Trip Report - 4/18 - 4/25 w/pics!

[njcfm]

If you have any questions, just ask, we LOVED Ambergris Caye and will plan on heading to Placencia ASAP.

Diving:

Ramons Diving - Unprofessional, unorganized and the only person that was friendly was Rick the manager. Dive Masters rarely gave any information about the dive and it took alot of questioning to get the name of the dive sites we visited. After a day of asking they finally agreed to go to the dive spots we actually wanted to go to.

Tuffy/Toffee - nice spot, smaller fish, saw multiple large turtles

Hol Chan - Night dive, Lots of rays, lots of sea lice

B&D - Awesome site, long dive, Barracuda, turtles, nurse sharks, large eagle ray, and a pod of dolphins at the end.

Eagle Ray Valley - 6 or 7 eagle rays, lots of marine life overall

Esmeralda - Awesome spot to end our trip at, 10+ nurse sharks, very large morays (I got into a fist fight with one, luckily my camera took the brunt of the attack) otherwise it was a gorgeous dive site with huge canyons and lots of life.

picture i got right before the eel bit my camera

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Belize Diving Adventures - Small operation, VERY Personal, Ines was the DM we worked with and she was above and beyond the most professional, helpful, and friendly Dive Master we have ever dove with. We ran into her multiple times throughout the week and she was always happy to talk and answer questions about the island/places to eat/dive spots/etc.. I plan on suggesting their operation to everyone that asks.

TackleBox - Technical dive, lots of canyons to swim through, i flew through air and Ines the DM was kind enough to share her air with me so we did not have to end the dive early. Ines gave me advice on how to improve my consumption and it really helped!

Paradise Valley - beautiful site, lots of deep canyons, tons of marine life.

Ines heard we wanted to go to the blue hole and she basically made it happen, she got Ramons to contact amigos del mar and put us and another group onto the trip. She also met up with us at 5:30am to ensure that the DMs on the trip were aware of my air consumption, they agreed to provide me with a 100lbs tank which enabled me to enjoy the deep dive and the following reefs. I personally thanked Ines and the Amigos Del mar DMs for helping out and taking care of me, it is rare that people go out of their way to take care of the customer.

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Amigos Del Mar - We did the Blue Hole trip with them, large group but they spilt it up between all of the dive masters. The DMs were professional, friendly and willing to help/work with anyone that had any issues. Alex, Mike (with the off centered tattoo on his back), and George were our favorites all of them were very friendly and very good dive masters.


Blue Hole - it is a deep hole with big stalagtites and sharks.

Aquarium to eagle ray wall- Gorgeous reef, we saw a 13ft hammer head shark, the colors and life were amazing, awesome dive spot

Half moon wall - another great spot, tarpon, turtles, lobsters, countless types of fish.

They broke us up into smaller groups so we wouldn't be hearded like cattle. The DMs were very professional and did not touch the marine life or disturb a thing. I was very impressed.

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Food:

Ramons/pineapples:
-Breakfast was great, everyday.
-Lunch was ok
-The one dinner we ate there we were not impressed with

Lilly's Treasue Chest:
-AWESOME CeViche'
-Creole Conch - not chewy at all, perfectly cooked
-Stuffed Snapper - very flavorful, great dish

Elvi's Kitchen(so good we ate there twice):
-Terrific Service, Gilmar our waiter made great recommendations and went above and beyond on service. We were lucky enough to have Gilmar both times and again he went above and beyond.
-Margarita Shrimp - great dish, tons of flavor
-Curried Shrimp - very good, perfect amount of spice
-CeViche' - very good, perfectly "cooked"
-Creole Seafood Special - everything and anything ontop of a bed of coconut rice, so good, so flavorful and filling. Perfect dish to end the vacation.
-Coconut Shrimp - very good
-Plaintain encrusted calamari - terrific breading and terrific calamari, perfect starter.

Amigos Del Mar (blue hole trip):
-Stewed chicken - yummy even the feet
-Rice and beans - perfectly cooked
-coconut pie - some of the best i have ever had

Caliente:
-Al Mojo De Ajo - very good, filling
-Coconut battered Chicken - soooo sweet like candy

Sunset Grill:
-Snapper - very good, again very flavorful
-Fish burger - surprisingly good
-We fed the tarpons, it was fun even though both of us ended up with cuts, my advice is not to tease the tarpons actually give them the fish!

Street Vendors in San Pedro (near the jaguar club):
-rice and beans and stewed chicken - surprisingly good, unfortunately it was a little cold.. ended up giving most of it to the dogs that run around everywhere

Caramba's:
-Whole Fish Mayan style - perfect spices, not hot but spicy
-Blackened Fillet - tons of flavor, perfectly cooked, very good
-King Crag Legs - very good, perfectly cooked.

George's Kitchen:
-Grilled fish, rice/beans - very good, small local place south of Ramons.

Ras Safari:
-AMAZING Chicken, make the trip it is 110% worth it. Good old Reggae, ice cold beers, amazing chicken/rice and beans!

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Bars:

Tacklebox:
-Wednesday night(i think) - horrid music, unless you are in your 40s and love 90s/2000 dance music.. I couldn't wait to leave.
-Saturday night - very quite low key, much better music

Pier Lounge:
-Chicken drop, wednesday night - bet on a chicken ****ting on your number, unique i'll give it that. A local female was a little to into it, she pushed me out of the way when i was making too much noise near the chicken, apparently she needed to win and i was preventing it.

Purple Parrot(at ramons):
-Tony is great, very friendly and very helpful.
-always low key, never really busy

BCs:
-great live music
-great music all the time (solid old reggae to bruce to sublime to beres hammond)
-ice cold beers

Pedros Inn:
-benefit for Derrick the bassist of "all cayed up" very impressive talent for someone so young. Very mixed crowd, again ice cold beers.

