Belize - The Blue Hole

02-15-2011 Tuesday



Inside the boat



Today we took a boat trip out to the Blue Hole to make a 130 foot dive down the side and swim through the stalactites that ring the hole at that depth.   This was a special charter trip on a big boat with about 30 people and four dive masters.  The trip included three dives and lunch at Half Moon Caye where you could see the Red Footed Boobies nesting on the protected isle. 

We waited at the dock at 5:30 am to be picked up for the trip.  When the water taxi arrived it was just beginning to get light.  We tossed our gear into the boat and it wasn't but a few minutes and we were at a large dock where a group of excited people from several countries milled around as the dive leaders organized the gear. 



Ready to go

It was a two hour boat ride the The Blue Hole, a perfectly circular limestone sinkhole more than 300 feet across and 412 feet deep.  During the ride we had plenty of time to anticipate the upcoming 130 foot dive while we munched on johnny cakes and fruit.  Once we got there the people were divided into two groups.  Each group had two dive leaders, one in front and one behind.  We were to drop down 40 feet, give the signal we were ok, and proceed the rest of the way down.  I was thinking I might just do the 40 foot dive and come on up, but once we got down there it just seemed natural to follow the dive leader to depth. 

Karen and Chad of Utah whose camera we shared this day because somebody working on a blog forgot to put the chip back into our little camera so we had no memory to use. 

It only took a minute to descend to the required depth and begin a slow procession through the giant stalagtites protruding down from a cathederal like cavern formed in the wall of the hole.  By the time we'd meandered in and out of several it was time to head for the surface for decompression at 30 feet.  All in all it was a awesome experience., 

You can make out the rim of Lighthouse Reef which surrounds the Blue Hole.

From there we went to do a lovely drift dive along "Half Moon Wall".  We coasted over a variety of huge barrel sponge, giant tube sponge, fishes and coral.  It was a special treat to encounter juvenile drum fish dancing in several crevices.   From there we went to lunch at Half Moon Caye where we saw the red footed booby and frigate bird rookery.  Amazing. 

After lunch, another wall dive, this time eagle ray wall to the aquarium.  It was truely amazing at the end of the wonderful drift dive to hang in the aquarium to decompress.  It felt like you were in a livingroom aquarium except the immense variety of colored fish and coral.