The wife and I participated in a group trip to G&G's Clearwater Paradise Resort on Guanaja last week. It was a good, fun dive adventure with an interruption by T.S. Earl mid-week.
G&G's Clearwater Paradise is located on the north side of Guanaja across the bay from Mangrove Bight and only accessible by boat. The owners/operators George & Ginger are great hosts. George runs the dive shop and maintains the place while Ginger runs the kitchen and keeps George in line. Flying into Roatan followed by a quick hop to Guanaja airport, we were greeted by George and Witi, the primary dive guide. For the whole group of 14, Lanhsa could not fit all our luggage on the plane so we didn't get all our luggage on the plane. Regardless, we all got on George's boat and headed to the resort. Free beer on the trip to the resort had us forgetting that our clothing and gear wasn't on the plane.
The resort is in a protected bay accessible from a private dock. A short walk up the trail and stairs to the resort and we were greeted by Ginger. Meals were served on the main covered balcony. There is a small bar in a main room that can be used during inclement weather. Shania served drinks and a good dinner was forthcoming. And after dinner & more drinks the luggage showed up with all our clothing and gear. Lanhsa had sent the plane back to Roatan to get the rest of the luggage and hopped back to Guanaja while George's crew stayed behind to bring all the luggage back to the resort.
The accommodations are modest, clean and comfortable and I think our room was larger than most with three rooms (sitting room, bedroom and bathroom.) Consistent with the islands, TP goes in the waste can but in this case, the tap water is drinkable. The water comes from a spring and not a municipal system like on Roatan. With this and in-room AC and plenty of outlets for charging our camera, lights and other electronic gear, the room worked very well for us. We did lose electricity twice and once for over 24 hours due to Earl. And while there is internet, it is sketchy (only accessible from the game room upstairs and more than one person online is not feasible.) They also have a game room with chairs/couch for lounging, a dart board and a variety of games available. Three dogs and around four cats also entertain you while you're there. A small pool & deck is also available to use. We did experience a good number of no-see-ums so liberal bug spray was warranted (didn't see any mosquitos.)
Ginger and her girls provided excellent breakfast, lunch and dinner. She did her best to accommodate dietary preferences from our diverse gang. The three things I really liked were Ginger's salsa, the black fin sashimi, and the fish dishes (fried or backed whole island snapper one night and smoked mahi another night.) Among the group the most well received meal was the Honduran dinner with fresh homemade tortillas, shredded chicken, beans & rice with Ginger's salsa.
George has two boats, one cabin cruiser converted to cater to divers and a panga. They provide valet diving and while it takes everyone's cooperation to get geared up and in the water, once folks know the routine it works well. The first dive was a checkout dive inside the reef in the channel. The visibility is not great in the channel compared to normal Caribbean diving but it was a lot better than normal than in our lakes in South Carolina! And there was a lot of life in that channel!
Witi led all the dives after the checkout dive. They let you dive as you like and to the limits of your air consumption & NDLs (they don't have Nitrox yet.) The small life on all the reefs were abundant with only a few lionfish here and there. A number of the dive sites have very large reef / rock structures reminiscent of the Palancar sites at Cozumel. There are large caverns (more than swim-throughs) that are amazing to swim around in. There were several wall sites that had a shallow reef (8 - 15 ft) then a steep wall. Different from the last time I dove Roatan a few years ago, I only saw a couple barracuda, one or two mutton snapper and groupers and one turtle. It seems that local fishing has deplete the larger specimens but I also saw only a few lionfish compared with some Caribbean locations. The Department of Environment has sponsored several lionfish derbies which has been effective at reducing the shallower lionfish populations. Typical of this time of year in Roatan, there was an abundance of algae over the sand flats.
I was surprised to see a number of indigo hamlets and cubera snappers on the dives. I've seen them rarely before but they seemed down right abundant in the waters off Guanaja.
We did get blown out for a day and a half due to T.S. Earl and the visibility on the subsequent dives was about half normal. However, the near visibility was not affected so still plenty of great diving looking at stuff close in. And with the seas still well agitated the day after Earl blew through, the wife sat out that day of diving. But I think she really missed out.
Popo drove the cabin cruiser and hustled his rear getting our gear together and changing tanks. Jenny did a great job of "herding the cats" underwater and then helping getting our gear together and changing tanks on the boat. And a bonus! She's a self-taught fire dancer and gave us a demonstration on the last night! And, of course, Witi, the lead DM who also hustled with our gear and tanks and also led the dives!
