There is a world some see only in pictures, the underwater world filled with the wonder and mystery of the unknown. The reefs, the colors, the fish, and the pure enjoyment of discovery are only some of the reasons we scuba dive. Scuba divers have a quest for adventure; whether professional or for recreational purposes, and what better way to fulfill this quest than to do something people all over the world are doing, Scuba diving.

For some, the name itself conjures up images of the past where someone dressed all in black, with a large face mask, slides into the water, such as Jacque Cousteau, or someone from an old TV series called Sea Hunt. Is it any wonder that Scuba diving is vague to some? However, for those taking the first plunge into the world of diving, it will most likely be a first step into a lifetime of fun.

Take home a memory

Photography is another reason Scuba diving has become so popular. Combined with the proper tools, photos taken underwater are an achievement that could never be mastered without visiting the spectacular underwater world. For the explorer in all of us there is that drive that lures us to underwater caves and feeling the freedom and sensation that comes with diving.

Scuba diving, which stands for Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus, allows us, the graceful underwater swimmer, the opportunity to see how large and powerful the world below us actually is and with today’s equipment and proper education, almost anyone can dive. People all over the world have taken to the waters below, from ages 8 and up.

Whether you’re diving for recreation, or professionally, once you have made the decision to Scuba dive, you will find there is nothing as enjoyable as feeling the stir of the water while surrounded by eye-catching fish. There is nothing quite as thrilling as looking a fish square in the eye. And since two thirds of the earth is covered with water, you can explore your options. Maybe instead of a tropical coral reef, which isn’t often accessible to some, you choose something from a cold water environment, such as a lake or river. Although most divers prefer a tropical coral reef environment, there are those who prefer to dive in their own backyard, so to speak.

Even people with disabilities are finding underwater adventures accessible to them. According to some it can even help people with Fibromyalgia and other conditions if approached properly and given the training that is modified for people with physical disabilities.

Underwater diving is not new. Remember as a kid staying under water until you could no longer hold your breath? Or snorkeling while on vacation, hoping to see a coral reef or a brightly colored fish? Granted, this was not Scuba diving because it didn’t allow you to stay down for long periods at a time. But it was your first step toward the adventure. For years Scuba diving was considered a sport for those who could afford it, or for professionals. Today, however, it is a sport we can all enjoy.

If you would like to learn more about Scuba Diving

Then begin the adventure of a lifetime.

There are so many beautiful places to visit in El Salvador and among the endless, exciting things to do there is scuba diving. Diving in El Salvador is not restricted to ocean waters; you have the option of open water diving and crater lake diving, exciting!

Open water diving:
The warm coastal waters of Los Cóbanos, in the department of Sonsonate are excellent for diving and exploring the underwater world.

Los Cóbanos enjoys a rich bio-diverse eco system and has been declared a Natural Marine Protected Area in the country. Needless to say, the area boasts amazing underwater rock formations, reefs as well as shipwrecks, making the diving experience all more exciting.

Open water diving tours are available in El Salvador between October and May (the dry season) as this is the time when the waters are nice and calm.

Crater lakes:
Because there is a volcanic range in El Salvador, several crater lakes have been created making crater-lake diving another option here. Two of the most popular lakes for diving in El Salvador are Coatepeque and Ilopango. Night diving tours are also offered to these 2 lakes, so you can see the fish asleep!

Lake Coatepeque in the department of Santa Ana was created by a volcanic eruption and it’s about 120m deep. The waters are clear, warm and with rich volcanic surroundings it is a haven for underwater creatures. As a side note; very close to Lake Coatepeque is the Cerro Verde National park, a must-see beautiful park that can be visited after a diving trip.

Lake Ilopango is about 20 minutes east of San Salvador city, also created by a volcanic eruption (actually by several eruptions that date back thousands of years) is the largest lake in El Salvador. Ilopango lake has an interesting edgy and rocky topography which makes it great for exploring the rock formations and is about 230 m deep.

Ilopango lake is the most popular lake among locals so it is quite busy during weekends and holidays, therefore it’s best to schedule diving trips during the week. Many restaurants and other facilities are readily available in this area so it is a very comfortable place to visit.

Scuba diving training:

There are several scuba diving shops in El Salvador that are fully equipped and PADI certified. They offer training, diving gear, repairs, maintenance and diving tours to all the diving spots in El Salvador. It is best to arrange diving tours with these agencies as they are run by locals who know the area.

