Belize Vacation - Day 3 Scuba Diving The Great Blue Hole

Our day started early. A water taxi picked us up at the end of our dock at 5:45 am. We watched the sunrise on our ride to the Amigos del Mar dive shop in San Pedro. 

Papa Changa was the 55 ft boat that took us on a 2.5 hour ride out to the Great Blue Hole. The boat can take 32 passengers. We were lucky that there were only 15 passengers and 5 crew members. The last time my husband and I came to Belize, we went on Amigo del Mar's Papa Tomas boat and there were probably 35 people plus the crew. and it felt really crowded.  It was nice that we had room to spread out on this trip.

My school gave all of the teachers a Flat Flamingo, like Flat Stanley, to take on their summer adventures. I had to take a couple of pictures of it to send to my principal.

While everyone was arriving for check-in, Amigos del Mar set out breakfast for the passengers. They fed us well all day long.

We left the marina around 6:15 am and returned a little after 5:00 pm. For most of the ride out, everyone stayed on the lower level of the boat. 

We hit some pretty big waves and the boat was really rocking from side to side. Some people were yelling out on the big bumps. 

J2 had to sit on the back of the boat with a bucket and his "friend Ralph" (my husband's nickname for puking). 

Boogs fell asleep because of the motion of the waves. I was worried he would fall over, but he didn't.

We went up to the second level when the waves were more calm.

This is a picture of the Great Blue Hole from Amigos del Mar's website. It is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System. It was made famous by Jacques Cousteau, who declared it one of the top scuba diving sites. The Great Blue Hole is 400 feet deep and 1000 feet across. It was created during the Ice Age when sea levels were much lower and was once a dry cave. 

I was really nervous about diving down 135 feet. Last time we came to Belize, I chickened out and just snorkeled around the hole instead of diving into it. This time, I was determined to do it. Two crew members and two boat passengers joined us on the dive. The rest of the passengers snorkeled. 

The dive master told us we were going to descend quickly so we would have time to explore the hole at our 135 ft limit for this dive. I was surprised by how much sunlight reached our dive limit. The pictures and video from my husband's last dive there looked very dark. There lots of huge stalactites. We swam in and around them. It was very quiet and a little eerie, not much marine life except for sharks - some sleeping on rock ledges and a few swimming around us.

The diver wearing shorts, holding a camera, and kicking his feet like crazy, ran out of air while we were over 100 ft under water. He had to use the octopus, 2nd regulator, on the dive master's tank and share his air on the way up. The dive boat had two regulators hanging down about 25 feet under the boat. That diver had to grab one and hang on to the anchor line until the safety stop was over. It was an 8 minutes safety stop. That felt like a really long time. We all came out of the dive with plenty of air. Boogs and I had 1000 PSI left and my husband and J2 had about 900 PSI left. 

My husband actually got some footage of himself on the dive. He is never in the videos because he is always filming.

We were all pretty excited after the dive. It is amazing that we were able to dive there. That was definitely a big check mark on my bucket list.

The boat then took us to dive the Half Moon Wall dive site. Wow, was it a pretty dive! We saw lots of sharks, two turtles, angel fish, tube worms, big groupers, other fish, and beautiful coral formations.

My husband was filming a large shark when a turtle came up over the reef off to the other side of us. It was a so neat to see both of them up close.

The turtle looked like it was slowing down to rest on the sandy bottom. All of the sudden, the shark swam towards the turtle and spooked him. As soon as the turtle pushed off, the shark ignored it and turned back the way he had come. 

After the Half Moon Wall dive, we went to Half Moon Caye. 

The dive shop prepared chicken, rice, beans, coleslaw, and fruit or banana bread for dessert. The food was great and it was an incredible spot for lunch.

After lunch, we decided to walk the trail to see the Red-Footed Booby Nesting Grounds.

There were iguanas scurrying around in the underbrush.

We also saw and heard many of hermit crabs.

We climbed up the steps to the observation deck. We were up there for only a couple of minutes before there was an absolute downpour of rain.

There were so many birds in the trees. It was really neat to see.

We were able to catch a glimpse of those famous red feet.

I wonder who was eating all of those coconuts. The Belize Audubon Society, the University of Belize, and the Fisheries Department conduct long-term monitoring of coral, seagrass, sea turtles, fish spawning and more from this island. There is ranger and research housing on the island.

I love this picture of the curving beach, dock, clouds, and boats. 

We made it back to the boat on time. Not all of the other passengers were back on time.

Our next destination was the Aquarium Dive Site by Long Caye. I don't have any pictures or videos from that dive but it was also beautiful. There is nothing like being underwater and enjoying all of the beautiful corals and marine life.

All of the guys fell asleep on the 2.5 hour boat ride back to San Pedro. Okay, I fell asleep for a little while too, but they were not awake to snap a pic of me.

We had an incredible day and loved all of the dives. The Great Blue Hole dive is one I will never forget. It was nice to make it back to our Airbnb at the end of the day.

I was too tired to cook dinner that night so we went to Happy's Tequilaria for dinner. It was a bar/restaurant not too far from our rental house. The owner is from Houston. The other diners we talked to in the place were also from Texas.

It was a great day!