Need Help Selecting 8 Dive Sites Near Ambergris Caye (Map Attached)

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TexasScubaDiver

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Austin, Tx
Hello, I am planning 8 dives in Belize in a few weeks. Could anybody provide feedback on the best "must see" dive sites? I need to pare the list down to just 8 from over 40! Also I need to know what the typical dive depths are in the area since we must order Nitrox mixes in advance of our trip. I searched around the forum but didn't find what I needed.

Many thanks in advance for your help!

Here's a map with dive site names to help you dust off the ol' memory bank:
AmbergrisCayeBelizeDiveSites.gif
 
Who are you diving with that you have to choose sites and Nitrox before you leave. Odd. There is only one Nitrox provider there last I heard, but they are very accomodating. The name escapes me at the moment, but he would respond to this thread soon.

If you're doing all Nitrox, say on a package, order 1-28%, 1-32%, 1-36% each day and decide which to use first when the site is actually selected - which often depends on conditions.
 
Yes Don, there are now two operators providing nitrox, and only one offering anything other than 32% (ourselves). In any case, unless you're really trying to optimise your nitrogen uptake you'll use 32% or 36% for all local dives. Assuming you're an average recreational diver, you can use 36% for almost all your dives as it's usable down to about 95' on a ppO2 of 1.4. In reality, 32% is fine to reduce your nitrogen uptake enough to give you pretty extended no-deco bottom times. We produce 28%, 32% and 36% by continuous blending and have them available all the time; other blends can be produced to special order but unless you're into technical diving you won't regard them as economic. If you're not a strictly recreational diver then I assume you'll be coming to us anyway.

If you want to dive the Blue Hole you can use 28%, although one of the main boat operators going there doesn't allow any nitrox on that dive. Again, in reality air is fine for this dive if you use nitrox for the two following dives. If you use air for all three you can run into bottom time limitations.

So don't trouble yourself too much about nitrox mixes. As to dive sites, they're all similar in that they're all on the same barrier reef, but they vary considerably in detail. One of those details is what interest there is at different depths, another is how water clarity and surge vary across sites. Only a good local divemaster will be able to say which of several sites will be best to dive on any particular day. In any case, unless you have your own chartered boat and private DM (possible, and some people do it, but expensive) you'll have to defer to the majority view when it comes to deciding which dive site a particular dive will be at. If several people have already dived what may be the best site for that day and don't want to go again, you won't go there.

Operators do differ in how they schedule dives. Some plan the dives up front and tell you where you'll be going, others do it by a democratic process on the boat just before departure. Some divers prefer the prescriptive approach, others prefer to have input to the process. Choose your operator accordingly.

Last thoughts. You can buy nitrox from other operators who buy it from one of the two producers. If you use one of those operators, make sure they have an analyser you can use (unless you have your own). I can tell you that having had two analysers destroyed in as many months by people getting them wet (in one case, actually dropping it in the sea), we NO LONGER lend analysers to other operators. Use our analyser at our premises or not at all.

The other thing is - where are you staying, and do you have a dive operator already arranged? That will largely determine the range of sites you're likely to dive. Fuel here is so expensive the boat won't repeatedly go to distant sites unless occupancy makes it economic. Translated, that means that if you like small groups you won't be doing many distant dives unless you're prepared to pay for them.
 
Protech Belize - TY Peter, couldn't think of your Ops name. Thot you'd see this and post, tho. Appreciate it...! :thumb:
 
Thanks Peter and Don. I was asking about dive sites in advance because I want to be able to make the best choices when the DM presents potential diving options each day. On the Nitrox, the operator just needs to know 1 day in advance so they can get the tanks.

Been working on my list of locations to ask about. So far I have....
*Victoria Tunnels/Canyons
*M&M Caverns
*Mexico Rocks
*Cypress Canyons
*Tres Cocos Canyons/Cut
*Hol Chan (on the last day since we could do shallow dives before flying out the next day)
*Maybe a wreck? Need to find a good one.
*Bacalar Marine Reserve (may be too far from San Pedro)
 
Victoria, Cypress, and Tres Cocos were pretty decent when we were there. Tackle Box Canyon was also a good site. Hol Chan is a snorkel, max 15', not even worth getting into gear for. We spent about an hour there on snorkels and were just fine without tanks. There's one wreck off of Ambergris. I can't remember the name of it but it's not a "good one" in the traditional sense of wrecks. It's a small wreck, maybe 50' long buried in the sand. No real penetration possible. The only other wreck I remember in Belize could be seen above the water.
 
8 dives? Is that 2 hard days of 4 each, or 4 light days of 2 each? 3 dive days are the norm there, I think. And there are a couple of atoll trips that are really good, too.
 
I assume it's 4 days of 2 dives per day?

Hol Chan is a dive site about 30' deep as well as a snorkel site - most night dives are done there. Amigo's wreck is a little south of Hol Chan and is a small (maybe 30' long) flat-pack barge at 70'. That's it for wrecks at recreational depths. All the dive sites that have been mentioned are good, or can be in the right conditions, but there are lots of others. If TSD is diving with who I think he's diving with there's little point in his researching dive sites as he won't have a lot of choice. In any case, as I said above they are really quite similar given comparable conditions. My favourites are Pillar Corals and Eagle Ray Canyons, in the Hol Chan Marine Park but outside the reef in deeper water - the only places I've seen hammerheads, a tiger, mako, silke and bulls on the same dive. Not that I wanted to - it was dusk, I had 40 minutes of deco, and it was about the time they start feeding. But I'm still here.

As to nitrox, 32% followed by 36% will do nicely for the local dives. Air, 32% and 36% is your best bet for a Blue Hole day, and 32%, 32%, 36% for a Turneffe (the Elbow) day. Will they have an analyser or do you have your own? 36% has to come from me and I'm not lending my analyser out.
 
We only did 2 dives a day there, with 3 when we headed out to Lighthouse. As much as I like to dive, it was nice to sit on the beach drinking rum punch and belikins in the afternoon. :D

Peter, when we dove Hol Chan on the night dive, our max depth was 15', but that could just be where the DM lead us...

And yes, Eagle Ray Canyons was an excellent site. I didn't see it on the map posted by the OP, so I didn't mention it. But it was probably my favorite off of San Pedro. I even have some photos in my gallery that I took of the Eagle Rays we saw.
 
If he's a solo traveler, he'll go where the boat goes for sure.
...the only places I've seen hammerheads, a tiger, mako, silke and bulls on the same dive. Not that I wanted to - it was dusk, I had 40 minutes of deco, and it was about the time they start feeding. But I'm still here.
:11: And you've since planned your dive times better...? :D

40 minute hang at dusk with a shark swarm. :shakehead
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/peregrine/

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