The Blue Hole

One early morning after a two hour boat ride to the middle of nowhere we came to The Blue Hole. The Blue Hole is an ancient underground sea cave who’s roof has collapsed leaving a great dimple in the continental shelf. Our open water PADI certification is for 60ft but the blue hole dive is to 130ft, the human pressure limit of SCUBA gear.

After getting off the boat we dumped all the air out of our buoyancy gear and fell down through the water for a long time. Surrounded by sleepy seven foot reef sharks the sunlight slowly faded away. We swam through colossal stalactites covered with barnacles as the effects 130ft of water piled onto our heads took hold. At that pressure, nitrogen in the bloodstream is forced into nerve membranes and causes a general disruption of function.  Mandy reported some minor visual hallucinations and my own coordination and general sense of focus were very impaired. Other than being an enormous cave at a silly depth, there isn’t much life at the Blue Hole. Its a novelty dive. That pressure isn’t good for you, we felt dazed for at least two days.

We needed a lot of time to work the bubbles out of our blood after the hole. So we chilled out on Half Moon Caye, fed a barracuda from the dock and watched red footed boobies nest in the trees before our final dives. We took some photos on Half Moon Caye.

The Aquarium was reef on one side overlooking an apparently infinite abyss on the other. Green and hawksbill turtles swam slowly through  packed rainbows of fish.  Framing the streaming highways of life were magnificent coral. Improbable constructions of neon Red, Green, Purple and Orange stack and fanned out and up. The reef structures host all manner of tiny creatures doing little tiny urban creature things on a smaller and more sedate scale than the whirling abundance immediately outside.