22 Jan - Hol Chan Snorkel

22 Jan - Hol Chan Snorkel

There is a very interesting nice American couple (happy to have more Americans here!), Michael and April, and they were asking about a snorkel trip.    i suggested Madi's brother, Wilbur's Snorkel trip to Hol Chan with a stop for lunch in San Pedro on Ambergris Caye.   this is a good way for people to experience San Pedro, and see if they like it and might want to stay there a few days.    Wilbur needs 4 people to make the trip, so they talked with Annejer, also staying here,  and she invited another friend, Stef ... so the trip was on.   Wilbur asked me if i wanted to go ... time for another day off ... i said 'yes!'    so, this morning as we were getting ready, Karin, who is also staying here decided to join us too.    we had a party :)

around 9:30 we took off ... it was a good day, a little windy and choppy, but we stay inside the Reef, so it wasn't bad.    Our first stop was within the Marine Park, and is called Shark Ray Alley; because of the abundance of Nurse Sharks and Stingrays that you can see here ....   and we saw them  :)

there were some very large Nurse Sharks ..... 6+ feet  !

and large Stingrays as well ... this guy reminded me of Darth Vadar  :)

after hanging out there awhile, Wilbur took us on a short snorkel tour to an area with lots of coral ....
a HUGE stand of healthy Elk Horn Coral ...

you can see why they named it 'Elk Horn' coral.

some pretty Sea Fans in a faint purple ...

and some Blue Tangs, with that distinctive yellow spot at the base of their tail ...

...

we got back in the boat and traveled a short distance to a secret place, which isn't so secret anymore ... where the fishermen clean their fish and conch;   they've been coming here for years, and the bottom of the sea is totally covered with empty conch shells, which is kinda strange... a conch shell 'graveyard'  ....  but the fish know that this is the place to find some easy food as the fishermen clean their catch, so they congregate here.   usually there is a very large old LoggerHead Turtle here that is blind in one eye .. but he was not here today  :(

but there were plenty of other interesting fishes.    in this photo there are:  Blue Tang, TrunkFish, BlueHead Wrasse, Rainbow Wrasse, Grunts, Porcupine Fish, and a Stingray

this is one of my favorite fishes ... the Porcupine Fish ... it has 'human-like' eyes, and a sweet smile ... this is a large one ... they can inflate themselves up to ward off predators

...

a Rainbow Wrasse, and you can see how many empty shells there are on the bottom

...

a BlueHead Wrasse...

a Smooth TrunkFish...

then we headed to Hol Chan ... Hol Chan means 'Little Channel' ... and this is the channel that cuts through the Reef, out to the open water.

in the shallow grass, not far from the boat, we saw our first turtle, he was busy eating, ignoring us, ...but eventually had to surface for air, then went back down and started eating the grass again

...

Wilbur started guiding us through the Channel ... we saw lots of fish ...

a Dog Tooth Snapper, identified by that long triangle on it's cheek, under it's eye, and named because he has sharp canine teeth like a dog...

HogFish, in it's white phase ... it changes color as it passes from grass to sand to rocks ....

not much color here, but this was a beautiful interesting-looking large healthy coral ...

...

before i got back in the boat, i saw this smaller Green Turtle in the grass .. :)

...

...

and for your 'educational segment' of the day, i'll talk about Sargassum Seaweed ... it is a brown algae ... and it gets its name from Portuguese sailors who saw the small gas-filled bladders that keeps the plant floating, and it reminded them of variety of grape called Salgazo; ... and then it changed from there to eventually being called Sargassum..... somehow ...  :)

also, it comes from the Sargasso Sea, ... this "sea" is a two-million-square-mile chunk of the Atlantic Ocean stretching from the West Indies to the Azores (off the coast of Portugal)   ...once a piece breaks off, it doesn't just die; it can float on indefinitely, reproducing over and over again, .. so as pieces break off, ...winds, storms, and currents disperse it through the world's oceans.

some people say that Sargassum might just be the world's largest and dynamic organism ; ...and a very important one ... it seems to attract and hold just about every species of big-game fish, and plays an important role in the life cycles of hundreds if not thousands of marine animals ... including baby turtles  :)       .... there is no other habitat like it in the open ocean, .... because it provides young fish shelter from predators, and it consequently harbors a constant supply of small prey to feed upon.

