THE BEAUTY OF BELIZE

One of my favorite dive trips was to Belize, which is in Central America. Belize is tucked under the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico, and above Guatemala. The offical language is English, so traveling around the country is easy, since you can communicate with everyone. The first week my dive buddy, Ellen, and I spent aboard the liveaboard Wave Dancer, a Peter Hughes operation. As usual, the staff, food, and accomodations were very good. Divers are taken care of very well. You set up your equipment on the dive deck, and that tank is yours for the week. They do airfills between dives, so tanks never need to be changed. Under the bench where your gear is, there is a cubby hole for all your extra gear. The diving was better than I expected. The walls are beautiful, and the coral and sponges are in great shape. The visibility ranged from 40 to 100 feet, depending what currents were around. The marine life was varied. If you dove long enough you saw most of the different reef fish. There were no pelagics, except for some beautiful eagle rays, which stayed out in the blue water and cruised the edges of the walls. We did have close encounters with some large nurse sharks, and sea turtles. What was really exciting was the contact we had with the pods of dolphins that would pass by. We would all jump in the water with our fins, snorkels and masks. The contacts were brief, as the dolphins were determined to reach whatever destination they had in mind, but they slowed and paid attention to us for a bit, then picked up speed and left. They are one of the most beautiful and graceful creatures in the sea. You can't dive Belize without doing the "Blue Hole." This is a sinkhole, 1000 feet across, surrounding by a shallow reef. It is believed that it was once a cave, that had it's roof fall in. This is the only dive that is guided by a dive master. You descend to 130 feet and swim through large stalagtites. It is a brief dive, and you must have a long surface interval afterwards. We spent our interval on Half Moon Caye, which is a bird sanctuary for the Red Footed Booby. Believe it or not, these webbed footed birds, actually sit on the branches at the tops of the trees. I can't figure out how they don't fall off. Haha!! There are also lots of frigate birds, which share the trees and the airspace. We had a barbecue lunch on the island, and then returned to the boat. Most of our diving was done at Lighthouse Reef. Belize's reef system is the second largest in the world, first being the Great Barrier Reef of Australia. We did do some diving at Turneffe Reef, but the best dive sites were at Lighthouse Reef. After our week of diving, we spent four days in the rainforest at an ecolodge called Chaa Creek. There was no electricity in the cottages, and hot water was at a premium. However, the food was wonderful. The cook was Mayan, and the dishes were Belizan recipes. There was alot of activities at Chaa Creek. You could take tours of the Mayan cities in Belize and in Guatemala, go horseback riding in the rainforest, paddle a canoe down the Macal river, or go to Vaca Cave, and see 3,000 year old Mayan pottery. Ellen and I did it all. We went to Tikal in Guatemala. It is an awesome place. You walk through the rainforest, and suddenly you are in a plaza, with temples all around you. We climbed a 212 foot high pyramid, to the temple and looked down on the canopy of the rainforest below us. The views were spectacular. We had a wonderful time in Belize, and some day I would like to go back again. Even though, you don't see the "big fish," you do see every variety of marine life, and the corals and sponges are pristine.

NURSE SHARK

UNDERWATER PHOTOS FROM BELIZE							Yellowtail Snapper	Princess Parrotfish	Gorgonian Fan	Queen Angelfish	Black Grouper	Indigo Hamlet	Scrawled Filefish	Red Hind	Honeycomb Cowfish

MORE PHOTOS FROM BELIZE							Typical Belizan Sunset	Chaa Creek Cottage	Our Cottage	Me Canoeing	Temple At Tikal	Tikal Pyramid	Above The Canopy	Tikal Scene