Just got back from an awesome week of diving. I did a dive and stay package with West End Divers and the Mariposa Lodge. The dive shop is right on the road facing the water and the hotel is about a 3 minute walk up the hill behind the shop.
Pricing: Base price was $715 for a room with A/C, microwave and fridge. This was for 7 nights and 10 dives. Additional dives were $35 each. I took my own equipment but if you are diving 10 + dives with them there is no charge. My total bill was just under $1200. But that was for single occupancy, 19 dives one being a night dive and 4 using nitrox. They do offer unlimited nitrox at $100 for a week, only 32%. I only did one nitrox tank a day the last 4 days since I was diving so much, I think it is $12 a tank.
Dive shop: Very well run operation. They do 3 trips a day 9AM, 11:30 and 2:30. They have a very nice large dive boat along with a couple smaller boats, similar to the 6 pack boats in Cozumel. All boats have shade. I was only on the big boat, it is the one that served the 3 dive daily schedule. The large boat is a very nice diving platform, not fast but the farthest sight we went to was under 15 minutes from the shop. A dozen or more divers would have plenty of room on the boat, I think once or twice there were 5 or 6 divers, usually 2-4 on the boat. Dive times were limited to 60 minutes, I think their minimum time is 50 minutes as long as you have air. They did have AL100's available to heavy breathers, I don't think there was an upcharge. My shortest dive was 52 minutes, I had a choice to stay down longer but went ahead and surfaced with another diver that was getting low on air. This is full service valet dive shop. You show up, get on the boat and go. The only thing they don't do is wet suits but hey have rinse tubs on their pier and a place to hang them, then when they close they lock them up for you so you really don't have to deal with them. There is a schedule on a dry erase board 4 days out showing what sites the boat would go to and you put your name on any dive you wanted to but since there was only one boat they made sure all divers could handle the site selected, request for certain dive sites were granted.
Hotel: Looks to be a large wood frame house converted to a hotel. My room had a king size bed that was very comfortable firm mattress. Kitchenette, TV with cable that I honestly did not turn on once ( I watch my fair share of TV at home), two chairs and a private porch with a table, two chairs and a hammock. I used the A/C every night and it worked great. It was a little noisy during the day, always hammering going on, but at night once I turned the AC on I didn't here anything. It is Honduras though, yesterday morning walking to the dive shop a German Shepard was chasing a chicken down the road, the chicken nearly hit me in the chest trying to get away.
I will discuss the diving and try to post some pictures in the next couple of days.
Pricing: Base price was $715 for a room with A/C, microwave and fridge. This was for 7 nights and 10 dives. Additional dives were $35 each. I took my own equipment but if you are diving 10 + dives with them there is no charge. My total bill was just under $1200. But that was for single occupancy, 19 dives one being a night dive and 4 using nitrox. They do offer unlimited nitrox at $100 for a week, only 32%. I only did one nitrox tank a day the last 4 days since I was diving so much, I think it is $12 a tank.
Dive shop: Very well run operation. They do 3 trips a day 9AM, 11:30 and 2:30. They have a very nice large dive boat along with a couple smaller boats, similar to the 6 pack boats in Cozumel. All boats have shade. I was only on the big boat, it is the one that served the 3 dive daily schedule. The large boat is a very nice diving platform, not fast but the farthest sight we went to was under 15 minutes from the shop. A dozen or more divers would have plenty of room on the boat, I think once or twice there were 5 or 6 divers, usually 2-4 on the boat. Dive times were limited to 60 minutes, I think their minimum time is 50 minutes as long as you have air. They did have AL100's available to heavy breathers, I don't think there was an upcharge. My shortest dive was 52 minutes, I had a choice to stay down longer but went ahead and surfaced with another diver that was getting low on air. This is full service valet dive shop. You show up, get on the boat and go. The only thing they don't do is wet suits but hey have rinse tubs on their pier and a place to hang them, then when they close they lock them up for you so you really don't have to deal with them. There is a schedule on a dry erase board 4 days out showing what sites the boat would go to and you put your name on any dive you wanted to but since there was only one boat they made sure all divers could handle the site selected, request for certain dive sites were granted.
Hotel: Looks to be a large wood frame house converted to a hotel. My room had a king size bed that was very comfortable firm mattress. Kitchenette, TV with cable that I honestly did not turn on once ( I watch my fair share of TV at home), two chairs and a private porch with a table, two chairs and a hammock. I used the A/C every night and it worked great. It was a little noisy during the day, always hammering going on, but at night once I turned the AC on I didn't here anything. It is Honduras though, yesterday morning walking to the dive shop a German Shepard was chasing a chicken down the road, the chicken nearly hit me in the chest trying to get away.
I will discuss the diving and try to post some pictures in the next couple of days.