..... and back here in Belize this year, it is incredible,  .... i've never seen it like this before.  ...we went through literally 'islands' of it on our way out to the Blue Hole ... and had to stop the boat and clear the props on the motor several times ... it is floating everywhere, and also coming to shore .. which makes a huge mess ... it is very heavy and difficult to rake from the shore .... another project i could add to my list .. and i wonder what i might find in there ... a baby turtle maybe?

this is a photo of it from under the water ... you can see how thick it is ... and ....when it gets in your hair ... it's horrible to try to get out  ... so i discovered  !

a turtle swimming through it, as it returns to feeding after surfacing for air

here is a close up of a piece of Sargassum ... you can see the little gas-filled bladders that do look like small grapes ... or peas, .... or blueberries  :)
... i was trying to take a photo of the Spotted Eagle Ray in the background, and it floated in front of my lens ...it's really a pretty little plant ...

so ... there you go... you can impress your friends with your knowledge about Sargassum  :)

back in the boat we headed for San Pedro for lunch ... we ate at Elvi's and i had soft shell tacos, with chipolte marinated shrimp, marinated red cabbage, served with guacamole and a cilantro dressing ... they were VERY good ... i'm always so happy when i make the right 'menu decision' ... it can go so wrong; ... but this time i was lucky :)

here is our group .... Wilbur in the bottom right corner

we then had some time to walk around the town ... it's just too busy and loud for me ... i much prefer Caye Caulker .. and that seemed to be the concensus of the rest of the group too :)

back at the boat at 2:30 and off again to snorkel Coral Gardens ...

i saw this Gray AngelFish that looked rather skeptical at me...

an inquisitive little Damsel Fish among the StagHorn Coral ...

and some pretty coral scenes ...   it is called "Coral Gardens"    :)

then we headed home ..... another perfect day   :)
i am so fortunate  !

17 Jan - The Blue Hole--Part 2

17 Jan - The Blue Hole--Part 2

after the second dive, we went to this beautiful little piece of paradise called Half Moon Caye

the minute i saw it, i knew i wanted to spend some time here

we had a lunch of great tasting chicken, rice and beans (of course), macaroni salad, and fruits.   it is a beautiful little island surrounded by shallow clear turquoise waters with 'patch reefs' and reminded me of my time at Glovers.   i loved it there ... i want to return and stay a few days!

after lunch we walked around a bit and through a palm covered path and saw very large Hermit Crabs, this one eating what was left of a coconut

and Iguanas basking in the filtered sunlight

up a hill to see the Red Footed Boobie colony.   I had thought that the only Red Footed Boobie colony was at the one i saw in the Galapagos; but i was wrong.   they are here too !    ...sitting on their eggs ...

the Frigit Birds are also mating and nesting here (also saw this in the Galapagos). 

although in the Galapagos you were able to walk right up to them; here, we were up on a platform looking at them in the tops of trees ...

after lunch we got back in the boat, and i said goodbye for now to my little island paradise ...

we did our 3rd dive at The Aquarium, which as you might imagine, had lots of fish ...

Gray AngelFish

Spanish HogFish 

YellowTail Snapper

i was excited to see a SCHOOL of Ocean TriggerFish.   i love these fishes, and the way that their top and bottom fins move in opposite directions when they swim

they are quite large and i've only ever seen one of them at a time.   i was amazed to see so many of them!

we also saw a Green Moray Eel swimming freely about the corals, and a Spotted Eagle Ray; neither of which i could get a good photo of  :(


the seas had calmed down quite a bit on the way home, so it was a really smooth ride... we had some rum punch and napped along the way ... returning home to a perfect day  :)

17 Jan - The Blue Hole--Part 1

17 Jan - The Great Blue Hole

This was a big day ... i'm going to dive The Blue Hole ... !
up at 5:30am and ready to catch the boat and, i was happy to see the early morning SunRise... because it poured hard all night long  ...

Some of you may have heard of The Great Blue Hole, or as it is usually called,  "The Blue Hole".   It is the WORLD's largest natural formation of its kind, and is a World Heritage Site of (UNESCO).   The Blue Hole is a sink hole, circular in shape, almost 1,000 ft across and 400 ft  deep.    It doesn't look any different from any other body of water from the surface ... but from the air ... this is what you see ...  (obviously these photos are from the internet, not me)

pretty awesome, huh?  
it's a very popular Dive Site ... people come from literally all over the world to dive it ... even from Australia !