The best thing about diving El Salvador is that because it is not a well known diving destination, there are relatively few tourists which means that there is no overcrowding of these places. Most of all, for the same reason, the locals treat visitors more like friends instead of tourists which makes for a more relaxed and friendly atmosphere.

So diving El Salvador is a really awesome adventure and a visit to one of the local archaeological ruins is also a great idea for a more rounded experience.

This is a question that is repeatedly asked on the many dive message boards across the internet and the answers it receives is sometimes misleading depending on the experience of the diver whom answers.

This article is written to provide an unbiased factual information source based on the reaction of hundreds of divers that I have had the opportunity to speak to after diving the Blue Hole.

Since I was a dive operator in Belize for many years and love the country, there will be some readers that say, of course I will promote the Blue Hole in a positive manner but the real truth is I personally think for 90% of divers it’s a great experience a great dive and a great addition to diving Belize.

The Great Blue Hole of Belize is 1000ft across and 460ft deep and forms an almost perfect circle. It has been a favorite fishing ground for Belizean fishermen for hundreds of years and in 1970 it was introduced to the public by Jacque Cousteau whom on his boat the Calypso charted the Blue Hole for the first time and highlighted its wonders in a TV documentary.

The Belize Blue Hole is unique in many ways, one being that it is the only Blue Hole in the world that can be seen with the naked eye from outer space.

It is a fact that thousands of years ago the Blue Hole was a cave that was above sea level, the reason we know this is because Stalagtites and stalamites cannot form underwater, and can only grow with the constant drip drip that can be seen happening to the stalagtites in many above ground caves systems today.

When you consider that it takes more than 100 years for a Stalagtite to grow just one inch, its a spectacular sight to see a 40ft stalagtite that has taken literally thousands of years to reach that size.

The Stalagtites can be found in the Blue Hole starting at 100ft, hanging suspended from the ceiling some more than 40ft long.

The Blue Hole and the surrounding area has been designated a World Heritage site due to is uniqueness and is another one of Belize’s many protected areas. (did you know that almost one third of the country of Belize is designated as protected reserves)

Many people don’t realize it but there are only 2 diveable spots in the Blue Hole, The north side which is the more popular side for the larger boats, due to fairly easy access to that side, and then their is the south side which generally only the smaller boats can access due to wind direction and the fact that it has to be dove from within the circumference of the hole itself.

Each has only about 300ft or so of Stalagtites hanging down after that is just a flat wall of basically nothing. On the North dive-site you only have Stalagtites (those that hang down) with nothing but the abyss below you, on the South side it has both Stalagtites and Stalagmites which can be found at around 145ft where there is a small ledge that has some Stalagmites, this is the side you are more likely to encounter the resident Shark population.

In many message board posts you will read that some divers see lots of sharks while other divers see none and there is a simple explanation for this.

I dove the Blue Hole for more than 12 years and while today the Blue Hole has a large population of Caribbean Reef Sharks it will depend on how you dive the Blue hole and whom you dive it with whether you will see the resident sharks or not.

Many years ago before this large population became a near daily occurrence, we did on occasion see sharks in the Blue Hole but always on the South side, and almost NEVER when we dove the North side which was 99% of the time, because as mentioned the size of the boat we were using only allowed us to dive the south side when winds were favorable..

So why do some divers see sharks and other do not ? heres the scoop

Nearly all the boats that dive the Blue Hole from San Pedro see the sharks on many occasions, and the reason for this is that they get to the Blue Hole FIRST before the Aggressors and other large boats, resorts etc that are located in the area. (make a mental note here that normally its the very experienced divers that usually book the liveaboards and stay at the remote Atoll resorts because that is where the best diving in Belize can usually be found)

Being the first to dive the Blue Hole affords them better visibility since the first group to dive the Blue Hole gets the best vis, the reason for this is, as you descend it causes the silt to dislodge as the bubbles rise and releases the silt causing visibility to become reduced. (these days due to the large number of boats and divers visibility is nearly always quite bad compared to the other fantastic dives at Lighthouse Reef)

When you consider that San Pedro sends many boats a day to the Blue Hole you can understand why those that dive it later in the morning under the pretext (Lets wait till the san pedro boats leave so its less busy) dive a site that has had probably 50 divers through it already before they get the chance to dive it.

