My wife and I just spent 8 days at Ambergris Caye in Belize for our 1st ever dive trip! We had a GREAT time and really enjoyed diving. Here are some of my memories and thoughts:
- We finished our open water referral (two days, two dives each day) with ProTech. Pull up to Hol Chan reserve with Sara as our dive master. 6 Nurse sharks circle the boat. Sara asks if I'm ready to drop in. What? Are you kidding? I'm not getting in the water with those killers! First dive was great! Sara was like an angel watching over us and must have a sore neck from looking back to check on us every 2 minutes. Saw lots of spotted eagle rays and nurse sharks our very first dive! Protech was great - picked us up right on time, Anna remembered who we were and had a note waiting for us at our hotel. Peter (the owner) was great and enthusiastically gave us recommendations for lunch, etc. Scuba Pro gear worked like a charm.
- We also dove with Ecologic Divers. Suyapa and Gilbert and Junior (?) were also great. Very nice paced dive, great fruit back on the dock for our surface interval, etc. They really do a great job giving you that custom, attention to detail dive experience. They had rental Mares Dragon BCDs which seems like very high end equipment. We felt pampered.
- We did a full day dive with Amigos Del Mar to Turneffe - did the elbow and Vincente and something else. Marciano and Enrique (?) were great. Marciano's blowing bubble rings were neat. Not sure how they do it, but every time we got back on the boat, there was a huge spread of fruit and coconut followed by cocktail hour for the ride back. Very fun.
We did one more dive with the outfitter at our dock up north. Within 5 minutes of dropping in the water, we saw two spotted eagle rays circling, a turtle, and two barracuda. At the end, we saw a sting ray cruising by.
So, we got in 10 dives for our 1st trip. I guess we can call ourselves addicts now.
Ambergris was a neat place - everyone is very friendly and accomodating. Food is great, albeit somewhat expensive. Belikin beer is very good (note that they are 10 oz. bottles, so you can drink 6 bottles of beer and it only feels like you drank 5!). Ruby's rum cake is awesome.
Lots more to say, but gotta run. We are beginner divers, but from what we experienced, I can't imagine better dive shops than ProTech, Ecologic, and Amigos!
I'll try to post some pics later...
- We finished our open water referral (two days, two dives each day) with ProTech. Pull up to Hol Chan reserve with Sara as our dive master. 6 Nurse sharks circle the boat. Sara asks if I'm ready to drop in. What? Are you kidding? I'm not getting in the water with those killers! First dive was great! Sara was like an angel watching over us and must have a sore neck from looking back to check on us every 2 minutes. Saw lots of spotted eagle rays and nurse sharks our very first dive! Protech was great - picked us up right on time, Anna remembered who we were and had a note waiting for us at our hotel. Peter (the owner) was great and enthusiastically gave us recommendations for lunch, etc. Scuba Pro gear worked like a charm.
- We also dove with Ecologic Divers. Suyapa and Gilbert and Junior (?) were also great. Very nice paced dive, great fruit back on the dock for our surface interval, etc. They really do a great job giving you that custom, attention to detail dive experience. They had rental Mares Dragon BCDs which seems like very high end equipment. We felt pampered.
- We did a full day dive with Amigos Del Mar to Turneffe - did the elbow and Vincente and something else. Marciano and Enrique (?) were great. Marciano's blowing bubble rings were neat. Not sure how they do it, but every time we got back on the boat, there was a huge spread of fruit and coconut followed by cocktail hour for the ride back. Very fun.
We did one more dive with the outfitter at our dock up north. Within 5 minutes of dropping in the water, we saw two spotted eagle rays circling, a turtle, and two barracuda. At the end, we saw a sting ray cruising by.
So, we got in 10 dives for our 1st trip. I guess we can call ourselves addicts now.
Ambergris was a neat place - everyone is very friendly and accomodating. Food is great, albeit somewhat expensive. Belikin beer is very good (note that they are 10 oz. bottles, so you can drink 6 bottles of beer and it only feels like you drank 5!). Ruby's rum cake is awesome.
Lots more to say, but gotta run. We are beginner divers, but from what we experienced, I can't imagine better dive shops than ProTech, Ecologic, and Amigos!
I'll try to post some pics later...