So a good trip which missed being great by the intercession of Earl. I do recommend G&G's Clearwater Paradise but it's not for everyone with it's relatively isolated location. I would go back.
G&G's Clearwater Paradise is located on the north side of Guanaja across the bay from Mangrove Bight and only accessible by boat. The owners/operators George & Ginger are great hosts. George runs the dive shop and maintains the place while Ginger runs the kitchen and keeps George in line. Flying into Roatan followed by a quick hop to Guanaja airport, we were greeted by George and Witi, the primary dive guide. For the whole group of 14, Lanhsa could not fit all our luggage on the plane so we didn't get all our luggage on the plane. Regardless, we all got on George's boat and headed to the resort. Free beer on the trip to the resort had us forgetting that our clothing and gear wasn't on the plane.
The resort is in a protected bay accessible from a private dock. A short walk up the trail and stairs to the resort and we were greeted by Ginger. Meals were served on the main covered balcony. There is a small bar in a main room that can be used during inclement weather. Shania served drinks and a good dinner was forthcoming. And after dinner & more drinks the luggage showed up with all our clothing and gear. Lanhsa had sent the plane back to Roatan to get the rest of the luggage and hopped back to Guanaja while George's crew stayed behind to bring all the luggage back to the resort.
The accommodations are modest, clean and comfortable and I think our room was larger than most with three rooms (sitting room, bedroom and bathroom.) Consistent with the islands, TP goes in the waste can but in this case, the tap water is drinkable. The water comes from a spring and not a municipal system like on Roatan. With this and in-room AC and plenty of outlets for charging our camera, lights and other electronic gear, the room worked very well for us. We did lose electricity twice and once for over 24 hours due to Earl. And while there is internet, it is sketchy (only accessible from the game room upstairs and more than one person online is not feasible.) They also have a game room with chairs/couch for lounging, a dart board and a variety of games available. Three dogs and around four cats also entertain you while you're there. A small pool & deck is also available to use. We did experience a good number of no-see-ums so liberal bug spray was warranted (didn't see any mosquitos.)
Ginger and her girls provided excellent breakfast, lunch and dinner. She did her best to accommodate dietary preferences from our diverse gang. The three things I really liked were Ginger's salsa, the black fin sashimi, and the fish dishes (fried or backed whole island snapper one night and smoked mahi another night.) Among the group the most well received meal was the Honduran dinner with fresh homemade tortillas, shredded chicken, beans & rice with Ginger's salsa.
George has two boats, one cabin cruiser converted to cater to divers and a panga. They provide valet diving and while it takes everyone's cooperation to get geared up and in the water, once folks know the routine it works well. The first dive was a checkout dive inside the reef in the channel. The visibility is not great in the channel compared to normal Caribbean diving but it was a lot better than normal than in our lakes in South Carolina! And there was a lot of life in that channel!
Witi led all the dives after the checkout dive. They let you dive as you like and to the limits of your air consumption & NDLs (they don't have Nitrox yet.) The small life on all the reefs were abundant with only a few lionfish here and there. A number of the dive sites have very large reef / rock structures reminiscent of the Palancar sites at Cozumel. There are large caverns (more than swim-throughs) that are amazing to swim around in. There were several wall sites that had a shallow reef (8 - 15 ft) then a steep wall. Different from the last time I dove Roatan a few years ago, I only saw a couple barracuda, one or two mutton snapper and groupers and one turtle. It seems that local fishing has deplete the larger specimens but I also saw only a few lionfish compared with some Caribbean locations. The Department of Environment has sponsored several lionfish derbies which has been effective at reducing the shallower lionfish populations. Typical of this time of year in Roatan, there was an abundance of algae over the sand flats.
I was surprised to see a number of indigo hamlets and cubera snappers on the dives. I've seen them rarely before but they seemed down right abundant in the waters off Guanaja.
We did get blown out for a day and a half due to T.S. Earl and the visibility on the subsequent dives was about half normal. However, the near visibility was not affected so still plenty of great diving looking at stuff close in. And with the seas still well agitated the day after Earl blew through, the wife sat out that day of diving. But I think she really missed out.
Popo drove the cabin cruiser and hustled his rear getting our gear together and changing tanks. Jenny did a great job of "herding the cats" underwater and then helping getting our gear together and changing tanks on the boat. And a bonus! She's a self-taught fire dancer and gave us a demonstration on the last night! And, of course, Witi, the lead DM who also hustled with our gear and tanks and also led the dives!
So a good trip which missed being great by the intercession of Earl. I do recommend G&G's Clearwater Paradise but it's not for everyone with it's relatively isolated location. I would go back.
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