padi.com

Girls Gone DivinGSeven women learn there’S much more to a Dive trip than DivinG. they — anD belize — will never be the Same.

April 2006 41

By Megan Padilla Photos By tanya Burnett

sportdiver.com40 April 2006

sportdiver.com42 April 2006 padi.com April 2006 43

“GreGory D.” i shout out, then spell: “capital G, r, e, capital G, o, r, y, capital D. For Girls Gone Diving!”

the name sticks. after all, here we are,

Jen is the resident biologist at lamanai outpost lodge, and she’s here to collect data on the reproducing population of crocs in belize’s new river lagoon. tonight, we seven women are her assistants.

She snares a five-footer and pulls it onto the bow, then duct-tapes its mouth shut. the rest of us take turns holding it — its skin is astonishingly dry, soft and smooth — as Jen measures and weighs it, determines it’s male and locates the implanted chip that reveals our croc has been in this position before. “you want to name him?” she asks.

holding a croc in the moonlight on our last night in belize. there is no better mascot for the week of adventures we’ve shared.

Beginnings

Girls Gone Diving began at a backyard dinner party when a friend spoke of her early scuba experience: an impatient dive master, an advanced destination and a photographer-husband who proved an inattentive buddy. She’d never taken to

mu

st

do

mu

st

div

e

Chicken on a StickDrive your own gas-fueled golf cart on Ambergris Caye. Venture to the north of the island for cocktails and appetizers at Captain Morgan’s. Drive south at dusk to feed the local crocs — just tie some chicken to a stick and stand back.

1. Half moon Caye Wall2. small mouth3. Hol Chan Canyons4. Hol Chan marine Reserve5. Cypress gardens

diving — imagine that. then i met Sara on a flight to mexico. we clicked right away. She’s a diver — the dabbling-while-on-vacation variety, and always with a boyfriend who’d deal with the gear. but Sara didn’t feel like a diver in her own right, confident with her equipment and self-reliant in the water. these two women inspired me; i wanted to transform each of them into a Diver, the kind who plans her next dive trip while on a dive trip.

i extend an invitation and Sara jumps, immediately booking vacation time from her engineering job at lock-heed martin. my sister erin, a divemas-ter, is game, making arrangements to be away from her jobs as a lead project man-ager and as a single mom. She extends an olive branch to crystal, who is essentially erin’s daughter’s stepmother. crystal rec-ognizes the gesture and signs up for her paDi open water course right away. i

close encounters Right: the lush walls of Lighthouse Reef are live-aboard country. Far right and below: Who said marine life is unpredictable? At shark Ray Alley, encounters with nurse sharks, stingrays and jacks are guaranteed. Previous pages: girls hit the dock for an early-morning pickup at Chabil mar villas in Placencia.

The spotlight pans across the flooded savannah and settles on two red reflections — a crocodile’s eyes. “Jen,

Jen!” the driver shouts above the din of the airboat’s fan-like motor, “over there!” he sidles the flat-bottom boat closer to our prey. apparently, crocodiles don’t hear so well.

sportdiver.com44 April 2006 padi.com April 2006 45

add to the mix photographer and vet-eran diver tanya burnett, who is perfect for this trip in every way. tanya invites experienced diver mary, who is taking time off between consulting gigs to dive every chance she gets (she and tanya met while diving in the Galapagos). and last is my mom, carol, who this past summer, at the age of 66, became a cer-tified diver so she could join her daugh-ters. as for me, i get an off-campus pass from my cubicle in magazine land to go do what most people think i do all the time — dive. the common denomina-tors among those in our group: enthusi-asm and an appreciation for wine. i ask each person to bring two of her favorite bottles to share.

Figuring out where to go was just as important as identifying who would go. i wanted these women to have adventures they’d never imagined. belize instantly came to mind: it’s a safe country where english is spoken, yet it feels utterly for-eign. the charming and little-developed ambergris caye is a mere giant-stride to dive sites up and down the second-longest

barrier reef in the world. we’d have our choice of dive sites that are easy enough for beginners but varied enough to interest advanced div-ers. we could dive three times a day and still have time to hang at a simple beachfront ho-tel, hopscotch through happy hour in golf carts and go exploring on our own. For mainland at-tractions, i recalled my own jungle hikes and

river excursions during which i’d encountered troops of howler monkeys, iguanas basking in the sun and crocs resting on riverbanks at night — not to mention the mysterious maya ruins. belize had once rocked my world; i suspected it might rock my companions’.

