Belize It!

I just returned from ten days of exploring Belize, and found that no matter where you go, Belize is a wonderful destination. There are many reasons for its appeal, but I’ll give you my personal picks why I will visit Belize again and again.

1. The Obvious - and the Not So Obvious


The obvious? Scuba diving the barrier reef system. Great diving with reasonable boat rides, good visibility, warm water, reefs in great condition and lots of sea life.



The not so obvious? Belize is an exciting place for non-divers, too.

There are adventures for everyone! You can float downriver on an inner tube through amazing cave systems, explore Mayan ruins or hike through the world’s only Jaguar preserve. You can snorkel the barrier reef with stingrays and sharks or sample creamy, dark chocolate after watching it being ground and blended by Belizean natives. You can quietly search out manatees in their habitat among the mangroves or visit a nightclub where the entrance is through the open mouth of a gigantic jaguar head. You can stay in a thatched roof cabana or a five star jungle lodge complete with day spa. You can canoe a jungle river or visit a zoo where the people are in protected enclosures but the animals run free. It’s all possible in Belize.




2. Getting There – A short order. Living on the West Coast, not all tropical dive destinations are easy to get to, and frankly most of them are a considerable trek, requiring red eye flights, crummy schedules and nasty layovers. Belize is serviced by many major airlines and was a breeze to get to. We left San Francisco at 6am and arrived in Belize at 3:30pm with a short layover enroute in Houston that was just long enough for a quick lunch and stretching our legs.




3. Language Barrier – NONE. The official language of Belize is English. I love the neighboring Spanish speaking countries too, but it is so much easier traveling where you aren’t trying to remember how to say “I would like a taxi,” from your 6th grade Spanish class.


4. Time Zone – Mountain time zone.


Only one hour ahead of the West Coast and two hours behind the East coast. No insomnia or sleeping at your desk when you get home.




5. Money, Money, Money –
for people who don’t like math in their heads. It’s easy, $2 Belize, equals $1 US. Even I could figure it out on the fly. Bonus points – the US dollar is relatively strong in Belize, so your money goes a lot further. It is a simple matter to find many resorts offering accommodations that include transfers, meals, diving and/or jungle adventures for about the same price as other Caribbean island resorts would charge for just a room.






6. The People – genuine and warm.
The Belizeans we met were friendly, sincere and welcoming to their visitors. From our dive masters, to the girls who joined me in singing at the Karaoke bar, they embraced us with open arms.







7. The Places –
so much to see and do.



After ten days touring the country, I was disappointed to leave because there was so much I still wanted to see and do. Belize is an eco-adventure paradise for divers and non-divers alike. We missed out on many land adventures and barely scratched the surface of the countless dive sites.


8. The Great Blue Hole – A must do on the scuba diver’s bucket list.







I had heard divers report everything from “boring” to “awesome,” so I was prepared for whatever the Blue Hole had to offer.




.
But, after descending 130 feet through circling reef sharks and huge groupers to reach 40 foot stalagtites, “average” or “boring” were not words that came to mind. After swimming around and through the giant formations, words like “amazing,” “underwater cathedral” and “awestruck” came to mind, but “ho-hum average” was never even on the semantic radar.

So, now you want to go to Belize?? You know what to do… email me for info AtalantisWWT@yahoo.com. You better Belize it!

More info about specific locations, resorts and dive operators coming soon!

Tips & Tricks - Your Dive Mask

The things the dive instructor forgets to mention!

The Question:

I have issues with my hair getting caught in the mask strap! What a hassle! Any suggestions?

The Answer:

While shore diving south of Newport Beach, I watched a woman diver standing knee deep in the surf, trying to get her hair untangled from her snorkel while her husband/dive buddy fussed about how long it was taking her to get in the water. He was trying to help her, but it was obvious she was a newbie and was getting stressed by the whole thing. I waded out with an elastic hair tie and a bandana and saved the day.

If you have trouble with your hair getting caught in the mask strap, and shaving your head is not a viable option, here’s my solution in three easy steps.

1. Tie your hair back in a pony tail with an elastic hair tie. Make sure it is higher, or lower, than where your mask strap sits.

2. To keep all the loose hair around your face from getting tangled in your mask, I wear a bandana tied like a headband - folded about 3 inches wide and tied tight at the base of my skull. I usually get it wet first for the best fit. This works for men and women, long and short hair. It keeps all the gear by your temples - snorkel holder, mask strap adjusters, mask hinges and unsecured strap ends - from getting caught in the wispys around your face that tend to float free underwater.