This puts them at a distinct disadvantage as to the quality of the dive especially in the area of visibility since 40-50 divers and there bubbles will reduce visibility by up to 50% in some cases, in addition there are the Sharks.

The Sharks will sometimes follow you throughout the dive but are mainly utilized at the end of the dive since you have an extended safety stop of 10 minutes or so and while waiting out that time on the sandy ledge located at 15ft you are buzzed and entertained by up to 30 Caribbean Reef Sharks.(Not Guaranteed)

The sharks are induced to come to the surface by baiting the water with sardines this will bring them to the surface from the depths of the Blue Hole and give the diver the opportunity to view these magnificent creatures during the safety stop.

The liveaboards do not bait the water nor the local resorts and if this is not done the likelyhood of seeing any sharks is reduced by 90% so you can clearly see that most divers that dive the Blue Hole from a liveabord or an Atoll resort will have a far inferior dive due to these reasons.

Baiting is now not allowed however some operators still do it to try and get the sharks up from the depths

In addition it is normally the very experienced divers that are usually the ones that are on the liveaboards because this normally affords them the best diving opportunities in Belize and that is absolutely correct with the EXCEPTION of the Blue Hole dive based on how they are currently running that dive.

Over the years a repeated question is posted on the various diver message boards Is the Blue Hole Worth diving ? and you will see the same answers time and time again from don’t bother its a waste of time to its a great dive well worth it and everything in between.

Why is there such a vast difference in peoples opinions, my answer is that most regulars on message boards, that is those that post at least once a week etc are normally very active divers and have lots of experience and have had the opportunity to dive multiple places around the world and give there advice freely to others.

This however can do an injustice to a fairly new diver that happens upon a message board and asks the question is the Blue Hole worth diving ??

Most of the answers I have seen on message boards are negative when asking this question, mainly I believe because its a very experienced diver that maybe has 1000’s of dives under his belt and when he dove the Blue Hole it was probably from a liveaboard after a bunch of other divers had dove it and because of his worldly experience he was less than impressed with the Blue Hole, so he makes his experience heard to this fairly new diver that has only dove cozumel since certification and has 20 dives under his belt, he of course thinks this expert diver knows exactly what he is talking about so decided NOT to dive the Blue Hole because of what he has been told.

When this fairly new diver gets to Belize and is asked do you want to dive the Blue Hole I receive the answer OHH no I have heard its not that good i then I ask who told you that, and I receive an answer of I read it on a message board, or my friend came to Belize and he told me, so I ask did he dive the Blue Hole while he was here then ?? and I receive an answer Oh no but he had heard it was not worth it either so did not dive it when he was in Belize. I hear this time after time after time.

I then explain the Blue Hole trip and hopefully I had some guests inhouse that have just come back and then I don’t have to say a thing they will sell them a trip for me but if I do not have divers inhouse then I will tell them about the trip and encourage them to go and I usually add that if they don’t think it was worth it I will refund there money, needless to say to this date I have never refunded anyones money normally they are extremely appreciative that I talked them into it and let them make there own mind up and I am happy to break the cycle of the OH No I heard it was not worth it mode.

Why do I do this if I made more money keeping them inhouse? the reason is that I am the first to say that Belize has many different areas to dive and each unique in what it has to offer, based on what a specific diver is looking for in a vacation (that’s another Belize article to follow soon) I want the visiting diver to go back with a positive impression of diving Belize and anything I can do to increase there enjoyment of diving Belize then I will do that. The Blue Hole is a unique dive that if dove correctly can be an excellent addition to any divers logbook it will be less impressive to those divers with thousands of dives under there belt but the other 95% of divers will really enjoy the dive and view it as a positive DIFFERENT enjoyable dive.

So next time you see a question posted on a message board asking about the Blue Hole be sensitive to the experince of the diver asking when you answer it. Divers whom have been lucky enough to travel all over the world with thousands of dives under there belt will find it less of a thrill however the average diver will enjoy diving the Lighthouse Reef and The Great Blue Hole of Belize the possibility of sharks the eerie feeling and sheer difference,it will be a memorable diving experience for them, give them the chance to make there own judgments.

Dive Safe
Gaz Cooper