Into the "Abyss"

Otherwise known as the Blue Hole, one of the most famous dive sites in Belize, was our destination for the third day of our trip. It is a perfectly circular hole in the ocean, surrounded by coral reefs, that drops some 400 feet deep. Most of the bottom is filled with silt and debris, but the dive to the Blue Hole goes down about 120 feet, and at the bottom there is a little cave filled with huge stalagtites and stalagmites. I was really excited to go on this dive, but a little nervous since the descent is quick and I have a lot of trouble clearing my ears. This was the main activity I wanted to do in Belize.

I believe a couple posts ago I mentioned that anyone who gets up at 6am on vacations is out of their mind? Well, to do the Blue Hole dive, we had to be AT THE DOCK at 5:30am... We rolled out of bed at 5am, grabbed our masks and wetsuits and walked to the dock, where they served us a sugar-tastic breakfast of white raisin bread, laughing cow cheese, orange "drink" and fruit. Then we were packed onto a motor boat to Caye Caulker, where we were jammed onto another full motor boat to the Blue Hole.

Close to the coastline of Belize there are no waves at all; the barrier reef forms a natural breaker. But as soon as we crossed over the reef, the ride got REALLY rough - we were boating against the wind, so crashing over large ocean waves. I had to move to the back of the boat to get a smoother ride. This was a LONG boat ride - about an hour and a half to finally get to the Blue Hole. Thank ye lawd for motion sickness patches, or I would have been a mess...

I had no idea how big the Blue Hole is from the aerial pictures I had seen on the internet. Our boat parked inside the Blue Hole, and I could barely see the far edge of it! We all set up our SCUBA equipment, then stepped over the side of the boat. Immediately everyone started descending around me, and immediately I had trouble with equalizing my ears only about 10 feet down. It took me so long to clear my ears that everyone had disappeared into the abyss - all I could see was everyone's air bubbles floating up. Then suddenly my ears started clearing normally, so I descended to the depth and met everyone else. I was excited that I would get to go down and see the underwater rock formations. I floated over the deep hole; this was the first dive I have ever been on that I couldn't see the bottom of the ocean... Then the whole group started to ASCEND! I had missed the entire thing - they had already gone down into the cave and back up! I was really upset that I had come all this way to miss the one thing I had really wanted to see. Once we got to the surface, Gavin tried to make me feel better by telling me it "wasn't that great," but he also told me that he got nitrogen narcosis while he was down there (getting loopy/drunk from all the nitrogen in your bloodstream due to deep diving), so I can't trust his opinion. :)

After Blue Hole, we went to another dive site called Half Moon Caye. The dive master encouraged me to get in the water and start descending as soon as I hit the water since it takes me so long to equalize. So I walked into the water, and for the first time in any dive I have ever done, my ears equalized quickly and easily! Maybe I am finally over my ear trouble!! I even beat Gavin down; he was looking for me around the surface since he expected me to be having my usual trouble. :) This dive was really beautiful - it was a wall dive, so we swam along the side of a huge wall of coral of every color, shape and size. Our dive master pointed out a spotted eagle ray: a huge stingray with leopard-like spots. Seeing it swim gracefully by surrounded by nothing but the abyss of the ocean, I got this incredible feeling of peace. There is nothing more peaceful and calming than being in an underwater oceanscape, swaddled by a cocoon of water pressure, surrounded by some of the most beautiful and incredible living things in existence. We also got to float along side a sea turtle eating from the coral wall. Then our dive master decided to take us all through a hole/passage through the coral wall. I was one of the last people to go through - and the person before me kicked up a storm - completely clouding the water, so I couldn't see which way to go. I got a bit freaked out and saw a hole directly upwards through the coral, and decided I would just go through that. But as a beginner diver, I tend to forget I have a big tank attached to my back. I got briefly stuck in the hole (another bit of a scare for me...) - it was barely big enough for me, but I managed to wiggle out, and luckily none of the coral there was the stinging type. :) I saw everyone else lower down on the other side of the wall looking and waiting for me. The rest of the dive was beautiful and uneventful. :)

After the Half Moon dive, we docked the boat on Half Moon Caye - a small and GORGEOUS island for which the dive site was named. We ate lunch at one of the many picnic tables interspersed between hundreds of palm trees. The caye is also home to a rare bird called the red footed booby. We could hike about 15 minutes to see a huge colony of the birds. (of course Gavin made a bunch of comments the whole way down that he was really excited to see all the boobies...) At the end of the path, we climbed up onto a platform that was above the jungle canopy, and the trees were FULL of the birds! Some males had a big red pouch that the poofed up for some reason - either to impress the girl boobies or to show up other males. The grown up ones were mostly black, but there were also some cute fuzzy white babies. Gavin complained that he had walked 15 minutes to see boobies, and all he got to see was a bunch of birds. :)

After our lunch break, we all got back into the boat to go to our last dive site, the Aquarium. As soon as I stepped into the water, I understood why it was called Aquarium. As soon as I landed in the water, I opened my eyes and saw I had landed right in the middle of a school of yellow and silver striped fish that had not even bothered to scatter when I landed in the middle of them! That is something I have noticed on all the dives and snorkeling we have done here - the sea life isn't bothered by humans in their space at all! This dive was more pretty coral and sea life, not that much different than the last one, but still lovely.

After the last dive, we had another long boat ride back to the Cayes. Gavin started to look pretty miserable - he had managed to catch a nasty sinus infection with a fever, so he had been popping ibuprofen like candy all day. We landed on Caye Caulker, where we switched back to our original boat. The driver had kindly made a HUGE vat of rum punch, which Gavin and I both partook. It was seriously the BEST rum punch ever - the main fruit was watermelon, and there were huge chunks of watermelon in it! We were a little nervous that the driver himself might have been drinking the rum punch as well... But we made it back to San Pedro in one piece. :)

Gavin felt okay enough to go out for dinner, so we walked to the Sunset Restaurant, where we watched a beautiful sunset over the Ambergris Caye lagoon. Poor Gavin had been such a good sport all day - dragging himself boating, diving and eating with me despite feeling absolutely miserable that I took him back to our cabana early so he could have a nice, long night of recovery time. :)