3. Unless you do have a shaved head, make sure you have a cover over the back of the mask strap - the neoprene almond shaped ones that most dive shops and sporting goods stores sell work fine. This keeps the strap from ripping the hair out of your head when you put your mask on or take it off.

I experimented with a number of different solutions before I settled on this combo. I tried stretch headbands of various widths, French braids, and wearing bandanas in an assortment of ways. I even tried a racing type latex swim cap, but when I ascended, the air inside expanded and I had a balloon conehead before it built up enough pressure to shoot off my head like an air propelled rocket. Yea, my dive buddy laughed, too.

So try these solutions to keep your hair, and your dignity, intact.

Spreading the word,

The Bandanavangelist

SCUBA Dive SoCal Channel Islands

Just back from a three-day weekend in sunny SoCal diving the Channel Islands . We drove down Friday afternoon from the San Francisco Bay area and, even with traffic and dinner, got to Ventura in around six hours. Up early Saturday morning and onto the Raptor dive boat for three dives off Anacapa island.

The Raptor is a newer boat designed just for SCUBA divers and is manned by an efficient, friendly crew that has everything down to a system that runs like clockwork. The boat is sleek, clean and fast, able to reach Anacapa from Ventura Harbor in a mere 45 minutes. But we took a little longer as we slowed to watch a large pod of Common Dolphins play in the boat wake. We started off again, only to come to a complete stop as two humpback whales surfaced to show us their tale flukes and swim alongside.

After the excitement of the dolphins and whales, we reached the Brickyard dive site in a sheltered cove off Anacapa. Clear turquoise water, forests of kelp, tons of fish and even the sea lions turned up to play. Fabulous dive. Even the three-minute safety stop was entertaining as we watched a sea lion mimmick the divers below us. Two more dives off Anacapa and we headed back to Ventura Harbor while enjoying a hot lunch and brownies for dessert.

The Raptor dive boat is operated by Ventura Dive and Sport, a full service dive shop at the top of the gangway from the Raptor's berth, which offers rental gear, a training facility with pool, and most important at this moment in time - rinse tanks. We rinsed our gear and hung it on racks to dry overnight until our dives the next day. It was very nice not to haul all that gear up to the hotel room and rinse in the bathtub. Hidden benefit? - able to get in the hotel hot tub sooner!

Sunday morning took us to Santa Cruz island and the current was kind of rough, decreasing visibility a little. But it was also where we saw dense populations of huge sunflower starfish. They were mounded everywhere on, under and around the rocks.

For our last dive we went around to the other side of Santa Cruz and immediately the visibility increased and so did the fish population. We descended into schools of sardines and the rocky areas were a girabaldi playground. Nice indeed.

We slept in the next day, Memorial Day, and then took our time driving home with almost NO traffic all the way. Amazing but true.

A mini dive vacation can be a lot of fun. If you'd like to know how you can enjoy a trip like this, email me for details. Next 3D - Drive-Dive-Drive trip will be Aug 29th thru Sept 1st, 2008. Sign up early - the boat was sold out for Memorial Day and I expect the same for Labor Day weekend.

Sea ya.

Grand Cayman - Where to stay? Where to dive?

Grand Cayman - Where should a SCUBA diver stay and dive?


There are many different Caymans on Grand Cayman. There is the high rise luxury of Seven Mile beach with its Hilton, Westin, and other upscale hotels. There are the far flung villas and small resorts peppered around the edges of the island. And always, within view, are the signature Grand Cayman mansion estates lining the waterways.

For our purposes, we chose to make the less traveled East End our base of dive operations. The East End of the island has less divers, the reef is reported to be in better shape, and there are numerous bad weather options. When weather is rough, the dive boats scurry to the protected south side, or run up north around Rum Point, depending on wind and wave direction. It was good to know great diving in both directions was no more than a 15-20 minute boat ride away.

MORRITT’S TORTUGA and TORTUGA DIVERS
We stayed at Morritt’s Tortuga resort, a timeshare condo resort that also rents on a space available basis. Morritt’s, like so many places on the island, was still recovering from hurricane Ivan, with active building going on. Most of the resort was functional, but the visible foundations of building wings made it obvious there used to be more resort there than we were seeing on our visit. We later learned that even an entire three story condo building had been virtually erased by Ivan.

