blueeyz78
Contributor
It has been about four years since my husband and I took a dive vacation. This meant that I wanted to do it right. I planned an 11 day vacation to Ramon's Village in San Pedro, Belize for June 15-26. We have always wanted to dive Belize's Barrier Reef and now was our chance.
Upon arrival at San Pedros airstrip, a representative from Ramon's Village, Joe, picked us up and loaded our baggage into the back of the golf cart. We quickly realized that golf carts were the main method of transportation through town. Joe took us to the front desk were we checked in and received information about our stay. After checking in, Joe took us to our oceanfront room. Our room was 26 ft from the ocean and the view was amazing.
Ramon's Village has its own dive shop and pier a few feet from the resort, and is a PADI Gold Palm IDC facility. The next morning we check in with the dive shop and schedule our first dive that morning. Toreano was assigned as our dive master and Lewis was our boat captain. Toreano gave us a complete dive brief prior to leaving the pier for our dives. Toreano explained how he operates his dives and what is expected of us as far as safety goes. Toreano was real relaxed and thorough during the brief. He made sure to explain to not touch the reef, sea life, and stay with the group. He also explained that we would be diving with him for the remainder of our stay, which I liked. Now we were off for our first dive.
On the boat with us was a dive club from Kentucky. Within minutes, all of us were laughing and having a great time. We dove with this group for a week with Toreano, and we had a blast. The diving was amazing!!!!!
Toreano keep a great watch on the group, and yet I we were free to look at whatever we wanted (as long as he could see you, you could explore the reef). We saw turtles, rays of all sorts, sharks, tropical fish, lobsters, and much more on this trip. The reef was beautiful, healthy, and full of life!
Our Kentucky friends left five days before we did, and now a new group was on the boat. They were real friendly as well; however, they tested the boundaries of Toreano's dive brief. Three divers wondered off and Toreano had to abort the dive to look for them. Toreano found them and everyone was safe. However, Toreano made sure they understood the group stays together. Toreano strongly believed in preserving the reef, and I witness him many times telling divers not to touch anything, and when the divers ignored his warnings, he physically pulled them away from the reef. It was good to know that Toreano and the other dive masters actively protect this beautiful reef.
My husband and I took a day off from diving to visit the Maya Ruin of Laminani on the mainland of Belize. This was a true Indian Jones adventure. We took and hour boat ride to the mainland and then made our way down a river to a little village called Bomba. From there, we took a bus ride down the abandoned highway. The bus was old, but it worked. No air conditioning and the ride was rough due to the road. This ride took about and hour and a half. We ended our bus ride at a small boat dock were we got onto another boat and made our way through the river to the Maya Ruin. This boat ride took about an hour. We are finally at the Ruin in its very remote location. We walked through the site and learned about the Ruin, its prior occupants, and the foliage. If you do this trip, bring sneakers and lots of bug spray. It was an amazing experience regardless of the journey and the bugs.
My husband and I also scheduled a trip to the Blue Hole. Ramon's had to schedule the trip through another dive operation because their big boat, Miss Gina 1, engines were down (they were working on fixing the problem while we were there). Amigos Del Mar picked us up at Ramon's pier at 5:30 in the morning, picked up other divers at their pier, and took us to there pier. From there, all the divers got onto the boat and started on our 2 1/2 hour boat ride to the blue hole. The water was rough due to a storm that blew through the prior night. Let's say it was a long, long boat ride. Finally, we arrive at the blue hole, and the dive master begins his brief.
***READ THIS PART CAREFULLY: the dive master tells the group that we are going to enter the water and do about a 20 yard surface swim to the descent spot. From there everyone will descend to a 40ft ledge. The dive master will make sure everyone is good and then the entire group will descend to 130 ft. The group must stay together at 130 ft and anyone not willing to stay at 130 ft will have to abort the entire dive and return to the boat. The dive master then says that the group will stay at 130 ft for eight minutes and if your dive computer goes not deco, just "ignore" it. He further stated if you have problems with your ears, just ascend to about 110 ft until the problem goes away. From there the group will ascend to 20 ft and do a 10-15 minute safety stop. There is a tank at the end of a line in case you run out of air before your safety stop is complete.***
Both my husband and I had a huge problem with this brief and dive plan. For starters, we are not certified for decompression diving. My husband is a dive master and I am advance open water. Another issue is, if you can see the formations at 110 ft, then why are we going to 130 ft. A third issue, not all the divers on the boat were certified to go below 60 ft. For one diver, this was his 9th dive ever!!!! For about half of the other divers, they were open water certified only! Anyone else see problems with this dive????? Needless to say, my husband and I were the only divers to say we are not doing this dive because we are not certified for technical diving and this dive plan was unsafe. We decided to snorkel the blue hole and the snorkeling was amazing.
After the blue hole dive, we proceeded to Half Moon Caye were we dove the reef at Half Moon. After the dive, we had lunch on Half Moon Caye. After lunch we dove the dive site called Aquarium. For us, these dives were worth the trip. These two reefs were unbelievable and full of life.
When we returned to Ramon's, we talked to Toreano about our experience at the blue hole. Toreano explained his dive plan and his dive plan did not put the divers into deco. We would have dove the blue hole if we were with Toreano.
In all, the trip to Belize was amazing. I would return to Ramon's Village in a heartbeat. The staff was extremely friendly and willing to meet our every wish with a smile on their faces. The food in San Pedro was incredible. We did not have a bad meal and ate at a different place everyday.
