The Great Blue Hole - Belize

[islandwoman]

My buddy and I would like to go to Belize specifically to dive the Great Blue Hole. Right now, airfare is so expensive that we can book a 7 day cruise with a port call in Belize for less (Carnival Glory). The problem is that Carnival doesn't offer an excursion to the blue hole and the Glory is only in port from 8AM until 5PM. Can anyone tell me how to arrange a dive trip to the blue hole? We'd prefer to take a seaplane because the trip by boat is long and probably rough.

 

[TrqoisWtrs]

We did a land trip to Belize a while back and stayed on Ambergris Caye. We did visit the Blue Hole and it was a long ride, around 2 hours each way, and very bumpy once you get out on the open ocean. Personally - been there, done that. Not worth a second trip IMO.

 

If I understand your message, you want to take a seaplane out to the Blue Hole? I have never heard of that option. Don't think it is possible - and I'm not up on my dive facts, but I thought even flying in those little planes was discouraged when diving. So don't think you can do that dive from a cruise ship.

 

We used Amigos Del Mar for the dive. You could contact them and ask if there's any possible way. (Their website amigosdive.com seems to be down at the moment).

[scubaran]

My buddy and I would like to go to Belize specifically to dive the Great Blue Hole. Right now, airfare is so expensive that we can book a 7 day cruise with a port call in Belize for less (Carnival Glory). The problem is that Carnival doesn't offer an excursion to the blue hole and the Glory is only in port from 8AM until 5PM. Can anyone tell me how to arrange a dive trip to the blue hole? We'd prefer to take a seaplane because the trip by boat is long and probably rough.

 

I did the Blue Hole as part of a 7-day live aboard on the Belize Aggressor and can say the BH is far away from Belize City. Also the reefs surrounding it are very shallow (the Captain had to steer from the flying bridge and warned us the night before that if the day was cloudy that we wouldn't do it because of the narrow navigable lane to get to it) so I doubt a sea plane could get in there. Have you thought about a live-aboard? There's two of them in Belize and the pricing was less than my last cruise (but my wife also insists on balcony rooms).

 

Randall

[islandwoman]

When I was in Belize several years ago, there were seaplane dive excursions to the Blue Hole. Since I've heard from several people today that there are none, I guess they've been discontinued.

Thanks everybody for bringing me up to date.

Too bad :( A cruise embarking close to my home with a dive to the Great Blue Hole would have been ideal.

[gmcrow]

Don't worry so much about Blue Hole. The reefs at Tunereffe (which is where you would dive from a cruise) are a long boat ride away, but worth every minute IMHO.

[islandwoman]

The reefs at Tunereffe (which is where you would dive from a cruise) are a long boat ride away, but worth every minute IMHO.

Been there, done that. And I agree with you. :)

 

Don't worry so much about Blue Hole.

OK.

[scubaran]

Don't worry so much about Blue Hole.

 

Hi Islandwoman,

 

If you're really interested in what the dive is like in the Blue Hole, I took what I call a "crappy video" as we descended down to 130' in it. The video is on my underwater website at, http://www.randallgamby.com/video-index1.html. The hole itself is a pretty featureless wall. You start on the lip (25') and free descend to 130' where there are giant stalagtites (the blue hole was once a dome cave that collapsed in). If you watch the video closely you'll see me pan down one during the descent and at the end where the diver's stopped and our dive master took out picture (mine's attached below). I apologize for the quality but I took the video with my underwater camera (not a video camera) and it WAS 130'. :D BTW, you only got 8 minutes at the bottom then we took 45 minutes to slowly rise and decompress ending in going over the lip and "crawling" along the sand bottom until we got to the liveaboard in about 15'. No DCS in our group (plus we all were from the same dive club and all had good air management as we did 80 tanks for over an hour).

 

One other thing to consider, even with seaplane service, because this is SUCH a deep dive, you really shouldn't "fly" at all for at least 24 hours after diving it. I wonder if people were experiencing DCS from the seaplane ride back?

 

Randall

 

[islandwoman]

scubaran, I enjoyed watching your videos of the Great Blue Hole and the elevator shaft. Thank you! I must say that I'm not encouraged to dive the Great Blue Hole.

[scubaran]

I must say that I'm not encouraged to dive the Great Blue Hole.

 

Ha, you know I've heard the great blue hole referred to as the "most boring must-do dive in the world". It looks cool from the air but there really isn't that much there. We wanted to do it on the liveaboard just to cross it off the bucket list but we found diving the reefs of Belize the best. I remember the night dives in Belize as my most favorite dives I've ever done. Seeing 5ft. basket stars waving in the dark is just fantastic! :)

 

Randall