CoCoView Trip report...dive camp...

[KeithG]

bring shampoo...fewer clothes and less shoes...

it has been about 20 years since we last visited cocoview. it is much the
same. they have a well run setup that makes it very easy to do 4 dives a
day with minimal effort.

you get assigned to a boat for the week (no idea what criteria is used) and
your gear storage locker will be located directly behind the berth for your
boat.

boat dives are limited to 60 minutes with between 5 and 25 minute travel
times to the sites. the boats are slow so the sites are generally close.
you will spend a surface interval on the boat after the first dive, even if
you do not plan to do the drop off dive. surface intervals where quite
short, generally around 30 minutes or less. our boat caption jorge was very
flexible in drop off locations (only 8 people on the boat) so the fast
swimmers were dropped further away. it rained very hard for the first 2
days and viz at the dropoff was very poor, around 30 feet. viz at other
sites was good

there was a DM each dive, but he generally let us do our own thing.

food was okay, all meals buffet style. the club house is very rustic, most
people went barefoot. the live music nights were good, to very good. happy
hour was very popular and there was often a rush to the buffet as soon as
it opened.

do not be confused by the word "resort", it is not.

 

[chillyinCanada]

Do you mind sharing the difference in price between the two places? How do you compare the diving from Cocoview and From Utila?

 

[KeithG]

Do you mind sharing the difference in price between the two places? How do you compare the diving from Cocoview and From Utila?

Price? Utopia Village was almost 2x CoCoView in price? I think? I am not sure, my wife books this stuff...And she is never wrong...Very different attitude and approach for the 2 dive ops...The flight to Utila was also pricey. Island Air about $250 each? You may be able to take the fairy for less?

I liked Utila diving better. Better structure variation, more fish. We had been to Roatan 6 times prior (but a long time ago) and this was the first time to Utila. No big fish either place.

In Roatan it rained heavily saturday and sunday when we arrived at cocoview. This meant the viz at the front porch sucked - about 30 feet or less. It was so bad that we blew off all night dives for the week (we do EVERY night dive on a liveaboard and Bonaire). But we realize this was variable. By the last drop off dive on thursday the viz was much better, almost okay. The viz for boat dives away from the resort was okay, up to 70 feet. (except one site where the DM declared crap before we splashed and had 30 feet again).

I personally hate Calvins crack and Marys place. They have been kicked to sh*t by us vacation divers. Please, never take me there again... Cocoview boats are very slow, so we did not venture far from the resort.

On Utila our dive op (Utopia Village) avoided the sh*t storm of instruction boats hanging around the Utila Town harbour. The boat was fast and we did north, west, east and south side sites of the island. Very different from cocoview. For the first time in about 15 years I saw a 5 minute stream of creaole wrasse streaming by. This was on an un-named, no mooring site a few miles west of the island - we went to a sea mount on a lion fish hunt dive - we spotted, they killed, we ate. Yum!

My impression is that Roatan and Utila are fairly similar, but Utila has many more sites that see fewer divers. Utila has a few sites very close to Utila Town that see way too many divers. We did not do those. For example, we did Black Hills on the south east side twice and never saw another boat. We also dove west of Raggedy Cay on an un-named site with no mooring (live boat drop).

As habitual Bonaire, T&C Explorer, Belize Dancer divers we will return to Utila and Utopia Village. We will not return to Roatan or CoCoView.

 

[chillyinCanada]

Great answer, thanks so much.

I'm still left wondering how different the diving is at Utila compared to the north side of Roatan. I know Doc disagrees with me but I much prefer the north and west of the island over the south.

Though I must admit my heart did a significant flutter when you said a 5 minute trail of creole wrasse. It's been so long since I've seen a school that size anywhere.

Utila is such a pain in the keester to get to. You said perhaps you'd take the ferry the next time. I'm wondering if you know that the ferry goes first to La Ceiba and then to Utila and it's often called the vomit comet.

 

[Subway Watersports]

Great answer, thanks so much.

I'm still left wondering how different the diving is at Utila compared to the north side of Roatan. I know Doc disagrees with me but I much prefer the north and west of the island over the south.

Though I must admit my heart did a significant flutter when you said a 5 minute trail of creole wrasse. It's been so long since I've seen a school that size anywhere.

Utila is such a pain in the keester to get to. You said perhaps you'd take the ferry the next time. I'm wondering if you know that the ferry goes first to La Ceiba and then to Utila and it's often called the vomit comet.

Hi Chilly In Canada! If you're looking for a quiet north shore Roatan operation, feel free to contact us at info@turquoisebayresort.com for dive package rates and information.

And, just as an update, the Utila Princess is now running direct ferry service from Roatan to Utila every Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 1:00 pm and the reverse service, Utila-Roatan, on the same days at 10:30 am. It's very exciting news as the ferry is very fast (45 minutes) and very smooth. The cost is L1300 for a round trip ticket, which is about $56 USD. Have a great day!

 

[CajunDiva]

Though I must admit my heart did a significant flutter when you said a 5 minute trail of creole wrasse. It's been so long since I've seen a school that size anywhere.

We have seen that on the south side of Roatan on numerous occasions...

 

[drrich2]

Enjoyed this and your Utopia Village trip report.

A bit of clarification on this point may be in order:

As habitual Bonaire, T&C Explorer, Belize Dancer divers we will return to Utila and Utopia Village. We will not return to Roatan or CoCoView.

Does that mean you're glad you went and had a good time, but there are more places to explore, and some other old favorites that edge it out now that you've 'been there, done that,' or does that mean you were disappointed and wished you didn't go?

I know from other reports CocoView is much loved by some, but not everyone's after the same thing.

Richard.

 

[chillyinCanada]

Subway Watersports, thanks for the excellent news about the ferry service.

Now, how does one get to Guanaja?

 

[KeithG]

Enjoyed this and your Utopia Village trip report.

A bit of clarification on this point may be in order:



Does that mean you're glad you went and had a good time, but there are more places to explore, and some other old favorites that edge it out now that you've 'been there, done that,' or does that mean you were disappointed and wished you didn't go?

I know from other reports CocoView is much loved by some, but not everyone's after the same thing.

Richard.

I meant that we will go to Utopia Village instead of CoCoView.

Part way through the week at CoCoView we decided that we "might" come back in another 5 years. Just for something different. Maybe. 2 Days into the Utopia Village stay we decided that CoCovView was no longer on our might list as it had been replaced by Utopia Village on our must list.

 

[KeithG]

Subway Watersports, thanks for the excellent news about the ferry service.

Now, how does one get to Guanaja?

If you double check you will discover the ferry service is pretty much useless as it runs at the wrong time for same day service. You get stuck over night on Roatan on arrival and must leave Utila 1 day early to catch your plane home.

The Utila ops have been lobbying to get the ferry service time schedule changed to make it useful for divers.