belize is a great place to swim! and snorkel, and dive, and explore ruins, and drink beer, and eat lobster........but i digress. ;)

Clue me in, I'm trying to work in a dive trip there in Feb.

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Rebuilt with twice as many titanium parts as Portland79.

i got certified with frenchie's on caye caulker in 2001. they basically had a shack on a dock, but they were safe and friendly and reasonably priced - dug it. their number was 501.22.2234.

stayed on caye caulker and on the mainland (by the way, at the end, i wished i had planned more time for land stuff - the mayan ruins were unlike any others, actun tunikal muknal - wow - literally hiking around skeletons from rituals, spelunking, etc. - very cool).

i've heard ambergris is very good as well, but i like low key backpacker kind of feel, so caulker was a better fit for me (more fancy hotels and night life on ambergris). there are other private spots...can't think of the names off the top of my head (glover's reef??), you might want to do a search for slickrock - there's a company that does mtn biking in utah and diving in belize - really cool folks, that could be a good way to go, though possibly a lot more spendy.

the reef is great - second in length only to the great barrier. blue hole is supposed to be phenomenal - i missed that one though - my travelmate did it and liked it, but didn't like the lack of life that far down - but the formations look amazing.

hope that helps - let me know if you have specific questions. i've traveled in that neck of the woods a bit (belize, guat, yucatan, costa rica) and belize was a definite favorite.

Tiger sharks hunt around those reefs.

Usually they leave swimmers and divers alone, as divers are common enough around there. However, Tiger sharks are pretty agressive, and have been known to behave strangely in groups...