Scuba Diving at the Blue Hole

On Saturday, I went scuba diving in the great Blue Hole! Kelli, Dr. C, Laurie and I dove; Kelsey, Annie, and a few of the grad students went with us and snorkeled. We had to be up super early and over to the dock at Ramon’s by 5:30am. Kelli and I were pretty disappointed that we didn’t get to dive with Ambergris Divers and our favorite dive master, Flip, but Ramon’s had much nicer, newer gear and our boat was much bigger. It was a two and half hour boat ride out to the Blue Hole. We passed by Caye Caulker and several other small islands on the way. We hit some huge swells out in the open water. The massive waves turned our boat ride into a rollercoaster. My stomach was dropping just like it does when you’re on a coaster. Kelli and I loved it and couldn’t stop giggling. Eventually the water calmed down and I ended up falling asleep for about an hour. I didn’t wake up until I heard Kelli screaming, “Look! Look!” I shot up and looked where she was pointing. Our boat had stumbled upon a school of dolphins! There must have been about 50 of them.  Some swam in the wake right behind the boat, some swam right by the bow of the boat, and tons were out in the water next to the boat giving us a show! They would jump in and out of the water, sometimes two at a time in perfect synchronization. If I didn’t know any better I would of said it was choreographed. Our captain drove our boat around in a circle a few times so we could get a good look at the dolphins. It was really neat. Kelli and I decided that that right there already made the trip worth it.

Pre-dive 

After spotting the dolphins, it was another 30 minutes to the Blue Hole. Kelli and I were pretty nervous. The Blue Hole would be our first deep water dive. We would be going down to 140 feet. The deepest I had been before was about 80 feet. When you get down past 100 feet you run the risk of getting nitrogen narcosis, which is is a reversible alteration in consciousness that occurs while diving at depth. It can also defined by a temporary decline or loss of senses and movement or numbness. It can feel similar to alcohol intoxication or nitrous oxide inhalation, which explains why another name for nitrogen narcosis is the Martini Effect. You also have to be very careful on the ascent. You can’t come up too quickly and you have to do a decompression stop. All of these things were freaking us out, and then on top of that the Blue Hole is home to reef and bull sharks. Bull sharks especially are much more aggressive than the nurse sharks that we’d seen on our previous dives. So I was also slightly concerned with the possibility of getting eaten by a shark! Nevertheless, I was in Belize and I wasn’t going home without diving the Blue Hole!

We entered the Blue Hole through the southern opening and we would be diving on the south side as well.  After we anchored, the snorkelers went on in, just as a shark approached our boat I might add, but we had to be briefed about the dive before getting in. We would be going down next to the wall to 140 feet. We would be down there for about 8 minutes, and then we would slowly come back up to 20 feet for a 5-minute decompression stop. We can only stay at that depth for 8 minutes because when you are that deep, you use more air.

We descended really quickly. It only took us about a minute to reach 140 feet. The wall looked similar to the walls of the ATM cave-lots of stalagmites and limestone. It makes sense that the Blue Hole reminded me of the ATM cave because the Blue Hole was once a cave that collapsed into this huge, perfectly circular sinkhole. Down there, I felt like an astronaut floating in space. It was dark and when I looked down I couldn’t see anything but more darkness. While we were down there, I did experience some nitrogen narcosis. It didn’t bother me though, I just felt like I had had a few drinks. Probably when I was feeling loopy, I went down to 150 feet. But one of the dive masters quickly got my attention and I swam back up to 140 feet. While we were down there we saw 3 big reef sharks swimming about 20 feet below us. They looked much scarier than the nurse sharks I’ve seen. It was an exhilarating feeling being down so deep and being so close to these sharks that could easily kill me.

Post Blue Hole

Back on the boat, Kelli and I could barely contain our excitement. We had survived the Blue Hole and it was absolutely beautiful. Everywhere we looked was more and more of the gorgeous blue water with no land in sight. After the snorkelers got back on the boat, we headed off to our next dive near Half Moon Caye.

