Belize Day 2 - Diving and the Beach Club

We must have been really tired because we both slept for almost 12 hours. We set an alarm for 7am and didn’t think we would need it since we went to bed so early the night before, but it turns out we ended up getting up at 7am. 

We went to grab breakfast at the hotel restaurant. Alison had a delightful piece of avocado toast and I tried a Belizean fry bread with eggs and refried beans inside it. It was really delicious. 

After breakfast there was a rather unpleasant development. I backed our golf cart up to head into town when it stopped working. I tinkered with a couple of things with no success. We were frustrated. We also had to be to the dive shop before too long. We called the rental company and they said they would come pick up the broken golf cart. 

In the meantime we still needed to get to diving so we decided to rent a temporary golf cart from our hotel. This only took a couple of minutes and we were back on our way. As we pulled out of the resort it started pouring rain. It was coming down in sheets. We found our way to the dive shop and made a mad dash through the rain to the cover of the shop. 

We used Belize Pro Dive Center for all of our dives on this trip. We cannot say enough good things about them. They are easily the best dive shop we have ever used. We planned multiple dives over three different days with them. Before the first dive they fitted us with equipment and then they would ensure the same equipment would be loaded on the boat before each of our dives. It was so convenient. 

Today we were doing a two-tank dive, which means we went on two separate dives using a fresh air tank for each dive. Both dives were great. 

The first dive was in the San Pedro Canyons. This area was only ~10 minutes from the dive shop, which was good because it was still raining. Diving in the rain is great because once you are under the water the rain doesn’t matter. The boat ride out to the dive site was a bit choppy though.

Once we were at the dive site we geared up and entered off the boat. We used the back roll method. Alison and I haven’t used this method off of a boat before. Basically you sit right on the edge of the boat and use one hand to hold your mask and regulator on and place the other hand on the back of your head to protect from knocking it on something and then you cross your legs and roll backward into the water. It is kind of a fun maneuver. 

The diving in Belize is spectacular. As we descended I couldn’t believe how clear the water is - we had great visibility. The sea life was abundant. We went fairly deep on this dive. Alison and I both bottomed out around 67 feet. We saw some sharks (all harmless - at least we think they are). We saw an eel and a lobster, as well as beautiful coral and tons of fish. This area is full of deep canyons breaking up the reef. We dove for a little over 40 minutes. 

During our surface interval we headed back to the dive shop. By this point the rain had passed and it turned into a gloriously sunny day. At the dive shop we ate some fruit and snacks and drank water. We also got to know the other people diving with us. There was a nice family from Arkansas and a couple from Phoenix. There were also three guys from California. Since we all were planning on multiple dives through this shop we would see a lot more of each other in the coming days. Once the crew had loaded new air tanks into the boat we took off for our next dive site. 

Our second dive was in an area called B&D. This dive was also a short boat ride from the shop. It was similar to the first dive site. Once again we saw abundant sea life. Easily the highlight was seeing a mama and baby dolphin swim right by us. They came by once and then circled back and swam right through our group. They probably would have come around again, but right after we saw them the second time a large reef shark also swam by our group. Just after these two dives we were already loving diving in Belize. The clear water and sea life are unreal. 

After diving we headed back to the hotel and dropped off our temporary golf cart. We rinsed the salt water off and changed swim suits real quick before catching the boat to the beach club. 

The Mahogany Bay hotel is built on a fresh water inlet. To have a beach the hotel owns a private beach club on the ocean. To get there you have to take a speedboat and it takes about 15 minutes. Boats leave the hotel every hour on the hour and come back every hour on the half hour. 

The beach club is beautiful. They have a bar and a restaurant, they have beach chairs, they have paddle boards and floaties. They also have overwater day beds. The water by the beach is super shallow - only 3-4 feet. It is fun to play in. It is quite the beautiful location. 

We rented an overwater daybed for the afternoon. They were having a Sunday BBQ so we got a BBQ plate and chips/salsa/guacamole to share. We read and relaxed the afternoon away.

We watched a beautiful sunset from our daybed before taking the last boat back to the resort at 5:30pm. There were a lot of people who waited for the last boat so it took 2 boats to ferry us all back. 

Back at the resort the crocodile was hanging out by the pool area again. It kept surfacing so that we had clear views of its head. It looked fierce. 

One of the downsides of this resort is that there are a lot of mosquitos. It seems like mosquitos love me. I got a lot of bites. I even wore repellent. It is what it is. We would find out mosquitos appear to be a problem all over Belize. It is one of the biggest downsides of traveling to Belize.

We had a huge lunch so we weren’t that hungry. I went and picked up an order of chicken wings from a place called the Chicken Coop on the resort. They were quite tasty. 

They also dropped off our new golf cart tonight. This one seems much better. Fingers crossed it doesn’t break down. 

After the wings we called it a night. Belize has a curfew because of Covid so establishments aren’t open late and once it is dark the mosquitos are out in force. Plus we are still playing catch up on our sleep.