Downing
Contributor
I waited until August to take my annual scuba trip so I could combine it with a trip to Tampa to celebrate my Mom's birthday. There are a lot of cool places in Florida, but unfortunately Tampa isn't one of them. After a week there, I took a puddle hopper to Miami and then on to Belize.
This was my fifth trip to Belize in seven years. The other two years I went to Hawaii and Cuba (shhh, don't tell anybody), and both times found myself wishing I had gone to Belize instead. For whatever reason, I just feel very much at home there and in fact hope to make it at least my part-time home in the somewhat near future.
After zipping through Customs at Goldson in the usual fraction of the time it takes to get through Customs at both Cancun and Havana, I dropped my bags off at the Maya Airlines ticket counter. I had just over an hour before my flight to Placencia, which gave me plenty of time to buy a SIM card from BTL at the office across the parking lot. Fifteen minutes later, I had my new SIM card and minutes and was good to go.
I stepped outside to make a phone call and was surprised to hear Maya Air paging me to "report immediately to the Maya Departure Counter." I glanced at my watch and still had 45 minutes until my flight was due to leave. Nevertheless, I walked back to the airport and started making my way through security. All the while Maya was paging me over and over again. Sheesh! I made my way over to the counter, and the guy said "Quickly! Come with me!" and took off running for the plane. I'm on vacation. I walked. I made the flight.
But one of my bags didn't. So after all that I still had to go back to the Placencia airport to retrieve my luggage. Next time, I'm going to tell the person at the ticket counter that I have things to do at Goldson so don't move me up.
I spent the next two weeks, except for a couple of side trips, diving with Splash Dive Center. At this point, I have to insert my usual disclaimer: over the course of diving with Splash on three separate trips for a total of seven weeks, I've become very good friends with Ralph and Patty, the owner/operators, as well as pretty much the entire staff. Ralph and Patty are great and generous people who work very hard to make Splash a success.
Last trip, I just missed the arrival of their 46-foot Newton, the Princess Taia, so I was very excited to give it a go this time. The PT is hands down the best dive boat I've ever been on. It can handle a crowd with ease. There's seating for nine passengers upstairs and well over that downstairs. I don't know the maximum number of divers, but we once had seventeen divers, including four guides, and the boat didn't feel crowded at all. Splash has a daily schedule of dives with different boats going to different sites, but I told Patty just to put me on the big boat regardless of where it went. I thought Turneffe Island Lodge's Newton was nice, but the PT is even roomier and more comfortable.
Now that they have the PT, Splash can dive sites that are further away, like Glover's Reef and even the Blue Hole/Half Moon Caye. It's about a two hour trip each way to Glovers, with lunch on board the boat. Two dives in the morning, one dive after lunch. Probably the best diving I've done in Belize short of Half Moon Caye. Tons of aquatic life, very few Lionfish, and the reefs are in fantastic shape.
A quick word about the staff: Splash has matured to the point where many of their dive instructors, guides and front-office staff came up through their Splash Kids Club, where they learned how to scuba dive for free. I can't say enough about how much fun we have together. It's all business when it comes to professionalism and safety, and all fun when it comes to everything else. As far as your gear, they will do as much or as little as you want, from setting it up, switching tanks, breaking it down and rinsing to a complete hands off for those in the "Nobody touches my gear" camp although they will check it just to make sure. I'm on vacation, so I enjoy having someone else deal with the gear, although I always check it after every set up and always put my computer cover back on when the computer's out of the water. I've seen a number of these guys grow up over the years, and it's really cool to see how well they're doing as young men and women.
Typical dive briefs: first dive 60 to 70 feet max, unless there's something interesting going on further down. Second dive 50 to 60 feet, again unless something interesting is happening. The usual hand signals. Time to go up at 500 psi. Stated dive time is typically 45 minutes but the reality is more like 50 to 55. Water was warm, always in the low to mid-80s. Visibility ranged from excellent to good to sometimes maybe only 50 feet. The typical ratio was 1 guide to every 3 or 4 divers, so the group doesn't have to stay and/or ascend together. It's nice that you can do your own thing without having to worry about air hogs or problematic divers impacting your dive. As usual, they monitor you closely on the first dive, then loosen up a bit once you show you're reasonably comfortable and competent. I used 32% nitrox my entire stay.
I mentioned a couple of side trips. Another guest and I ran an errand for Ralph and picked up some glass one day in Spanish Lookout. We had a great time driving up the Hummingbird and later checking out the scene in San Ignacio, where we were offered marijuana twice and cocaine once in the space of about 10 minutes. SI is quite the party town, I guess. But since I'd rather not spend my vacation in the Hattieville Ramada, no thank you. And I rented a car for a few days, drove up to hang with Hank and look at dirt, then down to Punta Gorda for a couple of days to look at more dirt. As much as I enjoy touring the country, it's always nice to return the keys and leave the driving to Splash.
On my last day there, Ralph and I went to Cockscomb Basin. We took a tour of a cacao plantation and a chocolate maker operation, then headed into the jaguar preserve. This was of particular interest to me, having read Dr. Alan Rabinowitz' book, Jaguar: One Man's Struggle To Establish The World's First Jaguar Preserve. We were fortunate to have as our guide Cirilo, who helped Dr. Rabinowitz track the jaguars and who now works as a tour guide for Splash. We took a short hike into the jungle and swam in a pool below a small waterfall. It was a perfect way to end another great trip to Belize.
