Five years later and I’m still gushing over my snorkeling experience in Belize.
While backpacking through Central America, my boyfriend and I had wound up volunteering for a cat sanctuary on the tiny island of Caye Caulker. The lovely owner of the sanctuary always made sure that we had enough time each day to explore the island and do something fun outside of volunteering. One afternoon, after lunch at our favorite restaurant —Bambooze— we walked by Carlos’ Tours offering cheap rates to snorkel the famous Shark Ray Alley. We immediately signed up for the following days tour and hurried back to our cabin to charge our camera’s.
The next morning, we helped feed the cats at the sanctuary and then headed to Carlos’ Tours to meet our snorkeling group. We went over details of the day and safety protocol and our guide fitted us with masks and fins. There was no getting the ear-to-ear smile off my face as we boarded our boat and sped out to the Hol Chan Marine Reserve in the clearest bluest water I’d ever seen.
Our first stop brought us an adorable three-flippered green sea turtle within 5 minutes of jumping in the water! My first snorkeling experience was quickly proving to be UH-Mazing!
We saw loads of reef fish, a few enormous grouper, and one seriously moody moray eel. 
Arriving at our second stop, the guide anchored the boat and told us all to wait. Three minutes later, he points off in the distance and says “There!” We all turn around and see this huge gray mass headed toward our boat. As it got closer we realized the huge mass was about 30 nurse sharks followed by around 15 rays! “Who’s first?” I’m sure you can all guess the answer to that one!
We spent just over half an hour swimming and snorkeling with the sharks and rays before hopping back into the boat. And by hopping I mean an action reminiscent to that of a beached whale grasping at its last bit of dignity. Or maybe that was just me. We continued on to our third and final stop—the Coral Gardens.
The water here was cloudy and green and the visibility honestly sucked compared to our first two stops. It didn’t help that my mask was acting up and I had to surface to clear it every 2 minutes as it filled with water and fog.
About 10 minutes later, everyone was ready to get onboard and head back. Our guide had fresh fruit and water for us as we sped back to the island, smiling and discussing the days highlights with each other.
Would you get in the water with those sharks and rays? Tell me what you think in the comments!
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I’m going to Belize soon and can’t wait. So much to see especially under water!
How exciting! I hope to go back in the near future. There’s still so much underwater exploring to do!
What a fabulous experience! I would just love to do that. Congratulations also on the beautiful photos…the water looks so inviting and so clear. Yet another thing to add to the ole bucket list! Thanks for the lovely post.
Aw thank you! It was my first snorkeling experience and it was so much fun! Although I definitely learned that a proper fitting mask works wonders haha.
Pinned this to my Women Adventures Board! Great pics. Knowing they were nurse sharks….no, still would not be able to jump in there.
Awesome, thank you!
And yeh, all sharks look scary to most people but these guys were so gentle and curious. They just looked like overgrown catfish haha
What an awesome experience! Swimming with sharks is high up on my bucket list. I did some snorkeling and scuba in Belize but wasn’t lucky enough to encounter any sharks.
Isn’t it such a great spot for snorkeling/diving?! I hope to go back sometime and export more.
What did you see?
I’ve snorkeled a lot of places and nothing compares to these sites. Hoping to go back some day. If you are a diver, you have to dive the blue hole, which is nearby.
We almost went to the blue hole but we don’t dive….YET! It’s on my bucket list for the future though!
Hi! Can you tell me what camera you used? And/or suggest a good underwater camera? Your pictures are beautiful. We’re going swimming with sharks & rays in Belize this November! Can’t wait!!
Hi Samantha!
Some of these photos came from buying the guides CD of pictures he took of us on the tour. Not sure what camera he had, but the other photos are from my Olympus Stylus 7010 (not an underwater camera, but you may be able to buy an underwater housing for it). I’d actually suggest a GoPro Hero 4+ now although I didn’t have one on this trip as they weren’t invented yet lol But they come with underwater housing and snorkeling Belize would be the PERFECT event to use one for! You can capture video and also photo from it. Check out my What I Use page to shop my camera gear and see more about my GoPro there. :)