Hol Chan Reserve Belize

The second biggest reef in the world, this day trip was just beyond special. We went out for the day with a very spiritual guy called Juni on his beautiful sailboat.

Juni was about 65 years old, spent everyday on the reef (customers or no customers), built his boat with his own hands and 'talked' to the fish. They love him and followed him faithfully around the reef as he guided us through, including a stingray he claimed to have known for years. If you ever come to Caye Caulker, Juni is your man for a trip out.

We sailed out to Hol Chan reef in the morning and swam through it for a good couple of hours. Highlights were seeing lots of nurse sharks (some up to 6ft) and holding and playing with the stingrays with Juni's guidance. The schools of jack fish, groupers, parrot fish, trigger fish, barracuda, snappers and 'disco' fish were huge. The fish were enormous, some as big as me.

After a sail to another spot (with some cookies and coffee for energy), the underwater garden was even more beautiful, with the most amazing corals. We've never seen coral so untouched and it went on for miles. We got to see eagle rays here, as well as eels, lobsters and even more tropical fish.