Diving Guanaja

[zeppelindiver]

This is the second post in our Facebook series about exploring Guanaja; we decided to go below the waves this time & will finish up the land tour in our next post. We thought that the Scubaboard members might also find it interesting. The coral reefs and over 40 dive sites of Guanaja make this island a new favourite for Zeppelin Dive & Sail. What an underwater showcase!

The reefs here and in Roatan are part of the Mesoamerican barrier reef system which starts in Belize and is the second largest reef in the world after the Australian Great Barrier Reef. We loved the variety of the topography during our dives and had a chance to sample caves, tunnels, canyons, towering pinnacles and endless healthy reefs. The northeast end of Guanaja is actually volcanic, making for incredible underwater topography with mazes of tunnels & caverns on sites such as Black Rock & Labyrinth, and it’s all in less than 60 feet of water in that area. The south side has walls that drop off forever just like Roatan, but the reef structure extends much farther out from shore, making for a great choice of types of dive sites.

So far we have only done about 10 dives around the island, but the beauty is that you have a choice of which side you would like to dive and if the winds are blowing from the east or south you can dive on the north side, if from the north or west then it’s over to the south side. There is super easy access as Guanaja has a canal that cuts through the island, which is the main highway for small boats going from the north side to the south side of the island. This makes the choices for dive sites stress-free and allows for so much simplicity if the weather is not cooperating. We can get from one side of the island to the farthest away dive site on the other side in 30 minutes or less without ever leaving the protected waters inside the reefs, and the ride is so beautiful we actually did it one day when we weren’t diving just to sightsee!

The dive sites on the north side are mostly marked with buoys maintained by Bo Bush from Bo’s Island House Resort. We had the pleasure of meeting Bo on this trip and he was kind enough to take us to 2 spectacular dive sites on the north side of the island. Bo is a born & raised Guanaja islander and Divemaster and knows the island inside & out, both above & below the water. His family run, small rustic dive resort on the north side is a great place to stay to dive & explore the north side.

We also met a local fellow Peter who has been a Divemaster for many years and worked at Posada del Sol, one of the premier island resorts before it folded as a result of Hurricane Mitch followed by Hurricane Divorce. He joined us for 4 days of diving and knows both sides of the island well but most importantly knows the sites on the south shore that do not have mooring buoys (since the resort folded they are not maintained).

Our goal during our research time on Guanaja was to dive a number of sites that we think our guests would like to see and it was an easy task to complete! The island has incredible fish life, canyons and caves, tunnels, swim throughs, enormous coral formations, all extremely healthy and in all shapes, sizes and kinds. This is diving the way Roatan was 20 years ago, before there was any significant development on the island and when there were few divers.

One amazing site is Jim’s Silver Lode, it has a large cavern swim through (which we have now named the Lionfish Lair) in which we saw at least 20 lionfish hanging out and a 4 foot long nurse shark sleeping, not to mention thousands of silversides. That cavern proved to be a tad challenging, there were so many silversides it turned the dive into a night dive in the middle of the day & we were negotiating the lionfish while shining the flash light and taking photos in the dark… all while maintaining buoyancy and not getting too close to the lionfish venomous spines to be stung!

Here’s a few ‘did you know’ facts about lionfish: they live for decades; they inhabit all marine habitat types and depths up to 1000 feet deep; they become sexually mature in less than a year; reproduction occurs every 4 days all year long and in the Caribbean a female can spawn over 2 million eggs per year! Yikes!

Guests often ask us if there are sharks on Roatan. We have been diving around Roatan and Cayos Cochinos for over 2 years now and haven’t seen any. We know others have but they certainly aren’t common. In the 10 dives we have done on Guanaja we have seen 4 nurse sharks all around the 5 – 6 feet in length. We had rarely seen a nurse shark swimming before, as they have always been relaxing in the sand because they are primarily nocturnal, but this time we saw a couple of them swim by and it was spectacular.

There are not many dive operations in business right now, on the north side you have Bo’s Island House & another small boutique operation called G&G’s Clearwater Paradise. On the south side there is nothing in operation, however Dunbar Rock House & Graham’s Place Resort are both working on getting new dive shops up & running and should be ready soon. Of course soon is a relative term, we are still in the Bay Islands!

