The Blue Hole Trip (Random Order)

The Blue Hole

The Great Blue Hole is a large underwater sinkhole off the coast of Belize. It lies near the center of Lighthouse Reef, a small atoll 100 km from the mainland and Belize City. The hole is circular in shape, over 300 m across and 125 m deep. It was formed as a limestone cave system during the last glacial period when sea levels were much lower. As the ocean began to rise again, the caves flooded, and the roof collapsed. Believed to be the world’s largest feature of its kind, the Great Blue Hole is part of the larger Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System, a World Heritage site of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

The Blue Hole is visable from space, click on the link below to see the satalite view and also a map/

http://www.panoramio.com/photo/109772

All about my blue hole trip

Ohh, wait I can't tell you about it..... ha!

Sat, The Blue Hole

google it, I survived it and the coconut rum after... Haha


more later!

A day of giving thanks

On a day for giving thanks

Yesterday, I received the card below. While it was addresses to me, I was only a part of the equation.

MANY from this group helped (and are still helping) with donations to secure and deliver medical supplies to the island.



































(Click on any picture to see a larger image)

This is from one of the nurses that works with the Poly Clinic

We GREATLY appreciate your assistance, Donate if you can, please!

Paypal acerbelize@gmail.com

or hit the donate button at the right side of our blog:

http://acerbelize.blogspot.com/ (It may take a few seconds to respond)


Happy Thanksgiving!

Weds Odds and Ends

Belize has a melting pot.... ha



Main Street (Actually Middle Street, Middle of the 3, Front St, Middle St and Back St)




The grandson of our next door neighbor. Has a rare disorder, with only 3 cases known in the world. Includes bushy wool like hair.




Catch of the day, red snapper!





Rainbow at the end of the pier.

Countdown

Man, I hate this... Just a little over a week left. I still have a lot to do:

Mon 23 - Town in the am, Fished way to late, but had fun. Hint: don't take a canoe to the ocean with someone that doesn't know how to steer in the back, and have strong current and winds.

Tue 24 - Not sure

Weds - 25 Diving?

Thurs - 26 Park Rangers, (if they show up) till 1 pm, then get cleaned up for the big Sueno Del Mar Thanksgiving dinner.

Fri - 27 ? Black Friday, I plan on getting up at 5 am and hitting the stores... No wait, they have no idea what black Friday is in Belize, yet alone any stores with bargains! Happy Black Friday shopping to all. I'll miss my annual run to Home Depot, but that's life in the slow, Belize lane! - San Pedro

Sat - 28 Blue Hole, San Pedro

Sun - 29

Mon - 30

Tue 1

Wed 2 - Depart No diving for 24 hours prior

Outstanding -

Blue hole trip, that will require at least a night in town prior, because the boats leave at 7 am, for an all day 3 tank dive. Its several hours (3?) from here to the blue hole. I hope to make this an earth cache, a geocache that doesn't require a physical cache.

Hunting Trip - not sure what that is all about, but I'm game ha!

Nature trail - Take a hike in the jungle... not sure about this one, when the locals that don't get bothered by the bugs say take lots of bug spray.

Another trip to the Poly Clinic, Need to drop off the rest of the medical donations I brought.

Island Ferry Refresher- CPR, First aid for the group.

Sunday Scuba - updated

This was a dive to Bacalar Chico Canyons. Started out about 35 feet and ended up about 90 feet. I was diving with a computer, so I had a bottom time of around 45 minutes. This was a two tank boat dive, they charge $75us for. We started at 930am and by 100 pm we had the both dives in and a lunch break. I dove with my contacts, and one of them bothered me a bit later on in the day, so I didn't dive on Monday.

This was my first scuba with the housing for my little point and shoot cannon, it's still a learning curve for me, but I am happy with it.


Poor lighting on the fish, he wasn a little skiddish and I couldn't get very close.




This lobster was about 24 inches tip to tail and would have been great on a plate. We were in the marine reserve, so I didn't try to grab him.





This is Capt Joe reaching for a 36 inch barracuda




This is the dreaded lion fish, he was in about 65 foot of water, Capt Joe took off his gear at 65 feet so he could take off hit tshirt to make a net out of it. We actually had this guy netted for a bit before he escaped. Joe was going to take him to the surface to dispose of him.





Trigger fish... also inspiration for some of the animation movies, but I don't recall which one.

I felt like a sorority girl here taking this picture of my self! Ha

One of my favorite most colorful fish, a Queen Angel. I use to see them on almost every dive in Cozumel, but they are pretty rare today. Not sure if it is the location or the general decrease of the quantity of this fish.

Sat Fishing

We went out with a local fishing outside the reef. Was a very slow day, fishing wise, or I should say landing the fishing wise. I had what the locals thought must have been a huge grouper, as it bent the pole I had in to a "J". It went into the coral, where my 17 pound line was no match.

Speaking of poles, Arlen, another guy from Wichita went out with us. He jumped on at the last minute, and didn't have a pole. The locals here rarely use a pole, most use a hand reel.

By hand reel, we are talking about anything that you can line fishing line around. From a Belikin (beer) bottle, up to a spool that you would by fishing line on, all the way up to a bigger reel that you can slip over your arm.

No more broken tips of fishing poles if you fish like the locals!



Arlen caught this on a hand line, he had quite the fight.

Arlen stood back and let the locals land this guy, a black tipped reef shark, I believe.

A quick shot for the camera, then back in the water.

Overall, fishing here wasn't very good, but I did do better doing some reef fishing later on. Reef fishing is were you wade out in the water, as deep as you feel you want to.

My first exposure to this was water just above the waist, now I have been in water that was up to my shoulders, and you had to hold your arms above your shoulders to keep your pole out of water.

I was pretty innovative with holding the pole in my mouth to bait, and placing the butt of the pole in my shirt pocket to remove fish. No place for a camera when fishing like this.