Hello!!!
We are back from our trip to Belize!!! We had a great time! Here is my version of the trip!
Our plane LEFT JFK at 5:45 a.m. - so you can imagine what time I got up - butt ugly early. 2:30 a.m. - sigh. Traffic to JFK was good - only US and the donut makers on the road. Check in went fine and we left JFK on time bound for Miami. 3 hour layover in Miami which was fine with us - we hunted down a place for breakfast - which in the terminal we were in...................sigh.........was at a SUSHI place. They served "american" breakfast - so we were good. The plane from Miami to Belize City was barely 2/3 full. We had plenty of room to spread out - it was nice! We landed in Belize City, gathered our luggage, went through Customs and found our ride to the boat with no problems. We arrived at the doc across from the Radison Hotel and our luggage went to the boat and we went to the bar. We couldn't board the boat till 3 p.m. There were many other divers waiting at the outside bar for the same reason - except they were all for the Peter Hughes boat. They let us hang any way. At 3 p.m. we headed down the dock to the boat - greeted by the captain and escorted to our room. The captain was from Cape Town, South Africa - and sounded Australian. Nice guy - probably early 30's and been with Aggressor 4 years. There was a 2nd Captain on board for the week -training- who I actually was on the Bay Islands Aggressor in 2002 when he was a DM. That was pretty cool.
The boat is in great shape - the rooms have a/c that you control - the "boat" is set on one temp and you control the amount of "air" that goes in to your room. Of course - we hung meat in ours!! The salon area had a huge flat screen HD tv for dvd's and a great selection of dvd's to pick from. The rooms all had small flat screen HD tvs - with dvd players - that was really cool. The dive deck was roomy - of course there were only 9 divers - so it was extra roomy!!! I can't say enough about the crew - from both Captains down to the cabin steward - they were all great - and they all dove with us! The cook, Yanis, was absolutely wonderful - she can make a mean Oreo pie! Needless to say - no one went hungry - even the vegetarian on board!
The divers ranged from 17 (yes his mother paid for him to take a dive trip at 17 without HER) to probably late 50's early 60. Every one got along quite well.
Diving - the 1st day of diving was our worst - every dive had something go wrong for Dan or I. The first dive of the trip - we hop in and get to about 35' or so and I see Dan signal he's going up and that he had camera issues - I waited for him to take the camera up and come back down - once the dive was over - he tells me that the housing leaked and the camera flooded. He had just received the housing BACK from the manufacture a few days before - they had repaired another issue on the housing. The camera was ruined and the out of commission. Dan was disappointed but I am happy to say he did NOT let it ruin the trip!!!! the second dive - Dan's inflater hose had a leak - nothing drastic - just annoying - fixed with a little soak in some alcohol after the dive - 3rd dive - we had been down about 30 mins and were at about 60' any my octo starts to free flow - not just a slow bubble - FULL FREE FLOW. I did the obligatory underwater repair attempt - you know banging it with my hand - and twisting the hose - NOTHING but bubbles - so I show Dan and he tries the "underwater repair trick" too - I was watching my gauge - and my air was okay - but I was getting nervous - so we start up - and of course I stop to do a safety stop and get the "look" from Dan. We slowly continued up -and I arrived on board with 1200 psi. the crew switched out my octo with one of theirs and off we went for dive #4. NOTHING WENT WRONG!!!!
The reefs I thought were in excellent condition - great sea fans, tube sponges, barrel sponges. The fish seemed to be doing well too - we saw lots of angels, wrasse, tangs, trumpets, crabs, lobster, conchs, TONS of tarpon - who are NOT shy, chubbs, horse eyed jacks, eels, squid, triggers, parrot fish, brittle stars, basket stars, rock beauties, banded shrimp, cleaner shrimp, moon jellies, walnut jellies, Christmas tree worms, lettuce nudi branchs, turtles, HUGE groupers and Caribbean reef sharks. Lots of PLF's too - (pretty little fish). At one dive site the sharks would come so close - it was wild. I have never had a shark come that close to me - ever. He would come between you and the reef - say you were 5-6' off the wall - just looking - he would come between you and the wall. It was pretty cool - if not somewhat un-nerving. they were typically at 40-60' but there were some that enjoyed the 15' safety stop!!! They would do their figure eight swim in and out while you just watched them - pretty cool There was a huge grouper named Wally that would come up to you at the safety stop and want you to pet his chin. I never could touch him - but I could stick my hand out and he would come right up to it - it was very cool. He had to be 3-4' long and had a huge mouth! One one dive I was watching him and he was swimming to Dan and Wally yawned - it was so funny. One night dive we saw a family of squid out - it was way cool. Also saw my first basket star on the same night dive - that was pretty neat too! We only had one slightly rough water day - and that was crossing over the "elbow" around Turneffe - there actually was a young lady who gets more sea sick than I do - I was so excited!!!