Cypress gardens

•Belize City thanks to tropic air’s convenient and affordable in-country flights, we could spend five days on ambergris caye diving, one night in a low-key beach town on the mainland and still spend a few nights in the jungle.

Wooing CRystAL

ours is the only boat bobbing in the inky darkness at the hol chan marine reserve. the waves breaking 100 yards away on belize’s famous barrier reef are silver in the moonlight — a decidedly different scene from the last time i was here, sev-eral years ago.

that was the day i overcame my fear of wearing a mask and breathing through a snor-kel; the day i felt the soft fleshiness of a stingray’s wing as it glided between my outstretched hands. that was the day a be-lizean guide named Juni opened the underwater world to me, ultimately bringing me to this mo-ment, on this boat, with this gang of six other ad-venturesses keen to expe-rience their own firsts.

crystal, a beauti-ful blond veterinarian, is visibly shaking. today’s the first time she’s used her freshly minted c-card, having completed her check-out dives in la

Jolla the weekend before. in the spirit of our adventure — and after the day of great diving we’ve already had — she’s game for her first night dive. this site is shallow, rarely exceeding 25 feet, and her buddy is erin, who gets as stoked turn-ing new divers on to the sport as she does actually doing it. in fact, it was she who persuaded me to trade up my snorkel for a second stage. it was she who invited me on my first dive trip. crystal is in good hands.

From the moment we enter, i know this is special. i shouldn’t be surprised,

destinAtion PRimeR

AVerAGe WAter teMP: 76-86°F WHAt to WeAr: Dive skin or shorty in summer; 3-5 mm fullsuit in winter AVerAGe VIZ: 100+ feet WHen to Go: Year-round

Continuing eduCAtion

Get your Advanced Diver specialty. For more info, go to padi.com.

tellInG storIes Above: Wine, food, a fire and friends at Chabil mar villas complete a perfect day of diving. Opposite, top: A bird’s-eye view at Lamanai. Opposite, center row, from left: skimming Belize’s surface on snorkel; Lamanai biologist Jen displays a juvenile boa; Half moon Caye; shopping in Placencia. Opposite, bottom: A playful dive buddy.

Deco Stops BelizeThere’s a T-shirt logo that aptly describes san Pedro (ambergriscaye.com) as “a quaint little drinking town with a diving problem.” You’ll need some stamina to do it all, though; the locals don’t start their parties until at least 10 p.m. Wednesday is ladies’ night at Wet Willy’s, and you can groove to live music nearly every night at Fido’s. The restaurant at the sunbreeze Hotel is perfect for everything from a juicy cheeseburger at lunch to an inventive dinner infused with Asian influences. Before diving, try ruby’s Bakery for cin-namon rolls or a breakfast burrito. Rent a golf cart from Island Adventures to explore the island. Throw

your own wine-and-cheese party with provisions from Wine de Vine. In Placencia (placencia.com) it’s “ready, set, shop.” Gift shops, artists’ studios and craft collectives line the sidewalk. Placencia has also spread out to the “back road” — which is really the main road — where you’ll find everything from Ital-ian gelato to coffee shops with high-speed Internet access. Of course, there’s always the beach.

Lamanai•

AMBERGRIS CAYE

MEXICO Hol Chan marine ReserveSan Pedro• Hol Chan Canyons

small mouth

Lighthouse Reef

Blue Hole

Half moon Caye Wall

shark Ray Alley

C A R I B B E A n S E A

Placencia •

BR

en

DA

We

AV

eR

padi.com April 2006 47

considering the fact that i’ve seen this channel packed with marine life before. the first thing i notice is the unusual tex-ture of the sand. i hold still and stare.

a dome-shaped eye looks back. i sweep my light slowly side to side, then in front of and behind me. it’s a slumber party of stingrays, their wings overlapping one another. i hover over one brute so ex-pansive that i envision eight people (10, in my old new york apartment) pulling chairs around for a dinner party.

if it weren’t for the competition — a pack of hunting squid, a delicate octo dancing clear of its den, a crab devour-ing its lobster dinner, a giant parrotfish (i had no idea they could be so big) tucked motionless under a ledge, prowling tarpon, a curious grouper and a free-swimming

moray eel — i could have passed the entire hour-long dive enraptured by the motionless rays.

crystal is triumphant, even though the iron grip she applied to erin’s hand throughout the dive earns her the nick-name remora. She’s a woman who loves animals, and the number of critters in her universe has just multiplied exponentially.

on the boat ride back, we spot mars for the first time. its red glow sears the night sky, as it will throughout our visit. mars, erin tells us, won’t be seen at this intensity again in our lifetimes.

