Undersea Vistas

If your next vacation takes you to a tropical climate and a coastal setting, why not learn to scuba dive? Few experiences can compare to the sense of freedom and total immersion that comes from swimming alongside sharks, rays, and whales, and from glimpsing amazing undersea sights with your own eyes, tens of meters beneath the ocean’s sparkling surface. Along the tourist trails that run through Central and South America, many dive shops specialize in teaching and certifying first-time divers how to pursue this very popular sport safely and with confidence. If you’ve never dived before, you have nothing to fear, as the diving instructors will be on-hand to prevent novices from making any dangerous mistakes, and are well-experienced at assisting anyone who can part with the modest instructional fee (and a few days to find your water wings). They’ll help you get the most out of what will almost surely be an experience that generates life-long memories – and some truly remarkable photographs, if you happen to bring an underwater camera!

Big Blue Dot

Those who begin their diving adventures in Central America are doubly in luck, as the region is one of the most renowned in the world for providing crystal-clear waters and an abundance of coral reefs, wildlife, and shipwrecks to explore. One of the most famous diving attractions is located in the middle of Lighthouse Reef off the coast of Belize; it’s known worldwide as the Great Blue Hole. Visible from the air as a giant blue dot in the otherwise clear and shallow water, the Great Blue Hole is exactly what it’s name implies :a huge sinkhole 300 meters in diameter and almost 125 meters from ocean floor to subterranean surface. It is one of the most impressive examples of cenote, a vertical entrance formed when a thin surface strata of karst limestone lying over an underground cave gives way. These natural formations are popular with divers as they are usually teeming with wildlife, as well as being simply a very unusual object that can be easily explored, but the Great Blue Hole is the mother of them all, a veritable express elevator to the ocean depths whose equal can hardly be found anywhere else on earth. The Hole’s blue color is an artifact of it’s depth, lying as it does in otherwise quite shallow seas around a coral reef, and the pure white sand at its bottom, which reflects light passing through the translucent water above. The gaping abyss’s turquoise gate beckons to any curious enough to explore its depths, and glimpse the multitude of sea creatures which call the inside home (or just wander by for a quick bite).

Millennia in the Making

Scientists have deduced that the Hole formed during the last several ice ages, when sea levels dropped precipitously as much of the world’s ocean water was trapped in continent-spanning frozen glaciers. The caves were carved out over tens of thousands of years by erosion, wind, and rain, and when the seas the returned, the roof of the Hole gradually buckled and broke under the water pressure, exposing the its subterranean depths to a deluge of seawater that filled it like an urn. Today the Hole is home to an abundance of sea life fitting every description, including nurse sharks, giant groupers, and even the occasional hammerhead. Anyone with an interest in diving :even if you’ve never seriously considered it :would be well -advised to put a trip to the Big Blue Hole on their itinerary. After a few days spent on your certification, you can partake in one of the full-day trips out to the Reef, which will include a stop at the Hole and at least three dive opportunities in various locations. Even if you might never get the chance to dive again, shouldn’t your only excursion into the depths be in a place that you can truly call memorable :someplace as unforgettable, exciting, and rewarding as Belize’s Big Blue Hole?

Duende Tours is a tour operator with a special focus on adventure travel. See Duende Adventure Tours to find out more or go to Belize Scuba Diving.