If you have your own gear, including tanks etc., you can get air fills at the Willmont Bay gas station, Bill Blakie runs a great service there, we had 8 tanks filled for 400 lempiras total in less than an hour. Yes, that’s right $2.50 per tank for air fills. Bill also runs dive charters in his boat from there or can hook you up with a local DM if he’s busy, that’s how we found Peter. We hope you enjoy the photos!

 

[drrich2]

Thanks for posting. Got a few questions; apologies if you answered already & I missed it.

1.) Any substantial shore diving?

2.) How easy is it to travel there?

3.) What, in your view, as kept Guanaja out of the mainstream Caribbean diving tourist eye (compared to Cozumel, Bonaire, Roatan, Grand Cayman, the Bahamas, etc...)?

4.) You mention hurricanes. Is Guanaja one of those islands more likely to get 'hammered' in hurricane season, such that people better think twice about booking that time of year? Any idea of there's a substantial rainy season to think about?

5.) People sometimes speak of Roatan being good for 'little stuff,' Cozumel having more 'big stuff' and Bonaire having mostly small aside from tarpon & the occasional green moray, barracuda or tiger grouper. In Guanaja, are you seeing many big grouper, big morays, big barracuda, other big animals? I know you mentioned the nurse sharks; any reef sharks or other species?

6.) Is it much hassle to get there by plane? Is this one of those places you can 'Orbitz & go,' or do you have to get to another island & arrange another, small airline flight to Guanaja (which if memory serves would be like going to Roatan to get to Utila?)?

Sounds like a real Caribbean gem. I'm just suspicious when a gem's being laying out in plain sight and not many people have picked it up. Then again, I tend to be cynical. Glad you're having a good time!

Richard.

 

[zeppelindiver]

Hi Richard,

Thanks for your reply. There is a lot more detail for some of your questions in our other 2 posts on our Facebook page about going to Guanaja in general but they're not Scubaboard type posts so you would have to look at our Facebook page. To answer your specific questions:

1. No, there is not any substantial shore diving. The reef extends a long way from shore on the south side & the lagoon inside the reef on the north side is deeper & sandy bottomed so access would be a long surface swim. There are a couple of places near the east end but the problem is the only road on the entire island is only 2 miles long & connects Mangrove Bight & Savannah Bight, other than that there are no roads & no cars, everyone gets to everything by boat, including to the airport from hotels etc.

2. Travel has not been easy in the past but just got a lot better. There is now a direct 30 minute Lanhsa flight between Roatan & Guanaja every Saturday that is timed to meet the flights coming into Roatan & get you to Guanaja as well as get you from Guanaja to Roatan to meet departing flights from Roatan, this just started a couple of months ago. With Roatan having multiple flights daily direct from the U.S. from several carriers including United, Delta & American as well as charter flights it's become much easier to get there. Lanhsa is already looking at increasing the frequency to 3 days per week starting in the fall due to demand. There also flights on SOSA from La Ceiba & San Pedro Sula several times per week.

3. As I mentioned in my post, the available resorts & dive operators are very limited and the ease of travel was not great until recently. Definitely not a plug & play vacation, you will have to do some legwork and be flexible in your travel arrangements, but I think is is a unique experience in the Caribbean. The island also went through a long recovery period after Hurricane Mitch in 1998 & the largest dive resort closed due to the hurricane followed by a divorce. All these factors have limited growth as a dive destination.

4. Regarding hurricanes, Guanaja is the same as the rest of the Bay Islands & western Caribbean in that hurricanes are definitely a possibility during the September through November time frame. That being said, since 1956 (as far back as I can find NOAA records) Mitch in 1998 has been the only hurricane, in fact the only tropical storm, to cause any significant damage. Our insurance company for our charter boats does not consider the Bay Islands to be in a high-risk hurricane area and does not charge us any extra premium for being in that area during the hurricane season. Given how risk averse underwriters are that says a lot to me about the likelihood of a major storm. The rainy season generally runs mid-September through into December & occasionally January but it rarely rains all day, usually it's intense short squalls with sun in between.

5. Guanaja is like the rest of the Bay Islands in that it's all about the coral. However, we have seen lots of big grouper, big morays, big barracudas, and big rays, usually southern stingrays or spotted eagle rays. We also see the same things on Roatan by the way, but you do need to know which sites to go to. On Guanaja we have seen nurse sharks frequently but no other reef sharks. On Roatan we have not seen any nurse or other reef sharks anywhere except for the reef sharks out on the staged shark dive off Cordelia Banks. Guanaja does have an overall larger volume & diversity of fish in general than Roatan, although again it depends on the dive site you go to.

