Diving at Akumal (Second Half)

After taking a day off, our first dives back were at Cenote Dos Ojos. Cenotes are rated on a scale from 1 (easiest) to 5 (hardest). Our dives were rated 1 and 2. Both were, at most, within 200m of an opening where you could surface. The first dive, "Barbie Line", was “roomier” and you didn’t have to worry so much about hitting something. The second dive, you had to be more on top of your buoyancy control to avoid getting too close to the formations and risk damaging them. Also on the second dive we surfaced for a few minutes in the “Bat Cave” which was aptly named because there were bats. 

The water was crystal clear but, annoyingly, my mask was fogging up badly, so I didn’t get the full effect of the clear water. 

The cenote formations under water were quite spectacular. Since I really didn’t know exactly what we were getting into, I didn’t take my camera. Between my mask fogging and trying to be very careful, it was one less thing to be stressed about. On top of that, as beautiful as the experience was, it reaffirmed my belief that I’m not fond of enclosed spaces! 

Eduardo giving a briefing on diving in the cenotes. 

Our last two days, we started earlier in the morning and did a deep dive (max. 30m) and then a second shallow dive. The deeper reef seemed to be a lot healthier with larger formations and more fish, which makes sense as it doesn’t get as much diver traffic. 

We again saw lots of turtles, some sharks – a couple reef sharks and a quick glimpse of a rarer bull shark (Eduardo said that’s just the second one he’s seen here), spotted lobster (much more colorful!), sting rays, a huge barracuda, and much more! 

Trumpet fish

Christmas Tree worms

Can you spot the flounder? 

More Christmas Tree worms

Some nice big barrel sponges on the deeper dives.

So colourful!

Lion fish - thankfully there don't seem to be many here. They are an invasive species.

Trying to grow coral.

Love the bright patterns and spots on the spotted lobster.

Trunk fish

Remoras (suckerfish) hitching a ride on the turtles.

This barracuda was huge!

Diving at Akumal (First Half)

We made the right choice of dive companies here in Akumal. There are two big dive shops which seemed to be quite busy and have full boats of new people daily. We chose a smaller company that seemed more personal. Blue Experience Diving also got the best reviews and a nice website (much to Andrew’s scepticism – “Anyone can make a nice website!"). It’s run by a couple, Eduardo and Sarah who were both excellent and personable guides. The largest group we were with was 6 divers including either Eduardo or Sarah, but more often 5. Nice small groups of returning people we had time to get to know a little bit. 

This area is known for sea turtles and we’ve seen at least one on all but a couple of the dives we’ve done. And some of them are HUGE! The largest I’ve ever seen for sure! Most of them are green turtles but there’s been a few Hawksbill as well. 

The dive sites are only a 5-10 minute drive from shore so it’s nice we head back to land for the surface interval. 

We now recognize how spoiled we’ve been on previous dive holidays with gear being set up, put on the boat, tanks changed for us, etc. Here, we put on all our gear in the dive shop and carry it out to the boat. Carry empty tanks back between dives, carry new tanks out to the boat, and then carry it all back again at the end of the second dive. Which is probably good since I’ve been slacking off my workouts on this holiday! 

Anyway, here’s a few (ok, a lot of!) photos from under the sea. 

Belize 2024 - Turneffe Island - Scuba Diving 3

The third and last instalment of photos from scuba diving at Turneffe Island feature "other things of interest." 

First, lettuce sea slugs. Doesn't really sound all that interesting, right? Andrew and I challenged ourselves to try to spot them before the dive master but it was a futile effort. Can you pick it out in this first photo?  Hint: it's right in the middle. 

Close up of the lettuce sea slug in the above photo. 

Other lettuce sea slugs

Banded Coral Shrimp

Banded Coral Shrimp

Some of the largest crabs we've ever seen!

Spotted Eagle Ray

Spotted Eagle Ray

A sleepy Hawksbill Turtle

Lobster

During the first week, we saw Caribbean Reef Sharks on almost every dive.

Spotted Moray Eel

Spotted Moray Eel

Sting Ray

Green Turtle

And last but not least . . . Squid! This is Andrew's photo as I was further away and took a bit of video but no photos. This is the first time we have seen squid while diving so it was a special surprise. 

Andrew's blog post of "big stuff": https://sustainableadventure.blogspot.com/2024/12/belize-diving-big-stuff.html