I have been diving in Belize and managing dive resorts for ten years and can share lots of info with people planning a Belize trip. I still live in Belize out at Thatch Caye Resort where I am currently the manager. We do dives to the South Water Caye walls almost daily and we often do trips out to Glover's Reef, Turneffe, and the Lighthouse Reef Atoll, home of the Blue Hole. Lately we have had a lot of rain with a small tropical storm passing through a few weeks ago, but now things are sunny and dry again and the water visibility is getting better every day (about 80 feet right now).
Our dive master at the resort recently showed me a new dive site for us that he has known about for years. It is a little to the north of our location and on the inside of the main barrier reef and it is a giant sinkhole/cave dive very similar to the Blue Hole. I found it to be even better than the Blue Hole because it isn't as deep where the stalactites start (more time to swim through them) and it is filled with fish all around the rim. Lots of snappers and jacks just circling around the top and quite a few sharks out in the open. The stalactites are really nice and several nurse sharks were hiding amongst them. The site is extremely difficult to find and you have to go with someone who really knows the spot since it looks like a big dark patch of sea grass when you go over it and it is kind of in the middle of nowhere.
Belize
Re: Belize
That sounds cool. This must be an overhead environment-would it be necessary to have cavern/cave training to dive here? We are actually planning a trip to Belize next Mar-Apr timeframe. I would love to hear more. Our destination is San Pedro, although we have no firm reservations yet.
Bob
Bob
If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading - Lao Tzu
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thatchcaye
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Re: Belize
Hi Bob,
No training is necessary for diving in either the Blue Hole or our smaller hole down south here. Both holes have rims that you dive down to and then you start to dive underneath the rim. The Blue Hole has its rim at about sixty feet and this other hole has its rim start at about 40 feet. Once you go past the rim, you start to go wider underneath the rim, expanding outwards. The Blue Hole starts to get stalactites around 100 feet deep and most people zig zag through them at around 120 feet deep for only about five minutes and then head back up with their timed stops on their ascent. In this other hole, you can stay down a lot longer since the stalactites are in the 60-80 feet range. You only go back under the rim and into the stalactites for as far as you feel comfortable and we always provide a divemaster for both dives with an underwater flashlight so no one gets lost. It is kind of spooky down there and I could see how someone with claustrophobia or some other phobia of dark, disorienting places might feel panicky, but, like I said, the divemaster has his light and you just stick with him.
The good thing about the Blue Hole is that Lighthouse Reef is very pretty and the other dive that we do out there, called the Aquarium off of Long Caye wall, has so many fish that you practically have to slap them off of you. The dive boats always have leftovers from their picnic lunches and have been feeding the fish there for over ten years, so the fish are huge and very friendly. But the wall down below all the crazy fish is awesome as well and we saw a school of manta rays last time we dove there in May.
The resort that I work at is just as far to the Blue Hole and Lighthouse Reef as San Pedro is and we charge about the same to go out there. We also do Turneffe elbow and Glover's Reef wall dives and San Pedro is too far away to do those. The location we are in is right in the center of everything, including even the whale shark area, which we are very close to as well.
No training is necessary for diving in either the Blue Hole or our smaller hole down south here. Both holes have rims that you dive down to and then you start to dive underneath the rim. The Blue Hole has its rim at about sixty feet and this other hole has its rim start at about 40 feet. Once you go past the rim, you start to go wider underneath the rim, expanding outwards. The Blue Hole starts to get stalactites around 100 feet deep and most people zig zag through them at around 120 feet deep for only about five minutes and then head back up with their timed stops on their ascent. In this other hole, you can stay down a lot longer since the stalactites are in the 60-80 feet range. You only go back under the rim and into the stalactites for as far as you feel comfortable and we always provide a divemaster for both dives with an underwater flashlight so no one gets lost. It is kind of spooky down there and I could see how someone with claustrophobia or some other phobia of dark, disorienting places might feel panicky, but, like I said, the divemaster has his light and you just stick with him.
The good thing about the Blue Hole is that Lighthouse Reef is very pretty and the other dive that we do out there, called the Aquarium off of Long Caye wall, has so many fish that you practically have to slap them off of you. The dive boats always have leftovers from their picnic lunches and have been feeding the fish there for over ten years, so the fish are huge and very friendly. But the wall down below all the crazy fish is awesome as well and we saw a school of manta rays last time we dove there in May.
The resort that I work at is just as far to the Blue Hole and Lighthouse Reef as San Pedro is and we charge about the same to go out there. We also do Turneffe elbow and Glover's Reef wall dives and San Pedro is too far away to do those. The location we are in is right in the center of everything, including even the whale shark area, which we are very close to as well.
Re: Belize
My wife and I are off to Belize at the end of July. We are staying in Placencia and will most likely do our diving with Splash Dive Shop. This will be our first time to Belize. Any recommended dive locations around Placencia. Thanks, Bob
Life is good, let's dive!!
Re: Belize
Spooky. I'd be sure stick close to the dive master with the underwater flashlight.thatchcaye wrote:No training is necessary for diving in either the Blue Hole or our smaller hole down south here. Both holes have rims that you dive down to and then you start to dive underneath the rim. The Blue Hole has its rim at about sixty feet and this other hole has its rim start at about 40 feet. Once you go past the rim, you start to go wider underneath the rim, expanding outwards. The Blue Hole starts to get stalactites around 100 feet deep and most people zig zag through them at around 120 feet deep for only about five minutes and then head back up with their timed stops on their ascent. In this other hole, you can stay down a lot longer since the stalactites are in the 60-80 feet range. You only go back under the rim and into the stalactites for as far as you feel comfortable and we always provide a divemaster for both dives with an underwater flashlight so no one gets lost. It is kind of spooky down there and I could see how someone with claustrophobia or some other phobia of dark, disorienting places might feel panicky, but, like I said, the divemaster has his light and you just stick with him.
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thatchcaye
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Re: Belize
Dives off of Placencia usually go to Pompion Caye and Laughingbird Caye and sometimes people dive the Pelican Cayes and Silk Caye. During the months of March, April,and May around the full moon, dives are also done out to Gladden's Spit for the whale sharks. We also do all of those dives out here at the place that I work at and we are actually a smoother ride out to them than Placencia is since we are already right on the reef and can do the whole boat ride inside the inner edge of the reef where there is no big wave activity.
The dives around Laughingbird aren't all that great and Pelican and Silk Cayes are both pretty shallow. Pompion has some nice deeper dives and is probably the best out of all of them.
Since Placencia is very far from all three atolls, we get people from Placencia who want to stay with us for part of their trip to do the atoll dives, especially the Blue Hole out at Lighthouse Reef. The atoll trips are really the crem de la crem of dives in Belize and all three atolls generally have spectacular visibility and lots of amazing sea life.
The dives around Laughingbird aren't all that great and Pelican and Silk Cayes are both pretty shallow. Pompion has some nice deeper dives and is probably the best out of all of them.
Since Placencia is very far from all three atolls, we get people from Placencia who want to stay with us for part of their trip to do the atoll dives, especially the Blue Hole out at Lighthouse Reef. The atoll trips are really the crem de la crem of dives in Belize and all three atolls generally have spectacular visibility and lots of amazing sea life.