General Belize question...

[Snoweman]

View attachment 444206

Yea, I just hate diving off Belize. Visibility can only be 100 ft. or so, terrible. This pic is from Turneffe Atoll. Please don't dive here, save it for the rest of us![ I hate it, & that's why we're going back in April.ATTACH=full]444206[/ATTACH]

My four days of diving in Placencia looked more like the left side of the photo and not the right side. Of course, that's when we weren't being skunked by the whale sharks in lonely blue water.

 

[lthomas132]

Too many high-rise resorts??? Are you talking about the Cozumel located off of the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico?

Yes

 

[lthomas132]

Yeah, he was. Looks just like Miami now,eh? Horrible !! ................................................

Below the surface, fantastic. Above, not a Caribbean paradise. Unfortunately, we must have long surface intervals.

 

[mwilson55]

In my opinion, it isn't. You can get just as deep on a wall, and there's more coral to look at on the wall too.

The Blue Hole is a once in a lifetime dive.

Do it once, you're good for a lifetime.

I agree. I dove the Blue Hole. I thought it was great! Stalagmites and stalactites were incredible. Many reef sharks were there also. They took us to Lighthouse reef where they cooked a delicious lunch. We then had 2 dives that were beautiful. You have to remember that just gas on the caye is double what we pay in the States.

 

[TruckDiver1981]

Thank you one and all. So as it would not be a strictly only diving holiday i would say it certainly is a viable option.

 

[Scott from LongIsland]

I think that Belize is better as primarily a land based trip with a few dives mixed in as a bonus. It is a wonderful place topside with tons of varied activities to do. Jungle tours, Maya ruins, river trips, jaguar reserve, etc. If you like active trips it's ideal and has one of the better "surf and turf" combos in the caribbean

 

[DavidFL]

I have chosen BAIII for three out of my lifetime total of 5 LOB trips. I would (and will) go back again. I have lots of photographs that show the dive sites I've experienced on these trips are not all brown and devoid of marine life, but I have no experience of diving from a resort in Belize with which to compare. As for the blue hole, I've done it on each of the three trips, and will do it again when I return. Why? Mostly because its there; it's different; the LOB handles it well; it's a chance to breathe a different mix; go a little deeper than my usual 90-110' deepest on the walls, self-observe in a fairly well disciplined environment whether or not I can detect being a little narc'ed. The "standard" dive I like so much on these trips is the boat moored close to a wall; start the dive descending on the wall as deep as the dive invites (generally no more than about 100'); keep the wall on my left or right for ten minutes or so; come up to a more shallow depth when turning the dive, and a very leisurely exploration at the top of the wall and the sand returning to the mooring. Next dive on the same site, go the other direction on the wall. Navigation is easy; variable depth; variable reef; variable critters; visibility typically good (on average not as good as Cayman Islands, but definitely better than my day trips to South Florida).

The other warm water destination I return to frequently is Cayman Islands, but I haven't done that from a LOB.

I know this video, taken in Belize in 2015, is nighttime, but still one of my favorite encounters.

 

[TruckDiver1981]

I know this video, taken in Belize in 2015, is nighttime, but still one of my favorite encounters.

That is a fantastic video! What did you use to film it with?

 

[DavidFL]

That is a fantastic video! What did you use to film it with?

Thanks, I'm glad you like it.

Pretty basic camera stuff. A point-and-shoot camera (Canon G-15) in a housing (Ikelite); with a yellow filter for this nighttime bioflourescence. The light source I was using in 2015 for video was a dark blue "head" on a small Gobe light, and dark blue dichroic filters on two Ikelite DS-161 strobes (which have a video LED mode, but it isn't a lot of lumens even before the filter)

Some of it was pure luck; there aren't any available "manual" settings for video with a G-15 so I got whatever settings the camera uses in HD video. This LOB trip in Belize was the first time I was trying bioflourescence at night underwater, and this sequence where the crab-on-the-sponge was first lit up by "regular lighting" [with a yellow cast in the video because of my yellow filter] and then lit only/mostly by the deep blue light was pure dumb luck. Oh, and the big sea crab that happened to light up is pure luck too. I have since illuminated other sea crabs at night underwater with little effect, so which critters bioflouresce is, at this point for me at least, totally unpredictable.

Youtube improved the video by stablizing some slight jerkiness.

 

[TruckDiver1981]

Thanks, I'm glad you like it.

Pretty basic camera stuff. A point-and-shoot camera (Canon G-15) in a housing (Ikelite); with a yellow filter for this nighttime bioflourescence. The light source I was using in 2015 for video was a dark blue "head" on a small Gobe light, and dark blue dichroic filters on two Ikelite DS-161 strobes (which have a video LED mode, but it isn't a lot of lumens even before the filter)

Some of it was pure luck; there aren't any available "manual" settings for video with a G-15 so I got whatever settings the camera uses in HD video. This LOB trip in Belize was the first time I was trying bioflourescence at night underwater, and this sequence where the crab-on-the-sponge was first lit up by "regular lighting" [with a yellow cast in the video because of my yellow filter] and then lit only/mostly by the deep blue light was pure dumb luck. Oh, and the big sea crab that happened to light up is pure luck too. I have since illuminated other sea crabs at night underwater with little effect, so which critters bioflouresce is, at this point for me at least, totally unpredictable.

Youtube improved the video by stablizing some slight jerkiness.

I have a Canon G7-X that i am still waiting to use on a dive holiday, i have not had the chance to have one yet!