My advice - Drink Belikin Stout, it is a much better stout than the regular Belikin is a pilsner/lager. At the start of the week pick up a case from the beer distributor (near ramons) and drink all you want, you'll have to pay a deposit for everything but it is still worth it.


Overall it was an awesome week, we loved ambergis caye and felt safe the entire time we were there. At one point there was even military present (not sure why).

Here are some pics from the trip:

Feel free to ask any questions

 

[Homunculus]

thanks for sharing. that's where we're going next. Few questions:
(1) what's the depth range of the non-technical sites that you mentioned?
(2) are all dives you did where boat dives? Any shore dives?
(3) how was the water condition?

thanks

 

[njcfm]

thanks for sharing. that's where we're going next. Few questions:
(1) what's the depth range of the non-technical sites that you mentioned?
(2) are all dives you did where boat dives? Any shore dives?
(3) how was the water condition?

thanks

Depth was anywhere from 140ft (blue hole) to 30 ft (hol chan night dive), most reef dives were from 40-60ft.

All dives are from boats, as far as I knew there was no shore diving

Water was great the first 4 days, once the wind picked up visibility did go down and some dive ops did not go out for a day or two.

 

[Gaz]

Nice trip report very thourough suprised to see the negative for Ramons as I am seeing lots of positive comments lately yours is the first negative for a long time.

Great report thought

Gaz Cooper

 

[njcfm]

Nice trip report very thourough suprised to see the negative for Ramons as I am seeing lots of positive comments lately yours is the first negative for a long time.

Great report thought

Gaz Cooper

it was the first time a shop had no idea if they were doing dives each day and if they were where they were going. Ramons has a few DMs on staff and then they bring in others based on how busy they are. It appeared this was the first week in awhile they were busy enough to need more than 1 boat each day.

We didn't get the usual DMs but guys that they brought in based on how busy it was, I'd say the DM was pretty good, he didn't talk much. The boat captains weren't real professional, more interested in their tips than anything else.

We heard multiple comments about how big their tips would be based on what we saw, to me that is just unprofessional, if the dive is good we will take care of them. Commenting on it makes me want to do the complete opposite.

Gaz,

I also wanted to thank you for all the information you have posted, it was a great help in deciding what spots to ask for. :thumbs_up:

 

[Gaz]

Your very welcome

Gaz

 

[Ralph Capeling]

Great report with lots of good detail. When you come to Placencia, I hope you check us out at Splash Dive Center. We would love the opportunity to show you what we can do. You can find us at Splashbelize.com or e-mail Patty patricia@splashbelize.com

 

[peterbj7]

I'm glad and not surprised to hear very positive comments about both Belize Diving Adventures and Amigos. Like Gaz, I am surprised to hear the negatives about Ramon's, as the usual comment about them is "a bit pricey but superb".

A couple of comments on the dives. The shelf in the Blue Hole that carries the stalactites and columns is at 150ft and that's the depth many people go to. If you stay above it you'll obviously be shallower.

And there's no way I'd call the regular Tackle Box dive a "technical dive". You don't go deeper than 90ft, you use a single tank and don't go near the decompression threshold, in the swimthroughs you are never out of sight of daylight (assuming it's not a night dive!), and those swimthroughs are simple with no particularly narrow spots and no ambiguity as to where to go. It's a slightly more demanding recreational dive. It's actually one of my favourite dives here!

Work on that air consumption! Just for interest, what size tank did you use for the BH dive and what pressure was left in it at the end of the dive?

 

[krunchy]

Thanks very much for this detailed trip report!!! I am leaving for Belize in a few weeks and am pretty excited.

 

[njcfm]

Great report with lots of good detail. When you come to Placencia, I hope you check us out at Splash Dive Center. We would love the opportunity to show you what we can do. You can find us at Splashbelize.com or e-mail Patty patricia@splashbelize.com

After speaking to both you and Patty and hearing about your operation from my uncle (who lives in placencia) I wouldn't use anyone else.

We actually just got engaged, so depending on finances hopefully we can book a week next year in placencia

I'm glad and not surprised to hear very positive comments about both Belize Diving Adventures and Amigos. Like Gaz, I am surprised to hear the negatives about Ramon's, as the usual comment about them is "a bit pricey but superb".

A couple of comments on the dives. The shelf in the Blue Hole that carries the stalactites and columns is at 150ft and that's the depth many people go to. If you stay above it you'll obviously be shallower.

And there's no way I'd call the regular Tackle Box dive a "technical dive". You don't go deeper than 90ft, you use a single tank and don't go near the decompression threshold, in the swimthroughs you are never out of sight of daylight (assuming it's not a night dive!), and those swimthroughs are simple with no particularly narrow spots and no ambiguity as to where to go. It's a slightly more demanding recreational dive. It's actually one of my favourite dives here!

Work on that air consumption! Just for interest, what size tank did you use for the BH dive and what pressure was left in it at the end of the dive?

alright, it was technical for someone with less than 30 dives and has never been through canyons before

That and i'm 6'2" 215lbs, there was one or two tight spots that i wasn't expecting.

I was provided with a 100lb/3100psi tank on the BH dive and I ended the dive with 600-700psi left in the tank, I was surprisingly relaxed on the dive.

Tacklebox was the first dive we did on the trip, so i think it was a combination of that and the sheer excitement of getting back into the water.

As for air consumption, I'm going to start working on my cardio and see if i can improve it, fiancee' is getting tired of ending her dives early because of me