Belize: Whale Sharks & Blue Hole

[DavidWarshaw]

Wk of June 2, went to Belize... Hamanasi Resort in Hopkins Village. Top-side accommodations are lovely. Excellent food. Extremely friendly/helpful staff. Small plane from Belize City to Dangriga, 45 min from resort, better than 4 hr drive! Nightlife... well, you came for the beach and the diving, after all. Thursday evening Karioke in a local dirt-floor bar is about it.
On-site dive operation is good. They do all the gear humping for you. Open outboard motor driven boats... no nitrox! Run trips with min of 6-8 to local reef... still 30-40 minutes away... and when we were there, very rough and bouncy. We went for whale shark migration, and were not disappointed. Usually at full moon from Feb-June. Two tank whale shark dive to Gladden Spit. You dive into the blue to 50 feet... nothing around... and pretend you are spawning snapper by circling arms and using bubbles to attract whale sharks. Went two days... one dive each day got skunked. One day saw two at a distance. Second day rewarded with a 30 footer at the surface when we jumped in, and later another big guy coming at us with its mouth open (see photos in next post!). On way back, jumped in to snorkel with a pod of spotted bottle-nose dolphin for about 30 minutes. Way cool! There's an added charge for Whale Shark trip if you buy regular package. Reef dives okay... but, for example, not as good as Little Cayman or Turks. Others saw eagle rays; I did not. But nice fish life and turtles.

Did Blue Hole trip. $125 extra for long boat ride. We had head wind and 8-9 foot swells in our face going out. Took four hours of bone-crushing bounce. Blue Hole dive is 130 feet to area with stalagmites/tites cavern zone. I got narcked a bit... nothing great a depth... and only can stay 9 minutes in a very controlled dive plan... but at 50 feet coming up, lots of reef sharks and huge grouper. Trip included two other reef dives on the Blue Hole atoll, which were best of the trip. Good vis, vibrant life. With following wind and seas, got back in TWO HOURS. Everyone says to do this... dive of a life time. I don't really think so. Interesting, but long way to go. Trip did include lunch on eco-station and some bird watching.

All in all... nice trip. Not sure I'd return. More places to see!

[augustus2]

Here is a video of the whale sharks off Gladden. We were doing day trips from Placencia. Not going to mention the dive operator BAD but the diving is great IF you hit it.

YouTube - Whale Sharks of Placencia Belize