Water temps 84-85 degrees - Dan and I dove in skins the entire week -
We dove the Blue Hole on Tuesday - I was the only diver that did not dive it - Captain Eddie offered to hold my hand if I would try it - I just have no interest in going that deep (130-150') so Captain Eddie took me to dive the Blue Hole "rim" - we went to about 100' and he showed me where the stalactites (sp?) start to form and then we slowly went up - lots of fish to see in the rim - we saw 6 MONSTER midnight blue parrot fish - watched them eat for about 15 mins - they are one of my favorites - that made the dive for me. they rest of the divers went as a group - if one went up - they all went up - so I felt better about not being there with Dan - no one had an issue and they brought Dan back to under the boat where I was waiting and all was good!
Friday afternoon when we arrived back in Belize City - we did a tour for cave tubing - it was fun - about aq 45 min hike through the jungle - carrying your tube, life jacket and hard hat - but a lovely hike - our tour guide used to be a survival guide in the jungle - taught people how to survive so he was full of info while we hiked. Did you know that termites taste like MINT?? YUP _ Dan and I tried a couple. The tubing was very nice - lots of formations and pretty views - Friday night the crew puts on a cocktail party - little snacks, wine and beer - OMG - I left out one of my favorite things about the boat - IT HAD DIET COKE ON A SODA DISPENSER!!!!! weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! The captain gave out awards for 3 of the divers completing nitrox and also a "Little Miss Sunshine" award - which went to yours truly! They asked me if I had ever seen the movie - which I haven't - they all giggled and told me to - SO I have no idea what the award really means - I did threaten them with harm if it was bad. I will have to rent the movie and see............................
Dan did rent a camera for one day - so there will be some pics and I have some top side pics too - we had a great time - fully recommend the Belize trip - we have yet to be disappointed with any Aggressor or Peter Hughes dive trip - One evening the captain showed a video of the whale watching (snorkel only) trip - that Aggressor does - and it looks like great fun - even with no diving. Who would have thought the known puker would even consider a snorkel only trip??
We are back from our trip to Belize!!! We had a great time! Here is my version of the trip!
Our plane LEFT JFK at 5:45 a.m. - so you can imagine what time I got up - butt ugly early. 2:30 a.m. - sigh. Traffic to JFK was good - only US and the donut makers on the road. Check in went fine and we left JFK on time bound for Miami. 3 hour layover in Miami which was fine with us - we hunted down a place for breakfast - which in the terminal we were in...................sigh.........was at a SUSHI place. They served "american" breakfast - so we were good. The plane from Miami to Belize City was barely 2/3 full. We had plenty of room to spread out - it was nice! We landed in Belize City, gathered our luggage, went through Customs and found our ride to the boat with no problems. We arrived at the doc across from the Radison Hotel and our luggage went to the boat and we went to the bar. We couldn't board the boat till 3 p.m. There were many other divers waiting at the outside bar for the same reason - except they were all for the Peter Hughes boat. They let us hang any way. At 3 p.m. we headed down the dock to the boat - greeted by the captain and escorted to our room. The captain was from Cape Town, South Africa - and sounded Australian. Nice guy - probably early 30's and been with Aggressor 4 years. There was a 2nd Captain on board for the week -training- who I actually was on the Bay Islands Aggressor in 2002 when he was a DM. That was pretty cool.
The boat is in great shape - the rooms have a/c that you control - the "boat" is set on one temp and you control the amount of "air" that goes in to your room. Of course - we hung meat in ours!! The salon area had a huge flat screen HD tv for dvd's and a great selection of dvd's to pick from. The rooms all had small flat screen HD tvs - with dvd players - that was really cool. The dive deck was roomy - of course there were only 9 divers - so it was extra roomy!!! I can't say enough about the crew - from both Captains down to the cabin steward - they were all great - and they all dove with us! The cook, Yanis, was absolutely wonderful - she can make a mean Oreo pie! Needless to say - no one went hungry - even the vegetarian on board!
The divers ranged from 17 (yes his mother paid for him to take a dive trip at 17 without HER) to probably late 50's early 60. Every one got along quite well.
