We chose the dates in late May to take advantage of the full moon phase and, hopefully, see the largest fish in the ocean -- the whale shark. Several species of snapper, primarily the cubera snapper, congregate along an area off the southern end of the reef called Gladden Spit, during the full moon phases of April, May and June, to spawn. The zillions of zooplankton in the water during this giant orgy attract the huge filter-feeding whale sharks for an easy meal. It is one of the most dependable places in the world to see this magnificent fish. So, we planned our entire trip around the hope of swimming with whale sharks. Unfortunately, somebody forgot to tell the sharks. For the first time since anyone in Plancencia could remember, no sharks arrived for the spawning event. We were very disappointed.

But Belize offers much more than whale sharks and we had arranged to see much of it by visiting very different areas along the reef tract. Brad and I spent two days diving the convenient sites only a 10-minute boat ride off Ambergris Caye. Then, we met up with William in the southern end of the country at Placencia for our shark diving but also some beautiful reef diving. Finally, we ended the trip with four days at beautiful Hamanasi resort near Hopkins and the amazing diving around the atolls and central barrier reefs.

The following twenty-four images should give you a nice idea of the varied and beautiful SCUBA diving we enjoyed.