The condos at Morritt’s were serviceable, but suffered from minor deferred maintenance, probably due to the fact that all efforts were being directed to rebuilding. Most of the units available for renters (as opposed to timeshare owners) have pool views, not ocean views, so don’t expect one.

We dove with Tortuga Divers, who operate off the pier at Morritt's and are part of Red Sail Sports, a large corporation that serves SCUBA divers in the luxury resorts of Seven Mile Beach, as well as some other Caribbean islands. As such, they are not as warm and fuzzy, or as flexible, in their operation as some smaller dive operators are. If you know how to dive, then great. Go and have a blast. If you need hand holding, this is not the place for you.

The boats were modern and spotless. The crew and dive masters were efficient as well as a lot of fun. Particularly the dive briefings by Brett, which reminded me of going to comedy traffic school. They also managed to skirt around the rough water on windy days and get us to some fantastic sites. My favorite being Iron Shore Gardens, with countless tunnels and swim throughs filled with swirling shoals of silversides and Black Jacks zipping past us to feed on the small fish.

COMPASS POINT and OCEANT FRONTIERS
Just down the road from Morritt's, Compass Point Resort is the base of operations for Ocean Frontiers Dive Center, a full service SCUBA operation. Compass Point is much smaller than Morritt’s but like Morritt’s, consists entirely of one and two bedroom condo units, but here, all face the ocean. As a smaller resort focused on diving, and most guests busy talking dive gear and telling stories about their underwater adventures around the globe, Compass Point and Ocean Frontiers have a sportier, intimate feel. Think, SCUBA camp for grownups. But don’t think that means rustic – Compass Point is anything but rustic.

Ocean Frontiers is a fast and fun SCUBA dive operation, with energetic crews. They operate multiple boats, but keep the dive groups on the small side so everyone still gets a great experience.

We were there during “Pirate Week,” when all the dive boats on the island raise the skull and crossbones flag and engage in skirmishes involving eggs and homemade flour “bombs.” No matter where I looked on the East End, Ocean Frontiers could usually be found in the middle of the foray, mixing it up and challenging other dive boats for their patch of reef.

SUNSET HOUSE
Sunset House on the east side of the island, just south of Seven Mile Beach, and just a short drive from the airport, is the most well known SCUBA resort on Grand Cayman. It offers functional hotel rooms, restaurants and access to unlimited shore diving with a convenient tank shack on your way to the pier. This is a no-frills resort and a good value for the money, plus you’re just barely out of town, so everything from fast food to night life is only minutes away.

And surprisingly, there’s plenty to see right off the Sunset House pier. I wasn’t underwater three minutes when I was swimming with turtles and chasing schools of fish. We wandered over to explore a submerged military troop carrier and ended up sitting on the edge waving at an “Atlantis” tourist submarine going by. I could see all the camera flashes going off in the sub windows and had the odd sensation of becoming some kind of amusement attraction, suddenly transported into the Finding Nemo ride at Disneyland. Kind of quirky too, thinking that now some kid has a picture of me at home in his photo album.


COBALT COAST and DIVE TECH
Lastly, we visited Cobalt Coast Resort, the home of Dive Tech Dive Center, at the northern tip of the island. A smaller resort with a U-shaped hotel around a square pool facing the ocean, Cobalt Coast is a short drive, but well removed, from the hustle and bustle of Georgetown. You even have to wind through a residential area to arrive there, but once there it was a world removed. Slower paced, laid back and relaxed. Aaahhhhh.

It was too windy to dive the day we were there, so we just hung around the Dive Tech shop to chat, get to know people and discover the character of their staff and operation. Our first sign of Dive Tech’s personality was when we were greeted by a large white dog with brown spots sitting on a ledge in the service window of the dive shop. Approaching the windowsill was an invitation to have your face washed with a big pink tongue.

The Dive Tech staff was warm and relaxed, but obviously professional and took its responsibility for its divers seriously. Finally, we had found someone to hold our hand if we needed it. Every trip could be changed, every destination was adjustable to diver needs.

Even though I didn't actually dive with themk - with the wind too strong and the water too rough to dive, either by boat or shore - I liked them and knew I wouldn’t have a second thought about jumping off a boat with their dive master. After all that hunting around and diving here and there, Cobalt Coast and Dive Tech really felt like a good fit.

