to what my mother says, that the strict older generation did have their debauchery in full gear back in the good old days of candelight & starry skies.
I made sure I kept a big stock of liquor on the trip. I didn't want to have to deal with a grouchy old man. As had now become routine, he would make his way down into the cabin, mix a drink and go back to sit behind the boat in the same position we had seen him in for days. He seemed to be in bliss as we sailed along the deep vain which sits a few yards inside the solid 50 miles or so of reef in what I dubbed the "Reef-formation Highway" at 7.5 knots an hour. In the crystal clear waters you can see down to the bottom about 30 feet & less, you can almost see the micro-organisms below water on the majestic formations of reef sitting atop white sandy bottoms along with assorted spotted eagle rays, dolphins and other marine life. Every so often along the vein you come across a coral patch that sits directly in your path. If you didn't know how to dodge the reef, you would be another ship-wreck along this stretch and join some of the other still visible wrecks that sit sorrowfully jutting out of the water as if trying to make one last attempt at crossing over.We hit a Norther on the way back and when the winds & swells picked up , I ran below deck to hide. I have a policy that when the boat tips to a 45 degrees angle, I'm off the top. The old man still has his seaman legs, although a bit wobbly he remained top-deck leaning into the side of the boat to balance no matter what degree, catching fish after fish after fish.Dodo can still be found hanging out with Calvin selling jewellery by the Sand-Box corner. If you see him, give him a holler from me. I told him that when he makes it to 100 years old, I will throw the biggest party he's ever seen in his honor. All the top shelf liquors. He looked at me and winked as he turned to leave with his walking-stick in hand and said "I wouldn't miss it for the world".
