The Great Escape
1 July 2004
Belize Academy of Diving, better
known as BAD - which I hasten to add, they are not - is the closest dive center
to Salamander, and a very good one at that. You sit at the end of the pier after
a scrumptious breakfast of herb eggs, piles of peeled and chopped fresh fruit
and a mug of steaming fresh coffee on the terrace and wait for them to bounce
over the horizon to you. Very civilized and effective and, in a place where
everything runs behind schedule and somewhat haphazardly, these guys are a South
African breath of fresh air.
The dive sites are generally no more than a 15-20 minute boat ride away and, once you reach the channel through the barrier reef, you kit up and hang on through the surf. Reefs tend to be, by-and-large, relatively deep, and nitrox would be a good move. Sharks and eagle rays criss-cross around you in the aptly named Shark Ray Alley, and turtles graze on the sumptuous coral on almost every dive. Visibility was always over 20 meters and dives were rarely under 60 minutes. If you want to see eye-to-eye with an eagle ray or ten and loose your mind with 15 bull sharks, gather your thoughts on a 'floating bed' under the stars, never hear a phone ring, brush up on your backgammon skills, and be welcomed to a hotel like long lost family then I think I've found what you might be looking for.
The above is an extract from an article in the July 2004 issue of UK Sport Diver magazine written by Rebecca Corbally, who stayed at Salamander and did 2 days diving with the Belize Academy of Diving as well as visiting the Blue Hole and the mainland.