Leejnd
Contributor
I returned last week from a two-week trip to Belize. We spent five full days diving, so I have a number of dive reports to write up, which I will do when I have a chance to get more caught up in life. But in the meantime, over on SB2 someone brought up the Blue Hole, and I wrote up a report of our dive there as an impromptu response. I thought I would go ahead and post it over here for anyone who is currently considering it.
It's one of those dives that people seem to either love or hate. Most people do it once, and that's enough. I personally thought it was very cool, but my husband wasn't all that impressed.
It takes a couple of hours pounding through pretty heavy waves to get there, and many dive shops do this on small open-air craft. We were lucky that we did it on a larger boat where we could stay inside. But it's a pretty hairy ride, pounding so hard that you are told NOT to move from your spot or you will go flying. So that's something to consider when booking this dive. It's a little punishing on the joints.
Once there, though, your boat enters the calm waters of the blue hole, which is so huge you can't see from one end to the other. It's basically an underwater sink hole -- it used to be an above-ground cavern, until it collapsed into the sea in some huge cataclysmic event millions of years ago. There's pretty much no marine life to speak of, although there are reef sharks, and some of the dive boats will chum them to get them to show up so their divers can see something. But the main reason for diving the Blue Hole is to drop down to 130 fsw and see the underwater stalactites. It's basically a bounce dive -- you drop down pretty quickly and spend about 8 minutes at depth, then begin a slow ascent. At 130 feet the wall curves under forming an overhead ledge, underneath which you can swim in and around the enormous columns and stalactites hanging from it. It's dark and gloomy down there, and there were sharks scoping us out just visible off in the gloom. Once you start your ascent there's not much else to see, although if you're lucky the sharks will follow you (we were -- they didn't come too close, but it was fun to watch them).
Some people on our boat thought it was boring, while others loved it. I personally loved it! I love caves, and thought it was very cool to see that underwater. Plus, right at 130 I got a nice little narc buzz going on, not enough to cause me to do anything stupid, but just enough to feel nice and happy while I wove my way through the enormous stone columns. My husband prefers looking at marine critters, so it didn't do much for him.
But the real reason to dive the Blue Hole is not the hole itself, but the OTHER two dives you will get at Lighthouse Reef! We dove for five days straight, touring all over Belize's famous barrier reef, and these two dives were the absolute BEST! We saw everything -- sharks, huge spotted eagle rays in packs, 8-foot moray eels, enormous sea turtles, 5-foot-long groupers, huge spiny lobsters, and all manner of bright and colorful tropical fish. And that's on top of the exquisite colors and shapes of the coral and sponges that you see everywhere.
In between those two dives we stopped for lunch at a remote little island called Half Moon Caye, where theres nothing but palm trees, sand, a few picnic tables and a path that leads into the woods, where you will find a platform high up in the trees. Climb up the ladder to the small platform and you will be treated to a unique sight -- the rare Red-footed Booby Birds, which are only found on this island. There were dozens upon dozens of them, roosting in the treetops, taking off and landing, or just sleeping. It was very interesting.
Then of course you've got the pounding ride BACK to wherever you are staying. We were on Caye Caulker, so it was only 2 hours -- if you're on Ambergris Caye, where most people stay, it's closer to 2 1/2.
When booking this trip, I'd strongly advise that you ask some questions of the dive op. One thing to check into is how many divers will be with you, and what minimum experience level the dive op requires for the Blue Hole. While we had the advantage of a large boat which made the trip out there more comfortable, the downside was that there were, I thought, a few too many divers in our group, and a few who should NOT have been doing this dive. In our group there was one DM at the front of the pack, and one at the back, and maybe 15 of us in between. This was just too many divers all together. And a number of these divers were inexperienced, and didn't seem to have the ability to avoid bumping into others. My husband and I are relatively experienced divers, and are used to diving w/o DM's, but most dive ops will require that you stay with the group, which meant that we really couldn't avoid the crowd and just go off and enjoy the dive.
Further, there were a few divers who evidently got spooked by the depth, or the gloom, or claustrophobia or whatever. Both DM's ended up taking certain divers by the hand and hanging on to them to make sure they didn't freak out and bolt to the surface. This made me somewhat uncomfortable, as I didn't want to have to be exposed to some emergency caused by inexperienced divers going beyond their abilities. My personal opinion is that this is a dive that should only be undertaken by those with deep diving experience -- it should not be the first time that someone goes below 60 ft. But apparently many dive ops in the area have NO minimum experience requirements at all.
I met some other divers who did the dive with a different dive op, with only 5 divers in their group and one DM. This dive op apparently also had minimum dive requirements, so all 5 divers had deep diving experience, resulting in less fear that someone will freak at depth. The only downside to their trip was that they were stuck on a small, open craft for the trip. Oh well, I guess one must pick their priorities!
So there's my take on the Blue Hole.
As for the rest of Belize, we stayed the second week in the Cayo district, where we visited astonishing ancient Mayan ruins, and even went spelunking deep into a cave, mostly by forging an underground river that ranged from ankle-deep to chest deep, until we reached some deep chambers where we walked among ancient Mayan artifacts and skeletons of human sacrifices. I'm not kidding -- I've got pictures of calcified skulls at my feet.
