dierenarts
Contributor
Attended a veterinary conference with the host resort being Ramon's Village. We found the accomodations fine with friendly and helpful staff. Food was average but we ate most meals off-site. Drinks were good but expensive. Trips not recommended would be the Manatee watch...a great waste of a day with mediocre guides including a very rushed snorkel stop.
We were there March16-25 and the first 3/4 of the stay was very windy. Diving was tough especially mid-week due to high winds and high wave surges. We dove twice with Amigos and once with Ramons. Both outfits were ok although we enjoyed Divemaster Juane from Amigos better. Very hairy dive on Wednesday with 10' swells and I caught Juane crossing himself three times before we passed through the barrier reef cut LOL!
We dove Tackle Box, Victoria Canyons, Tres Cocos, and Toffee Canyons. All very enjoyable with nice swim throughs, more nurse sharks than I've ever seen, lots of stingrays and eagle rays, and the usual suspects of lobster, angels, eels, groupers, snappers, parrots, wrasses etc. Neat to see a yellow phase coney grouper and finally chaulked off seeing a scrawled cowfish off my list. My feeling was that the coral was fairly healthy although the visibility was fair rather than excellent due to the wave action. My impression was that the place wasn't teaming with the smaller fish that I would expect.
Snorkeld Hol Chan and Shark Ray Alley (don't waste a dive on this but was fun to snorkel it). And yes they garb nurse sharks and rays but since they get fed they come back for more. Some of the largest southern stingrays I have seen to date! Also made a stop at the conch graveyard where some local fisherman were cleaning their conch. Tons of rays, sharks, loggerhead and green turtles came to enjoy the left-overs!
This board has great restaurants suggestions and their recommendations did not disappoint. We had good meals at Blue Water Grill (although not as great as others had indicated, maybe an off night or our personal taste...they tended to be a little too heavy on the sauces..less is more in that regard), Wild Mangos and Elvi's Kitchen were great, Estele's for breakfast was nice, a place not mentioned in my research but worth a visit for lunch or dinner was Hurricane's out on a pier near (just north of) Ramon's and nice seafood and cerviche. DandE's for your ice cream. The Hidden Treasure although pricey was worth the trip (they'll pick you up) as was Victoria House.
The famous Chicken Drop was witnessed briefly but I think we weren't drunk enough nor financially vested enough to hang around for the whole event.
Due to the wind and time constraint we skipped on the Blue Hole but perhaps will make a return visit and check out Turneffe.
Cheers!!!!!
We were there March16-25 and the first 3/4 of the stay was very windy. Diving was tough especially mid-week due to high winds and high wave surges. We dove twice with Amigos and once with Ramons. Both outfits were ok although we enjoyed Divemaster Juane from Amigos better. Very hairy dive on Wednesday with 10' swells and I caught Juane crossing himself three times before we passed through the barrier reef cut LOL!
We dove Tackle Box, Victoria Canyons, Tres Cocos, and Toffee Canyons. All very enjoyable with nice swim throughs, more nurse sharks than I've ever seen, lots of stingrays and eagle rays, and the usual suspects of lobster, angels, eels, groupers, snappers, parrots, wrasses etc. Neat to see a yellow phase coney grouper and finally chaulked off seeing a scrawled cowfish off my list. My feeling was that the coral was fairly healthy although the visibility was fair rather than excellent due to the wave action. My impression was that the place wasn't teaming with the smaller fish that I would expect.
Snorkeld Hol Chan and Shark Ray Alley (don't waste a dive on this but was fun to snorkel it). And yes they garb nurse sharks and rays but since they get fed they come back for more. Some of the largest southern stingrays I have seen to date! Also made a stop at the conch graveyard where some local fisherman were cleaning their conch. Tons of rays, sharks, loggerhead and green turtles came to enjoy the left-overs!
This board has great restaurants suggestions and their recommendations did not disappoint. We had good meals at Blue Water Grill (although not as great as others had indicated, maybe an off night or our personal taste...they tended to be a little too heavy on the sauces..less is more in that regard), Wild Mangos and Elvi's Kitchen were great, Estele's for breakfast was nice, a place not mentioned in my research but worth a visit for lunch or dinner was Hurricane's out on a pier near (just north of) Ramon's and nice seafood and cerviche. DandE's for your ice cream. The Hidden Treasure although pricey was worth the trip (they'll pick you up) as was Victoria House.
The famous Chicken Drop was witnessed briefly but I think we weren't drunk enough nor financially vested enough to hang around for the whole event.
Due to the wind and time constraint we skipped on the Blue Hole but perhaps will make a return visit and check out Turneffe.
Cheers!!!!!