To anyone planning a dive trip to Belize, I strongly recommend Ramon's Village for their friendly staff, amazing dive operation, and wonderful accommodations. This was by far the best dive vacation I have been on!!!!
Upon arrival at San Pedros airstrip, a representative from Ramon's Village, Joe, picked us up and loaded our baggage into the back of the golf cart. We quickly realized that golf carts were the main method of transportation through town. Joe took us to the front desk were we checked in and received information about our stay. After checking in, Joe took us to our oceanfront room. Our room was 26 ft from the ocean and the view was amazing.
Ramon's Village has its own dive shop and pier a few feet from the resort, and is a PADI Gold Palm IDC facility. The next morning we check in with the dive shop and schedule our first dive that morning. Toreano was assigned as our dive master and Lewis was our boat captain. Toreano gave us a complete dive brief prior to leaving the pier for our dives. Toreano explained how he operates his dives and what is expected of us as far as safety goes. Toreano was real relaxed and thorough during the brief. He made sure to explain to not touch the reef, sea life, and stay with the group. He also explained that we would be diving with him for the remainder of our stay, which I liked. Now we were off for our first dive.
On the boat with us was a dive club from Kentucky. Within minutes, all of us were laughing and having a great time. We dove with this group for a week with Toreano, and we had a blast. The diving was amazing!!!!!
Toreano keep a great watch on the group, and yet I we were free to look at whatever we wanted (as long as he could see you, you could explore the reef). We saw turtles, rays of all sorts, sharks, tropical fish, lobsters, and much more on this trip. The reef was beautiful, healthy, and full of life!Our Kentucky friends left five days before we did, and now a new group was on the boat. They were real friendly as well; however, they tested the boundaries of Toreano's dive brief. Three divers wondered off and Toreano had to abort the dive to look for them. Toreano found them and everyone was safe. However, Toreano made sure they understood the group stays together. Toreano strongly believed in preserving the reef, and I witness him many times telling divers not to touch anything, and when the divers ignored his warnings, he physically pulled them away from the reef. It was good to know that Toreano and the other dive masters actively protect this beautiful reef.
My husband and I took a day off from diving to visit the Maya Ruin of Laminani on the mainland of Belize. This was a true Indian Jones adventure. We took and hour boat ride to the mainland and then made our way down a river to a little village called Bomba. From there, we took a bus ride down the abandoned highway. The bus was old, but it worked. No air conditioning and the ride was rough due to the road. This ride took about and hour and a half. We ended our bus ride at a small boat dock were we got onto another boat and made our way through the river to the Maya Ruin. This boat ride took about an hour. We are finally at the Ruin in its very remote location. We walked through the site and learned about the Ruin, its prior occupants, and the foliage. If you do this trip, bring sneakers and lots of bug spray. It was an amazing experience regardless of the journey and the bugs.
My husband and I also scheduled a trip to the Blue Hole. Ramon's had to schedule the trip through another dive operation because their big boat, Miss Gina 1, engines were down (they were working on fixing the problem while we were there). Amigos Del Mar picked us up at Ramon's pier at 5:30 in the morning, picked up other divers at their pier, and took us to there pier. From there, all the divers got onto the boat and started on our 2 1/2 hour boat ride to the blue hole. The water was rough due to a storm that blew through the prior night. Let's say it was a long, long boat ride. Finally, we arrive at the blue hole, and the dive master begins his brief.
***READ THIS PART CAREFULLY: the dive master tells the group that we are going to enter the water and do about a 20 yard surface swim to the descent spot. From there everyone will descend to a 40ft ledge. The dive master will make sure everyone is good and then the entire group will descend to 130 ft. The group must stay together at 130 ft and anyone not willing to stay at 130 ft will have to abort the entire dive and return to the boat. The dive master then says that the group will stay at 130 ft for eight minutes and if your dive computer goes not deco, just "ignore" it
. He further stated if you have problems with your ears, just ascend to about 110 ft until the problem goes away. From there the group will ascend to 20 ft and do a 10-15 minute safety stop. There is a tank at the end of a line in case you run out of air before your safety stop is complete.***Both my husband and I had a huge problem with this brief and dive plan. For starters, we are not certified for decompression diving. My husband is a dive master and I am advance open water. Another issue is, if you can see the formations at 110 ft, then why are we going to 130 ft. A third issue, not all the divers on the boat were certified to go below 60 ft. For one diver, this was his 9th dive ever!!!! For about half of the other divers, they were open water certified only! Anyone else see problems with this dive????? Needless to say, my husband and I were the only divers to say we are not doing this dive because we are not certified for technical diving and this dive plan was unsafe. We decided to snorkel the blue hole and the snorkeling was amazing.
After the blue hole dive, we proceeded to Half Moon Caye were we dove the reef at Half Moon. After the dive, we had lunch on Half Moon Caye. After lunch we dove the dive site called Aquarium. For us, these dives were worth the trip. These two reefs were unbelievable and full of life.
When we returned to Ramon's, we talked to Toreano about our experience at the blue hole. Toreano explained his dive plan and his dive plan did not put the divers into deco. We would have dove the blue hole if we were with Toreano.
In all, the trip to Belize was amazing. I would return to Ramon's Village in a heartbeat. The staff was extremely friendly and willing to meet our every wish with a smile on their faces. The food in San Pedro was incredible. We did not have a bad meal and ate at a different place everyday.
To anyone planning a dive trip to Belize, I strongly recommend Ramon's Village for their friendly staff, amazing dive operation, and wonderful accommodations. This was by far the best dive vacation I have been on!!!!
