Belize isn't that far from Ecuador, but somehow it took us 2 full days to get there! We spent the first 2 nights at a resort just outside of Belize City lounging by the pool and just relaxing (we had build in a couple extra days in case we had travel issues). After 2 lazy days we were ready to get to the island and start our search for Whale Sharks!
We caught a small local flight down to Dangrega, and by small I mean the world's smallest commercial plane!! We expected a 16 seater but were very surprised to be walked out to a tiny 4 seater....and anyone who knows Julie's hate for small planes it was a minor mircale that she decided to board it!! After a quick 20 minute flight was met up with the people from our resort and caught a 2 hr boat ride to Glovers Atoll. Upon arrival we were shown our beach bungalow and got all settled in.
Sunday was our first diving day, and since no one had seen a Whale Shark yet we dceided to spend the day diving near the island. The water was amazing, warm and clear! We didn't even need wet suits. We thouroly enjoyed the wall dives and the tons of coral and bright fish everywhere. Our group decided to do the dolphin swim instead of a third dive since the previous group spent over 2 hrs with the dolphins. We headed out with our snorkels and Luis found the dolphins right away. As soon as we jumped into the water they swam away. We chased them for about an hour but never had much luck, Julie did manage to snap a picture of 2 under the water. Apparently they weren't in a playing mood. Luis said he had never seen them run like that (maybe we just smelled bad!!). We eventually gave up and headed back to the island.
Monday morning we learned that some fishermen had reported seeing 2 Whale Sharks, so we all decided to give it a shot and hopped on the boat for a 1.5 hr bumpy ride. It was a good thing we took sea sick pills! These 2 dives were another first for us being "blue" dives, meaning that you couldn't see the bottom, just blue everywhere. It was really hard to keep track of depth. Unfortunatly we didn't find the whale sharks, but we did see a giant ball of snapper, several dolphins (which the snorkelers got to swim with), and a few other fish scattered about. Definitely a different experience from the previous day.
The rest of the week we spent diving just off the resort (less then a 10 minute boat ride each time). It was some of the best diving we have experienced. We saw numerous nurse sharks, HUGE loggerhead turtles, hawksbill turtles, shrimp, the biggest lobsters we have ever seen and millions of fish. Hopefully Julie will get around to making a video from all our GoPro footage soon. We even go to experience out first night dive, which was interesting. My light died about 5 minuites into it, so I spent most of the time trying to stay out of people's way. We did see some big crabs, a crazy looking anemone and a spanish lobster while we were down.
Of course our final week of this world tour wouldn't be complete without a little bit of excitement. On the second to last night we were all sitting at the bar (which happens to be over the water) and noticed how eerily still the wind was. Around 9 we walked back to our room to watch a Castle episode, with about 15 minutes left we heard it start to rain but decided to finish the episode before gathering our clothes hanging on the deck. Five minutes later we heard the wind and water started pouring into our cabin. We quickly picked everything up off the floor and then ran outside to grab our stuff (or what was left of it!). Within minutes we had an inch of water all over the cabin and the ocean, which had been about 30 feet away was rushing under the stilts of our room. The lightening was so fequent it was basically daylight. We later learned that the winds gusted over 50 mph! With no power and nothing much else we could do we fell asleep, figuring we would deal with the rest in the morning.
We caught a small local flight down to Dangrega, and by small I mean the world's smallest commercial plane!! We expected a 16 seater but were very surprised to be walked out to a tiny 4 seater....and anyone who knows Julie's hate for small planes it was a minor mircale that she decided to board it!! After a quick 20 minute flight was met up with the people from our resort and caught a 2 hr boat ride to Glovers Atoll. Upon arrival we were shown our beach bungalow and got all settled in.
Sunday was our first diving day, and since no one had seen a Whale Shark yet we dceided to spend the day diving near the island. The water was amazing, warm and clear! We didn't even need wet suits. We thouroly enjoyed the wall dives and the tons of coral and bright fish everywhere. Our group decided to do the dolphin swim instead of a third dive since the previous group spent over 2 hrs with the dolphins. We headed out with our snorkels and Luis found the dolphins right away. As soon as we jumped into the water they swam away. We chased them for about an hour but never had much luck, Julie did manage to snap a picture of 2 under the water. Apparently they weren't in a playing mood. Luis said he had never seen them run like that (maybe we just smelled bad!!). We eventually gave up and headed back to the island.
Monday morning we learned that some fishermen had reported seeing 2 Whale Sharks, so we all decided to give it a shot and hopped on the boat for a 1.5 hr bumpy ride. It was a good thing we took sea sick pills! These 2 dives were another first for us being "blue" dives, meaning that you couldn't see the bottom, just blue everywhere. It was really hard to keep track of depth. Unfortunatly we didn't find the whale sharks, but we did see a giant ball of snapper, several dolphins (which the snorkelers got to swim with), and a few other fish scattered about. Definitely a different experience from the previous day.
The rest of the week we spent diving just off the resort (less then a 10 minute boat ride each time). It was some of the best diving we have experienced. We saw numerous nurse sharks, HUGE loggerhead turtles, hawksbill turtles, shrimp, the biggest lobsters we have ever seen and millions of fish. Hopefully Julie will get around to making a video from all our GoPro footage soon. We even go to experience out first night dive, which was interesting. My light died about 5 minuites into it, so I spent most of the time trying to stay out of people's way. We did see some big crabs, a crazy looking anemone and a spanish lobster while we were down.
Of course our final week of this world tour wouldn't be complete without a little bit of excitement. On the second to last night we were all sitting at the bar (which happens to be over the water) and noticed how eerily still the wind was. Around 9 we walked back to our room to watch a Castle episode, with about 15 minutes left we heard it start to rain but decided to finish the episode before gathering our clothes hanging on the deck. Five minutes later we heard the wind and water started pouring into our cabin. We quickly picked everything up off the floor and then ran outside to grab our stuff (or what was left of it!). Within minutes we had an inch of water all over the cabin and the ocean, which had been about 30 feet away was rushing under the stilts of our room. The lightening was so fequent it was basically daylight. We later learned that the winds gusted over 50 mph! With no power and nothing much else we could do we fell asleep, figuring we would deal with the rest in the morning.
