SNORKELING  |  ECO TOURS  |  LIGHTHOUSE ATOLL  |  DISCOVER SCUBA

Weather conditions allowing, our Scuba Divers make a weekly trip to Lighthouse Atoll and you will have an opportunity join them for the day at the southern end of the the  Atoll.  Your first stop will be The Great Blue Hole.  This amazing structure was formed millions of years ago when the roof an underground cave collapsed.

Now, the cave is filled with seawater and forms a circular hole 1000 feet in diameter and 480 feet deep. This is primarily a SCUBA diving attraction but the coral edges provide a unique and wonderful snorkeling experience.  Next, you will visit Half Moon Caye. This small caye was established as a Crown Reserve in 1928 and became the first Marine Reserve in Belize.  Here a colony of red-footed booby birds nest in the tops of the Ziricote trees. Whereas the red-footed boobies in the Galapagos and other parts of the world have brown plumage, almost all of these 4000 birds display the rare white color phase.

The magnificent frigatebird, with a 7 foot wingspan also shares this rookery. Since they cannot land on water, they mostly feed by harassing the returning boobies until they drop their catch.  Some 98 other species of birds have been documented on the caye including ospreys, great tailed grackles, cinnamon hummingbirds and white-crowned pigeons.

If you feel like some additional exercise, you can kayak a half mile to the shipwreck of the Ernlund.  The wreckage of this vessel sits on the top of the reef where it was deposited during a storm in 1971.

After a picnic lunch under the shade of the palm trees we set off for Long Caye, to snorkel "The Aquarium".  Here you watch from above as divers feed thousands of bermuda chub, sergeant majors and yellowtail snappers with leftover bread.

If we are lucky, a large pod of bottlenose dolphin or spinner dolphin will escort us part of the way back to Turneffe Flats.