As always, I started working out the details for next year on my flight home.
This was my fifth trip to Belize in seven years. The other two years I went to Hawaii and Cuba (shhh, don't tell anybody), and both times found myself wishing I had gone to Belize instead. For whatever reason, I just feel very much at home there and in fact hope to make it at least my part-time home in the somewhat near future.
After zipping through Customs at Goldson in the usual fraction of the time it takes to get through Customs at both Cancun and Havana, I dropped my bags off at the Maya Airlines ticket counter. I had just over an hour before my flight to Placencia, which gave me plenty of time to buy a SIM card from BTL at the office across the parking lot. Fifteen minutes later, I had my new SIM card and minutes and was good to go.
I stepped outside to make a phone call and was surprised to hear Maya Air paging me to "report immediately to the Maya Departure Counter." I glanced at my watch and still had 45 minutes until my flight was due to leave. Nevertheless, I walked back to the airport and started making my way through security. All the while Maya was paging me over and over again. Sheesh! I made my way over to the counter, and the guy said "Quickly! Come with me!" and took off running for the plane. I'm on vacation. I walked. I made the flight.
But one of my bags didn't. So after all that I still had to go back to the Placencia airport to retrieve my luggage. Next time, I'm going to tell the person at the ticket counter that I have things to do at Goldson so don't move me up.
I spent the next two weeks, except for a couple of side trips, diving with Splash Dive Center. At this point, I have to insert my usual disclaimer: over the course of diving with Splash on three separate trips for a total of seven weeks, I've become very good friends with Ralph and Patty, the owner/operators, as well as pretty much the entire staff. Ralph and Patty are great and generous people who work very hard to make Splash a success.
Last trip, I just missed the arrival of their 46-foot Newton, the Princess Taia, so I was very excited to give it a go this time. The PT is hands down the best dive boat I've ever been on. It can handle a crowd with ease. There's seating for nine passengers upstairs and well over that downstairs. I don't know the maximum number of divers, but we once had seventeen divers, including four guides, and the boat didn't feel crowded at all. Splash has a daily schedule of dives with different boats going to different sites, but I told Patty just to put me on the big boat regardless of where it went. I thought Turneffe Island Lodge's Newton was nice, but the PT is even roomier and more comfortable.
Now that they have the PT, Splash can dive sites that are further away, like Glover's Reef and even the Blue Hole/Half Moon Caye. It's about a two hour trip each way to Glovers, with lunch on board the boat. Two dives in the morning, one dive after lunch. Probably the best diving I've done in Belize short of Half Moon Caye. Tons of aquatic life, very few Lionfish, and the reefs are in fantastic shape.
A quick word about the staff: Splash has matured to the point where many of their dive instructors, guides and front-office staff came up through their Splash Kids Club, where they learned how to scuba dive for free. I can't say enough about how much fun we have together. It's all business when it comes to professionalism and safety, and all fun when it comes to everything else. As far as your gear, they will do as much or as little as you want, from setting it up, switching tanks, breaking it down and rinsing to a complete hands off for those in the "Nobody touches my gear" camp although they will check it just to make sure. I'm on vacation, so I enjoy having someone else deal with the gear, although I always check it after every set up and always put my computer cover back on when the computer's out of the water. I've seen a number of these guys grow up over the years, and it's really cool to see how well they're doing as young men and women.
Typical dive briefs: first dive 60 to 70 feet max, unless there's something interesting going on further down. Second dive 50 to 60 feet, again unless something interesting is happening. The usual hand signals. Time to go up at 500 psi. Stated dive time is typically 45 minutes but the reality is more like 50 to 55. Water was warm, always in the low to mid-80s. Visibility ranged from excellent to good to sometimes maybe only 50 feet. The typical ratio was 1 guide to every 3 or 4 divers, so the group doesn't have to stay and/or ascend together. It's nice that you can do your own thing without having to worry about air hogs or problematic divers impacting your dive. As usual, they monitor you closely on the first dive, then loosen up a bit once you show you're reasonably comfortable and competent. I used 32% nitrox my entire stay.
I mentioned a couple of side trips. Another guest and I ran an errand for Ralph and picked up some glass one day in Spanish Lookout. We had a great time driving up the Hummingbird and later checking out the scene in San Ignacio, where we were offered marijuana twice and cocaine once in the space of about 10 minutes. SI is quite the party town, I guess. But since I'd rather not spend my vacation in the Hattieville Ramada, no thank you. And I rented a car for a few days, drove up to hang with Hank and look at dirt, then down to Punta Gorda for a couple of days to look at more dirt. As much as I enjoy touring the country, it's always nice to return the keys and leave the driving to Splash.
On my last day there, Ralph and I went to Cockscomb Basin. We took a tour of a cacao plantation and a chocolate maker operation, then headed into the jaguar preserve. This was of particular interest to me, having read Dr. Alan Rabinowitz' book, Jaguar: One Man's Struggle To Establish The World's First Jaguar Preserve. We were fortunate to have as our guide Cirilo, who helped Dr. Rabinowitz track the jaguars and who now works as a tour guide for Splash. We took a short hike into the jungle and swam in a pool below a small waterfall. It was a perfect way to end another great trip to Belize.
As always, I started working out the details for next year on my flight home.
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