acmescuba
Registered
My family and I, 2 daughters, future son in law and my wife (non-diver) visited from Dec. 5th-12th. We arrived via direct charter from Toronto to Roatan, taxi to a port on the far end of Roatan (Oakridge), then a ferry ride, by 37 Punta Dory the 30 miles to Guanaja (this was also our dive boat for the week). The ferry ride takes about 2- 2 1/2 hours. They asked if we wanted rain gear, we thought they were joking, until we hit the 15 miles of open ocean between the 2 islands. It can get pretty rough, but the dory is designed for these waters and handles the waves pretty well. Well the 2 guys who decided to forego the raingear were soaked when we arrived at the resort dock in Guanaja.
The resort is located on a small bay on the south side of the island. The island is quite unique, in that it is quite hilly, some over 1000 in elevation. This results in one side of the island sheltered from the wind and much calmer. The island is approx. 3 ½ miles wide and 11 miles long, but there is a narrow point close to the center of the island, where they have dug a channel (about 1.2 miles) joining the north and south sides. The entrance to the channel is only ¾ of a mile west of the resort, so dive sites on both the north side and south side are easily accessible and usually one side or the other will be quite calm. 8000 of the 10000 inhabitants live in Bonnaca. Bonnaca is actually 3 abutting cays that cover 3 acres that have about 4 acres of housing built on it. Bonnaca is about .4 miles directly out from the resort and is easily accessible by water taxi for $1 US each way. Almost all the inhabitants speak both Spanish & English. Since there are only two roads on the island, most transportation is by water taxi.
The resort is located in a small bay with 35 acres of property starting at the shoreline going up the side of a hill. There is a centrally located main lodge with covered open eating area with kitchen next door. There is also quite a large pool with bar area next to it. They had the bar open for us every afternoon from about 4PM on (the local Honduran beer Salva Vida is very good-highly recommended). They can accommodate about 30 guests in 14-15 individual cabins built into the side of the hill. The cabins are various sizes; some with two queens and each have a refrigerator. Each cabin has a spectacular view of the ocean and the morning sunrise. They are not air conditioned, but have screened windows with louvered wood blinds on three sides. There are fans in each room, usually a nice breeze and cooler air off the hills that settles down at night. We really didnÃÕ miss the AC. Rooms are pretty similar to ones that I have stayed in at F-Island in Roatan. The grounds are very nice and they were continually doing maintenance while we were there- there is a babbling stream flowing down from the hills through the center of the property. (Guanaja is the only Bay Island with its own fresh water supply). They grow some of their own coconuts, pineapple and bananas on the property. Our vacation trip included all of our meals. The cook (Erma) asked us at the start of our vacation what we liked to eat and all of us were quite satisfied with the quality of the meals. There was always lots of fruit and plenty of variety - seafood and Mexican/Honduran.
The dive operation (DiveTime) is separate from the hotel and is located at the dock in front of the resort. We stored all our gear at the dive shop. We used the dory for the week (there is also a larger dive boat that can handle 20-30 divers) it was quite adequate for the 4 of us diving along with the divemaster (Peter) and Bill (owner). Peter has been diving Guanaja for 20+ years and knows the 38 moored dive locations very well and continually amazed us with how he could spot various types of sea life. Our dive group all are AOW or higher and all had our own equipment. This was our first experience diving with the steel tanks that DiveTime supplies. We all thought they were great since they are so much more compact than aluminum - I dropped from carrying 10 lbs of weight to 4 lbs by the end of the week. The guys did three a day (17 dives for the week) and the girls decided on two a day and sunbathing for the afternoon. We usually did two tank dives in the morning, came back in for lunch, then one dive in the afternoon. We dove 17 sites all around the island- the direction of the wind usually dictating which direction we headed. The channel through the island made it very easy to dive both sides. We also found that each of the 4 quadrants of the island had very different reef structures- some volcanic in origin. The diving, although similar to Roatan was much more varied with some very dramatic swim-thruÃÔ and caverns -better than MaryÃÔ Place. Visibility was about the same as I have found in Roatan or Belize diving at the same time of the year in the Caribbean. Lots of sea life- Spotted eagle rays, nurse sharks, turtles, spotted and moray eels, lobster, crab etc.. something different every dive. I understand that very soon the 38 marked dive sites will be protected by law from fishing.
We did not get too involved in the night life (with all the diving we were usually asleep by 9 and up at 6:30)- although there is some to be had in Bonnaca. The resort staff were tremendous- very accommodating- they even volunteered to take my wife on some outings to some old towns on the far side of the island while were diving. For the more adventurous you can go hiking up in the hills. For the non-diver, quite a few of the afternoon dives were to shallower reefs that also had very good snorkelling.
The week went by very quickly and we were very sad to leave this lovely resort I guess Guanaja did not want us to leave either as a storm blew in while we were down for our last dive for the week. The storm closed the entire area to boat and air traffic for 36 hours. We ended up spending an extra day when after hugs from all the staff, we were able to make the run by boat back to Roatan. For this return trip, we didnÃÕ need to be asked twice if we wanted the rain gear. As we got close to Roatan our boat was surrounded by a pod of about 12 dolphins that followed us for about 10-15 minutes-what a way to finish off the trip. Our only glitch for the week was the storm which resulted in our missing our charter flight to Toronto. The charter company did take care of getting us home safely on scheduled flights from Roatan-Houston-Atlanta-Toronto. I would highly recommend this little resort for anyone looking for a fairly inexpensive but serious diving holiday and look forward to a return visit.
