relax | scuba: Belize
by Beth Powell
We spent ten whole days in Belize August/September 2016. We returned the day before school started which is why I'm just now getting around to writing this post. Don't worry, I have a good memory and, more importantly, I have notes. The international airport is in Belize City and Southwest Airlines has fairly recently begun flight service to Belize City for $300-$400 round trip, which makes it an affordable place to visit. Also, because it was an English colony, formerly called British Honduras and only achieving its full independence in 1981, it's an English-speaking nation thus making Belize a great choice for an inaugural Central American vacation. You can get your feet wet with a different culture before tackling the language barrier challenge. We chose Belize for the diving.
Chris and I have both been scuba diving before but it was so long ago that we decided to re-certify. We were traveling with his sister, Debra, and her husband, Gary. Debra also wanted to re-certify and Gary was a diving newbie so we all signed up for PADI open water certification courses at Bluewater Divers in downtown OKC. The course moved much faster than the course I took twenty years ago. Today's open water course consists of watching tutorial videos, attending one night in class and two pool dives, followed by your open-water certification dives. I'm pretty sure the course I took in the nineties was a full six weeks. We all breezed through the coursework and Chris and I set out for our first pool dive.
My first pool dive is a testament to both maturity and the power of prayer. I went on several dives in my twenties and never panicked, not once. In my forties, during my first pool dive, literally my first dip underwater breathing through a regulator, I experienced extreme anxiety. The only explanation I can come up with is that in my forties I am more mature and much more aware of life's dangers. As I was panicking underwater I repeatedly prayed for peace, saying the same prayer over and over and over again, desperately wanting to stand up (seriously, we were sitting on bottom of the shallow end of the pool and all I would have had to do was stand up to breathe naturally.) But I didn't stand up, instead I prayed, and then, the peace came, it washed over and calmed me, my breathing slowed down and the only person who noticed my struggle was Chris, because he notices almost everything about me. We successfully completed our classes and, not long after, hopped a plane to Belize.
Cities are hurried and Belize City is not exempt from that state of being but I will say that it was less hurried than Montego Bay, which was a zoo. We took a taxi from the airport to the island shuttle port because we were staying on Caye Caulker. The words Cay, Caye, and Key are the essentially the same word and mean a small, low-elevation island. We were a little early for the next water taxi so we bought our tickets and went to a nearby cafe for a bite to eat. Time passed and from my seat I could see people boarding the taxi so I found myself hurrying Chris along to finish his food. He did but then announced that he needed to stop into the restroom. Those of you who know him already know that we were the last two people to board the boat. You knew that before I began the lunch story, you probably knew it when I said we bought our tickets or maybe you knew it before we even boarded the plane. This time though, he was rewarded for his dilly-dallying because there was no room left in the lower part of the boat, so we got to sit up top with the captain where we enjoyed fresh air and wonderful views for the crossing.
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| Water Taxi |
Caye Caulker is a small island, approximately 5 miles long by less than 1 mile wide. It does not allow it's private citizens to have cars. There are a couple of municipal vehicles on the island and, occasionally a contracting truck is allowed, but, for the most part, it's a no-cars island and it's won-der-ful. Upon arrival at the island we were greeted at the pier by golf cart taxis. Our taxi driver's name was Jabalas and he became our friend and bartender of choice for the week.
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| Caye Caulker Taxi |
If you've read any of my previous blog posts you know that we are Airbnb fans. We've also used VRBO with success. Chris and I were both business road warriors in our previous careers and, after basically having lived in hotels, we're not interested in spending our vacations in them. Airbnb has allowed us to stay in some great homes and meet neat people. Staying in a fully stocked home means we don't have to eat every meal at a restaurant or rush out the door in the mornings for coffee.
Our Caye Caulker Airbnb find did not disappoint. It's called Laura's Lookout for those of you who want to plan a trip. It's a 2 bed, one bath waterfront home with a pool and dock. It's part of a complex so the pool and dock are shared spaces. I would guess it was about half a mile from the village so it was a quiet, relaxing retreat.
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| Laura's Lookout is the bottom unit in this duplex. |
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| Private dock |
Open Water Certification Dives
Our open water certification dives were scheduled for our second and third days in Belize. We dove with Belize Diving Services and Walter was our dive master. Certification dives require that you complete certain skills and Debra and I were dreading a couple of them - I didn't want to complete the open regulator skill and Deb didn't want to complete the controlled emergency ascent skill. The controlled ascent skill is designed to teach you to breathe out slowly as you descend upwards in the event of an emergency air situation, you know so your skull doesn't bust from the pressure or something like that. It came early in the line up and everyone, including Debra, aced it.
