Hi All,
We're Back from a week stay at Zebos (Planencia, Belize). Overall, a good (but not great) trip. On a rating from A to F, I can only give them a C+ and a huge portion of that grade is for effort! The grade itself is very misleading because it represents the average of very high marks and some very low marks. I think our small(?) group of only 19 divers really overwhelmed the very new Zebos resort. The resort itself with it's huge pool, nice rooms, and friendly service was great, but the diving was only OK. From all I've heard about Belize diving, that's not a good thing. We had 2 fantastic wall dives out of 12 total dives. (2/day for 6 days). The other dives ranged from OK to murky. Additionally, Zebos was totally unprepared to support our small(?) group. To be fair, the dive shop had been crippled by a customs snafu that left them totally without equipment (and compressor-less), so the dive shop was just two empty buildings. Sandra & Sean, the dive masters, managed to keep this from being a total disaster by getting lead & tanks from another shop, but the resort lacked adequate boats for doing these dives. Their one small boat had no hope of supporting our 19 divers. A second (very small) boat was pressed into service, and the 1st day of diving was barely salvaged. They upgraded to a larger boat on the second day and conditions improved slightly. (Their effort was excellent, even if the results were marginal). Inside reef diving was only OK, but not Belize-worthy. Too much silt/sand muted everything on the reef. The outside reef dives were 1000% better, but the cramped boat conditions & long & slow boat rides really detracted from the dives. A major plus was the untouched condition of the reef and total lack of other divers. We were alone on what appeared to be untouched & unexplored reefs. This fact alone was a major bonus! There is great potential here, and I expect the dive shop & boat conditions will improve as this resort matures. Be warned, this resort is totally isolated - No town or shops near-by. You come here to dive! The nice rooms, HUGE pool, & service will keep your land-time happy, but they really need to work out several diving-related issues. My unsolicited advice to Zebos, is to move the dive-shop buildings nearer to the water and buy a (much) bigger & faster boat to utilize the world-class wealth of reefs & dive sites within their reach.
Side Note: Dive masters Sandra's & Sean's efforts and abilities to work with limited (zero!) resources were amazing! Despite no dive-shop, no equipment, no-compressor, very limited boat(s) & space, etc..., they did manage to pull it off. Without their efforts, this trip would have been a disaster! No fault, no blame, but Zebos really needed another 1-2 months before serious divers arrived. I know that main stream resorts have spoiled me, but in some ways it was refreshing to be the first group of divers to a “new” area. It kind of brought the "adventure" back into diving....
I’d go it again (after 6-9 months!)
AZ_DIVER
