The Great Blue Hole

Our day trip to the famous Great Blue Hole was a bit of a question mark due to the high winds and resulting high waves. But we went ahead and the hour-long crossing over to Lighthouse Atoll wasn’t as rough as I thought it might be. Once we got inside the Atoll it was much smoother. 

In terms of size and depth, the Blue Hole is quite impressive. It’s 318m across and 124m deep. The circular shape and differing water color shows up clearly even from water level on a boat. Photos from the air look spectacular. 

Looking up out of the Great Blue Hole. The photos around the stalactites were dark and blurry!

But in terms of diving, we weren’t expecting much. We’d been to one before and our travel agent, who’d been to this one, described it as “underwhelming”. Basically, you’re diving into a deep dark hole. At about 40 meters (which is quite deep in scuba diving terms) there are some stalactites that you can wind your way through – but only for a few minutes due to the depth. If we do this day trip again next week, we will snorkel around the top as the rest of our fellow guests did and really enjoyed. 

The next stop was Half Moon Caye, a small island that is also a bird sanctuary and a spot for nesting turtles. After a short stop and dropping off the snorkelers, we went a short distance away and dove a site called The Playground. Our dive master, Cardinal, said it’s one of the best dive sites around but unfortunately, visibility wasn’t great this time. We still saw quite a few things including a reef shark that came around several times during the dive. 

After lunch back on the island we had time to wander and take some photos. The red-footed booby were looking after their young and the frigate birds, in mating season, were displaying their puffed red breasts. 

Our third dive of the day at The Aquarium was plentiful with fish and great visibility. 

Back at the resort, the “Blue Hole” special of the day (a combination of Caribbean rum, blue curacao and tequila) had much more kick to it than the real thing! 

  

There were lots of very large hermit crabs on the island.

A frigate bird in mating season.

A red-footed booby and her baby.

This guy followed us the whole dive!

Can you spot the stingray?

Flamingo tongue on the fan coral.

Small shrimp in middle of photo.

A potent blue hole!