Turneffe Elbows/Caye Caulker in Belize (quick question)

[Namaste]

My dive group and I staying on Ambergris Caye in early April and we're diving with Amigo's Divers. We are trying to figure out if a trip out to the Turneffe Elbows are worth it. Also - how long of a boat ride is it to the Turneffe North Elbow from San Pedro and is the trek worth making for the 3 tank dive?

Also - does anyone have any thoughts on diving Caye Caulker? How long of a boat trip is that as well?

 

[H2Oxner]

I had a great time diving with Amigos del Mar. There's so much to see along the reef at Ambergris I don't think you'll want to dive Caye Caulker. Are you staying on Ambergris? I didn't go out to Turneffe, instead we did the Blue Hole trip. The two hour boat ride out is sheltered by reef for about half the trip so the ride out wasn't too bad except for a rough 45 min or so each way. The Blue Hole itself is more like a cavern dive than a reef dive but quite an experience. You will see several sharks, mostly Caribbean reef sharks; we even had a Bull shark cruise through! They'll then take you to Half-Moon Caye which is like a nature preserve where you can take a short hike before lunch. The next two dives are fantastic wall dives! Afterward you'll be plied with rum punch for the ride back! I also highly recommend doing a night dive! Just a 10 min boat ride to Hol Chan from the Amigos dock.

 

[Jeff88]

Amigos Del Mar is a top notch operation. If they are not doing a Blue Hole trip the same day they will use their large dive boat for the 2hr each way trip. It is definatly well worth the boat ride for the 3 wall dives you do there. My wife and I did the turneffe elbow trip on our last trip to AC in Nov'05. We were a bit disapointed that we didn't actually get to dive the elbow site that day due to poor vis and current conditions on the elbow. Check out the pictures in my gallery...most were taken on the turneffe trip. There really is no diving right around Caye Caulker...the dive operators there dive the same reef that you can local dive from Ambergris Caye. My wife and I are going back to AC in late April for a week dive trip. We will be using Chuck and Robbie's for our local diving..and Amigos Del Mar for our Lighthouse reef/blue hole trip.

 

[Namaste]

My dive group and I staying on Ambergris Caye in early April and we're diving with Amigo's Divers. We are trying to figure out if a trip out to the Turneffe Elbows are worth it. Also - how long of a boat ride is it to the Turneffe North Elbow from San Pedro and is the trek worth making for the 3 tank dive?

Also - does anyone have any thoughts on diving Caye Caulker? How long of a boat trip is that as well?

I should mention that my group (except for one person) will not be diving Blue Hole, that's why we were looking at the Turneffes.

Anyone know the travel time to the Turneffess from San Pedro, Ambergris Caye.

 

[Jeff88]

I should mention that my group (except for one person) will not be diving Blue Hole, that's why we were looking at the Turneffes.

Anyone know the travel time to the Turneffess from San Pedro, Ambergris Caye.

That's exactly why my wife and I did the turneffe trip...didn't want to do the blue hole dive. If you have a large enough group..you may be able to talk to one of the operators about doing a 3 dive trip to lighthouse reef (blue hole trip minus the blue hole dive)...some operators will do this..like protec or maybe amigos del mar. It is about a 2hr each way boat trip to turneffe..about 2 1/2 hr trip to lighthouse reef dive sites from san pedro.

 

[WyattEarp]

Try to get on a trip that does three wall dives out on Lighthouse Reef (skipping the hole). Thats what we did last trip and it was well worth doing as it was the best diving of the trip. Plan to do a Turneffe Elbow trip this time around. Only 15 more days!

 

[Namaste]

Try to get on a trip that does three wall dives out on Lighthouse Reef (skipping the hole). Thats what we did last trip and it was well worth doing as it was the best diving of the trip. Plan to do a Turneffe Elbow trip this time around. Only 15 more days!

When you mention Lighthouse Reef - is that on the Turneffe Elbow dive? We are not going out to Blue Hole ...

 

[Phenol]

Getting to Turneffe south from San Pedro should take about 1h45. North Turneffe is supposed to be a shorter ride, by about 20min. Check out this page to get an idea of the distances: Google satellite shot of Belize(Turneffe is that big paramecium-shaped blob in the middle...)

When we did it last summer, the boat ride was very smooth -- people slept part of the way. By the way, here's the boat you'll be taking for that trip (courtesy of Yakivet).

For Turneffe South, besides the Elbow, the two other sites are on the southeast and southwest sides of the atoll, and they're well worth it. We've done quite a bit of diving at Turneffe in the last years and most of the site quite nice.

 

[peterbj7]

Namaste - I don't think you know the geography of Belize. You'll find a good map at http://ambergriscaye.com/pages/town/map.html. More detailed than you need but it'll do. The Elbow is at the southernmost tip of Turneffe Atoll, near Caye Bokel lighthouse. Lighthouse reef surrounds Lighthouse Atoll, the next one over from Turneffe Atoll. You'll see the Blue Hole roughly near the middle of Lighthouse Atoll. The standard south Turneffe trip does three dives in the vicinity of the Elbow. The standard Lighthouse/Blue Hole trip does its first dive in the Blue Hole, the second off the SW corner of Half Moon Caye, and the third at the N of Long Caye.

Extra information - you can see San Pedro on Ambergris Caye, and Caye Caulker. West of Glover's Atoll you can see Hopkins and Placencia, key departure points for whale shark trips at Gladden Spit, which is not shown as such but is near Gladden Caye which is shown, some way south of Tobacco Caye.

Does that help?

 

[Namaste]

Namaste - I don't think you know the geography of Belize. You'll find a good map at http://ambergriscaye.com/pages/town/map.html. More detailed than you need but it'll do. The Elbow is at the southernmost tip of Turneffe Atoll, near Caye Bokel lighthouse. Lighthouse reef surrounds Lighthouse Atoll, the next one over from Turneffe Atoll. You'll see the Blue Hole roughly near the middle of Lighthouse Atoll. The standard south Turneffe trip does three dives in the vicinity of the Elbow. The standard Lighthouse/Blue Hole trip does its first dive in the Blue Hole, the second off the SW corner of Half Moon Caye, and the third at the N of Long Caye.

Extra information - you can see San Pedro on Ambergris Caye, and Caye Caulker. West of Glover's Atoll you can see Hopkins and Placencia, key departure points for whale shark trips at Gladden Spit, which is not shown as such but is near Gladden Caye which is shown, some way south of Tobacco Caye.

Does that help?

Thanks Peter and Phenol! That's very helpful. Hey Peter - sorry I didn't get back to you on your information emails to me ... I've been out of town/off of the internet for a while.