Spanish Bay

Our second dive expedition was out at another highly recommended site: Spanish Bay. I had never heard of it before coming to Belize, of course the only thing I had heard of was the Blue Hole, but turns out the ocean is a whole lot bigger than that. Thank goodness.

This dive we had company. We were joined by 4 others for a total party of 8, including Armando, our guide. Spanish Bay was an entirely different experience than Esmeralda, but without a doubt, just as cool.

We did both of our dives swimming along this massive wall of a reef. It was stunning. The reef loomed over our heads and grew in such directions and orientations that would be impossible on land. The coral was so cool here, every kind you could think of could be found.





It was a whole mountain of coral

But the winner at this site were the sponges. There were huge barrel sponges several feet tall and sometimes a foot or more wide.

Like this

Ignore the blurry fish, appreciate the huge sponge on the side

Don't fall in, mom

And there were smooth yellow sponges that looked ridiculously cool, to me at least. 






But my favorite, and Connor's, were these electric blue geometric looking sponges. They were impossibly bright against the rather washed out background of the deep ocean blue, and caught our eye as a result.





We all agreed they were super cool

As we were moving along the reef, we were also on a mission. This site is known for having a prolific lionfish population, so we brought some spears and a bag, to be ready.

 


On the hunt

Armando, and a girl named Brittany caught most of them, and I think we ended with a total of 11 lionfish caught, not to mention the half dozen others we missed.

Mom, trying her hand at hunting

Some other highlights of the dive included some lobster:


And mom's favorite of the trip, a spotted moray eel:


We spent our surface interval at this amazing aquamarine sanctuary on the backreef. The water was magazine worthy blue, and so clear. Not that I hadn't enjoyed the clear water for the past six weeks, but it still blew me away now and again.



Like today

Connor's blisters were hurting throughout the day, so he spent most of the dive barefooted

Whatever works I suppose

My favorite for the day was the queen angelfish, the colors don't stand out so well here, but they're so pretty!

Can you see it?

Family photo, take 2

Spanish bay was another incredible dive, and I would go back without a second thought. There's just too much to explore all at once the first time. Mostly I'm glad Connor and mom had a good time. I had been talking up the diving in Belize, and I didn't want to set their expectations too high, but luckily we were all blown away.

Thanks for reading!

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