Suz wasn't able to go as she works for Hallsville schools...for a few more months. She retires in July!!
We landed in Belize City and were greeted with 80 degree plus temperatures and clear sunny skies. Our adventure really began as we were transported by bus across town to a small gravel airstrip for our flight to Blackbird Caye Resort on Turneffe Atoll, 25 miles off the coast of Belize. http://www.blackbirdresort.com/index.html Turneffe Atoll is about 30 miles long and 10 miles wide, and is composed of a group of cayes, lagoons, and lush sea grass beds, all surrounded and protected by a living coral reef “ring.”
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| Our plane wanting to take us to paradise |
Blackbird Caye Resort was protected by a reef about 400 yards from the beach. There were strong easterly winds with 8-10 ft seas outside the reef most days. The bay inside the reef was amazingly calm.
Our typical dive day consisted of an early breakfast choices of eggs, sausage or bacon, cereal, toast, muffins, fruit and of course lots of coffee. Our group was split into two groups on two dive boats with the boats scheduled to leave dock at 8:00 for the first dive. Most days we were within 10 minutes of the dive site so we returned to dock between our two morning dives and for lunch before our afternoon dive. Evenings were spent sharing pictures and stories over a cold beer or glass of wine.
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| Sunrise at Blackbird Caye |
A highlight of the adventure was the Tuesday trip to the Blue Hole and Half Moon Caye Natural Monument. They lie near the center of Lighthouse Reef, a small atoll 20 west of the resort and about 45 miles from the mainland.
The Great Blue Hole is a large sinkhole off the coast of Belize. The hole is circular in shape, almost 1000 ft across and more than 400 ft deep. It was made famous by Jacques-Yves Cousteau, who declared it one of the top ten scuba diving sites in the world. It was nice to say I’ve dove the Blue Hole, but I was disappointed in the quality of the dive. As I am a relatively new diver, I did not dive to 130 ft to see the stalactites. I choose to explore the reef and found the water cloudy and colder than other sites. There were not as many tropical fish on the reef.
However, Half Moon Caye Wall and the Aquarium dive sites near the national monument were the best on the trip. Schools of tropical fish swam around us as we explored the huge corals lying on a white sand bottom by the wall that dropped to a depth of 6,000 ft. Two large eagle rays swam with us for much of our dive.
One of Half Moon Caye's principal inhabitants is the Red-footed Booby with a population around 4,000 breeding birds. Half Moon Caye supports what is considered the only viable breeding Red-footed Booby colony in the western Caribbean. A BBQ lunch and time to explore mixed nicely with the diving.
Thursday found us on the western side of Turneffe Atoll searching for more protected dive sites. We were greeted by a pod of dolphins and great diving. A highlight of the day was diving with a large green moray eel about 5 ft long. It swam below us as we explored rocks and coral above a sandy bottom. When our dive master speared a lionfish, the eel slithered up the rocks and coral to feed on it.
Overall, it was a great trip. The food was great with a different menu each evening. The kitchen staff worked hard to meet our every need. This was the first time I have had staff ask if the lunch and dinner proportion was enough food. The rooms were clean and well maintained.
Our divemaster Cardinal was patient and worked to assure we had a safe and enjoyable adventure. I liked the pace of the dive...NICE AND SLOW. We had time to look and explore the nooks and crannies in the reefs. This allowed us to find little cleaner shrimp and several frog fish.
I would highly recommend Blackbird Caye Resort for a dive adventure. It was a trip to remember.
