Sometimes a cold beer, a long journey and a couple of ancient civilizations collide in the most unexpected way. I’m sipping a Belikin Beer — no, let’s be more accurate, I’m quickly downing one — in the bar at the Fort George Hotel in Belize City when I notice the condensation beading on the label. And then I spot the pyramid.
A quick Google later and I discover that the pyramid on my now-empty bottle is the pyramid from Altun Ha the Mayan archaeological site we regularly visit on our Belize trips. The coincidence is that I’d arrived in Belize that very morning from Egypt, where I’d just completed another Snorkel Venture trip. Our Egyptian trips often include visits to the incredible structures and antiquities of Ancient Egypt. And one of Egypt’s most popular beers is Sakara, which also has a pyramid on its label — this time one of the earlier dynasty pyramids at Saqqara.
Now, I’ve no idea if the producers of the Belizean and Egyptian beers are somehow in collusion, which I very much doubt. But it did strike me as rather odd that both national beers feature pyramids. So what has all this got to do with snorkeling? Bear with me, I’ll get to that bit shortly.
When we meet our Snorkel Venture guests in Belize City — or Cairo — it would be a crying shame not to explore some of the local culture when the opportunity arises. Altun Ha is less than an hour away by minivan”, making it an ideal morning excursion before we transfer to Turneffe Island. I’d taken more than 30 hours to reach Belize from Egypt, but for our mainly American guests, the flight from Miami is only around two hours. Even from further afield in the US, the Caribbean is relatively close, making a week in Belize a very doable holiday without eating too heavily into precious vacation time.
So, the next morning, after meeting a mixture of new faces and familiar ones, we set off early to beat the heat and crowds, heading towards Rockstone Ponds, home of Altun Ha. The local agricultural villagers had been using limestone blocks from the area for years, only to discover in the 1960s that they were actually lining an ancient man-made reservoir. This piqued the interest of archaeologists, who subsequently discovered an entire Mayan city in the surrounding jungle, complete with burial mounds and precious jade artifacts.
The site became a treasure trove of discoveries, helping to illustrate what life was like for the Maya over nearly 2,000 years, from around the 10th century BC to the 10th century AD. Albert, our regular guide, is a mine of information, bringing the fascinating story of Mayan culture and its place in Belizean history to life. He takes us right up to the present day too, explaining the many different ethnic groups that make up modern Belize, including the Mennonites, in a country of approximately 400,000 people. What’s particularly nice about Altun Ha is that, while the pyramids are impressive, they’re rather more climbable than their Egyptian counterparts — provided you’re reasonably fit. From the top, you’re rewarded with views across the surrounding jungle.
A quick side note about pyramids.Those with more active imaginations sometimes look at the remarkably similar geometric structures found around the world, built by peoples separated by oceans and thousands of miles, and conclude that there must be some otherworldly explanation.
A few years ago, one of our guests, a civil engineer, patiently explained to another guest who was confidently proposing ancient alien assistance that pyramidal structures are, quite simply, one of the easiest shapes to build if you need stability and longevity and don’t have access to modern construction techniques. So I’m sorry if you’re inclined to believe that chap with the funny hair on the Discovery Channel, but I’m sticking with the more mundane explanation!
After our morning absorbing Mayan culture, the afternoon is dedicated to a long, lazy lunch before our boat transfer to our final destination for the week. Turneffe Island Resort is a small, 14-acre private island at the southern tip of Turneffe Atoll, part of Belize’s barrier reef system. The reef is second only to Australia’s Great Barrier Reef in size and is an important marine ecosystem — and we had a whole week to snorkel it. The resort deliberately keeps things small, with around 20 lodges, cabins and villas. It’s also entirely self-sufficient in electricity and fresh drinking water.
Being small, it’s wonderfully easy to navigate. Nowhere is more than a few minutes’ stroll through the palms and sand. There’s a freshwater pool beside a circular bar where we’d congregate after a day’s snorkeling for pre-dinner drinks and cocktails, comparing notes on what we’d seen. The accommodation is slickly appointed, with hardwood construction and locally made furnishings throughout. Rooms have both indoor and outdoor showers.
At 7pm, a dinner bell announces that food is being served, either inside or outside the restaurant. We’re treated to a delicious array of family-style dishes with a local slant. They’ll happily cater for all tastes too. Breakfast and lunch are served here as well, and all three meals were delicious and plentiful. If you’re still feeling peckish between meals, cookies and local savory pastries are available in the restaurant to keep hunger at bay.
The Snorkeling
One of the questions I’m asked most often on our Snorkel Venture trips is: “What’s your favorite place to snorkel?”
I can’t answer it.
It’s a bit like asking me, “What’s your favorite food?” or “What’s your favorite band?” The answer will be different for different people — and, to be honest, it can be different for the same person from day to day.