FLying WitH tuRtLes

piling our dive gear on a golf cart for a short jaunt down the beach isn’t a bad way to start the day, even if it means saying goodbye to our guys at paDi resort aqua Dives. my boot-camp approach requires us to sample different dive operators. i want our newbies to face many variables: a varying number of divers as well as dif-ferent boats, gear setups, entrances, water exits and crew.

ramon’s village resort is a big op-eration, a paDi Gold palm iDc with an excellent reputation, yet it manages to

maintain a personal, owner-operated feel. again, we have our own boat and a crew who ask enough questions to map out a unique day, including a surface in-terval spent snorkeling at Shark ray al-ley, ripe with people-friendly throngs of nurse sharks, rays and jacks.

Grouper are common on the reefs in belize, and at a site called Small mouth a single nassau grouper joins us, tagging along for the entire dive like a friendly neighborhood dog. each time i take a head count, the mutt is always there — instead of seven divers, we’re eight.

hol chan canyons is similar to Small

tHey coMe In All sIZes Belize offers the opportunity to dive with whale sharks, the largest fish on the planet.

Whale sharks of gladden spitThe Gladden Spit Marine Reserve off the coast of southern Belize remains one of the few places in the world where divers can get fin-to-fin with whale sharks. To see them during their annual migration, April through June, check out the whale-shark excursions offered by Blue Marlin Lodge, Hamanasi, Isla Marisol and Manta Resort.

DO

uG

Pe

RR

Ine

/Se

AP

ICS

.CO

M

46 April 2006 sportdiver.com

On the Web: Plan your whale-shark trip at sportdiver.com/whale sharksbelize.com.

FoR moRe inFoRmAtion

mouth — an 80-foot dive on a series of dramatic canyons, the tops encrusted with healthy coral and sponge life. but the marine life is even better here. a pack of grouper (they really are so dog-like that “pack” feels most appropriate) repeatedly appear. a single hawksbill joins us; together we swim close above the coral and then fly over the abyss until we “land” on the other side. our game wears me out just as a duo of spotted eagle rays swoop onto the scene — two kites catching an updraft in the blue, triangular wings outstretched and long tails trailing behind. they circle us once, twice, vanish and then reappear. tanya and mary, both of whom always have a digital camera at the ready, are lucky they aren’t shooting on film — they’d run out in a matter of minutes.

we’re jubilant back at the dock, and i watch Sara (and everyone, come to think of it), pack up her gear like a pro — no more leaving it to a guy. now it’s time to put our golf carts to good use, with an excursion up-island to captain morgan’s, the luxe bungalow resort known as the location of the men’s camp on the real-ity show Temptation Island. once we’ve zigzagged through the bustling village of San pedro, where we’re staying, we cross the water-filled cut on the island aboard a hand-pulled ferry (along with locals carrying fishing buckets, kids on bikes and mothers with babies) then drive another 45 minutes on a potholed road, stopping along the way to pick red hibiscus blossoms for our hair. the drinks at captain morgan’s border on cli-ché — candy-colored and fishbowl-sized, adorned with rainbow-striped umbrellas — which makes us love them even more. at dusk we head back to San pedro with fireflies lighting our path.

sHARks And BooBies

the blue hole excursion is the signa-ture trip at paDi resort amigos Del mar (located at the maya princess hotel). Judg-ing by how long the crew’s been with the resort — our guide edgar has been with the company for over a decade — it’s no wonder that they have the day choreo-graphed to perfection. it starts when they pick us up at the dock of our hotel, the Sunbreeze, at 5:45 a.m. and ends in the same place 12 hours, three dives and un-countable boobies later. (“what’s a girls’ trip without the boobies,” we’d joked

(Continued on page 86)

while admiring the red-footed variety with feathers.)

Dived specifically to see the giant stalactites that begin at around 120 feet, the blue hole is one of the world’s great natural-history exhibits; the massive geologic fea-tures are a testament to a time when the cave stood above sea level. marine life is notably absent though … or so it seems.

after reaching depth at 130 feet and cruising our way around the stalactites, our nine-minute no-deco limit is up and it’s time to begin our ascent. there’s not a lot to see — a sheer wall devoid of growth on one side and the murky blue on the other. but as we reach be-tween 90 and 80 feet, movement catches

Rigged And ReAdy

gear for girls1. MAres trIlAstIc 5/4/3 The Trilastic system uses a combination of materials and thicknesses designed to offer comfort, warmth, durability and flexibility. It’s also remarkably versatile, allowing for use in different environments. Available in women’s sizes 6-16. MsrP $300

2. MAres kAIlA This BC is designed for the female form. Adjustable harness straps and a plush interior add to the comfort. The Quick Adjust System ensures that the cummerbund conforms to the body’s shape. Available in women’s sizes XXS-L. MsrP $480

3. MAres rAsH GuArd trIlAstIc It matches the Trilastic wetsuit, and the

material provides UV protection of SPF 30+. Only the short- and long-sleeved versions are available in the United States.

