Snorkeling in the Belize Barrier Reef

The Belize Barrier Reef is the longest barrier reef in the Western Hemisphere, second in the world to Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. Charles Darwin in 1842 referred to it as “the most remarkable reef in the West Indies”. The ecosystem is quite diverse and it has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1996.

Since we are staying in San Pedro on Ambergris Caye, we chose a full day snorkel and sail experience with Seaduced. The day started with some confusion as to where to pick people up, but in no time we were on our catamaran and in the sea. It was a beautiful day, but it could have been hotter, in my opinion.

In either case, we were one of the last few to get on the catamaran and everyone else had parked themselves out in the (weak) sun. Instead of joining the crowd, I sat in the shade near the captain. Well, we weren’t even 30 minutes into the sail when people (White of course) started to seek shelter from the sun freeing up a spot for me and my thoughts. But it could have been hotter truly.

We first stopped at Hol Chan to snorkel around the reef completing one big circle.

There were quite the number of other boats and catamarans there and on our boat alone there were at least 20 people so lots of people sighting here.

Then we stopped at Shark Ray Alley (technically also in Hol Chan) and snorkeled around the catamaran. The shark were much bigger than I thought they would be…but harmless.

YouTube Video
As I was coming out of the water a rather large shark seemed to come along and ended up nudging my left foot at the bottom ring of the ladder. I didn’t see all of this happening, just that I turned back around after setting my flippers aside to look forward and there it was at my foot. For a second I thought it was going to bite it off. But did I scream? No, because this one here lives so far deep in her head that screams and other alarmed/excited emotions rarely make it to the surface. Sigh!