Scared Silly
Contributor
A short trip down to see some critters off Gladden Spit.
Flights -
Contential via Houston into Belize City. On time - even though every one was on board early they waited for all of our bags. A+ for that. Made it there in a day rather than our usual red eye through Atlanta. Return was smooth as well.
Maya Island Air - Had our hotel arrange the flights. Most are agents for one or the other opperations. A little late leaving on both flights but there are lots of flights during the day.
Hotel -
Trade Winds Hotel - http://www.placencia.com/members/tradewind.html. Perfect. Simple cabanas 50' from the water. Mini frig, fan, coffee maker. Easy walk into town and the dive shops. Quiet other than the breeze. The owner is a very nice lady, Janice. She booked our flights. Highly reccommended. 65USD per night.
Eating -
We ate breakfast at our cabana and went out each night. Nice variety of places to eat but most with a similar menu. Though each have a spin on it. The Italian ice cream place was great as was visiting John the Bakerman.
Diving -
Sea Horse Dive Shop. Once we got a hold them it was easy to book (internet troubles on their end). Deposit required up front especially during the full moons in the spring time because of the critters out by Gladden Spit. We did 4 days of reef dives and 2 days out on Gladden Spit. The boat rides were anywhere from 45-75 minutes. Their main boat was out of operation so the boats they were using were not always the best for diving. One, the "Ambitious" sucked. All the gear/tanks in the back crammed together right next to the captians console and chair. A PITA for getting gear on and off. We ended up putting on gear in the water. Other boats were better but still sometimes cramped.
Typical reef dive was to Laughing Bird Caye, Silk Caye, or Pompion Caye. One dive then come in for lunch and snorkel, then go back out for the second dive. They would cook a lunch of chicken, potatoes, and salad with watermelon for desert. It was good but after the same thing multi days in a row it was tiresome. We went to Pampion twice which was okay as it was a nice wall. Water Viz was so-so 60-80 feet. Lots of winds to much things up. Saw everything from reef/nurse sharks to turles and rays to drum fish. Nice heathy reefs.
Gladden Spit is were the big sharks come in. These dives are outside the reef open ocean blue water dives with nothing around. Long days as only a few boats at a time are allowed into the reserve. We tpyically had late times which meant leaving late from the dock - they did not bother to tell this so on the last day we waited more than a hour before we left. We did see 2-3 sharks on 3 of 4 dives. Worth a couple of days.
The divemasters were a bit too rigid for my tastes. Typically they said the dives would be 70-80' multilevel drift dives for 40 minutes and when they came up they wanted you up as well. This did not sit very well for us as we often had a enough gas for any where from 5-15 minutes longer. When one of the DM gripped at us for not getting out of the water on the four day it was time to chat with the owner. We were on the surface at the time but it is kind of hard to get out of the water when people are using the ladder. Needless to say after talking to other divers who have dove in Belize this seems some what typical - The DM is the guide and you are expected to follow them. BS on that as I am the guest. They could do s much better job on this.
Would I return to Placencia for diving - probably not. Too many other places to see. Would I reccomend it, sure enough, just go during the spring full moons. As the long boat rides and only a few good reef sites makes worth only a few days of diving but with a few days out at Gladden Spit it makes for a nice trip.
Flights -
Contential via Houston into Belize City. On time - even though every one was on board early they waited for all of our bags. A+ for that. Made it there in a day rather than our usual red eye through Atlanta. Return was smooth as well.
Maya Island Air - Had our hotel arrange the flights. Most are agents for one or the other opperations. A little late leaving on both flights but there are lots of flights during the day.
Hotel -
Trade Winds Hotel - http://www.placencia.com/members/tradewind.html. Perfect. Simple cabanas 50' from the water. Mini frig, fan, coffee maker. Easy walk into town and the dive shops. Quiet other than the breeze. The owner is a very nice lady, Janice. She booked our flights. Highly reccommended. 65USD per night.
Eating -
We ate breakfast at our cabana and went out each night. Nice variety of places to eat but most with a similar menu. Though each have a spin on it. The Italian ice cream place was great as was visiting John the Bakerman.
Diving -
Sea Horse Dive Shop. Once we got a hold them it was easy to book (internet troubles on their end). Deposit required up front especially during the full moons in the spring time because of the critters out by Gladden Spit. We did 4 days of reef dives and 2 days out on Gladden Spit. The boat rides were anywhere from 45-75 minutes. Their main boat was out of operation so the boats they were using were not always the best for diving. One, the "Ambitious" sucked. All the gear/tanks in the back crammed together right next to the captians console and chair. A PITA for getting gear on and off. We ended up putting on gear in the water. Other boats were better but still sometimes cramped.
Typical reef dive was to Laughing Bird Caye, Silk Caye, or Pompion Caye. One dive then come in for lunch and snorkel, then go back out for the second dive. They would cook a lunch of chicken, potatoes, and salad with watermelon for desert. It was good but after the same thing multi days in a row it was tiresome. We went to Pampion twice which was okay as it was a nice wall. Water Viz was so-so 60-80 feet. Lots of winds to much things up. Saw everything from reef/nurse sharks to turles and rays to drum fish. Nice heathy reefs.
Gladden Spit is were the big sharks come in. These dives are outside the reef open ocean blue water dives with nothing around. Long days as only a few boats at a time are allowed into the reserve. We tpyically had late times which meant leaving late from the dock - they did not bother to tell this so on the last day we waited more than a hour before we left. We did see 2-3 sharks on 3 of 4 dives. Worth a couple of days.
The divemasters were a bit too rigid for my tastes. Typically they said the dives would be 70-80' multilevel drift dives for 40 minutes and when they came up they wanted you up as well. This did not sit very well for us as we often had a enough gas for any where from 5-15 minutes longer. When one of the DM gripped at us for not getting out of the water on the four day it was time to chat with the owner. We were on the surface at the time but it is kind of hard to get out of the water when people are using the ladder. Needless to say after talking to other divers who have dove in Belize this seems some what typical - The DM is the guide and you are expected to follow them. BS on that as I am the guest. They could do s much better job on this.
Would I return to Placencia for diving - probably not. Too many other places to see. Would I reccomend it, sure enough, just go during the spring full moons. As the long boat rides and only a few good reef sites makes worth only a few days of diving but with a few days out at Gladden Spit it makes for a nice trip.
