Esmeralda Canyon

One of the most beautiful dives off of Ambergris Caye, the Esmeralda Canyons consists of multiple “slot canyon“ like coral reefs making you feel like your swimming up and down rows of bookshelves in a coral library.

You’ll see typical Caribbean life like nurse and reef sharks, possible eagle rays, turtles, stingrays, and lots of fish: snapper, angelfish, grunts, parrot fish, and grouper.

Level

Level

Beginner
Advanced

Visibility

Visibility

22 m

Current

Current

Light Current
No Current
Strong Current
Ripping Current

DIVE TYPES

DIVE TYPES

Night Dive
Wall/Drop Off
Macro Spot

Temperature & Visibility

Dives

Wildlife Diversity

Affiliated Training Center

Recommended Training

Open Water Diver

Begin your lifelong adventure as a certified diver with the globally recognized SSI Open Water Diver certification.

Boat Diving

Discover pristine dive sites that cannot be reached from shore and experience the excitement of liveaboard diving. Learn all you need to dive from boats with the SSI Boat Diving Specialty. Start today!

Stress & Rescue

Learn to identify stress, prevent accidents, and learn rescue diver skills with this essential Diver Stress and Rescue Specialty program. Help yourself and other divers to stay safe. Get started now!

Enriched Air Nitrox Level 2 (40%)

Extend your dive time, shorten your surface intervals and spend more time exploring the dive sites you love, with the SSI Enriched Air Nitrox Specialty certification program.

Night Diving and Limited Visibility

Diving does not end when the sun goes down! Become a night diver and meet the incredible marine life that only comes out at night. Join the SSI Night Diving and Limited Visibility specialty program.

Navigation

Become a better, more confident diver who always knows where they are going. Learn how to use a dive compass, natural navigation techniques and more. Join the SSI Navigation specialty today!

Search & Recovery

Make lost items a thing of the past with the SSI Search & Recovery specialty program. You will learn all you need to plan and conduct search and recovery dives, so you can find lost items with ease.

Deep Diving

Many exciting and iconic dive sites lie in deeper waters. The SSI Deep Diving Specialty will get you there - safely and with confidence. Learn how to plan and conduct dives to between 18 and 40 meters deep with SSI.

Perfect Buoyancy

The SSI Perfect Buoyancy Specialty is the best way to improve your body position for relaxed dives, lower your air consumption and increase your bottom times. Take control of your enjoyment. Start online now!

Photo & Video

Learn how to take underwater photos that capture your dive highlights and incredible marine life encounters with the SSI Photo & Video Specialty program. Get started online today.

Shark Ecology

Sharks are vital for healthy oceans and are truly spectacular to dive with! Join the SSI Shark Ecology program and learn how to dive safely with sharks, why their behaviors are misunderstood and more. Start online today!

Marine Ecology

The SSI Marine Ecology Specialty program is the best way to discover the exciting science of marine ecology and become an underwater naturalist. Enhance your dives in a new way. Earn the SSI Marine Ecology specialty certification now!

Sea Turtle Ecology

You will learn to identify sea turtles species, discover their history and role in marine ecosystems, and threats to their survival. Upon completion, you will earn the SSI Sea Turtle Ecology Specialty certification.

Manta And Ray Ecology

Diving with mantas and other rays is one of the best dive experiences you will have. Learn how to safely interact with rays and recognize different species with the SSI Manta & Ray Ecology Specialty program.

Fish Identification

Learn how to identify fish with the SSI Fish Identification specialty program and enhance your dives! Discover all you need to identify common families of Caribbean, Indo-Pacific and Red Sea reef fish and earn your SSI Fish Identification specialty certification.

Dive sites nearby

Tuffy Canyon

Also known as Tuffy Rocks, this site sits adjacent to the more popular ’Tackle Box’ dive site. This reef is fairly shallow and is good for newer divers and snorkeling alike. This site is boat accessible.

Hol Chan Marine Reserve

Hol Chan is THE most popular dive area in Belize if not all of the Caribbean. This Marine Park sits just offshore from Ambergris Caye and boasts great visibility, beautiful coral formations, and TONS of marine life.

Mayan Princess House Reef

The house reef right off of the Mayan Princess Hotel on Ambergris Caye offers nice, shallow diving good for beginners and snorkelers alike. Not as pristine as the reefs Belize is famous for, but an easy dive that is easily accessible.

Toffee Canyons

Toffee Canyons is a great dive site just off Ambergris Caye. This is a fairly shallow site great for newer divers and snorkelers. Healthy reef system with lots of marine life to see.

Tackle Box

Tackle Box is a very popular dive site off of Ambergris Caye. It consists of canyons, caverns, tunnels and lots of places to explore for lobsters, eels and good macro life, or schools of jacks around the reef.

San Pedro Canyons

Tuffy Canyons also known as San Pedro Canyons is located directly in front of the main channel of San Pedro Town. It has a variety of stony corals which forms a loose framework that supports a multitude of protective homes for small invertebrates such as the Brittle Star Fish, Shrimps and Crabs.

Paradise Canyons

Paradise Canyons offer beautiful finger canyon formations with beautiful coral formations and lots of marine life. This site is boat accessible just off San Pedro with depths of 60-70 feet.

San Pedro

One of the most popular dive areas on the island of Ambergris Caye in Belize

Cypress Canyons

Cypress Canyons is a spur-and-groove reef with deep and narrow canyons running perpendicular to the reef line. Coral spurs crest at 50-70 ft whereas the sand-floored cuts fall off rapidly to depths of 100 fl. A very cool, beautiful site.

Mermaid’s Lair

Mermaid’s Lair sits just off Ambergris Caye and is a great dive and snorkel site with the reef being fairly shallow with no current. This site is accessible by boat only and has great visibility.