On February 28, 1978 I walked in the El Centro
Hotel Café, Belize and met Mike and Roxanne Denoyer, managers of LighthouseReef Expeditions. It was the beginning
of a friendship that turned into 36 years of adventures beginning on the most
beautiful tropic isle I have ever visited, Half Moon Cay. I camped with Mike and Rox, the rest of their
crew and guest scuba divers from various parts of the US. The next year I came back for another three
weeks. We camped, we dove, we snorkeled,
and we took pictures of the nesting red-footed booby birds. Iguanas, softball size hermit crabs, huge
land crabs, the bobbies and the frigate birds shared the island with us
campers, the lighthouse keepers and three commercial fishermen.
Image # 14207
Half Moon Cay Lighthouse
I photographed 36 sunrises and sunsets at the
island over the two years, dove the blue hole four times, once way deeper than
I should have ever gone and returned home thinking it was the second best place
I had ever spent time (the Atchafalaya Basin being first). In those two trips of 3 weeks each I saw one floatplane
and one boat that was not with our group. It was paradise to us. In 1985 I sailed to Lighthouse reef from
Belize City and spent a week anchor near half Moon Cay returning to the same
dive sites of the 1970’s. Still
wonderful, but it was discovered as a dive destination. We saw about 15 boats
that week. Lighthouse Reef is 60 miles
off the coast of Belize, so it’s a substantial trip over waters thousands of
feet deep.
Image # 24078
Our dive boat was a Grand Canyon S-Rig
Just after this Christmas, I went back. This time I stayed at fishing and diving
resort on Turneffe Atoll. Turneffe is a 45 square miles mangrove atoll. It is
surround by deep water. It’s about half
way from Belize City to Lighthouse Reef. Turneffe Island Resort is on a very
small island, but is very comfortable with a great staff to take you fishing,
diving or snorkeling. The highlight was
going back to Lighthouse Reef. It was only an all day trip, but the memories
flowed back like the swallows to Capistrano. After 30 years I recognized some
of the same coral trenches and caves I swam in 1978 and 1985. The bobbies and frigates were nesting in the
same zericote trees. The only difference
was the number of day tripping boats. I
saw 13 come in some with 20 divers, yet the island was still beautiful. It’s a refuge now, the Nature conservancy
being one of the supporters. Some say
you can never return to Shangri-La, I came close last week. The beauty and
bounty of this island and reef ecosystems boggles the mind.
Image # 141230-0194
Site of the old lighthouse
