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Published: January 5th 2012
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Chirst of the Abyss
This is the back of the statute. It looks like just a cross, but around front there is a face carved in the concrete, as well as robes. Today was the last day we could dive, since we have to have 24 hours between our last dive and flying. We woke to a partially sunny day, very little wind, but it was cold, or cold for Belize maybe 65 degrees. Natives were dressed in winter coats and stocking caps, as we walked to the dock to catch the boat in our shorty wet suits. I have wanted to dive a site called The Christ of the Abyss since we arrived, but the seas were too rough. Also there isn't a mooring site there so they have to "eyeball" the location, drop you and then follow your bubbles to where you eventually come up. So that's what they did, we rolled off somewhere near (we hoped) the site and started the swim to where the Divemaster though it might be. The "it" we were looking for was a cement statue of Christ with his arms oustretched that sits in about 65 feet of water. The statute is about 6' tall. Unfortunately, our swim was directly into the current, and the current was strong so it required constant finning to keep everyone in site. We did make it to the site,
Patty with Lionfish Kill
Left him on the spear, and swam with tip down so I wouldn't accidentally touch another diver. The fish didn't die for several minutes after being speared, so could still sting. but my photograher (Husband) was down to less than 1,000# of air and couldn't stay down to get a shot of the front, but we did get one of the back. Two members of the dive party were very low on air when we finally got to the site, so one of the divemasters took them back to the top and the rest of us stayed down and just let the current take us. It was just like flying, you never had to fin, just sit back and enjoy the scenery. About 15 minutes after the first two people had gone up, the rest of us ascended. At this point, Jim was ready to give up the second dive because the first one was so tough, and once you were out of the water, the air was cold, and seas were choppy. However after returning to the dock to get full tanks, the divemaster convinced us we needed to do one more dive as we wouldn't want to end our vacation on a bad dive. He promised a new dive spot where they would drop us south and we would drift north, it would be effortless. So we geared up
Spotted Eagle Ray
There were two of them swimming right below us. They were beautiful, so graceful, and their wing span was over 7'. again and did the second dive and are so glad we did. The dive spot is Esmeralda and if your planning a trip to Belize to dive, include this dive in your itinerary. There were Nurse Sharks as soon as we got in, and the dive was alive with marine life. About 10 minutes in I got a shot at a good size lionfish in about 100' of water. Divemaster signaled me to leave it on the end of my spear, so I could feed it to a nurse shark. There were no sharks around at the time, but within 10 minutes they were coming in looking for the kill. I put the spear down and the big guy came right up and pulled it off the end of my spear, thanked me and swam off. =) We also saw beautiful spotted eagle rays, a green moray eel, large gray angel fish and the best part was it was a drift dive. We didn't have to do anything, but float through the water, looking for fish, playing with the sharks, and enjoying the beautiful scenery. It was a great dive and we are so glad the Divemaster talked us into
"one last dive".
If you are planning a dive trip to Belize, please stop and see our friends at Reef Adventures. Ched, Michael, Chucky and Kaedell will ensure you enjoy your diving experience regardless of your diving ability. In tomorrow's blog I will include pictures, and websites for Reef Adventures Dive Shop.
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