Mike
Contributor
Trip report Mayan Divers Roatan Honduras
May 23rd, 2009
My wife and I go on vacations and dive; we aren't necessarily interested in dive vacations doing 5-6 dives per day. So when we scheduled a week in Roatan we were interested in finding a dive operation or maybe two so that we could dive both sides of the island, that would work with our schedule or more exact our lack of one. We had booked a weeks stay at the Mayan Princess on beautiful West Bay Beach and planned on once we arrived to check out some of the better reviewed dive ops in the area around West Bay beach for diving on the north side of the island and then probably look up another outfit (probably Barefoot Divers) on the south side.
We knew the hotel had a dive op located on the hotel grounds called Mayan Divers, but we didn't find any online reviews of them, so we didn't really have plans of even considering diving with them. However, luckily upon arrival we thought we should at least check them out and see what they were all about. I mean, we were staying there and they were but a short walk down a flower lined path away. As I said luckily we did, because we found a real undiscovered gem in Mayan Divers. We met Anja and her husband Liber, the owner/operators, and it was immediately apparent based on a short conversation with Anja with the usual short list of questions we divers know to ask to start sizing up a dive operator that we didn't need to look any further than Mayan Divers. A heavy breather wouldn't cut our bottom times-- check, they carried oxygen on board-- check, VHF radio -- check, fast boats -- check, everything was a boat dive --check, you know the drill. Best of all and probably more important then anything else effecting your dive experience is the personality of the diver masters, and Anja and her team are a delight, quick witted, laid back but professional.
I hesitate to say they are a small operation because of the connotation a description like that often conveys, but maybe a better description is they are a small operation in terms of their size, providing that hands on attitude that you can only receive from a mom and pop operation. However they operate with all the professionalism and ability you would expect from a much bigger organization. Their equipment was new and well maintained and in good variety, we rented nice BCDs, wet suits and dive computers at respectable prices. Our fellow divers varied from day to day from a low of 5 to a high of 11. DM to client ratios never exceeded 1:6, on busier dives either Anja's husband Liber or their other DM Vera would dive with a 2nd group. I can't say enough of the professionalism this small group provides their clients, right down to their boat hand Humberto who always seemed to be exactly in the right place at the right time to hand you your camera or help you slip into a BC. It's obvious they are a tight knit outfit with an eye on providing their clients with a great dive every time. They are genuinely concerned with you getting a great dive every time.
Mayan Divers operates off a simple system of a dry erase sign up board at their dive center. Simply listing the dives for the week where you can sign up for those you want. They normally are running at least 3 dives a day: two consecutive morning dives about 8:00 and 10:30 am, then an afternoon dive at about 2:30pm, night dives are a bit less formalized, basically if you were interested you started one on the board and if there were a minimum of 4 divers you had your dive. I started one on Monday and another on Thursday and were able to fill both.
Mayan Divers isn't a valet type dive service that is becoming more and more prevalent around the Caribbean; you will tote your own gear, clean it, set it up and break it down. There is always a helping hand available and quick to be offered, but if you want that valet service where all you do is show up on the boat, slip on your set up BC and roll over the side, they aren't offering that.
We dove mostly with Anja (who I would describe as the Celine Dion of Roatan) even though she is German, her accent to me sounded French and her mannerisms, looks and self-deprecating style of humor made me think we were diving with Celine's sister, the only thing missing was Anja breaking into a power ballad. As I said we dove mostly with Anja and her encyclopedia like knowledge of the reefs is amazing. Also not to be taken lightly is her knowledge of what is where on most dives, taking you directly to pretty much whatever you wanted to see. Want to see a sea horse? How about a 6 foot green eel? Grouper the size of a Volkswagen? Anja seemed to be able to conjure them all up for you on order. She has a habit of carrying a waterproof fish book with her so when she finds something she may signal you with hand signals or point out the creature in her book.
We also dove a couple of times with Vera and Liber who both are very easy to get along with, after a dive or two it's almost like you are out just enjoying a dive among friends with the relaxed and easy going attitude and atmosphere they create.