The open regulator skill teaches you what to do in the event that your regulator starts blasting air out at full speed. You're supposed to "sip the air, like a perch" so that you are still getting some oxygen. I don't really know what that "sip like a perch" thing even means and when I tried to do it during the pool dive the regulator blew my mask clean of my face then forcefully shot air up my nose. It wasn't pretty, in fact, it was a train wreck. Day one passed without an open regulator skill check. We saw a Hawksbill sea turtle who got shy and quickly hid under a rock, then we swam with a nurse shark for about twenty minutes. During the buoyancy hovering skill Debra taught us that you can crack up laughing with a regulator in your mouth which was great because laughing put us all at ease.
At the fishing docks we were successful beyond our wildest dreams and we scored an insane amount of lobster for very little cash. $47.00 to be exact. We filled our bicycle baskets with lobster and peddled back home.
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| Nurse Shark |
Our third day in Belize was the second day of our open water certification dives and we mostly swam around exploring. Everyone completed their full mask remove and replace skill with no problems and some of us (not Chris) did a fantastic job on the compass navigation skill check. We saw cornet fish, blue angel fish and many other fish I couldn't identify so afterwards I stopped into a shop and bought a Caribbean fish ID book. During the dives I kept waiting for Walter to ask us to do the open regulator skill but he never did and Debra kept threatening to remind him but thankfully she never did either.
Scuba diving is a really neat experience and I suspect it's different and unique for everyone, in fact, different dives have different effects on me, but the one feeling I most consistently have while diving is serenity. There is no buzz, no clamor, no pandemonium when you're under water, no noise, and it is amazingly peaceful and calming to remove all those distractions. I don't think I was fully aware of life's constant racket until I was submerged 80 feet and it was gone. Diving allows you to experience tranquility. It also makes you hungry.
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| Chris, Me, Debra, Gary |
After completing our certification dives we stopped in at The Happy Lobster for lunch where I had chopped lobster in a curry sauce for $15.00 US. It was so good that I had it again before we left the island. We then stopped in and visited our buddy Jabalas at his little bar, Uno Mas (isn't that a cute name for a bar?). He made us Funky Monkeys, which are basically chocolate banana smoothies with rum. They're so sinfully good that Jabalas should be famous for them.
When you slow down and walk instead of hopping in a car and driving you see more interesting things, like this guy
and this fellow
Rest and Relaxation
The general rule of thumb is that you dive two days and then rest one day to allow the nitrogen to vacate your body. We follow this rule because we're safe divers and mature (which you can read as "not stupid.") We took this resting thing seriously and lounged reading and relaxing all day. I picked a book from the collection at the house and spent the majority of the day on the front porch in one of these.
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| Front porch hammocks |
Later in the day, when the stir crazy began to set in, and working on a tip we'd received from a local patron we met at Uno Mas the day before, we rented bikes and pedaled down to the fishing docks to buy fresh lobster. We ended up keeping the bikes all week and peddling ourselves all around the island. You also don't want to drink before diving because alcohol dehydrates you and that can cause some serious problems, so we did not visit Jabalas on our R&R days.
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| Our wheels |
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| Lobster!! |
The two following days were spent diving and we saw some spectacular sights. We bought some underwater cameras and rented a GoPro from one of the dive masters so now we not only have photos but also YouTube videos.
Sharks & More Sharks Videos:
Green Moray Eel:
Dolphins:
We squeezed in some kayaking on our next nitrogen-detox day and then Gary and Debra flew out. Chris and I stayed a few more days and mostly fell back into rest and relaxation mode, although one day we did take a side trip to a neighboring island, Ambergris Caye, to check it out. Ambergris is a bigger island that allows cars, and we were immediately struck by the difference cars make in adding hustle and bustle to the world so we hastened back to our car-less island and enjoyed the slower pace while we still could. We'd planned to dive the Blue Hole the day before we flew out but I couldn't get all the water out of my ear so we decided to cancel that dive. Will we go back again to dive the Blue Hole and slow life down a bit? You Better Belize it! In the meantime, Don't Stop Belizing!
Ok, I'll stop now.
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