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Aerial image of the Great Blue Hole
Signature Dives
Great Blue Hole
We transferred to San Pedro in the north of Belize for the remainder of our trip, though the Blue Hole is a venture from wherever you may be staying. Our hosts from the Belize Pro Dive Centre picked us up early for the 2-3-hour boat ride to Lighthouse Reef Atoll. This site is only accessible in calmer weather.
Diving the Blue Hole requires good buoyancy as you descend into the 120m-deep sinkhole, so is not suitable for less experienced divers. The main feature of the dive is at around 40m where we swam among stalactites and stalagmites, remnants of ancient caves. While marine life is minimal here, the sense of mystery and awe is unparalleled.
Lunch at Calabash Caye was a delicious beach BBQ, combined with a talk and tour of Turneffe Atoll Marine Reserve. The Calabash Nature Trail offers an educational trip through the mangroves to a bouncy suspension bridge and viewing tower. Be sure to take your insect repellent!
The Wit
The Witconcrete is a Second World War concrete ship that was purposefully sunk in 2021 by the Turneffe Atoll Sustainability
Association to be an artificial reef and diving attraction. The wreckies among you will be pleased to know there is an abundance of swim-throughs, winches, ladders and at around 20m depth, you have plenty of time to explore the 114m-long hulk.
Since some of the explosives didn’ t detonate during the sinking, the ship lies on her starboard side. While there isn’ t much coral growth on the wreck yet, there’ s no lack of life. You can even help monitor the coral growth by taking photos at the permanently fixed monitoring stations and submitting them on the Visit Turneffe website or App.
Winch on the Wit Homeless remora
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