Intermediate Belize
Belize
The Blue Hole, three atolls, and the longest coral barrier in the western hemisphere
The Great Blue Hole is the most recognizable aerial photo in world diving. Diving it is another matter: forty meters, dark water, almost no life, and giant stalactites hanging from a cave that was once dry. It's worth knowing before you go.
In this profile you'll find out what the blue hole really is and what it feels like to dive it, what the three atolls and the barrier reef offer (which is where the life is) when to go, what level you need, and what rules govern a World Heritage system.
Belize has the longest continuous barrier reef in the western hemisphere and three of the four atolls that exist in the Atlantic, a combination with no equal in the region.
Geography and access
Belize sits on the Caribbean coast of Central America, with a coral barrier running along nearly its entire coastline and forming part of the Mesoamerican reef system.
In front of that barrier are three oceanic atolls, something exceptional: in the whole Atlantic only four exist, and three are here.
At the center of one of those atolls is the Great Blue Hole: a circular pit more than three hundred meters across and about a hundred and twenty deep.
It wasn't always a pit. During the ice ages sea level was much lower and this was a dry limestone cave, with stalactites forming in the open air. When the sea rose, the cave flooded and the roof collapsed.
Those stalactites are still there, hanging in the gloom at around forty meters. It's a geological, deep dive, not a wildlife dive.
Access is by international flight to Belize and a transfer to the cayes, or a direct crossing to the atolls. Trips to the Blue Hole are usually long day trips from the cayes, or part of liveaboard routes.
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