The resort is located on a small bay on the south side of the island. The island is quite unique, in that it is quite hilly, some over 1000 in elevation. This results in one side of the island sheltered from the wind and much calmer. The island is approx. 3 ½ miles wide and 11 miles long, but there is a narrow point close to the center of the island, where they have dug a channel (about 1.2 miles) joining the north and south sides. The entrance to the channel is only ¾ of a mile west of the resort, so dive sites on both the north side and south side are easily accessible and usually one side or the other will be quite calm. 8000 of the 10000 inhabitants live in Bonnaca. Bonnaca is actually 3 abutting cays that cover 3 acres that have about 4 acres of housing built on it. Bonnaca is about .4 miles directly out from the resort and is easily accessible by water taxi for $1 US each way. Almost all the inhabitants speak both Spanish & English. Since there are only two roads on the island, most transportation is by water taxi.
The resort is located in a small bay with 35 acres of property starting at the shoreline going up the side of a hill. There is a centrally located main lodge with covered open eating area with kitchen next door. There is also quite a large pool with bar area next to it. They had the bar open for us every afternoon from about 4PM on (the local Honduran beer Salva Vida is very good-highly recommended). They can accommodate about 30 guests in 14-15 individual cabins built into the side of the hill. The cabins are various sizes; some with two queens and each have a refrigerator. Each cabin has a spectacular view of the ocean and the morning sunrise. They are not air conditioned, but have screened windows with louvered wood blinds on three sides. There are fans in each room, usually a nice breeze and cooler air off the hills that settles down at night. We really didnÃÕ miss the AC. Rooms are pretty similar to ones that I have stayed in at F-Island in Roatan. The grounds are very nice and they were continually doing maintenance while we were there- there is a babbling stream flowing down from the hills through the center of the property. (Guanaja is the only Bay Island with its own fresh water supply). They grow some of their own coconuts, pineapple and bananas on the property. Our vacation trip included all of our meals. The cook (Erma) asked us at the start of our vacation what we liked to eat and all of us were quite satisfied with the quality of the meals. There was always lots of fruit and plenty of variety - seafood and Mexican/Honduran.
The dive operation (DiveTime) is separate from the hotel and is located at the dock in front of the resort. We stored all our gear at the dive shop. We used the dory for the week (there is also a larger dive boat that can handle 20-30 divers) it was quite adequate for the 4 of us diving along with the divemaster (Peter) and Bill (owner). Peter has been diving Guanaja for 20+ years and knows the 38 moored dive locations very well and continually amazed us with how he could spot various types of sea life. Our dive group all are AOW or higher and all had our own equipment. This was our first experience diving with the steel tanks that DiveTime supplies. We all thought they were great since they are so much more compact than aluminum - I dropped from carrying 10 lbs of weight to 4 lbs by the end of the week. The guys did three a day (17 dives for the week) and the girls decided on two a day and sunbathing for the afternoon. We usually did two tank dives in the morning, came back in for lunch, then one dive in the afternoon. We dove 17 sites all around the island- the direction of the wind usually dictating which direction we headed. The channel through the island made it very easy to dive both sides. We also found that each of the 4 quadrants of the island had very different reef structures- some volcanic in origin. The diving, although similar to Roatan was much more varied with some very dramatic swim-thruÃÔ and caverns -better than MaryÃÔ Place. Visibility was about the same as I have found in Roatan or Belize diving at the same time of the year in the Caribbean. Lots of sea life- Spotted eagle rays, nurse sharks, turtles, spotted and moray eels, lobster, crab etc.. something different every dive. I understand that very soon the 38 marked dive sites will be protected by law from fishing.
We did not get too involved in the night life (with all the diving we were usually asleep by 9 and up at 6:30)- although there is some to be had in Bonnaca. The resort staff were tremendous- very accommodating- they even volunteered to take my wife on some outings to some old towns on the far side of the island while were diving. For the more adventurous you can go hiking up in the hills. For the non-diver, quite a few of the afternoon dives were to shallower reefs that also had very good snorkelling.
The week went by very quickly and we were very sad to leave this lovely resort I guess Guanaja did not want us to leave either as a storm blew in while we were down for our last dive for the week. The storm closed the entire area to boat and air traffic for 36 hours. We ended up spending an extra day when after hugs from all the staff, we were able to make the run by boat back to Roatan. For this return trip, we didnÃÕ need to be asked twice if we wanted the rain gear. As we got close to Roatan our boat was surrounded by a pod of about 12 dolphins that followed us for about 10-15 minutes-what a way to finish off the trip. Our only glitch for the week was the storm which resulted in our missing our charter flight to Toronto. The charter company did take care of getting us home safely on scheduled flights from Roatan-Houston-Atlanta-Toronto. I would highly recommend this little resort for anyone looking for a fairly inexpensive but serious diving holiday and look forward to a return visit.