As for the dives themselves, Roatan has a lot to offer, we saw a lot in 11 dives including two night dives. A variety of morays, a sea horse, too many lobsters to count including two different slipper lobsters, Flamingo Tongues, barracuda, octopus, squid, really big drum fish, turtles, many, many groupers, tons of shrimp of different kinds and all the usually assorted gang of fish are all to be seen. We did a wreck dive on the Prince Albert and did the famous Mary's Place and spooky channel dive sites. Almost every dive was averaging about 50 minutes; depths of dives in Roatan seem to keep on the shallower side, usually the 70 foot range was a deep dive. I think the deepest we were was 90 feet. The water was 80-82 degrees and visibility was great and varied by conditions. My wife dove in a 5 mil full suit and I dove in a 3 mil shorty the whole time and was never cold.
It's always interesting to see how the local diving works in the areas that you visit. Roatans reef system is so vast and close to shore that the dive ops regard anything over a 5-10 minute ride as 'long'. The dive we did at Mary's Place on the other side of the island that took 30 minutes or so to reach was regarded almost as an apology to the clients for the 'long' ride. A 30 minute ride that lets you sight see so close to shore in great weather to us isn't a hardship but instead a bonus. But as I said the diving in Roatan is so close and convenient, this is the way any boat ride longer than 5-10 minutes is regarded.
A couple of miscellaneous notes: At 2:30 am one night we were awoke to the house shaking violently. This was the 7.3 earth quake that took place 20 miles off the coast of Honduras. This was a lousy night, as we all sped off in the night to wait it out on higher ground in fear of an immenent tsunami that luckily never materialized. Diving the next day on only 2 hours of sleep created a very quiet boat full of divers.
The marine park on the very west end of West Bay Beach is a do not miss snorkel. In a 45 minute snorkel we basically experienced a condensed mini version of most of the dives we had been on, with an abundance of every creature in the sea it seems in this area if you look around hard enough. They are all smaller versions, except for the 4 foot barracuda that exploded upon a singled out blue tang in a school of about 300 that I was videoing. This barracuda took the tang virtually within less than 10 feet from my face, something I've never experienced in a lot of barracuda sightings I've had over the years. There are white spotted eels and green moray, lobster, shrimp, crabs, octopus and all other manner of creatures in this area. A night snorkel done here would be an amazing experience I would think.
May 23rd, 2009
My wife and I go on vacations and dive; we aren't necessarily interested in dive vacations doing 5-6 dives per day. So when we scheduled a week in Roatan we were interested in finding a dive operation or maybe two so that we could dive both sides of the island, that would work with our schedule or more exact our lack of one. We had booked a weeks stay at the Mayan Princess on beautiful West Bay Beach and planned on once we arrived to check out some of the better reviewed dive ops in the area around West Bay beach for diving on the north side of the island and then probably look up another outfit (probably Barefoot Divers) on the south side.
We knew the hotel had a dive op located on the hotel grounds called Mayan Divers, but we didn't find any online reviews of them, so we didn't really have plans of even considering diving with them. However, luckily upon arrival we thought we should at least check them out and see what they were all about. I mean, we were staying there and they were but a short walk down a flower lined path away. As I said luckily we did, because we found a real undiscovered gem in Mayan Divers. We met Anja and her husband Liber, the owner/operators, and it was immediately apparent based on a short conversation with Anja with the usual short list of questions we divers know to ask to start sizing up a dive operator that we didn't need to look any further than Mayan Divers. A heavy breather wouldn't cut our bottom times-- check, they carried oxygen on board-- check, VHF radio -- check, fast boats -- check, everything was a boat dive --check, you know the drill. Best of all and probably more important then anything else effecting your dive experience is the personality of the diver masters, and Anja and her team are a delight, quick witted, laid back but professional.
I hesitate to say they are a small operation because of the connotation a description like that often conveys, but maybe a better description is they are a small operation in terms of their size, providing that hands on attitude that you can only receive from a mom and pop operation. However they operate with all the professionalism and ability you would expect from a much bigger organization. Their equipment was new and well maintained and in good variety, we rented nice BCDs, wet suits and dive computers at respectable prices. Our fellow divers varied from day to day from a low of 5 to a high of 11. DM to client ratios never exceeded 1:6, on busier dives either Anja's husband Liber or their other DM Vera would dive with a 2nd group. I can't say enough of the professionalism this small group provides their clients, right down to their boat hand Humberto who always seemed to be exactly in the right place at the right time to hand you your camera or help you slip into a BC. It's obvious they are a tight knit outfit with an eye on providing their clients with a great dive every time. They are genuinely concerned with you getting a great dive every time.
