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If you’ve never heard of the Blue Hole before, you are in for a treat. The Blue Hole is iconic and one of the biggest reasons to come visit Belize.
First of all, what is it? The Blue Hole is a giant sinkhole that formed over a hundred thousand years ago in the middle of the ocean. It lies in the middle of a small atoll called Lighthouse Reef. The hole is over 1,000 feet across and 400 feet deep. It is essentially a vertical cave, complete with stalactites and stalagmites.
Photo Credit: (C)Andrew Hounslea
Now, some of you may be thinking “who would be crazy enough to want to go dive in that?!” But the Blue Hole is a popular tourist attraction and a bucket list item to many, including myself. In fact, when I first heard of the Blue Hole many years ago, I had a huge fascination with it and told myself I would dive there one day. I honestly never thought I would get the chance to do something like that. But here I am, in this beautiful country full of amazing diving, and this cool, one-of-a-kind site!
So what does diving the Blue Hole look like? Our day consisted of three different dives, the first: the Blue Hole, the second: a wall dive at a small island, then lunch, and finally, the third dive: off an island on the way back to San Pedro.
It’s an early start to the day since the boat ride out to the Blue Hole is a long one, about 2.5 hours each way. We arrived at the dive shop at 5:30am, caught a beautiful sunrise, ate some breakfast of fresh fruit, cheese, and banana bread, checked our gear and had a briefing.
The boat ride out was a rough one as it was a little breezy that day and the waves were fairly large. Once we passed through the reef, the waves became pretty tumultuous and we were told to stay seated for our safety. It remained this way for at least an hour. A couple of people got sick and started throwing up. This boat ride is not for those who get sick easily. Luckily, I don’t get seasick and Matt took dramamine before we boarded the boat, so we were both fine.
As we arrived to Lighthouse Reef, the water became so blue, it almost looked fake. It was so beautiful. After a while longer, we finally arrived to the Blue Hole. Because this dive is a deep one, you are required to have your Advanced Open Water Diver certification to dive, but if you don’t, you can snorkel at the top along the outer edges of the hole where the reef lies.
We donned our scuba gear and entered the Blue Hole. We descended to a depth of 130 feet and swam in between the giant stalactites and viewed the large stalagmites below us.
We saw more reef sharks here than on any of our other dives in Belize so far, and that was pretty cool, but there wasn’t much other sea life down that deep.
After the Blue Hole, we drove to a small island called Half Moon Caye, which is now one of my very favorite places on Earth. This small island is only half a mile long and supports the only viable breeding for the red-footed booby colony in the western Caribbean. The crew dropped off the snorkelers and we headed to our second dive.
This second dive was a wall dive and it was incredible, in fact, I think it’s my favorite dive I’ve done yet. The visibility was amazing! The coral and ocean life are abundant, because with the island being such a far drive, the site isn’t as popular, so the sea life thrives. One of the coolest parts of our dive was seeing the giant groupers and petting them. Yes, you read that right, they like to be petted. Over the years, divemasters have been coming to this site and feeding the groupers, letting them know that divers are friendly. The first grouper we saw, our divemaster swam up to it and started petting and rubbing it like a dog. I was shocked! I had never seen anything like this before, especially with a fish!
For the remainder of the dive, multiple groupers swam alongside us, friendly and gentle. It was so cool to have an experience like that.
After our wall dive, we went to the island and had a delicious lunch right on the beach. After lunch we had a bit of time to explore the island for a bit, so we walked down to see the red-footed booby sanctuary. I had never seen a red-footed booby before, but it’s a cool looking bird with, you got it, red feet.
After getting our fill of the birds, we headed back to the boat so we could head to our third dive. Here are some pictures from this beautiful island.
The third dive was called The Aquarium, and for good reason. I have never seen so many fish and creatures all at once, in such a crystal-clear area of water. There was so much sea-life that I didn’t know where to look. The entire dive was this way, with so many beautiful creatures and coral. I would love to go back and do it again.
After our third dive, it was time for the 2.5 hour ride back to San Pedro. Luckily, the way back we traveled with the waves so it was much smoother. We enjoyed some fruit and juice and naps.
After a full 12 hours, we arrived back at home. It was an incredible day, one of the best yet. We checked off a bucket list item, found a new favorite place on Earth, pet fish, and saw more sea-life than I could have imagined. I’ll never forget this day.
Now, go get certified so you can come dive the Blue Hole and add this amazing experience to your life!!
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