On Grand Cayman there is a resort, and a SCUBA dive operator, to match every diver. And with good diving – and some world famous dive sites like Stingray City – from almost every point on the island, Grand Cayman is well worth checking out.

SCUBA Dive Travel – About Grand Cayman

The Cayman Islands occupy a part of the Caribbean just south of Cuba and are part of the British West Indies. One of the things in its favor is that it’s neither a remote nor a third world island. Power stays on 24 hours a day, grocery stores have the brands we’re used to, and you can get KFC or Subway for your picnic lunch. There are hospitals, malls, Costco and Wal-Mart.

Of course, you may not want all of those things and it’s great that, despite the fact that the island is so “civilized” and developed, there are still many places where you can get away to remote areas. But to go anywhere on the Grand Cayman pretty much requires a rental car and, since this is part of the British West Indies, driving on the “wrong” side of the road is a challenge. I never got used to it and was relegated to the back seat where I could flinch and squirm at oncoming traffic without disturbing the driver or other passengers too much.

Airfare to Grand Cayman is within the expected Caribbean fares, and flights leave regularly from Miami, the closest major US airport. Cayman Airways also flys out of Newark, NJ and some other hubs, so now matter where you’re flying from, it’s not too much trouble to find a schedule that will work for you.

An important thing to know, and one that I was surprised to learn, was how much things cost on the island – especially food. From fine restaurants down to roadside BBQ stands, (which you MUST try when you see as you're driving along) food costs a bundle. Outside of KFC or Subway, two people for lunch – burgers, fries and drinks – could easily run $30, and dinner was never under $50 per person, even for a plate of pasta.

We offset some of the meal costs by making a trip to the grocery store for breakfast foods and snacks, but even the trip to the store was costly. I never travel without peanut butter and jelly from home (A jar of each goes in each fin in my dive gear bag. Don’t laugh. I haven’t lost a jar yet.) and boy, was I glad to have it.

Souvenirs cost more. Tee shirts and hats cost more. Feeding your rental car was off the charts, with gas over $1.50 more per gallon than the most expensive fuel here in California.

But don’t let the expense deter you from experiencing all Grand Cayman has to offer. Grand Cayman was voted the 4th Top Dive Destination in SCUBA Diving magazine’s 2007 Reader’s Choice survey.

The water is warm. The diving is abundant and varied, with some amazing locations. There is shore diving and boat diving, reefs, walls and huge swim throughs that are filled with shoals of silversides and darting blackjacks. You can sit on the bottom of the ocean and be enveloped by stingrays at the world famous Stingray City dive site, or you can hold baby green sea turtles at the turtle farm. You can even go to Hell if you want. Literally.

So come to Grand Cayman and sing along with the Barefoot Man “I need a couple of doses, of nitrogen narcosis…” For more Grand Cayman info click here

Next up? Where to stay.

Where In the World to Go??

SCUBA Dive Travel – Where to go??? Can’t decide where to go for your next SCUBA dive trip???

Take a look at the January 2008
“Top 100 Reader’s Choice Survey”
at Scuba Diving Magazine http://www.scubadiving.com/travel/general_travel/top_100_readers_choice_survey

Check out what readers thought were the BEST in categories –

Top Dive Destinations
Top Marine Life
Top Big Animal Encounters
Healthiest Marine Environment
Top Macro Life
Top Wall Diving
Top Wreck Diving
Top Beginner Diving to Top Advanced Diving
Top Shore Diving
and especially - Top Value
then my personal favorite - Top Underwater Photography

Any of these top spots, Atlantis Worldwide can take care of all your travel details. Dive travel, for divers, by divers.

Just email Atlantiswwt@yahoo.com

As the Barefoot Man on Grand Caymans would sing “I need a couple of doses, of nitrogen narcosis…”

SCUBA Dive Travel - British Virgin Islands (BVI)

Non- Smoking Travel - Well, some will hate it, some will love it, but the fact is that in May 2007, the BVI government passed new smoking regulations. According to the new law, smoking is no longer permitted in hotel rooms, bars, restaurants, buildings and open-air facilities. To accommodate smokers, most hotels and other businesses have set aside "designated smoking areas." Need to know more about the SCUBA diving the British Virgin Islands and BVI vacations? Email me at AtlantisWWT@yahoo.com.