Diving - the 1st day of diving was our worst - every dive had something go wrong for Dan or I. The first dive of the trip - we hop in and get to about 35' or so and I see Dan signal he's going up and that he had camera issues - I waited for him to take the camera up and come back down - once the dive was over - he tells me that the housing leaked and the camera flooded. He had just received the housing BACK from the manufacture a few days before - they had repaired another issue on the housing. The camera was ruined and the out of commission. Dan was disappointed but I am happy to say he did NOT let it ruin the trip!!!! the second dive - Dan's inflater hose had a leak - nothing drastic - just annoying - fixed with a little soak in some alcohol after the dive - 3rd dive - we had been down about 30 mins and were at about 60' any my octo starts to free flow - not just a slow bubble - FULL FREE FLOW. I did the obligatory underwater repair attempt - you know banging it with my hand - and twisting the hose - NOTHING but bubbles - so I show Dan and he tries the "underwater repair trick" too - I was watching my gauge - and my air was okay - but I was getting nervous - so we start up - and of course I stop to do a safety stop and get the "look" from Dan. We slowly continued up -and I arrived on board with 1200 psi. the crew switched out my octo with one of theirs and off we went for dive #4. NOTHING WENT WRONG!!!!
The reefs I thought were in excellent condition - great sea fans, tube sponges, barrel sponges. The fish seemed to be doing well too - we saw lots of angels, wrasse, tangs, trumpets, crabs, lobster, conchs, TONS of tarpon - who are NOT shy, chubbs, horse eyed jacks, eels, squid, triggers, parrot fish, brittle stars, basket stars, rock beauties, banded shrimp, cleaner shrimp, moon jellies, walnut jellies, Christmas tree worms, lettuce nudi branchs, turtles, HUGE groupers and Caribbean reef sharks. Lots of PLF's too - (pretty little fish). At one dive site the sharks would come so close - it was wild. I have never had a shark come that close to me - ever. He would come between you and the reef - say you were 5-6' off the wall - just looking - he would come between you and the wall. It was pretty cool - if not somewhat un-nerving. they were typically at 40-60' but there were some that enjoyed the 15' safety stop!!! They would do their figure eight swim in and out while you just watched them - pretty cool There was a huge grouper named Wally that would come up to you at the safety stop and want you to pet his chin. I never could touch him - but I could stick my hand out and he would come right up to it - it was very cool. He had to be 3-4' long and had a huge mouth! One one dive I was watching him and he was swimming to Dan and Wally yawned - it was so funny. One night dive we saw a family of squid out - it was way cool. Also saw my first basket star on the same night dive - that was pretty neat too! We only had one slightly rough water day - and that was crossing over the "elbow" around Turneffe - there actually was a young lady who gets more sea sick than I do - I was so excited!!!
Water temps 84-85 degrees - Dan and I dove in skins the entire week -
We dove the Blue Hole on Tuesday - I was the only diver that did not dive it - Captain Eddie offered to hold my hand if I would try it - I just have no interest in going that deep (130-150') so Captain Eddie took me to dive the Blue Hole "rim" - we went to about 100' and he showed me where the stalactites (sp?) start to form and then we slowly went up - lots of fish to see in the rim - we saw 6 MONSTER midnight blue parrot fish - watched them eat for about 15 mins - they are one of my favorites - that made the dive for me. they rest of the divers went as a group - if one went up - they all went up - so I felt better about not being there with Dan - no one had an issue and they brought Dan back to under the boat where I was waiting and all was good!
Friday afternoon when we arrived back in Belize City - we did a tour for cave tubing - it was fun - about aq 45 min hike through the jungle - carrying your tube, life jacket and hard hat - but a lovely hike - our tour guide used to be a survival guide in the jungle - taught people how to survive so he was full of info while we hiked. Did you know that termites taste like MINT?? YUP _ Dan and I tried a couple. The tubing was very nice - lots of formations and pretty views - Friday night the crew puts on a cocktail party - little snacks, wine and beer - OMG - I left out one of my favorite things about the boat - IT HAD DIET COKE ON A SODA DISPENSER!!!!! weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! The captain gave out awards for 3 of the divers completing nitrox and also a "Little Miss Sunshine" award - which went to yours truly! They asked me if I had ever seen the movie - which I haven't - they all giggled and told me to - SO I have no idea what the award really means - I did threaten them with harm if it was bad. I will have to rent the movie and see............................
Dan did rent a camera for one day - so there will be some pics and I have some top side pics too - we had a great time - fully recommend the Belize trip - we have yet to be disappointed with any Aggressor or Peter Hughes dive trip - One evening the captain showed a video of the whale watching (snorkel only) trip - that Aggressor does - and it looks like great fun - even with no diving. Who would have thought the known puker would even consider a snorkel only trip??
