Diving the blue hole!

Yesterday was amazing!  I went scuba

diving at the big blue hole off the coast of Belize. Here's an aerial shot of the hole that I stole from the internet. The trip was actually an all day, three dive trip. We left the dock around 5:45 AM and had a two hour boat ride to the hole. On the way there, a pod of dolphins decided to try and race the boat for a short time. It was so cool! I've always seen that on movies and wanted to experience it. This was my first time. There must've been around twenty of them on the side of the boat. We were going pretty fast so after a few minutes they stopped racing and let us be on our way. Once at the hole, we were briefed on the dive site then geared up. After we were in the water, we did a quick safety check then started our descent. We went down to 150 feet, which is fairly deep for a regular dive. At that depth, we were right next to some giant stalactites on the side of the hole. They were huge! At least thirty feet tall and three to five feet wide. Huge columns. The entire dive was about forty minutes long but we were only able to play at that depth for about ten minutes due to descent and ascent times. On the way back up to the surface we had four reef sharks circling us. They weren't that big but..... big enough. They were all bigger than me, anyway. I think that some dive companies bait them in for an added feature to the tour. So, when they see divers they know there might be easy food available. One of the bigger ones passed within ten feet of me. Pretty cool and a little scary. Now I can cross diving with sharks off of my list! The second dive was a multi level drift dive. We drifted at about fifty feet four about twenty minutes then up to twenty five feet for another twenty minutes. Right off the bat we say a turtle hanging out on the side of the cliff we were drifting along. Right after that we passed two leopard rays going the opposite way. About fifteen minutes in we had a barracuda that decided to join our group. He was interested in the camera that one of the other divers was carrying. More than once he passed by me close enough for me to touch him. I thought about it but then I'd take a look at those sharp teeth. No thanks! We ended the dive ascending out of an area of conch beds. I didn't notice them at first. I wasn't looking at the big picture. I just noticed one. Then a couple more. Then I started looking around and realized there were hundreds, if not thousands of conchs everywhere! After the second dive we had a lunch of curried chicken, rice and beans. Typical meal in that area. And...... Goooooood! Then we stopped at an island where the Audubon Society has set up a bird preserve and viewing platform. We were able to view Frigate Birds and Red Footed Booby's. The Frigates are in mating season so the males are puffing up the red air pocket they use to attract females. Also, we had a young Booby take a liking to one of the girls in our group. He landed and sat on her head for a good five minutes!

Our last dive was another drift dive similar to the second dive. There wasn't much excitement(other than being 50 feet underwater) for most of the dive so I concentrated on the little things. Details in the different chorals and fish. Stuff like that. We did come across two lobsters hanging out. Pretty cool to see them in their natural habitat. They look even better on my plate! And.... near the end of the dive, we spotted an octopus! That's a rare treat! He wasn't even hiding. Just hanging out in the open. Changed color a few times to blend in with the background and let us take a pretty close look at him. After that dive it was a long two hour ride back to Caye Caulker. I slept really good last night! Today was a travel day. We took the ferry from Caulker to Belize city then the local cheap bus to the other side of the country. Four dollars for a four hour bus ride to the other side of the country! That's cheap travel. We are now in San Ignacio and ready to do a cave tour tomorrow morning. Night, all. Ciao!