Before I travelled as much as I do now, I’d mainly experienced the Red Sea, so that naturally framed my opinion. Then I visited Indonesia for the first time. It was so different and unfamiliar that it immediately became my new favorite place. But the more I travelled and returned to different parts of the world, the more I began to appreciate their differences rather than trying to create some sort of league table. My initial response to the Caribbean was that it looked wonderfully unfamiliar, but perhaps lacked something compared with Indonesia or the Red Sea. After returning many more times, I’ve completely reevaluated that opinion.
What I love most about the Caribbean now is precisely what makes it different. The reefs around Turneffe Atoll include walls surrounding patch reefs, not unlike other parts of the world. But here’s the important distinction from a snorkeling perspective: the patch reefs are where you snorkel.
Unlike the Red Sea, where fringing reefs dominate and there often isn’t much happening in the top six feet of water, Turneffe Atoll has huge areas of super-shallow patch reef. They’re studded with little coral bommies, sea fans, sea rods and rocky outcrops, providing homes for dozens of species of fish and crustaceans.
It’s a vibrant slice of marine life right at the surface — and absolutely perfect for easy snorkeling. Of course, there are deeper spots to explore too. But if you’re a casual snorkeler who is perfectly happy staying on the surface and looking down, you’ll be very well served here. And if you enjoy a bit of duck diving, there are plenty of opportunities for that too. Most of these sites are reached within about 15 minutes of leaving the dock.
There’s a morning snorkel at 8:30am and an afternoon session at 2pm, leaving plenty of time to explore the little breakwater outside the restaurant and pool area before happy hour at 6pm. There are also paddleboards and small boats available if you fancy exploring around the island under your own steam.
Fantastic Beasts and where we found them
There’s something quite magical about discovering a sleepy Nurse Shark in the shallows. They’re one of the larger regular encounters while exploring the sprawling patch reefs around Turneffe.
It’s also not unusual to see big stingrays here. Those creatures are relatively easy to spot because of their size, but there’s so much more to discover: angelfish, drums, morays, groupers and loads of different damselfish amongst the sponges and corals. There are also plenty of crustaceans, including lobsters and arrow crabs, hiding in darker corners. And that’s one of the joys of snorkeling here: it rewards you for slowing down and really looking.
A Grand Day Out
On our Turneffe itinerary, we always try to include a visit to the Great Blue Hole, one of the highlights of visiting Belize.But, as you’ll see, it’s much more than simply the three snorkels we do that day. We have an early breakfast at 7am before boarding the boats at 7:30. It takes around 90 minutes to reach the site, which was popularized by Jacques Cousteau in the 1970s.
The Great Blue Hole is a submerged karst sinkhole, reaching more than 400 feet in depth and measuring around 1,000 feet across. As snorkelers, though, it’s the rim that interests us most. It’s a riot of colorful fans and swaying soft corals, and one of my favorite places to shoot split shots with a GoPro. It was a little windy on the day we visited, but inside the Blue Hole it was noticeably calmer, making it surprisingly easy to pull off a split shot — something that, if you follow my posts, you’ll know I rather enjoy. After the Blue Hole, we headed to nearby Half Moon Caye, part of the larger Lighthouse Reef system. While we snorkeled, the industrious Turneffe catering team set up our picnic lunch. After our snorkel and lunch, we had time to explore Half Moon Caye, which is famous for frigate birds and boobies aplenty. These birds are protected by the Audubon Society, which has a base and rangers stationed here.
After lunch, we headed back towards base, but not before stopping at Long Caye for our final snorkel of the day. It’s a great place to see turtles and eagle rays, but I’m always drawn to the amazing sponges — particularly the yellow tube sponges and enormous reddish barrel sponges. A fun fact about barrel sponges: they are amongst the oldest living organisms on the planet, living for up to 2,000 years. They truly deserve their nickname, the Redwoods of the Sea. We had plenty to talk about at happy hour, gathered around the cocktail bar as the sun began to set.
Goodbye Island Life
On our last night, Turneffe hosts a lovely beach BBQ. June weather can be a little mercurial, so we were relieved when the threatening wind held off and we could enjoy our final evening outside, being amply fed with delicious grilled food — shrimp, steak, fat sausages, chicken and corn on the cob, accompanied by salads and vegetables galore. And, naturally, there were desserts if you still had room. The weather had threatened to turn windy, as it had a day earlier, but we got away with it and stayed outside for the duration.
Most of us left by tender the following morning after what seemed like a very quick week — although, at the same time, it had been absolutely jam-packed with amazing memories. Two of our group opted for a helicopter transfer to the airport because they needed a quick connection back to the States. And yes, there’s a helipad on Turneffe Island. Of course there is!
