Diving in Latin America

UTILA

I'm certified as an Advanced diver through PADI. My first time in the water was a little scary, but as soon as I was able to cruise around a little, I was hooked. Read my Honduras section for more general information on Utila, but here I will just mention Alton's Dive Shop and say they're great. I went back this past Christmas (1997) and despite a recent storms' effect on the visibility I had another fantastic time. Utila is pretty competitive as far as dive shops go, but don't get suckered in by the lowest price or the most free dives offered with a course. I paid US$159 for each of my courses. Open Water has 2 confined water training sessions and four open water dives at Alton's. Advanced has five dives, including a Deep Dive and a Night Dive. Alton Cooper is a life-long inhabitant of Utila, probably like fifth-generation, and is a fantastic instructor. Try to take his Naturalist specialty course. They pay their instructors the most and only hire the best, plus you can stay in cozy rooms right on the water for $1/night when you're taking a course there.

And no, I'm not paid by Alton's! I wish I were, but seriously, I just had *that* positive of an experience there.





BELIZE

I pretty much never left the water while I was on Utila, and when I left, I headed for Belize (the first major change of the itinerary) to see the famous Blue Hole. It's a 450m (approx. 1300ft.) deep cavern, created when an above-ground cave collapsed and sunk into the ocean. Huge stalagtites as big around as the circle of my arms with fingertips barely touching hang around the rim of the Hole, usually 7-15m (20-45ft) long. The water is a brilliant blue color, especially deep when compared with the aquamarine-robin's-egg water surrounding it.

In Belize, I stayed on Caye Caulker (pronounced 'key') because it is less expensive than Caye Ambergris, the resort-like caye. I had heard the best diving was not within day-trip distance of the caye, so I made plans to go out on a liveaboard called the 'Caye Explorer.' That was one of the best decisions of the whole trip!

For $260, I had six dives with all equipment rental included, all the gourmet food I could eat, a very knowledgeable and professional Belizean divemaster's guidance, and two days and a night on a fast 50' boat. Three dives the first day- Turneffe Islands seemed to have the most untouched coral. I really enjoyed the Silver Caves site. I dove with an instructor from Switzerland who lives in the Seychelles, another divemaster from Vancouver, and two very experienced divers from Croatia and Germany.

That night we visited the red-footed booby bird reserve on Half Moon Caye, and pitched tents on the (mosquito and bug-free) beach at the other end of the island to enjoy the perfect climate. The next day, we dove the Hole first- what a fantastic experience. Pure giddy rapture as we sank into the depths and watched two huge (3 ft?) midnight parrotfish sail past... black with cobalt edging to their scales and faces.



BELIZE

I pretty much never left the water while I was on Utila, and when I left, I headed for Belize (the first major change of the itinerary) to see the famous Blue Hole. It's a 450m (approx. 1300ft.) deep cavern, created when an above-ground cave collapsed and sunk into the ocean. Huge stalagtites as big around as the circle of my arms with fingertips barely touching hang around the rim of the Hole, usually 7-15m (20-45ft) long. The water is a brilliant blue color, especially deep when compared with the aquamarine-robin's-egg water surrounding it.

In Belize, I stayed on Caye Caulker (pronounced 'key') because it is less expensive than Caye Ambergris, the resort-like caye. I had heard the best diving was not within day-trip distance of the caye, so I made plans to go out on a liveaboard called the 'Caye Explorer.' That was one of the best decisions of the whole trip!

For $260, I had six dives with all equipment rental included, all the gourmet food I could eat, a very knowledgeable and professional Belizean divemaster's guidance, and two days and a night on a fast 50' boat. Three dives the first day- Turneffe Islands seemed to have the most untouched coral. I really enjoyed the Silver Caves site. I dove with an instructor from Switzerland who lives in the Seychelles, another divemaster from Vancouver, and two very experienced divers from Croatia and Germany.

That night we visited the red-footed booby bird reserve on Half Moon Caye, and pitched tents on the (mosquito and bug-free) beach at the other end of the island to enjoy the perfect climate. The next day, we dove the Hole first- what a fantastic experience. Pure giddy rapture as we sank into the depths and watched two huge (3 ft?) midnight parrotfish sail past... black with cobalt edging to their scales and faces.

GUATEMALA

The next diving I got to do was in Lake Atitlan, Guatemala. The lake is beautiful in itself, a vast volcanic caulderon (collapsed crater) surrounded by volcanoes and picturesque villages like Santa Catarina de Palopo and San Lucas Toliman. The lake is also famous for the quantities of Mayan artifacts which are discovered annually by underwater archeologists. I only did one dive as the water was uncharacteristically rough that day, but it was especially interesting because Mike and Deedle (the great instructors at Atitlan Divers) took me through "Elephant's Nose", a nice swimthrough. Diving Lake Atitlan involves really thick wetsuits (7mil) or drysuits, and is a great place to do your freshwater and altitude diving certification simultaneously.

Infinite Fish