Roatan & Guanaja Trip

[gassed]

Gassed, when was your visit to Dunbar?


But...no bugs on The Rock, right? It's a minor point, but you'll get bitten on Roatan, no?

We were there in June of 2017. No bugs to speak of but they don't bother me much anyway. I will get a few bites on Roatan.

Everyone has differing goals. We have a nice home and cook great food so that's pretty low on our travel list. Water/life/reef and dive time are high priorities. I normally do 5 dives a day at Coco so Dunbar, lacking on shore diving and not much options on the island/rock, left me wanting.

We were also part of a private group that wanted to dive one boat. I think Dunbar could have used both of there boats and dove the same locations. As it was they had 20 of us on one boat. Stepping on gear getting on and off. No place to stand. The worst of it was with 20 people I would start my safety stop and it would be a solid 20 minutes before they were able to haul some of the old/weaker divers on board, make room for their gear and a small path for the next diver before the ladder would open up. It worked out to about 4 hours of drifting behind the boat over the week.

Opted for a night dive and that was great. Two of us and some critters I had not seen many of in Roatan (to clarify my earlier statement about small critters/same water) including a gaudy clown crab!


Other than that, dive quality, ease of diving and volume of diving makes CocoView really hard to beat.

Dunbar Rock 2017

Diving Dunbar Rock Guanaja, Honduras

flic.kr

 

[Ukmc]

We got a chance to stay at Dunbar.

It is as it looks:

• Total isolation.
• Nice rooms.
• Great staff.

What you cannot see from ads and maps:

• Many, many stairs. We ended up in the upper most room with the best views but a ton of stairs. I carry a full size rig and require 4 dives a day. You do feel the stairs.
• Poor shore-diving. Being used to CocoView the shore diving was a major let down. Shallow and Surgey.
• Algae. Everywhere in the south/east area. Everything was brown/green and lots of green water. No where near the walls around Coco. The North/West dives were much better. Some clean reefs and better fish life.

We will not return to Guanaja. Same water as Roatan, same critters, poorer quality.

Ok, I am diving Guanaja now.
my experiences are totally different.
Stairs? Not bad at all. Try Anse Chastanet in St Lucia… If minimal stairs bother you - stay at Clark’s.
It is not meant as a shore dive place, however, if it tickles your fancy to dive in 8 ft water, I have seen a bunch of stuff around the Rock, including eagle ray, nurse shark, barracudas and one time saw 4 different octopus just on one shore dive.
Diving here is amazing. Seas of pristine soft coral, abundance of juvenile and smaller fish. Some morays, groupers, resident nurse sharks, night octopus galore. There are several dive sites with a unique topography.
I was worrying about coming back here after reading your post. However, this is my 6th time here and I will keep coming back as much as I can. I am sorry you did not have the same experience I do.

 

[gassed]

So

Ok, I am diving Guanaja now.
my experiences are totally different.
Stairs? Not bad at all. Try Anse Chastanet in St Lucia… If minimal stairs bother you - stay at Clark’s.
It is not meant as a shore dive place, however, if it tickles your fancy to dive in 8 ft water, I have seen a bunch of stuff around the Rock, including eagle ray, nurse shark, barracudas and one time saw 4 different octopus just on one shore dive.
Diving here is amazing. Seas of pristine soft coral, abundance of juvenile and smaller fish. Some morays, groupers, resident nurse sharks, night octopus galore. There are several dive sites with a unique topography.
I was worrying about coming back here after reading your post. However, this is my 6th time here and I will keep coming back as much as I can. I am sorry you did not have the same experience I do.

So happy you had a good time. Most of the people we were with had a great time.
Again, my comparisons are based on personal agenda and a direct comparison to CocoView. Easier travel, more diving, a ton of great shore diving, a max of one flight of stairs anywhere and cheaper. On our trip, a couple months after the previous Coco trip, there was a drop in marine life by comparison.
We did see more Nurse Sharks at Guanaja as they were being fed lion fish on a daily basis. It was cool to see because we don't see many. That said we avoid shark dives or any dive with unnatural interactions. This was definitely unnatural.
Again, personal preference and agenda. If the shoe fits....
Enjoy!

 

[underwater5]

I always stay at Dunbar Rock. They are amazing.

Im very interested in DR. Does it typically get crowded? If it doe sand there is a large group of divers will they split up the groups and use both boats instead of throwing everyone on the same boat?

One of the appeals is that its is relatively uncrowded and untouched. So we don't want to do any large group diving ie: no more than 6 people on a dive ....is this realistic on Guanaja and DR specifically?