Diving The shark infested Blue Hole
Trip Start
Aug 26, 2005
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111
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Trip End
May 26, 2008
Caye Caulker,
Belize
Thursday, April 3, 2008
http://www.ambergriscaye.com/pages/town/greatbluehole.html
Caye Caulker is a small island that sits 32k´s NNE of Belize city. The island is a diving hot spot, specifically for the famous site - The Blue Hole.
A 45 minute ferry from Belize city took me to the island. I met an Irish lass called Maria on the ferry. She had recently been on Utila, so we had much to talk about.
The ferry arrived at the sunny island is Caye Caulker where a sign greeted us ´GO SLOW´ it said. They werent kidding. The place is super chilled. No rushing is allowed.
For some reason, every hotel was full, so together with Maria, I searched the island for a cheap place to stay. After 6 different hotels and hostels, the cheapest place we could find was 40 US dollars a night! eeeek. Id be getting back on the ferry is this continued. Luckily, round the corner was Bellas. A family run hostel, with dorm rooms upstairs and a communal kitchen. Sweet and for 10 dollars a night, i dropped my bag and showered after a long day of traveling.
I knew i was hot and sweaty, but when pure salt ran down my face i thought something was a littel strange. It turns out that the islands freshwater wells are all dried up and full of salt water. So, although wet and cool, the salty shower left me feeling a little strange.
Caye Caulker has a great vibe. Its slow pace and rustling palm trees, sandy streets and very few cars leave you completely relaxed. While there are loads of restaurants selling Lobster, Conch, Grouper and should be ashamed of themselves, there are plenty of coconuts, fruit and vegetables to keep everyone happy.
My sole reason for visiting the island was to dive the Blue Hole. A large underwater sink hole 1,000 feet across and 400 feet deep. This site was made famous by Jaques Cousteau who declared it one of the top ten SCUBA diving sites in the world.
So, i set off to find a dive shop to take me there. I visited a rundown old shop called Frenchies, then found one called Big Fish. They had decent equipment, fast boats and gave the impression that they knew what they were doing. They did tell me that they dont bother doing much theory in their courses because ´people just want to dive, they get bored when they do theory´ mmm sure.
I handed over 190 US dollars for the 3 dive trip and headed to the beach at the northern end of the island to sample the local ale and watch the sunset.
I woke at 5am the next day and headed to Big Fish to get ready to dive the Blue Hole.
They provided a breakfast, of bread and coffee... i skipped the coffee and stuffed down some bread and at 6:20am, I was on my way, speeding 60 miles out to sea with 2Xyamaha 200 HP engines, it shouldnt take too long. 2 hours later we arrived at the Hole.
At least, our DM told us we were at the blue hole. We wouldnt have had any idea, apart from the water being a little darker than the rest, it didnt look like anything at all from sea level.
A backroll entry was the technique used here and 11 of us dropped down to a sandy bottom at 6m. There were some enourmous groupers waiting down there. Huge things. The whole reef is a marine park which prohibits catching any fish.
We followed the sandy bottom along for 10m, where it dropped off to a sheer cliff. Beyond vertical, i dropped down to 42 metres in 2 minutes, having to power inflate my BCD to prevent dropping down any further. At around 35 meters, the vertical face turns into an overhang, where stalactites hang from the roof. Some meet up and form huge columns. It was an eeerie sensation swimming at 42m under the ledge with the formations and more importatly, 7 reef sharks closely keping an ey on our whereabouts.
I spent 6 minutes at the bottom, just short enough to avoid spending the next 5 days in a deco chamber and came up slowly. The sharks continued to follow closely as I ascended and were still right there at 5 m while i did a safety stop.
It was truly an amazing dive and after an hour surface interval, we had a second dive at a site called half moon cay. A sandy bottom with 7 stingrays and 2 spotted eagle rays.
Then lunch on an island and finally a second dive at Long Cay Aquarium where we saw 2 turtles.
ming soon....
