In April 2000 I made a trip to Belize.  Belize is a small country just south of Mexico in Central America.  It boasts the largest barrier reef in the Western Hemisphere, and the diving was really enjoyable.

As well as coral reef dives (mostly soft coral due to a tropical storm several years ago which did a lot of damage to the hard corals), there is a 1000m wide 175m (ish) blue hole and lots of small swimthroughs and caverns.

I was based in San Pedro on Ambergris Caye (pronounced key).  I dived with Gaz Coopers Dive shop.  The diving is all guided, but once the guides are sure of your competance, you can pretty much set your own depth, so long as you stay within visual range (about 20-30m).

Unfortunately my strobe went belly up on me, so the pictures are not as good as I would like, but anyway here are the best of them......

First, the cultural bit....a mainland trip to see the Mayan ruins at Lamanai is well worth the day out.

 Some scene setting shots....