6. See above.

We have been on Roatan since Jan 2012 & only just got up to Guanaja in April this year. We were blown away, went back for 10 days in July & are heading there again this month. We will have more details on available accommodations & travel options on our website by the end of August to let divers know what is available, both through us and the other operators. Thanks for your interest.

 

[drrich2]

Thanks for additional info. When I look at a potential Caribbean destination, I recall the old airlines adage that 'We know you have a choice when you fly; thank you for flying with us.' And since I will almost certainly die not having hit all the Florida & Caribbean dive destinations, whenever one pops up, I want to know how it stacks up. You helped with that.

Richard.

 

[grantwiscour]

Thanks for additional info. When I look at a potential Caribbean destination, I recall the old airlines adage that 'We know you have a choice when you fly; thank you for flying with us.' And since I will almost certainly die not having hit all the Florida & Caribbean dive destinations, whenever one pops up, I want to know how it stacks up. You helped with that.

Richard.

We were in Guanaja for a week last July. Dive package with G&G's. It was a "gem". It was just us, the DM and boat captain for the dives...all week. The viz was great most of the time...lots of interesting terrain and very healthy fish/animal population.

The "resort" took care of the inter island tickets and transfers were easy enough. I think it added @ $200 each for the plane to Guanaja from RTB. I would go back in a heartbeat. We like off the beaten path and as Doc put it during my research...on Guanaja there is no path. Travel is by boat around the island. We saw less than 25 people the whole trip...that was mostly at a distance from passing boats.

We took some good video of the dives. I tried to make a video for the different dive sites. Very cool long swim throughs and some great reef structure. If interested you can check them out at youtube.com/grantwiscour

This year we're headed to RTB for ten days...many more folks and "local culture". It'll be our first trip to RTB...almost ready to start counting down the days.

I am glad to hear zeppelindiver's info that they are some new ways to dive Guanaja. It is definitely worth putting on the "vacation radar".

 

[Doc]

First- Thanks to Wayne Zeppelin for all the good updates on Guanaja. He and I first met and actually introduced ourselves by name, while underwater.

We were in Guanaja for a week last July... We like off the beaten path and as Doc put it during my research...on Guanaja there is no path. Travel is by boat around the island. We saw less than 25 people the whole trip...that was mostly at a distance from passing boats.

This year we're headed to RTB for ten days...many more folks and "local culture".

On balance, there is way more of an actual "local culture" available for the tourist on Guanaja (not Roatan), by far.

Any visit to Guanaja would be 1/2 the show if you didn't spend a half a day wandering around the "streets" of Bonacca Town. The great majority of Guanajans live concentrated on this microscopic place- Bonacca Key, which was originally a shallow reef in the bay, about 1/3 mile offshore. It grew from a few shacks on stilts to... a lot of shacks on stilts. The center of the town of Bonacca Key now has "streets" that are concrete sidewalks, piers, if you will. As you radiate out from the center, these streets devolve slowly to wood mish-mash, then finally at the edges you'll find 2x10 boards strung along posts. Very real look into the culture of the Key. It is an amazing machine of civilization in an impossible environment.

Also nearby you will see a geodetic dome house, in the distance on stilts, that easily withstood many years of hard weather. Also see "Dunbar Rock", a resort that will make your head spin (and legs ache). The actual island of Guanaja does actually have a waterfall, something found on no other of the Bay Islands.

These are some tough sea-going people. After the rare hurricane beat the Hell out of the place in 1998, only one person lost her life from that terrible, 3 day pounding. These are an interesting bunch. There is a hand dug navigable micro canal that bisects the key- the passage of conflicting traffic is an art form in itself. How and why an actual bank robbery once was pulled-off on Bonacca amazes me to this day.

Roatan really offers no "island culture", certainly not to the casual visitor. If you want to see an evolutionary culture, Bonacca Key is not to be missed.

 

[zeppelindiver]

Hi Doc, nice to make contact again. You are absolutely right about Bonacca, we were amazed by it, nothing like we expected based on the travel & sailing guides we had read, the info was all old & out of date. We were impressed to the point that we did an entire article the same as this diving one, including pictures. If anyone is interested they can find it on our Facebook page, the link is on our website or just search Facebook for Zeppelin Dive & Sail.