Mayan Divers operates off a simple system of a dry erase sign up board at their dive center. Simply listing the dives for the week where you can sign up for those you want. They normally are running at least 3 dives a day: two consecutive morning dives about 8:00 and 10:30 am, then an afternoon dive at about 2:30pm, night dives are a bit less formalized, basically if you were interested you started one on the board and if there were a minimum of 4 divers you had your dive. I started one on Monday and another on Thursday and were able to fill both.
Mayan Divers isn't a valet type dive service that is becoming more and more prevalent around the Caribbean; you will tote your own gear, clean it, set it up and break it down. There is always a helping hand available and quick to be offered, but if you want that valet service where all you do is show up on the boat, slip on your set up BC and roll over the side, they aren't offering that.
We dove mostly with Anja (who I would describe as the Celine Dion of Roatan) even though she is German, her accent to me sounded French and her mannerisms, looks and self-deprecating style of humor made me think we were diving with Celine's sister, the only thing missing was Anja breaking into a power ballad. As I said we dove mostly with Anja and her encyclopedia like knowledge of the reefs is amazing. Also not to be taken lightly is her knowledge of what is where on most dives, taking you directly to pretty much whatever you wanted to see. Want to see a sea horse? How about a 6 foot green eel? Grouper the size of a Volkswagen? Anja seemed to be able to conjure them all up for you on order. She has a habit of carrying a waterproof fish book with her so when she finds something she may signal you with hand signals or point out the creature in her book.
We also dove a couple of times with Vera and Liber who both are very easy to get along with, after a dive or two it's almost like you are out just enjoying a dive among friends with the relaxed and easy going attitude and atmosphere they create.
As for the dives themselves, Roatan has a lot to offer, we saw a lot in 11 dives including two night dives. A variety of morays, a sea horse, too many lobsters to count including two different slipper lobsters, Flamingo Tongues, barracuda, octopus, squid, really big drum fish, turtles, many, many groupers, tons of shrimp of different kinds and all the usually assorted gang of fish are all to be seen. We did a wreck dive on the Prince Albert and did the famous Mary's Place and spooky channel dive sites. Almost every dive was averaging about 50 minutes; depths of dives in Roatan seem to keep on the shallower side, usually the 70 foot range was a deep dive. I think the deepest we were was 90 feet. The water was 80-82 degrees and visibility was great and varied by conditions. My wife dove in a 5 mil full suit and I dove in a 3 mil shorty the whole time and was never cold.
It's always interesting to see how the local diving works in the areas that you visit. Roatans reef system is so vast and close to shore that the dive ops regard anything over a 5-10 minute ride as 'long'. The dive we did at Mary's Place on the other side of the island that took 30 minutes or so to reach was regarded almost as an apology to the clients for the 'long' ride. A 30 minute ride that lets you sight see so close to shore in great weather to us isn't a hardship but instead a bonus. But as I said the diving in Roatan is so close and convenient, this is the way any boat ride longer than 5-10 minutes is regarded.
A couple of miscellaneous notes: At 2:30 am one night we were awoke to the house shaking violently. This was the 7.3 earth quake that took place 20 miles off the coast of Honduras. This was a lousy night, as we all sped off in the night to wait it out on higher ground in fear of an immenent tsunami that luckily never materialized. Diving the next day on only 2 hours of sleep created a very quiet boat full of divers.
The marine park on the very west end of West Bay Beach is a do not miss snorkel. In a 45 minute snorkel we basically experienced a condensed mini version of most of the dives we had been on, with an abundance of every creature in the sea it seems in this area if you look around hard enough. They are all smaller versions, except for the 4 foot barracuda that exploded upon a singled out blue tang in a school of about 300 that I was videoing. This barracuda took the tang virtually within less than 10 feet from my face, something I've never experienced in a lot of barracuda sightings I've had over the years. There are white spotted eels and green moray, lobster, shrimp, crabs, octopus and all other manner of creatures in this area. A night snorkel done here would be an amazing experience I would think.
Attachments
Last edited:
