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Our two guides could not have been friendlier, more helpful or more knowledgeable. We went to Hol Chan and Shark Ray Alley and had a great time. Our son developed a (recurring) ear problem on the second morning, so we had to cancel what was a full day of business for them on an hour's notice. Again, they could not have been more gracious about the refund. Highly recommended!…
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Date of experience: November 2020
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I would not recommend this dive shop. This was my husband and mine's fourth time diving in Belize, but it was almost our last. We did a 3 tank day to Turneffe Atoll. It started out ok, they seemed professional and had a nice set up. However, on the third dive of the day, somehow my husband ended up in the water with a mostly empty tank (and yes, I realize it was also our fault for not double checking the gauge before getting in the water, but also, we had just watched the guys switch out all the tanks). So what we think happened was that when they were doing the switching someone had put the plastic cap on the top that they use to identify empty from full tanks, or when he asked for his bcd/regulator by telling them the number he was using, they brought him from someone who wasn't doing the third dive instead of the one he had been using which had been switched out. So about 10 minutes into the dive he was completely out of air and had to buddy breath with the divemaster. Who at that point took him up to the boat, did a safety stop and got him a new tank. However he did leave behind me and the other 2 couples we were diving with 40 feet down while they went up to the boat. Then, to conclude the dive, we were above a sandbar about 20-25 feet deep and as my husband was being assisted (read dragged) onto the boat (he's a very fit 40 something), they knocked his go pro out of his hand and into the water. Not a single member of the crew apologized nor offered to even attempt to retrieve it. On the trip back to the dive shop, most of dive crew just played on their phones and ignored the guests. I would recommend you find someone else to dive with as there are plenty of other choices on the island.…
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Date of experience: March 2020
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We are experienced divers who have visited many places on this planet. We were a group of six divers, four of us needed all rental gear. We had planned to do five days of scuba including a trip to Turneffe. We had selected the Amigos before travelling by asking different dive shops questions about their gear, operations, schedules etc. The Amigos "won", as they seemed the most flexible and had promised long wetsuits for the two girls in our group. In addition, they offered a great cash discount. First impressions when getting there was that of a big operation scuba shop, meaning they are rather busy filling boats, do all kinds of other excursions (land and water) and seem to have a certain set of speeches they are used to deliver for the various kinds of occasions (new clients, briefings etc.). So this first introduction felt a bit impersonal, but ok. The disappointment came, when - contrary to what we were promised via email - they did NOT have long wetsuits for us. We picked our equipment and were told that we will have the same stuff every day, even though only the jackets had a numbered tag... So I was not surprised that we ended up having different equipment (even the jackets for some of us) EVERY DAY! This made finding suits on the pier, fins on the boat and buddies under water quite complicated and was especially bad, since we had put personal mouth pieces on our regulators... As for the long wetsuits, luckily, they actually managed to produce two for us on the second day! Confusing also was, that the very first briefing we had was not with our guide, but with the boat captain (?), which ended up in quite some confusion below the water, as it was not clear who actually was our guide. And since we were to groups on board, two of our divers ended up with the wrong group due to the last two of our group taking longer on the surface. We addressed this issue right after the dive and it went smoothly for all dives after. More annoying was the "gear issue". One leaves all rental equipment at the shop after diving and can only hope to see that particular piece of gear again. This resulted in our mouth pieces ending up on a trip to the blue hole, nobody finding mine anymore after and no solution offered. They did recover it a few days after my departure and luckily friends of mine were still on the island and could retrieve it for me. So my tips to you would be: - if you bring your own gear, don't leave it at the shop, dry it in your hotel - best don't put any personal equipment on the rental gear or take it with you after every dive - do take good note of what is your rental equipment and check that everything is there (and fits) before every dive (fins are on board, so make sure you check those, too!) - do take a good look at who is your dive guide and what your buddies look like under water - the boats aren't big and you go over some waves (quite a lot of waves on windier days) on the way out to the local dive spot, so it is best to bring nothing on the boat but yourself One other major downsides of diving here (which is not particular to the Amigos, but ALL shops) is that they chum the fish and shark! They will refrain from doing so if you tell them right away and again before the boat takes off. This practice (even if your guide doesn't chum) will have you followed by nurse sharks throughout your dives! Like walking your dogs... I have so many pictures photo-bombed by a nurse shark... Also big groupers and other fish will be rushing in at the briefest of hand movements. Rather annoying, not natural and results in some species not even present at all. On Turneffe this resulted in rather aggressive moray eels (the big ones!) who normally get fed the oh-so-bad lionfish (which we did not see many at all anywhere!) that shoot up at you from the reef. Especially scary when close to the reef for taking pictures etc. as they appear so suddenly and demanding. Killing lionfish, fine, but don't make it a tourist attraction!!! (make food out of them like other countries do...) On a side note, the Turneffe trip was really great! Nice boat ride, reefs in great condition and due to the fact that it is not nurse shark infested waters, has more and different kinds of fish and reef life. Overall, the guys (and girls) are welcoming, friendly, quick and accessible. So we were always able to voice our concerns and find solutions that worked. Special kudos also for offering refill water and trying to actively avoid plastic waste and unnecessary trash!…
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Date of experience: February 2020
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We booked two off-island days with Amigos ... one to do the Blue Hole trip (how could we not?!?) and the other to North Turneffe Atoll. While there are other dive shops that do the same trips, Amigos had been recommended to us by a friend, with the proviso their boat was the best ride for the open ocean crossings. And we were definitely happy with our choice as the ride to the Blue Hole was fairly rough ... the next day to Turneffe was a much smoother ride by comparison. The shop staff is very, very friendly, and made everything easy for us. The boat crew and divemasters were exceptional ... we were with Alex (and his big personality) both days. He can be a complete cut-up on shore and the boat ride, but when it's time to get in the water he was all business. Very professional, with no less than 25 years of experience with the Blue Hole, Turneffe, and locally off Ambergris Caye. Couldn't have been in better hands going into the Blue Hole and going way deep on that first dive of the day. Both days, food was provided for lunch, and they had plenty of fresh fruit, water, cookies and banana bread to snack on in between dives. All in all, we had a most excellent experience with Amigos, and would highly recommend them if you're going on one of the big trips off island.…
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Date of experience: March 2020
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+1
What a wonderful experience! We had the best time with the ADM team to snorkel the full day Caye Caulker trip. Our guide, Birdman, made the trip so fun. He was funny, and very knowledgable and knew answers to our many questions! We cannot wait to come back for more adventures!
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Date of experience: March 2020
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