Ambergris Caye (San Pedro)

Every dive leaves from a pier in San Pedro, the town at the south of the caye, where around nine PADI operators are based. Sites are boat-only and the runs are short: the nearest canyon sites are under ten minutes out, and Mexico Rocks at the north end about 15–20 minutes. Liveaboards do not visit and the atoll resorts do not tend to travel in, so diving here means staying on Ambergris and going out on the day boats.

The whole east coast of the caye is spur-and-groove: long coral fingers jutting seaward from the barrier reef, perpendicular to the coastline. The named canyon sites — Tackle Box, Tuffy, Esmeralda, Cypress, Paradise — work these formations, their caverns and tunnels holding lobsters, eels and macro life, with schools of jacks over the reef and nurse sharks dozing on the bottom. A small wreck nearby harbours green and spotted morays, soapfish and coneys, and Mexico Rocks is a patch-reef complex of roughly 100 coral heads in 2.5–5 m of water, managed under Hol Chan Marine Reserve since 2015.

Conditions set who the place suits: there is very little current at any time of year, the water holds at 26–29 C, and the aggregate site range is 5–35 m, so it is pitched at beginners and casual divers making a few dives between other island days. The deepest cuts, at Tackle Box and Cypress, run to 34–40 m, and Cypress and Tuffy Canyon carry Advanced Open Water ratings — as demanding as the diving here gets. Divers after walls, pelagics or technical depth are better served by Belize's offshore atolls.