Belize and the Blue Hole

Many many years ago i was helping my friend Sharon unpack her MFO boxes. There was an amazing picture in there of the Blue Hole. Ever since then i have wanted to go there. About 12 years later here i am.

After our very dodgy entry into Belize we made it to Caye Caulker, a very small island where most of the dive tours leave from.

There was a front street, middle street and a back street. You were advised not o go on the back street, the midle street had some restaurants and the front street was full of bars and everything else touristy. Kind of limits you when the rain is throwing it down and the island is only 1.2 kms long and 600meters wide. So Helen, John and i found ourselves in the grips of many happy hours until the weather calmed down enough for us to go diving . Helen and i got a taste for the lime daquiries, full of fresh limes so it was a great source of vitamin C!!


The main street in Caye Caulker, golf buggies are the way round, if you are to lazy to walk.

Frenchies Dive centre. Really good dive company, we had a rough journey out to the Blue Hole but it was really worth it when we got there. They had quite a big boat, we were second to every dive site so got to see plenty of big fish and sharks.

The blue hole is a very simple dive, you follow the wall down, go under a ledge to see the stalegmites and then come back up. The attraction for me is that it is a deep dive and we were down at about 42 meters. John got a little nitrogen narcosis so he had a very happy dive. The visability was great, the photo above was taken without a flash, which at 42 meters is not bad.



Sharks cirlcled as we ascended, there were about 5, it was pretty cool.

Me slowly ascending to the surface.

Safety Stop, perfecting the buddah pose.

The second dives were actually much better than the Blue Hole. We dived the Half Moon and the Aquarium. The corals were amazing. There were so many fish, all different colours, but they are harder to photograph so here are some really beautiful corals.

Massive Sponge with some Millipora Alciconis

Eusimilia Fastigiana

Crinoid - Sea Creature


Dendrogyra Cylindrus

Sponges and gorgonian

Honeycomb Cow fish

Massive Grouper

From Belize we took a bus across the Guatemala border. In one week we had been through 3 countries and done a lot of diving. It is very tiring travelling, i am looking forward to finding somewhere that i can unpack and stay put for a while.

x

Sara