your thinking of Altan Ha...I went to Xunantunich and Cahal Pech. Wonderful glorious places both. And I must say that if you've never been there, the tour guides really make the adventure stand out. I had a guide by the name of Fidelio who worked for a company called Discovery Tours...insanely knowledgable on every aspect of his country.
Tropicdiver....spend the $185 when you get to Ambergris.
here is a list of my dives in while in Belize
on 08 Feb 04
Local reef dives...about 15.min out
1) Dardanelos- 66ft for 45 min.
2) Tuffy- 60 ft for 50 min.
this was a half day trip and cost about $80 US...(please don't quote me because i only recently threw out my receipts)
Then on 09 Feb 04
I went on the Blue Hole trip. Now this was an all-day 3 dive adventure
that cost somewhere around what you mentioned. It took about 2 hours to get where we were going
1) Blue Hole- 130ft for 30 min
those 30 minutes seemed like an eternity actually....
2) Half-Moon Caye- 56ft for 50 min.
then we docked at Half Moon Caye for lunch consisting of rice and red beans, bbq chicken and potato salad....god i can taste it still!
on half-moon caye there is a national park where they have the only sanctuary for the red-footed booby birds who live side by side with their natural enemy, the frigate bird. I remember spying an iguana in the bush there and noticed that it had a forked tail....
I thought i discovered some mutant until i saw the sign indicating
that this island was a habitat for the....you guessed it, Fork Tail Iguana.
I am digressing
then onto our last dive spot
3)The Aquarium at Long Caye- 50 ft for 50 min.
I didn't have a computer tropicdiver so I gathered my info from a seasoned diver who I kinda never let out of my periphery.
In writing this here today I find myself really longing for my next underwater journey.
Thanks