I LOVED Belize. I promise to write up the rest of my dive reports in the next few days.
It's one of those dives that people seem to either love or hate. Most people do it once, and that's enough. I personally thought it was very cool, but my husband wasn't all that impressed.
It takes a couple of hours pounding through pretty heavy waves to get there, and many dive shops do this on small open-air craft. We were lucky that we did it on a larger boat where we could stay inside. But it's a pretty hairy ride, pounding so hard that you are told NOT to move from your spot or you will go flying. So that's something to consider when booking this dive. It's a little punishing on the joints.
Once there, though, your boat enters the calm waters of the blue hole, which is so huge you can't see from one end to the other. It's basically an underwater sink hole -- it used to be an above-ground cavern, until it collapsed into the sea in some huge cataclysmic event millions of years ago. There's pretty much no marine life to speak of, although there are reef sharks, and some of the dive boats will chum them to get them to show up so their divers can see something. But the main reason for diving the Blue Hole is to drop down to 130 fsw and see the underwater stalactites. It's basically a bounce dive -- you drop down pretty quickly and spend about 8 minutes at depth, then begin a slow ascent. At 130 feet the wall curves under forming an overhead ledge, underneath which you can swim in and around the enormous columns and stalactites hanging from it. It's dark and gloomy down there, and there were sharks scoping us out just visible off in the gloom. Once you start your ascent there's not much else to see, although if you're lucky the sharks will follow you (we were -- they didn't come too close, but it was fun to watch them).
Some people on our boat thought it was boring, while others loved it. I personally loved it! I love caves, and thought it was very cool to see that underwater. Plus, right at 130 I got a nice little narc buzz going on, not enough to cause me to do anything stupid, but just enough to feel nice and happy while I wove my way through the enormous stone columns. My husband prefers looking at marine critters, so it didn't do much for him.
But the real reason to dive the Blue Hole is not the hole itself, but the OTHER two dives you will get at Lighthouse Reef! We dove for five days straight, touring all over Belize's famous barrier reef, and these two dives were the absolute BEST! We saw everything -- sharks, huge spotted eagle rays in packs, 8-foot moray eels, enormous sea turtles, 5-foot-long groupers, huge spiny lobsters, and all manner of bright and colorful tropical fish. And that's on top of the exquisite colors and shapes of the coral and sponges that you see everywhere.
In between those two dives we stopped for lunch at a remote little island called Half Moon Caye, where theres nothing but palm trees, sand, a few picnic tables and a path that leads into the woods, where you will find a platform high up in the trees. Climb up the ladder to the small platform and you will be treated to a unique sight -- the rare Red-footed Booby Birds, which are only found on this island. There were dozens upon dozens of them, roosting in the treetops, taking off and landing, or just sleeping. It was very interesting.
Then of course you've got the pounding ride BACK to wherever you are staying. We were on Caye Caulker, so it was only 2 hours -- if you're on Ambergris Caye, where most people stay, it's closer to 2 1/2.
When booking this trip, I'd strongly advise that you ask some questions of the dive op. One thing to check into is how many divers will be with you, and what minimum experience level the dive op requires for the Blue Hole. While we had the advantage of a large boat which made the trip out there more comfortable, the downside was that there were, I thought, a few too many divers in our group, and a few who should NOT have been doing this dive. In our group there was one DM at the front of the pack, and one at the back, and maybe 15 of us in between. This was just too many divers all together. And a number of these divers were inexperienced, and didn't seem to have the ability to avoid bumping into others. My husband and I are relatively experienced divers, and are used to diving w/o DM's, but most dive ops will require that you stay with the group, which meant that we really couldn't avoid the crowd and just go off and enjoy the dive.
Further, there were a few divers who evidently got spooked by the depth, or the gloom, or claustrophobia or whatever. Both DM's ended up taking certain divers by the hand and hanging on to them to make sure they didn't freak out and bolt to the surface. This made me somewhat uncomfortable, as I didn't want to have to be exposed to some emergency caused by inexperienced divers going beyond their abilities. My personal opinion is that this is a dive that should only be undertaken by those with deep diving experience -- it should not be the first time that someone goes below 60 ft. But apparently many dive ops in the area have NO minimum experience requirements at all.
I met some other divers who did the dive with a different dive op, with only 5 divers in their group and one DM. This dive op apparently also had minimum dive requirements, so all 5 divers had deep diving experience, resulting in less fear that someone will freak at depth. The only downside to their trip was that they were stuck on a small, open craft for the trip. Oh well, I guess one must pick their priorities!
So there's my take on the Blue Hole.
As for the rest of Belize, we stayed the second week in the Cayo district, where we visited astonishing ancient Mayan ruins, and even went spelunking deep into a cave, mostly by forging an underground river that ranged from ankle-deep to chest deep, until we reached some deep chambers where we walked among ancient Mayan artifacts and skeletons of human sacrifices. I'm not kidding -- I've got pictures of calcified skulls at my feet.
I LOVED Belize. I promise to write up the rest of my dive reports in the next few days.
