From: danbe@master.CNA.TEK.COM (Dan Beougher)
Newsgroups: rec.scuba
Subject: Re: LIGHTHOUSE REEF RESORT
Date: 23 Nov 92 22:05:34 GMT
Organization: Tektronix, Inc., Beaverton,  OR.


I just got back from Belize a couple of days ago, so I'll take
this opportunity to answer your question and do a trip report.

I did ten days on Caye Caulker, 45 minutes by boat off the coast
of Belize.  By previous reports on the net, it is indeed the Gilligan's
Island of Belize.  The people are ultra-friendly, the food is
wonderul (lobster and conch nearly every meal), and the hotel
was adaquate.  I stayed at Tom's Hotel in a cabanna.  Private
bath, one room with a double and single and a fan ($30US a day!)
Fastidiously cleaned every day.  Caye Caulker has an 11-inch beach
invested with sand fleas.  The only beach is a little patch of sand at
one end where Hurricane Hattie blew a cut through the island.
Most people lounge on the docks extending into the sea.  This also
prevents blood loss from the sand fleas.  This is a little fishing
village that tourism has not hit too badly.  It has litter,
clutter, gross skinny dogs continually scratching, cats that
will take your hand off and bury it, and an Eternal
Bog of Stench midway through the island.  (If I sound critical, I'm
not....just honest as people were with me in describing it.
I loved every minute of it).  Caye Caulker is about 100-150 yards
wide and the inhabited part about a mile or so long.  Plenty of
places to eat and stay, and a good hopping bar or two.  Wildlife
includes American crockadiles (in the mangroves), boa constrictors,
and many species of birds indiginous only to Caye Caulker.

There are two dive shops on Caye Caulker.  I chose Frenchie's Dive
Shop and liked it so I did all my dives with them.
They are safe, thorough, knowledgeable, and professional.  The
divemaster was very consistant in watching over us and also
watching over the reef (you touch the coral the dive is over!).
The dive boat picked me up at the hotel dock every day (50 feet
from the room).  I brought my own equipment and they provided the
weights and tanks. Most dive spots were 10 to 20 minutes away.
The reef is about 200 yards off shore with flats of eel and turtle
grass.  Assorted coral heads allow superb snorkeling.
Normally we would do a deep drift dive (between
60 and 90 feet), then come back inside the reef for a mandatory
break, snack, snorkeling, and back out for the shallow dive (30 to
60 feet).  In addition to the blue, red, yellow, etc., we saw
shark on nearly every dive (nurse and black tip), rays, eels,
and barracuda.  Visibility was improving every day as the rainy
season was ending.  You could see fish at the bottom at 70-feet
and it was getting better.  Water was consistantly 84 degrees.
Weather was sunny with a torrential rainstorm for 30 minutes
every day.

Dives included Caye Caulker channel outside the reef.  Coral ridges
and sandy valleys.  A multitude of fish, giant sponges, coral of
every description.  Near Ambergris Caye is the Hol Chan Marine
Preserve where we did a deep dive outside the reef.  (This area is
monitored.  You pay $1.50US at the entrance to a bouyed area.)
Huge nurse sharks, barracuda, and very bold
monster groupers.  The shallow dive was done inside the reef in
Hol Chan proper. TONS of fish including the largest green moray
eel I've ever seen.  A cut in the reef allows a nutrient
rich current and lots of feeding.  No dive knives, gloves, and if
you touch the coral you're in trouble.  I saw an idiot standing
on a brain coral clearing his mask.  The official in charge handed
him a ticket (the fine is said to be $500US!).  Caye Chapel was
a good area for nurse shark, rays, and weird coral heads, but
the visibility was not as good.  Turneffe Islands was a wall dive
with really nice coral and lots of fish.

I debated on the Blue Hole and decided not to do it simple because
I wanted more dive time closer to Caye Caulker.  Several
did the plunge and reported back.  They said it was a
great ego trip, but gobbled up a lot of dive time.  They went to
130-135 feet, looked at a couple of impressive giant
stalactites and stalagmites for 9 minutes, and then ascended,
including two safety stops.  Because of the loading, etc., it
ended up a one dive day.  One lady said she got narced a little
at 130 feet.  Not unpleasant, but didn't want to do it again.
One professional said that if you're that close, make sure you
take in Half Moon Caye Monument.  Home of the red-footed boobie
and other feats (no pun) of nature.

As I look out my window the snow is four inches deep, the
proverbial brass monkey is clanking, and my tan is fading.
I would go back to Belize in a heartbeat.


dB


Organization: Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA