darook
Contributor
We arrived Saturday and finished day two of our 3 dive days. This is my second time to Roatan and first here. The first was at Mayan Princess in West Bay. These two are sister resorts but there is no way to tell that. Mayan Princess is a beach resort that offers diving, this is a dive resort and a good one. The location feels very remote and is lovely. This part of the island is very hilly and lush. There is a herd of horses and a donkey that have free range across the property. The donkey is named Molly and she is very sweet. You can ride horses if you wish. Some of the folks in our group did today and suggested long pants and bug spray but said it was fun. The staff is very attentive and many introduce themselves and always call you by your name when they see you. It's a nice touch. The food has been fine but I have gone light on it as my tummy is a bit off kilter at the moment. I will spare you the details!
The beach is huge and quite nice and protected. They are building some really sweet cabanas over the water. Not my scene but would be great for a non-diving SO. Of course there are sand fleas which seems to be case island wide.
The house dive shop is Subway and they are really solid. Good safety protocols, well organized locker area and good guides. The boat our group is supposed to be using needed some transmission work so we have been split onto two smaller boats. They are a little tight but very workable. We think we are getting our boat tomorrow. The sites we are doing are close by which means they are far from other operations and are not dived very hard. I have not seen a boat from a different operator all week. They are doing a lot of work on improving the reef with Elkhorn Coral restoration. They also offer the local fishermen who are caught illegally spear fishing in the park the option to avoid a fine and jail an internship to become divemasters. I think it is a great idea.
The sites are typical for what I have seen in Roatan. Interesting topography, lots of soft corals, plenty of hard coral and not a ton of fish. That is why they are pursuing the effort previously mentioned. You will see all of the usual stuff, just not necessarily in the abundance of other locations. They are really trying to increase the parrot fish population as they are such important reef cleaners. The one species that is abundant are Black Durgon which is great as they are so pretty. We see tons of those every dive and I of course have yet to get a decent picture of one. I think they are the hardest species to actually get a great shot of.
Sites done so far: Sponges for check out dive, White Hole, Labyrinth, Fish Spot, Sea Star Wall and Underground. Clear winners so far are Labyrinth and Underground.
I will try to add more to this as the week goes along and will have photos and video after I return to high speed internet.
The beach is huge and quite nice and protected. They are building some really sweet cabanas over the water. Not my scene but would be great for a non-diving SO. Of course there are sand fleas which seems to be case island wide.
The house dive shop is Subway and they are really solid. Good safety protocols, well organized locker area and good guides. The boat our group is supposed to be using needed some transmission work so we have been split onto two smaller boats. They are a little tight but very workable. We think we are getting our boat tomorrow. The sites we are doing are close by which means they are far from other operations and are not dived very hard. I have not seen a boat from a different operator all week. They are doing a lot of work on improving the reef with Elkhorn Coral restoration. They also offer the local fishermen who are caught illegally spear fishing in the park the option to avoid a fine and jail an internship to become divemasters. I think it is a great idea.
The sites are typical for what I have seen in Roatan. Interesting topography, lots of soft corals, plenty of hard coral and not a ton of fish. That is why they are pursuing the effort previously mentioned. You will see all of the usual stuff, just not necessarily in the abundance of other locations. They are really trying to increase the parrot fish population as they are such important reef cleaners. The one species that is abundant are Black Durgon which is great as they are so pretty. We see tons of those every dive and I of course have yet to get a decent picture of one. I think they are the hardest species to actually get a great shot of.
Sites done so far: Sponges for check out dive, White Hole, Labyrinth, Fish Spot, Sea Star Wall and Underground. Clear winners so far are Labyrinth and Underground.
I will try to add more to this as the week goes along and will have photos and video after I return to high speed internet.
