trip report Utila/ Belize (Long, Multi part)

[diverrick]

We got away out of SFO on TACA on Sat. evening, no problems at all. Arrived in Utila and found our place to live for the next week at the "Mango Inn". We got settled in and noticed that even though the dive operators "Utila Dive Center" (UDC) told us they were together with the Mango, they failed to mention a small factoid that they were not even in close proximity phyisically to each other. Ok I can live with that. (15 min walk each way in humid temps).
Now for a warm shower after the long fight.... WRONG. nothing but cold water from the hot water tap., OK I can live with that also. We also noticed that there were no curtains on any windows, so that the bar/restauraunt patrons had full view into our room after dark if we had the lights on at all. I could also live with that, but the wife could not. Also no lighting at all on the stairs that led up to the room, so you needed to be able to read brail keys if you expected to get into your room. Keep in mind here that we paid EXTRA for the upgraded "deluxe" room. Some rooms went for as little as 7 dollars US per night, and they had hot water!! We had expected a bit better than what we got.
Went down and had a bite to eat, and met the owners of the bar and grill at the Mango. (separate from the Mango management) Nice guys. great food! OK, so we are not off to the best of starts, but I am willing. Went to the front office and informed them of the problems we found with our room. After walking to the dive op on the first day (day 2) and retuning to the Mango, the front office at the Mango told me that they had "fixed" the problems for us.
We went back and found that we now had no water at all from the hot side of the shower( guess they fixed the problem of only cold water coming out), windows still had no curtains, and light still did not work. This went on like this for almost the entire week we were there. We never did get hot water, or a front light. We did however get some jury rigged curtains on day 5 of 7! which promptly fell down as they were hald up with masking tape!. Day 6, they offered us another room to use for showers! guess it didn't dawn on them to offer that earlier.
Now on to UDC. John who was in charge of all the dive guests and was quite interested in helping us be happy with our lodging, but even he was having difficulty getting these simple tasks fixed. The UDC dive boats were nothing you'd find in a boating magazine, but they ran well, and never gave a hint of breaking down. At UDC you dive with DM;s who are either training, or recently minted DM's/ We were, at times the only "customers" they had. The rest of them were either training, recently certified DM's or Instructors, or other students. At one point we had a two to one margin. That is, two Dm's for each of us. I guess it is practice for them. All of the dives were great, we got to swim with the whale sharks, three times during our SI's, and I even got so close that one actually hit me with it's tail! That was not planned, but they go where they go, and it is very hard to out swim and shark that size, whe it decideds to change course. So I got BS'd by a Whale Shark! (e-mail me and I'll expalin the BS part). We also got to see a Spotted eagle ray while it ate! we were withing a foot of it, and it could care less!. Very cool to witness that.
All in all water was great, weather was great, dives were great, food was great, rooms were great, just need someone else who can do a better job in regards to service in regards to the Mango. I volunteer to go down and do that job. I have more to add, but don't wish to bore anyone, so I am attempting to keep this short and sweet as I can.
Next time Belize, and Blackbird Resort, Turneffe Island.
(week 2)

 

[mjh]

3 Whale sharks thats great. If you go to Utila again let me recommend the Utila Dive Lodge, great showers, food and dive staff. Look forward to week 2...

 

[diverrick]

After spending a week in Utila, we caught a flight up to Belize City, where we were met by the crew of the BigBird (blackbird resorts big boat). They took us out away from the city, way out to Turneffe atoll, 35 miles, to where Blackbird Cay is located.
This place is so idealic! It is very remote, Palm trees, mangroves, sand, sun. No cars or airplanes were seen or heard all week. No tv, or radio to speak of One distressing thing I did see is lots of trash on the beaches if you walked away from the reort grounds. It comes from passing cruise ships it looks like, as it is all shampoo, conditioner, lipstcik, flip flops, Etc. I don't think a freighter would be dumping that kind of thing, so it must be from the cruise ships, or coming all the way around the atoll from the mainland, but I doubt that. Most all of the dives were less than 2 mins ride from the dock. They had very fast a clean, well maintained equipment. Our room was right on the beach. Food was perfect! They had just completed a new runway for aeroplanes, so that those who get seasick can get there, plus make it easier to come and go from the island.
We dove three times a day unless it was too cold, as they had a cold front move through, and getting out of the water on some days was cold. Water temps were between 77 and 80 degrees all week. All the dives were great. I am not saying it was better than other places, just different. We saw more marine life here, then I think I have ever seen in one place before. We got to pet a 10 foot nurse sharks tail as it lay there under a corral head. It didn't seem to even notice.
They also have resident salt water crocs that come by the dock in the late eveings, to add to the adventure.
We got to dive the blue hole, and I can say I would do it again, but it was a very short dive. I think we were in and out in about a half hour. I got narced to the point that I knew I was narced, for the first time in my life. I can see how dangerous it is now that I have felt it. I even over shot my MOD I am sorry to say. Got to 144 when we were supposed to stay at or above 130. Good thing I wasn't on EANx. Narced, like I said. Cool stalagmites, and large reef sharks, not to mention large Groupers and tuna. Second dive we did after SI we did a wall dive down near Half Moon Cay. We saw the biggest Dxxxed Lobster in the world! it was as large as a small child! HUGE! It's body diameter was as big around as my thigh! That dive had a pronounced down current off the wall, with spots of very cold water, then warm water. We had to really keep an eye on the depth, as even as we were swimming up, it was pushing us down. Not so much that you couldn't over run it by finning harder, but I could see the potential to get puhed down below your anticipted depth, and was ready just in case it got stronger.
While we were out there at the blue hole, we went a saw the red footed boobies sitting on thier nests. That was really cool as well. They have built a viewing platform so you can be at tree top level and see all the birds. It was really a great day trip. We got blown out for one dive due to weather during the week, but other than that, it was the perfect dive week. Black bird is one place I can recommend if your'e looking for some peace and quite.
Now... I must return to the real world, and go work to pay off this wonderful trip.
Lets see now... If I work a bit more OT?... I can be back down there in .....?
Later

 

[diverrick]

I saw UDL, and my wife an I agreed that we would stay there next time. As you can tell we were not too happy about the managements handling of issues we had at the Mango Inn. Plus I would not recommend the dive op. For what we were paying, you can get a better deal at other dive places. They really need to work on fixing up everything at UDC. They didn't have any fresh water the whole time we were there so we couldn't even rinse our gear after a dive, or flush the toilet, unless you got a bucket of sea water to pour into the toilet first. Boats appeared to be tired.
Nice folks though. And John did really try to help. He gets extra points for all the effort, but I saw alot better dive ops while we were there.

 

[peterbj7]

Belize Blue Hole - everyone dives it to around 145', because that's the depth of the bottom of the alcove that contains the stalactites and stalacmites (the top is at around 125', so if you stick to recreational limits you don't see very far down). And on every dive I've done in it, with several different operators, my computer went into deco. They make a big play of the dive not going beyond recreational limits, whereas in reality it virtually always does. That isn't a problem, but it is a fact and shouldn't so routinely be denied.