The Blue Hole is located inside Lighthouse Reef Atoll about 60 miles off the coast of Belize.    The Atoll is 25 miles long and 10-12 miles wide, and encloses a beautiful blue water lagoon, 8-12 ft ... right in the middle of the 'deep blue'

There are 3 Atolls off the coast of Belize:   Lighthouse, Turneffe, and Glovers.

My very first Winter Adventure in 2010 took place at Glovers Atoll.   Most Atolls are formed by a sinking volcano, which leaves a ring of coral around the edges, with a shallow-water-hole in the middle.   the 3 Atolls of Belize are completely different from other Atolls in the rest of the Western Hemisphere; they are unusual in their origin.

These Atolls are a ring of coral that originally grew completely around the shoreline of an island, and which continued to grow upward on top of itself as the island subsided or eroded away.   The coral ring-reef of today outlines the shoreline of an ancient island that once existed at this location.

Many drop-offs surrounding the Atolls are thousands of feet deep, while depths in the shallow lagoons average 10-30 feet.

ok, enough of that .... back to The Blue Hole ...
many millions of years ago, it was once a cave with underground tunnels, whose ceiling collapsed as a result of a massive earthquake, then at the end of the Great Ice Age the glaciers melted and sea levels rose, filling the hole with water, 400' deep.

my trip:
the boat arrived from San Pedro with some divers and snorkelers already on it; they had fruit, juice, cinnamon bread and cheese for us to snack on during the 2hr journey.   we quickly passed over the reef and into the open water, which today was pretty rough because of the storm last night... but our 'able' Boat Captain, Darrel, was experienced and well-qualified to handle the waves

during the trip over open water Darrel pointed out a pod of jumping dolphins  :)
...i have a video but after 2 days of trying to upload it here, i'm giving up :(

then we entered Turneffe Reef, and it was beautiful turquoise and calm

then we were back out in the open water for awhile until we reached Lighthouse Reef ...

beautiful turquoise waters again, and we were 'inside' the circular Blue Hole ... although it didn't look any different than any other body of water  :(

140 ft is deep ... the deepest i'd been before is around 100 ft ... i wasn't concerned about it until the Dive Master gave us our briefing .. then i got a bit concerned about going that deep.   i asked if i had to go to 140, he said there would be a Dive Master at the end and i could stop anywhere along the way.    at 110 ft down is where the stalactites and the overhang starts; i could stop there if i didn't feel comfortable going under the overhang.   he explained because it is so deep, it is quite dark and there are few fish or coral, but we might possibly see a shark.

so we all got in the water, did an extra bouyancy check, gave the 'ok' sign, and we started descending.   we went slow, along side the sheer wall, so as to not disorient ourselves;

 

but it was amazing how quickly we were down to the ledge at 110',

 

it and it felt like any other dive, so i continued under the overhang :)

 

and floated along side of the stalactites

 

it was kinda 'eerie' ... and pretty amazing to think that this was once a massive cave formation high and dry above the surface of the sea, eons ago.

 

we did see a few Reef Sharks, but they were way deeper than we were !   ...

when breathing nitrogen at such depth, some people get what they call nitrogen narcosis, or 'narked' ... a little euphoric-tipsy-drunk ... i felt really relaxed ...

because of the depth, guidelines allow you to stay only 12 minutes from the time the first person arrived at the 130' mark, we would stay 10 minutes to be on the safe side ... so the dive doesn't last long, ...

before you know it, you are going back up along side the 'wall', which is not much more than algae .. i did see this SquirrelFish along the way ...

we did our decompression stop for 10min at 20ft because of the depth; this is usually done for 3min at 15ft  ... and we all returned to the boat safely  :)

back in the boat, we headed to our next dive; a shallower dive around 60' where there were lots of barrel sponges and coral ...

and we got a little closer look at a Reef Shark ...

and we did a 'swim through' ....

after this dive, we went to an island, called Half Moon Caye where we had a great lunch of chicken, rice and beans (of course), macaroni salad, and fruits.

more on the rest of the day in Part 2 ....