THE BLUE HOLE - CENTRAL AMERICA - BELIZE - OUTER BARRIER REEF This image was taken in what is known as the Blue Hole, located on the outer barrier reef off Belize in Central America. This is the second largest barrier reef in the world, the first being the Great Barrier Reef off eastern Australia. This is the largest of the known Blue Holes. The Blue Hole was made famous by Jacques Cousteau in one of his television specials and has now become a well-visited attraction for divers visiting this area. Blue holes begin as underground terrestrial caverns, during shifting of the earths plates they are gradually moved beneath the ocean and fill with saltwater. The Blue Hole is in the middle of a coral reef, perfectly round and surrounded by coral reef visible from the surface. Not much of anything lives here and little grows on the walls of this 400 foot plus deep hole. A few sharks will wander in and out on occasion but other than that no fish life is to be seen. The attraction of diving this hole is to experience absolutely the most crystal gin clear blue water you will ever see. It is a visit to inner space and you are floating suspended in the infinity of blue. The water is completely undisturbed by the turbulence of the open ocean so no silt or debris is stirred up. Visibility is in excess of 200 feet, yet the hole is so large you cannot see the other side underwater. Nor can you see the bottom or surface, your only point of reference for up or down is the direction your bubbles take to the surface and the wall beside you. As you descend and look up your bubbles race to the surface in long sheets spread out like diamonds across a clear blue sky. Once you descend below 100 feet the seductive mistress of nitrogen narcosis starts to warp your sense of reality with such subtlety you do not even know she is there. Much like getting gas at the dentist. This image was taken at 240 feet beneath the surface utilizing only available light. Here the vertical walls slope in and stalactites have formed on the ceiling of the slope. This is the highlight of your dive and you have two minutes before you must head for the surface. Because of the depth of this dive and the limits on time, the entire dive lasts nine minutes from the time you leave the surface till you reach your first decompression stop at thirty feet. You must make two more decompression stops before returning to the surface. Total time for decompression is twenty minutes before you can return to the surface. Additional tanks have been set up at these stops, as by now your original scuba tank is dead empty. This dive is not for the novice or those easily disoriented by a lack of spatial reference. Numerous divers have died diving this hole and it should only be undertaken with an experienced guide, the right equipment and training. You should also have had some previous experience under more controlled conditions with nitrogen narcosis a common contributor to diving deaths. geoff