Me at the Blue Hole

View from the top deck of the Blue Hole
(That's our guide Wil showing off his muscles)

Half Moon Caye

It took us about 20 minutes to reach our next dive spot called the Half Moon Caye Wall. We were about half a mile off of Half Moon Caye and could see tons of birds flying above the island. The dive was nothing short of amazing. Once again we were doing a wall dive, but this time it wasn’t a cave wall, it was a huge wall of colorful coral and tropical fish. We only went down to 60 feet and dove for about 45 minutes. I felt like I was in the movie The Little Mermaid. The coral was much bigger and way more colorful than the corals we had seen on our local dives. We saw two huge eagle rays, a sea turtle, several reef sharks (one actually followed us around), lobsters, and tons of varieties of fish. We went through many swim-throughs, which are like tunnels through the coral. It was really, really cool. It definitely beat all of my previous dives.

Kelli, Annie, and Kelsey with Half Moon Caye in the background

Me before the dive at Half Moon Caye Wall

After our second dive, we went to have lunch and spend some time on Half Moon Caye. Half Moon Caye is located at the southeast corner of Lighthouse Reef Atoll, the furthest of Belize’s three atolls from the mainland, and one of only four such atolls in the Western Hemisphere. It is a natural monument and is home to the red-footed boobie bird that is only found here in Belize and in the Galapagos Islands.  We had a delicious lunch right on the beach and then had about an hour to walk around the island and see the boobies. The island was incredibly beautiful. We walked all over and up to the bird lookout to see the hundreds of boobies. We also saw several lizards, geckos, and a big family of hermit crabs. When our time was up, we got back on the boat for our last dive at a spot called “The Aquarium.”

Hermit Crab feeding frenzy on a dead bird. It smelled horrible.

BOOBIES!

View from the top of the booby look out 

This guy was screeching like crazy!

Me with the giant Booby in the gift shop 

Hammock chillin 

The beach on the opposite side of the island

Me diving at the Aquarium

The Aquarium got its name because at this spot on the reef, there are literally thousands of fish of hundreds of different varieties. The fish are so abundant here because fishermen come to this spot to throw out all of their unwanted fish parts. Once again we only went down to 60 feet and had a dive time of 45 minutes. And again, everything was breathtakingly gorgeous-the reef, the fish, the rays, the lobsters, and even the sharks. We saw around 5 sharks on this dive. By then I actually grew kind of comfortable around them.

Kelli and I after our last dive in Belize

Towards the end of our dive, I got an unwelcome sinking feeling in my chest. I had realized that this would be my last dive in Belize. I thought how on earth could I leave all of this beauty? And where in the world and when will I ever get the opportunity to dive somewhere like this again? I felt so grateful that I had had this experience, but I felt even more sadness at the realization that more than likely, I would never be here again. About this time, I made eye contact with Kelli. She brought her pointer finger up to her mask and traced a tear falling from her eye. She too had realized that this was it.  When we got back on the boat, I didn’t say anything for a few minutes. I was trying to really soak it all in, appreciate what a truly magnificent day we had had, and permanently ingrain everything I had seen into my memory. My face must have conveyed what I was feeling because Annie asked me if I was all right. I told her I was fine and tried to explain to her that I was just depressed that this was my last dive in Belize. Then Kelli came and sat down next to me. As we had done after all of our previous dives, we had our explosive conversation about everything that we had seen. Except this time it was very bittersweet. We had just had this amazing day with the three best dives of our trip, but it was also the end of our diving in Belize.


I had to shake off my emotions so I could enjoy our boat ride back.  As usual, it was a perfect day in paradise. Kelli, Annie, Kelsey, and I sat up on the top deck of the boat soaking up the sun and chatting with our dive guides. They were all really nice and fun to talk to. Our dive master, Ernest, told us that he had logged over 9,000 dives! Kelli and I about fell out. He said that he averages about 600 dives a year all over Belize. I wish that was my job! After about two hours, we finally saw San Pedro in the distance. I was a bit sad getting off the boat, but simultaneously filled with joy from our amazing, fun-filled day. If you ever find yourself in Belize, a trip to the Blue Hole is a must!

Here is a video that Annie made that includes some footage of the dolphins we saw and some of what she saw on her snorkels.  Annie's Blue Hole Video