 After we have visited Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala and Belize as part of the exploration of the Maya route, we will stay in Belize for one additional week.
We have been in Belize for a couple of days now at Caye Caulker - an island between San Pedro and Belize City (see map) - and you can say that we have really settled in. When the group left us on Wednesday we took it easy for a day, doing some shopping, having the laundry done and (finally) unpacking our backpacks.
Thursday we did our first two dives in Belize with Frenchies Dive center. Since it had been over a year since we last dove, we also used these two dives to get the hang of things again. We didn't go too deep and we got a guide with us, so we could really relax and enjoy the underwater world.
Our first impression was that the types of coral looked a bit like we had seen in Bonaire, so quite pretty.
 Saturday the 29th of April we celebrated the Queens' birthday in a different manner than the rest of the Duchies. We did the famous Blue Hole dive trip consisting of three dives. We had to get up really early since the boat would leave at 05.45!
After a bumpy ride of 2 hrs we reached the famous Blue Hole. From the boat you could see this hole surrounded by a ring of coral very clearly. (look at the pic from the net)
We dropped down to about 42 mtrs, looking at the wall of the hole as a reference. At this depth we only had a bottom time of 8 minutes, so only a short time to look around. We dove in the great blue hole through limestone stalactites and pillars which had formed at the sides of the hole. This was really a surreal sight, or as they say here "Unbelievable!".
The second dive was at the Half Moon Wall, a dive site nearby. The different kinds and colours of soft and hard corals were really amazing here and different from what we had ever seen. We saw stingrays hiding in the sand, eagle rays, sharks, barracudas and crayfish and lots more other fish.
 After the second dive we docked at Half Moon Caye; an island which is placed on the World Heritage list (also with the support of the EU - finally they did something worthwhile with our money - although outside of the EU). Unfortunately they didn't give enough money so we still had to pay an entrance fee!. One of the reasons why it is a protected area, is that it is the home of the Red-Footed Boobies (a white bird with red socks). At the viewing platform we could overlook the island and all of its inhabitants. Also the frigates have found a home here.
After our visit to the island we continued on to our third dive site - the Aquarium.
Sunday we had a nice quiet day to wear of some of the excessive nitrogen we had built up during our dives the day before.
Monday we have our last diving trip scheduled on Belize Barrier Reef (near Turneffe Islands). Tuesday we will prepare ourselves for our departure to Panama on Wednesday morning.
Till next time!
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