4. MAres x-VIsIon MIdThe X-Vision Mid two-lens mask provides the widest possible viewing angle in every direction and fits a narrower face, which is great for women. MsrP $80

5. MAres Volo FInsVolo Power (open-heel) and Volo Race (full-foot) fins are available in black and in She Dives fog blue. MsrP Volo Power, $170; Volo Race, $90

For more info on Mares’ new line for women, She Dives, visit mares.com.

1

2

34

5

sportdiver.com86 April 2006 padi.com April 2006 87

BelIZe (Continued from page 47) that’s where we pass our favorite evening. chef George grills outdoors for us and we dine, sip wine, stoke the fire, share desserts and tell stories until the log disintegrates into ash. other than my mom and my sister, there was no real his-tory behind any of our friendships before this trip. now, after a week of diving and playing, we are one solid group. we are all friends.

it’s tempting to opt for a morning “off” but everyone rallies for a sunrise breakfast and a boat ride out to laugh-ingbird caye, a spit of sand pinned down by palm trees and protected as a national park (as is more than 40 percent of the country). mom interviews the caretaker who lives on the island (note to self: Give that woman a notebook and a pen next time she joins me on a trip) while the rest of us pull on our fins, masks and snor-kels to navigate around half the island. we’re looking for lemon sharks, which i’ve never seen in the wild. not until we return to shore does a butter-colored dorsal fin split the water’s surface. tanya wades right in to shoot over-unders as our guide tosses bait.

JungLe JouRney

“amazing. Just amazing,” carol says for the umpteenth time as she and i climb uphill through the damp thickets of or-chids beneath towering rainforest trees. we are following the astonishingly loud sound of a lion roaring; we are still wear-ing pajamas; and my watch shows a time beginning with the number 5. of course, there are no lions in the jungles of belize, but the guttural howl of the black howler monkeys (known locally as baboons) is a wicked mimic that never fails to quicken my pulse.

thanks to the logistical planning and expertise of a company called belize expeditions, our dive trip has become much more. here we are at lamanai outpost lodge, a cluster of rustic, art-fully built hardwood structures on the banks of the new river lagoon. we ar-rived by riverboat last night and slept in screened-in cottages engulfed by the sounds of the jungle.

we race through breakfast to reach the excavated ruins of the maya settle-ment called lamanai. our self-educated and unbelievably knowledgeable guide carlos takes us first to a museum on the site and then for a long walk in the shaded

my eye — reef sharks are circling in the blue! big ones, too, i note as i lose track counting at 30. i glide in beside my mom and gently take her arm, pointing out the sharks and holding firm, ensuring she doesn’t bolt. but she’s as fascinated as i am, comforted by the fact that no one is stressed. throughout the two safety stops, the sharks patrol the surface above us (apparently the boats act as a dinner bell). once everyone is safely on board, the sharks compete with the seabirds for fish parts tossed out by the crew — all in all, a spectacular show.

we go on to dive two sites off half moon caye wall on lighthouse reef, one of only four atolls in all of the ca-ribbean. the color here is terrific: gi-ant orange barrel sponges, azure vase sponges, floods of mercurial silversides and thumbnail-size angels, drums and butterflyfish flutter about like confetti. a dozen barracuda hold tight in the cur-rent, tucked at a site where two walls come together like an elbow. they seem to be watching something. i turn and fol-low their gaze: First i see an eagle ray, and then a single reef shark. This rocks! i think, before telepathically imploring the ray to get the hell away, and fast.

this is pristine live-aboard country, and we see both the Belize Aggressor III and peter hughes’ Sun Dancer II moored nearby. envy sets in. but in truth, our day is full: we enjoy a delicious lunch served on a picnic table under a palm tree on half moon caye, observe a protected population of red-footed boobies and the magnificent frigates that live alongside them, and log three awesome dives. af-terward, we’re fed near-frozen Snickers bars by the crew who then expertly mix coconut rum and pineapple juice for the extended happy hour back to San pedro.

