Trip Report Trip Report: Alton's Dive Center, Utila. Late May 2019

[Chidiver1]

Dove with Alton's last year...pretty sure I know the dm who is particular. Lol

 

[Trailboss123]

@Trailboss123 Thank you for the positive feedback and for the recommendation of Clearwater. It sounds like a good place to stay and dive, and their base rates and single supplement are reasonable. Do they have Nitrox? Aside from my personal preferences, the review to which you included a link mentioned some deep diving there.

Not excessively deep-- just your normal recreational limit diving. They can tailor depths to your preference. I am checking on the Nitrox question and will get back to you on that.

 

[Trailboss123]

@Trailboss123 I will be on the Turks & Caicos Explorer II the week of the 4th of July.

After that, I will put dive trips on the back burner for much of the hurricane season and focus instead on local diving. I found a dive shop that does guided shore dives of Long Island, in order to indulge my interest in macro and my newfound interest in cold water diving. I have already done two local shore dives on Long Island - the pictures are on my Instagram account, below/before the latest pictures from Utila.

I hope to have another dive trip on the Pacific coast of North America later in the fall, after the summer plankton blooms clear up. Could be Southern California, Sea of Cortez, or British Columbia. Not sure yet.

I hope to return to Southeast Asia (the Philippines or Indonesia) in the dead of winter (January-ish).

Love the plan! I am also considering Sea of Cortez in the Fall. Land based diving out of Loreto with Blue Nation, to be exact. I get my fill of Channel Islands, Puget Sound and BC diving throughout the year. Those are my house reefs "so to speak".

 

[aviator8]

Nice write up. I just got back from RTB and saw some of the same things you saw but it does appear that you did get a larger lineup of macro than I saw. Either that or you spotter was alot better Really love the image quality you are getting, I hope to get there one day.

 

[drrich2]

Appreciate the detailed, useful report. Especially the decision tree that went into choosing a dive op. & lodging; why pick this one out of the available mix, why pick one different from whatever seems to be the current forum favorite, who offers a pretty good deal to the solo diver, how much hassle is travel there and back, or getting to/from the dive boat and food (especially if you're diving multiple times/day; easy food access is a nice perk!).

The solo diver doing a land-based trip with budget in mind, rather than a live-aboard, faces a different value proposition from the buddy pair.

Sometimes I feel a bit sympathetic for the 'other' dive op.s on a given island. Seems like on the forum a given destination often has one, maybe 2 obvious favorites (unless you're Cozumel or Grand Cayman; even those I think have 2 or 3 that get the most press), and since most of us don't like gambling with our time/money/vacation, many tend to aim for those. I know there are a number of other fine op.s out there.

Richard.

 

[scubafanatic]

@ 'to be continued' Any way you might include $ amounts/costs in your documentaries ?

 

[Redfoot]

Great report, thanks for sharing all the details and thorough information!

 

[Ironborn]

Dove with Alton's last year...pretty sure I know the dm who is particular. Lol

@Chidiver1 Yes, he was quite particular. Under other circumstances, it might have rubbed me the wrong way, but I was so busy enjoying the steady stream and high volume of critters that he pointed out that I hardly noticed. I think his particular attention to detail was what also made him a great macro spotter.

Beyond that, was your take on Utila in general and Alton's in particular consistent with mine?

 

[Ironborn]

Nice write up. I just got back from RTB and saw some of the same things you saw but it does appear that you did get a larger lineup of macro than I saw. Either that or you spotter was alot better Really love the image quality you are getting, I hope to get there one day.

Yes, I would say that the better selection of macro was one key point that distinguished Utila from Roatan and made it worth the additional hassle of adding another leg to the trip. I would also say that I had great spotters at Alton's, but I also thought that I had great spotters at CoCo View too (although only for the boat dives).

 

[Ironborn]

Sometimes I feel a bit sympathetic for the 'other' dive op.s on a given island. Seems like on the forum a given destination often has one, maybe 2 obvious favorites (unless you're Cozumel or Grand Cayman; even those I think have 2 or 3 that get the most press), and since most of us don't like gambling with our time/money/vacation, many tend to aim for those. I know there are a number of other fine op.s out there.

Richard.

@drrich2 Yes, that does seem to be the case. Utopia Village and Utila Lodge seem to be the favorites of Scubaboard and Undercurrent review/trip report writers, perhaps because many in their user base prefer the resort/lodge business model to the stand-alone dive shops. I prefer that model too, not because of any interest in resorts per se, but simply for the convenience of eating, sleeping, and diving in the same place. But many of the dive shops on Utila can offer much, if not all, of that convenience too, if you are comfortable with the more basic food and lodging and the younger and often more festive crowd. In my case, I only had to leave the premises of Alton's to have dinner (which turned out to be well worth the additional 5-10 minute walk) and to buy cigars (at Bay Islands Originals). The town itself is quite compact, so it is hardly inconvenient to leave the premises if and when need be.