I don’t know why but I fear eels. The first time I saw one was in St. John USVI. I actually thought it was a poisonous water snake and so freaked out. But as I learned more about eels I started to become weary of them. I love diving down, getting close to rocks and taking photos of the fish. You know what also lives in the rocks. EELS!

Now beyond that first experience of seeing a spotted eel swimming near the top of the water, I hadn’t seen another one. Of course my guide in Belize decided to change that.

He would dive down offering a conch shell to entice the eels out.

Why what big teeth you have, Mr. Danger Noodle!

But the problem was…the guide had no conch meet. So the eels were pretty pissed. The guide asked if I wanted to get closer. NO THANKS.

Travel Missteps is an every-other week series on how sometimes part of the journey is making mistakes and getting lost.