After another night in Guayaquil, and a stopover in Miami, the team has moved to Belize, and our eagerly anticipated encounter with the famous Blue Hole. We were hosted by the Belize Academy of Diving, and stayed at the sumptious Caribe Island Resort.

The reef diving in the area proved to be very good indeed, with some magnificent sponges and plenty of marine life. All of this was merely a prelude to the big fella, a forty mile boat ride out through the cays and the deepest dive of the Full Circle project. The hole is shaped like a gigantic bell, with a narrow top and a wide bottom. At 410 feet, it's deep, and (despite Pete's enthusiastic pleas) we decided against going all the way to the bottom!

The dive itself was unique, moving through giant stalactites with a nitrogen fuzzed brain and one eye on the large bull shark that joined us out of the depths of the hole. Great stuff.

You couldn't get a bigger contrast to our next dive, a eight foot marvel where nurse sharks and sting rays crawl all over you looking for handouts (the area usaed to be where fishermen stopped to gut their catches, and is a gathering point fopr sharks and rays).

Powered by CityMax.com