Un-Belizeable!

by Matt Oliver-Mayho

Well - the first week involved snorkelling at Goff’s Caye, manatee watching, climbing Mayan ruins at Xunantunich, canoeing through caves at Barton Creek, crossing the Belize/Guatemala border, treetop canopy walking (zip-lining) through the jungle, kayaking, another day climbing more Mayan ruins at Tikal and that was before we got to Corel Beach Hotel & Dive Club at Ambergris Caye!

The first day we were taken out by Bottom Time Dive Ltd on two warmup dives. Esmeralda was the first location, the water was 27°C and visibility was a good 20 metres. A large turtle passed by us and we saw a Stingray in the distance.

The second dive that day was at San Pedro Canyons where we saw a lot more wild life. I took my dive slate down with me and Jenny was kind enough to write down everything we saw on it, as it's all fish to me! Moray Eels, Stone fish, Parrot fish, Spider Crab, Lobsters, Fan Corals, Damsel fish and Squirrel fish.

At one point in the dive we moved around some coral and there was this big Barracuda staring at me, I froze for a second and Jenny signalled me to pass over it, as I moved towards it I saw these razor sharp teeth eyeing me up, I wanted to take a picture but bottled it and went past him as fast as I could! Those things look mean!

Our second day of diving was with Bottom Time again, the first dive was at Toffee Canyon where I got to stroke a 2ft Turtle and get a good close-up picture of it to. We also saw large swarms of fish passing around us which looked amazing.

The second dive that day was at Cyprus Canyon and it was the best dive of the holiday! Jenny and I were the first in and as soon as we got into the water we could see lots of Nurse Sharks moving around below us! As Tim and Mel got into the water the dive master “Chocolate” as he was known, thought he saw a Jelly fish near Tim and jumped into the water without his dive kit to get Tim out of the way. During the commotion Eddie the skipper dropped Chocolate's dive gear into the water and as there was no air in the jacket it sank straight to the bottom!! After making sure Tim was ok, Chocolate free dived down to the bottom which was about 20 metres, turned on his cylinder and joined us for the dive. It was quite amazing.

We went down to about 16 metres where the sharks were and they let us stroke them. Next thing I know Chocolate picked one up rolled it over and was rubbing its belly! Needless to say my breathing rate increased something shocking! Jenny and Tim proceeded to grab a shark each, and then Jenny offers to pass the Shark she was holding to me so that she can take a picture! Now I can’t say I am a big fan of these things so I shook my head but after a couple of seconds I changed my mind and took the Shark from her, they were very docile, not at all what I expected.

The next day we were on the 2 day live aboard to the Blue Hole. This is where some of the disappointments came into the holiday, the weather went cloudy and windy and the boat was a heap of junk! First dive was at Cockroach Point Turn off Reef, we got a good shot of a Sting Ray hiding in the sand and then as it shot off into the distance when we got too close to it.

Second dive that day was at Elkhorn Forest off Half Moon Caye, not much new to see unfortunately.

That night we stayed at Half Moon Caye but the weather was so bad that it was nowhere near as enjoyable as it should have been. We got up early that day and headed for the Blue Hole, unfortunately the weather had not improved so the skipper would not position the boat on the south side of the Blue Hole where the Sharks were so we didn’t get to see any!

However diving into the Blue Hole was amazing. There were about 12 divers and we all descended down in our buddy pairs, it was quite an amazing site like falling into the abyss! Depth classified! On the slow ascent back to the surface we saw tube worms which close as you touch them and some Potato Cod fish which swam by us on the way back to the boat.

I still really enjoyed the dive even though it was nowhere near as good as it should have been. The second dive that day was back at Half Moon Caye but this time on the north side of the island. Unfortunately nothing new on this dive either but I did get to go through some tight gaps under some Coral.

Last dive was at Grassy Caye, Turn off island. It was supposed to be a drift dive but I have felt more current at Gildenburgh Lake! There were however lots of nice fish to see and it turned into quite a nice dive to finish the holiday on. All we had to do was endure a 7 hour boat ride home on the “boat” in the dark which had no lights so the skipper navigated by torch light! It was an experience I will say that.

A big thank you has to go to Jenny Greenwood for all the organising she put into the trip, it was an action packed couple of weeks.

Photos by Matt Oliver-Hayho and Jenny Greenwood

Billericay SAC

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