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How much are flights there? What language is primarily spoken? I can speak spanish fluently.
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I have dove Lake Pleasant a couple times, visibility is poor and the water is too cold for me. The Pacific Coast is OK, but much prefer the warm waters of the Caribbean. Honduras and Belize are no that far away and very inexpensive if you do not have to have 5 star accommodations.
How inexpensive is Belize?
I can sleep in a tent, and eat canned food, if need be. I don't earn a lot of money, but I'm ok living out of a tent, to save money.
As far as the Caribbean, how is Florida? Specifically Miami area? My sister lives in Miami, and I suspect I will be visiting her in April or May. I will definitely be wanting to dive there.
Belize is cheap. Diving is good. Trips to the famous spots like Blue Hole and Glovers are usually more expensive. The food is cheap too, you'll eat a lot of stewed chicken and coconut rice.
I'm diving Lake Silfra on Thursday. Should be a good time.
How much are flights there? What language is primarily spoken? I can speak spanish fluently.
Flights will be entirely dependent on the season. Major airlines fly into Belize City and then you take either Maya Island Air or Tropic Air to the closest airport (read usually dirt strip). Tickets are less than $100 but if you book everything as a package with a dive op it's usually a bit cheaper as they'll take care of it as part of a package deal. It can be as cheap or as expensive as you want, you've really gotta delve into it yourself based on what you want to do and how much you want to spend. A little research goes a long way. Also, depending on the ops relationship with the airline, you can get them to keep it lower altitude if you're nervous about being completely off-gassed. BTW you'll be flying in a little Cessna 208 so it's not like you're flying very high anyway, it's sort of fun. Last time I was in the co-pilots seat so I got a great view all around.
Belize used to be part of the Commonwealth, so the primary language is English, and is in fact the official language of the country. It's taught in all the schools so pretty much everyone speaks it. Depending on where you go you'll hear a combination of English, Mayan (yes, real Mayan, and they're all 4 feet tall), Garifuna, or less-so Spanish. Remember that the English is very Carib influenced so depending on who you're talking to you may or may not actually understand them right off the bat. And if you speak to them in Spanish, you're not likely to get anywhere unless you're in a primarily Spanish influenced village. However, there are lots of expats, both American and Canadian, so you won't have any issues.
Alternatives to the bigger destinations are nice as well, places like Placencia or Hopkins are fun. Lots of wall dives if you want to do your deep dives towards your advanced. Depending on the op you can get on a lionfish hunt although I wouldn't recommend it until you get more than a couple dives under your belt. There are only a few wrecks and they're not impressive. However, there's TONS of marine life all over the reefs, biggest turtles I've ever seen, all species, sharks, some massive eagle rays, depending on the time of year you can do whale shark dives too.
Just remember, you're new to diving, getting your Open Water is a cakewalk, and afterwards until probably 50 or 100 dives everyone thinks they're hot shit and know what they're doing, BUT there are still things out there that will nail you. I don't care how good you think your buoyancy is or how great your instructor thinks you are, there is potential for dives to go south real quick whenever you're outside of the pool, the lake, or the conditions you'll be getting certified in when you actually get in the ocean. So remember, as easy as it is to be a beginner diver, you need to make every dive like it's your first open water, until you've really hit the point where you're a decent diver. There are a lot of stupid divers out there, ScubaBoard is full of stories, don't be a story on ScubaBoard.