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Central AmericaGet the scoop on where to go, where to stay and who to dive with in this region encompassing countries from Belize, Honduras and the Bay Islands, both coasts of Costa Rica, heading south to Panama.
Well, I just returned from a week at the Laguna Beach Resort in Utila. Here is the deal:
This was my second trip to LBR. the food was much better than it was two years ago. Sionce the place only has 36 guests, there will not be a lot of choices on the buffet, but what they had was usually very good. The baked snapper was the best dish followed closely by barbecued chicken. My only food gripe was that breakfast was not set up for eggs to order for everyone. You could get it as a special order. In fact, they will do special orders at any meal for picky eaters, but it will be something simple like plain grilled fish or chicken. By mid week I had a bad stomach, and so did a few other guests and one of our divemasters got sick on the last day. LBR gets its ice from town and the town had been experiencing electricity outages. A few of thought the water used to make the ice may not have been completely pure due to the power problems. On Tuesday there was no ice until dinner.
The rooms are in good shape. They are bungalows with one ot two rooms to a bungalow, private baths and wood floors. All face out on the lagoon with a porch and a tiny dock. If anything broke they fixed it as fast as they can. However, on Tuesday the diesel engine on the main generator overheated big time. We had electric, but could not run the AC until Friday afternoon when they installed a rented generator brought in from the mainland. For Utila, this was an unusually rapid fix. On Wednesday evening the weather turned rainy and cold. The next morning no one was too concerned about the AC and 80% of the guests passed up the morning dives. Fortunately my bad stomach and the bad weather coincided. I managed the afternoon dive that day with no more of a problem than slightly greater air consumptionthan usual.
Diving? The North side of Utila has spectacular diving. Not a lot of big fish, but many small ones, scorpionfish, occasional turtles and nurse sharks. Reef formations are interesting. The South side east of town is very good with a few small wrecks and the South side West of town had poor visibility due to drainage from the lagoon and the prevailing current moving large snot-like particles into the water. This trip the first day we got the baby dive close to the resort to "check your weights". Unfortunately, the resort is located in the Southwest area of the island so the first day of diving was just average. On other days we got the first dive on the North side and the remainder on the south side. After a few bad dives to the Southwest they shifted the diving to the Southeast which was better.
There is some decent shore diving right in front of the resort. Pretty interesting things like squid and scorpionfish in the shallow water.
We did not see any of the famous whale sharks this trip, but saw bunches of dolphins from the boat on the way to town one afternoon. Too bad we did not have any gear with us that time.
Last trip to LBR I did both morning dives on the North side every day. When I brought this up with the divemasters they said they could not do two North side dives because the boat would get back for lunch too late. I was there to dive, not eat lunch on time. When I brought this up with the manager, it was obvious that she had thought this plan up and was not interested in my views on the subject.
Frankly, the diving on the South side of Roatan is as good or better than the South side of Utila. It is harder to get to Utila because it requires a $112 flight from San Pedro Sula. I can fly to Roatan direct from Houston, where I happen to live and Taca has been selling the tickets cheap this year. I don't think I will be returning to LBR until someone tells me there has been a change in policy to where diving takes precedence over when lunch gets served.
Since Leadweight and I were on the same trip(in fact the same boat) i agree with his views. I had never been to Utila but when i return to the bay islands it will be to FI. My personal preference is to go different places all the time. Some of my dive buddies were not too happy when i would not go to Coz for the fourth year in a row on the same week. I decline to spend limited vacation time on the same places repeatedly. Sometimes i may be disappointed but thats the way it is. I had a good time at Utila but I wont be back anytime soon. Nothing against the place just want to see something different.
Wow, too bad guys! Sounds like you must've been there on an off week! Sometimes when weather is bad, they can't get to the north side, but I've never heard of not getting there because of lunch hour!! I worked at Laguna Beach for about a year and a half as divemaster and instructor, etc. Currently I am in the states and missing it mucho! Anyway, I hope any one else interested in Laguna Beach looks at all the other positive threads here and writes this one off as an off week. It really is an exceptional place to dive!
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