We woke to the most beautiful weather we’d seen since we’ve been here. A sunny day without any clouds and, more importantly for diving, a day with very little wind was on hand. We couldn’t waste this opportunity. We gathered up our stuff and headed for the dock. We boarded a boat with Turiano and Steve and Barb from New York. Our first dive was at Cypress Canyons. We swam through deep tunnels formed by rock and coral that came out as deep as 90 feet. Visibility was good and we floated effortlessly on the current past a myriad of coral and brightly colored fish. After a surface interval on the dock, we went back for a second dive at Cypress reef. Although it wasn’t far from Cypress canyons, the coral formations were different here. Huge fingers of coral stretched up in formations that were at least 20 feet tall and almost as wide. Fish hid inside for protection and scurried away only when we came near.

Both dives today went well, good visibility and calm water on entry and exit. We were happy with our dives and ready to call it a day (as far as diving was concerned) until we learned there was a night dive scheduled! Christian has done one night dive before and I’ve never done one. We tried to schedule a night dive on Caye Caulker but the weather didn’t cooperate. We’ve heard that the Caribbean marine life is different at night thanks to animals that hunt at night and hide during the day. So we jumped on the opportunity to do the dive in this perfect weather.

The rest of the afternoon was spent finding lunch and visiting the marine supply store to find a replacement strap for my broken underwater noisemaker, then back to the room for a little rest before it was time to get ready for the night dive.

We headed to the dock around 5:30. The boat would actually go out just before the sunset to tie off and get ready for nightfall. The currents reportedly can get stronger and stronger underwater after sunset so the best time to go is just as it gets dark to avoid the extremely strong currents. As we sat on the dock and waited while the boat was prepared we saw a spotted eagle ray glide slowly past the dock just beneath the surface of the water. The beauty and grace of the rays never gets old. We boarded the boat as the sun began to dip near the western horizon, and the boat began the short trip to our destination. We tied off to the buoy and Turiano began briefing us on how the dive would go and what we would see. We would enter the water a few minutes before total darkness to ease the transition (especially for me since it was my first night dive). It’s one thing to jump into clear blue water and be able to see for a hundred feet or more in every direction. It’s a completely different experience to jump into black water where your sight is limited by the beam of the flashlight you’re holding.

Once in the water we descended to the sandy bottom. This would be a shallow dive as 25 feet is the maximum depth of the channel in the area with coral formations and walls on either side of the wide sandy bottom. I could already feel the current moving me along and I saw there would be nothing effortless about this dive, it took constant movement to maintain your position or to move slowly enough to search for marine life with the flashlight.

The light quickly faded and all we could see was whatever was within our flashlights reach. Very large grouper with beautiful stripes and patterns followed us around. They’ve learned to also follow the flashlight beams of the divers to find small fish they can eat. My problem was that each time I saw a cute little fish I would move my light because I didn’t want to be the cause of the beautifully colored fish getting eaten. Faulty logic maybe, of course I know its the way it works out here, but I couldn’t help it. We looked above us and saw schools of small fish silhouetted in our lights. We also watched as several majestic spotted eagle rays glided by above us.

The furthers we swam we began to see stingrays lying on the sandy floor, they flap their “wings” and cover themselves with sand until you see only their eyes and the outline of their bodies. Further investigation within my limited beam revealed hundred of stingrays on the ocean floor. In some places there didn’t seem to be any spots without sting rays, and I suddenly became very cautious of not getting too near the sand and disturbing them with thoughts of Steve Irwin in my head. We encountered a large green moray eel swimming very quickly around the coral wall, Christian and I were trying to alert Turiano but by the time he noticed it the eel was almost swimming up his leg. Of course I know the eels may be looking for food but we are not on the menu. That doesn’t make it less intimidating to see a 6 foot eel swimming within a few feet. We rounded a corner and Turiano was motioning with his light to come near him. A cuttlefish (squid) was hovering about a small coral formation. As we came closer it didn’t move, it’s body was an elongated sphere that was somewhat translucent so that our flashlight beams penetrated it. It’s eyes were like dark orbs win the small tentacle like protrusions on top and what looked like a tiny spinning propeller on the bottom, I couldn’t take my eyes off this little alien. It just hovered for several minutes until it decided to leave by the exact path I was occupying. I had a little moment of terror as it swam directly at my face. I was suddenly not sure if the eggplant sized creature was of any danger to me and I flapped my arms wildly to move. It came within a few inches of my head and disappeared. I was stunned. That was the most unusual living creature I’ve ever seen so close. We had only a few minutes remaining in the hour long dive and we came to the boat. At some point we had circled around and come back to our boat, of which I had been unaware. There is no way to safely do a dive like this without an experienced divemaster who knows the way. We climbed aboard the boat excited about all we’d seen. As after all good dives, the atmosphere was electric with the thrill of exploration into a foreign world, especially since we’d witnessed the cuttlefish so closely.

We returned to our room and changed. We were hungry and walked down the beach to find a restaurant for dinner. We had signed up for a trip to Turneffe for tomorrow. It would be a long day with 3 dives near the distant islands of Turneffe Atoll. We’ve wanted to dive there ever since we got to Belize but it’s been difficult to find someone going there or at least find a day without so much wind that it makes the trip impossible, so we have high hopes for tomorrow. For now we need to try to get some sleep since our boat leaves the dock at 6 am.

Just another exciting day in paradise….