Diving to New Depths
As a recreational divers, I have enjoyed our shallow offshore reef dives, having an amazing experience viewing a large variety of sea life and coral. The shallow diving around Ambergris is spur-and-groove with some deep canyons, swim throughs and reef cuts. Night diving is also popular.
On our 2 dives today (Tuffey’s Canyon and Esmeraldo), we witnessed: 2 Ancient Loggerhead Turtles, a sleeping Nurse Shark which lay still on the sandy bottom until we swam overtop, numerous other wary Nurse Sharks slowly weaving their way through the canyons and reef, along with numerous Barracuda, Grouper, a thorny Spiny Lobster, Tarpon, Wahoo and Snappers, ending with a finale of 2 gallivanting Spotted Eagle Rays at the end of our dive — at this point I had run low on air and was sharing my instructor’s tank via his reserve regulator. Although not disappointed, I would have totally loved a playful interaction with any Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphins that had come our way. Perhaps next time? One can never predict the life one sees on our dives, regardless of the choppy water and visibility. The reefs of Belize are plentiful with coral and rich with life beyond imagination, enough to entertain and delight on many a dive.
Today the waters were particularly rough with large waves rolling us around like bobble-head dolls on the water. Trying to remain steadfast and surefooted on a pitching and swaying boat whilst trying to don our scuba gear was a hefty challenge for me. Far different from our experience out in the Lighthouse Atoll a few days ago! We were very fortunate then to have such calm conditions on the open ocean water. I found that getting back in to the boat after the dive this morning was far more sketchier than any other dives. With a large looming boat bouncing around, grasping the ladder, extracting my fins and weights, all the while teetering with a heavy tank and equipment in hand, I could describe boarding the boat as an interesting experience that I’ll chalk up to borderline seasickness. Truly, boarding the boat is just as dangerous a maneuver as the actual scuba diving skills needed for survival under water! Multiply that times 2. Adventurous dives to be sure!
Today, we said farewell to many of our friends who were making their way back to the US or Europe. I will miss them all tremendously! Such wonderful beautiful souls who graced us with their presence on the most epic vacation of our lives.
