Belize August 2010

Even though we had no connection to the internet, I said I was going to type up a blog post every day anyway so that when we got back to civilization we could post them. Did that happen? No. Fortunately, once we got on the boat the daily schedule was pretty much the same every day, just a different location and a different menu. So I will try my best to summarize our week aboard the Sun Dancer II in Belize.

We started our journey on Saturday, August 14, 2010. My dad picked us up at 5 a.m. And we were off to the airport. When we checked in for our flight the computer offered us an upgrade to first class, so we figured what the heck. For the first time in our married lives, we flew all the way to our destination first class. What a difference from coach. They actually served us a full breakfast—WOW! We flew from Phoenix to Houston and then Houston to Belize. Our flights were pretty uneventful and we arrived in Belize with all of our baggage.

Once we arrived in Belize we were met at the airport by a member of the crew and transferred by bus to the dock where the rest of the crew and guests were waiting for us to arrive. Our flight arrived a little later than expected and we were the final passengers to board the boat. After we were shown to our room, everyone met in the salon for a quick briefing of the rest of the day's events. After a muster drill on the sundeck, the boat left port and headed for our first destination (about five hours away).

We headed back to our room to try and get some of our stuff unpacked and organized for the week ahead and get our dive gear set up on the dive deck. One nice thing with this boat is once you get your gear set up on your tank, that is the last time you have to touch it until the week is over. After every dive your original tank is refilled by the crew.

After we got somewhat settled in, we were off to enjoy the first of a week's worth of fine four-course dinners. Since there were only 20 passengers and eight crew members on this 138 foot boat it was very easy to get to know some of the other guests. Many chose to sit at a different table every time so they could get to know some of the others. We met and got to know many wonderful people during our week aboard the boat. After dinner, we were pretty much all off to bed so we could get up bright and early the next day to start diving.

Like I said above, the schedule for every day was pretty much the same:

7 a.m. Breakfast
8 a.m. First dive
Fresh-baked snack
10:30 a.m. Second dive
Noon – Buffet Lunch
1:30 p.m. Third dive
Afternoon snack
4:00 p.m. Fourth dive
6:00 p.m. Four-course Dinner
7:15 p.m. Night dive

Needless to say, this schedule left little time for anything else other than eating, diving, and sleeping. By the end of the day we were pretty much ready to go to bed so we could get up the next day and do it all over again. The food was excellent. It is a good thing we were doing at least four dives a day to burn off all those calories. Pretty much every day we did four dives. On the second day we did four dives plus the night dive. Unfortunately, I ended up getting sick on Tuesday night with some sort of GI virus. Needless to say, I spent all day Wednesday in bed without food, just trying to stay hydrated. Wednesday was also the day that we went to the famous Blue Hole. So I did not get to see it, much less dive it. Eric decided to skip the Blue Hole dive since many people said there was really nothing to see, just straight algae-covered walls down to about 130-140 feet where there were some giant stalactites. The main reason people dive it is just to say they have done it.

After everyone surfaced safely from the Blue Hole dive, the boat headed to Half Moon Cay so that everyone could go ashore during their surface interval and visit the Booby sanctuary. Again, I was in bed, but Eric decided to skip this also since it was very hot and steamy on the island and I guess he just was not in the mood to look at boobies.

Friday the schedule only included two dives, the first of which was at 6 a.m. After the second dive the boat started up and we headed back to the dock at Belize City. For an extra charge you could book land excursions around Belize City on Friday and/or Saturday. They had excursions to the Zoo, the Mayan ruins, and cave tubing. Eric and I decided to just stay on the boat and get a head start on our packing and relax a bit. Friday night was a BBQ buffet on the boat with ribs, BBQ chicken/beef, corn on the cob, etc., and the captain gave his video/photo presentation. It was a good time to socialize with everyone before leaving early the next morning.

Saturday everyone had to have their bags in the hallway by 7:30 a.m. and everyone had to be off the boat by 8 a.m. (no matter what time of the day your flight was). Unfortunately, our flight was not until 4 p.m. Saturday afternoon. However, they have a deal with the Radisson hotel across the street that Sun Dancer II guests can use the lobby and bar/restaurant and pool until it is time for them to head to the airport. So we hung around the hotel until 1:00 p.m. when the bus picked us up and transported us to the airport. Luckily we were not the only couple on that flight, so we had other people to socialize with during our wait. We especially enjoying talking with Mike and Marsha.

Our flight left Belize a bit early and our trip home was smooth sailing. We arrived home safely and our luggage made it in one piece too. We very much enjoyed our trip and would highly recommend this boat and crew to anyone who has never experienced a live-aboard before. For further information you can check out their website at: http://www.dancerfleet.com/belize-home.shtml

As far as sea life was concerned, our first dive of the trip we saw a caribbean reef shark. As a matter of fact, it swam right up to Eric, checked him out, and then swam off. That ended up being the only shark we saw for the whole trip. We also saw one spotted eagle ray, a couple turtles, a seahorse, a couple eels, sting rays, a couple of remoras looking for a home, hermit crabs, lobsters, an octopus on our night dive, several larger jellyfish, garden eels, jaw fish (some with eggs in their mouth) and lots and lots of your typical caribbean fish species like angel fish, trigger fish, chub, horse-eye jacks, barracuda, etc., etc.

Some of our photos from the trip can be seen in our Photo Gallery.

Now we are back home and counting down the days to our next trip...Palau.