it’s storytime now. a fireman from texas who has dived all over the world tells us this is the first time he’s been on a boat where women outnumber men. even he gets clued in that tanya is the world of diving, and he joins us in pick-ing her brain about where to go next. lombok perhaps? The pattern has started, i think with a smile.

later, our evening tradition of shar-ing a bottle of wine on the patio above the restaurant at the Sunbreeze hotel is further improved. erin has made us a little party. we bring out the ipod and

portable speakers and cover a table with my pretty sarong before spreading out the feast that erin’s assembled: cheeses, crackers, pâté, fruit and dark chocolate. She’s also found a lovely cabernet to add to our dwindling cache, and a pinot grigio is on ice. after four dinners on the island, the Sunbreeze’s restaurant is un-questionably our favorite, but tonight, ours is the perfect feast.

FiRe And Wine

For girls who didn’t seem so interested in shopping, our hands sure are full. Gua-temalan belts woven from bright-colored floss, hair clips made of polished hermit-crab shells, beaded necklace sets, embroi-dered stuff sacks — you name it, we need it. this is our first, and only, afternoon on the world’s narrowest Street (according to Guinness world records), a mile-long sidewalk in the beach town of placencia on the mainland.

a hand-lettered sign points us to John the bakerman for fresh cinnamon bons. i smile, thinking of my own Grand-pa John, also once a village bakerman, and suspect that my mom is doing the same. whether passing locals on their stilted front porches or passing them on the sidewalk, we are greeted at every turn. Further bolstered by a cup of ital-ian gelato, we journey on.

we arrived in placencia from San pedro (via belize city) aboard tropic air’s 15-seat aircraft just in time for a little pampering. pink golf carts (they sure took this Girls Gone Diving thing seriously, i think) dispatched from chabil mar villas whisk us back to our waterfront home. after nearly a week of diving, we’re all ready for some r&r, and at chabil mar, the offerings are abundant. two mosaic-tiled eternity pools, wraparound balco-nies with views of the sea, chaise lounges on powdery sand and condos so artfully decorated (the honeymoon suite? wow!) that you actually consider reading your book indoors. add a staff dressed all in white, wearing radio headsets to ensure speedy delivery of another icy belikin. plus, there’s the massage therapist and the on-demand meal service that will knead you and feed you in any setting you wish. the choices are numerous, and in just over 24 hours, we dine in several spots: at the end of the thatch-roofed dock, by the pool and — our favorite — around the red adobe outdoor fireplace.

padi.com April 2006 89

woods before we reach the main plaza containing the most important temple.

we climb its steep steps, each one at least as high as my knee. i think mom might float right up, so transported is she by these ancient structures. in all hones-ty, though, each of us is in our own state of awe.

the peak rises high above the jungle’s canopy, and carlos tells us that from here we can see 15 miles in all di-rections — almost to the sea. i survey 180 degrees and imagine the theater of life that once played out on this mysteri-ous stage.

mom reflects, “a few days ago i dived 130 feet in the blue hole. and now here i am, on the top of a maya temple.” the primal call of the howler monkeys carries to us from across the treetops. “i never knew such places existed.”

Special thanks to Amigos del Mar (amigosdive.com), Aqua Dives (aquadives .com), Belize Expeditions (bzexpeditions .com), Belize Tourism Board (travelbelize.org), Sunbreeze Hotel (sunbreezehotel.com), Trop-ic Air (tropicair.com) and Ramon’s Village Resort (ramons.com).

BeLize Listings

Belize tourist Board800-624-0686travelbelize.org

tropic Air800-422-3435tropicair.com

DIVe CenTeRS

Aqua dives Belizeaquadives.com

DIVe ReSORTS/HOTeLS

Belize discountsbelizediscounts.com

Belize expeditionsbzexpeditions.com

Blackbird resort800-271-3483cayeresorts.com

Hamanasi ltd.877-552-3483hamanasi.com

Jaguar Paw Jungle resort888-77-JUnGLEjaguarpaw.com

Journey’s end resort800-460-5665journeysend.com

Manta resort800-326-1724mantaresortbelize.com

Mayan Princess Hotel800-850-4101mayanprincesshotel.com

ramon’s Village resort800-MAGIC-15ramons.com

reef & rainforest dive & Adventure travel

800-794-9767reefrainforest.com

sunbreeze Hotel

800-688-0191ramons.com

turneffe Island lodge

800-874-0118turneffelodge.com

LIVe-ABOARDS

Peter Hughes’ Sun Dancer IIpeterhughes.com

Belize Aggressor IIIaggressor.com