In brief: I dove with Huracan for one week in mid-December.I recommend staying and diving with Huracan, with some caveats. They appear to be having a few logistical problems that affected the quality of the stay, but those issues are resolvable. I was lucky with the weather: it rained the first and last nights of the stay, and otherwise it was gorgeous, clear and calm. The group was left in the water for an hour when the boat lost track of the divers, which I believe was highly unusual and not indicative of the dive operation.
Stay: Huracan has a lodge with four rooms. A fifth room with outside doors was created while I was there to handle overflow guests. The overflow-overflow guests stay at Itza Lodge, which is a 20 room resort by the main dock that appears to be nearly always empty. The price includes lodging, meals, diving, and the ferry back and forth to Belize City, which takes 1.5-2 hours, depending on the weather. The lodge is located a few minutes walk from both the main 'sunrise' dock and sunset dock. There were never more than 7 guests at a time when I was there, though the owners who were visiting stated that they were booked solid through February and there was about to be a massive surge in visitors for Christmas week.
I double-confirmed a diet request when booking, including on the written receipt, only to be served a meal I couldn't eat the first night. Fortunately, my diet could be satisfied just by going vegetarian. Several staff privately noted to me that there is bad communication between the booker and the lodge staff. If you have special dietary needs, or any special requests for your stay, I would double confirm with the booker, confirm at the marina before getting on the boat, and then personally tell the chef when you arrive on island. I do not trust the communication structure they have in place.
The Huracan website states that power comes from solar panels; it does not state that the battery has ceased to function, so they have to run a generator all night long so guests can use their fans and lights. I stayed in the room closest to the generator and was unable to properly sleep due to the actual shaking of the bed and roar of the generator. Twice I woke up a member of staff and had them turn off the generator around 2 am so I could sleep. During the 'changeover day' (guests leave and arrive twice a week on Saturday and Wednesday), staff built a styrofoam housing for the generator farther away from the lodge to reduce the noise. I also moved into the vacated room on the other side of the lodge farthest away from the generator, and could barely hear it even at night. However, the couple who moved into my old room complained the next morning that they had trouble sleeping because of the generator noise, even in the new location. The owner commented that he had to special order a new battery from the U.S., and I do not know when it will arrive and be installed. When booking, I would check to see if the battery/generator issue has been resolved and, if not, request a room on the side away from the generator (towards the road).
You can rent paddleboards and kayaks from the beachfront of Itza Lodge. The Huracan staff did not tell anyone that they had their own kayaks that staff could transport to the shore. The only reason I found out is because a guest was talking to the owner about renting Itza kayaks and the owner asked why they didn't use the lodge's for free. I don't know why Huracan staff wouldn't have volunteered that information, esp. since they actually directed guests to Itza. In any case, I recommend paddleboarding around the lee of the island, where I ran across about 5 rays in 5 seconds and tracked a baby nurse shark through the mangroves for a few minutes. There's no doubt that the island is beautiful.
Otherwise, I thought the staff was amazing, going above and beyond in their efforts to make you feel welcome. Chef Dyron in particular made some truly delicious meals. I spent plenty of time reading books and watching the sunset at the back dock, which is what I wanted to do when I wasn't diving. One very minor quibble is that the owner wife was in the lodge. She is not a diver, a gossip and apparently bored much of the time, which means that you'll run into the lodge after a dive for a quick rinse and relaxation and she'll stop you in the hall, dripping salt water, to dish dirt on Itza or some aspect of the lodge. Some people might find that amusing; I was irritated that I was having to find ways to politely extricate myself from predatory chatting, rather than the no-nonsense diving and lounging I wanted to do.
Diving: There are typically three dives, at 8 am, 11 am, and 3 pm. As no dive site is farther than 15 minutes, you typically return to Long Key for meals and lounging around inbetween. 3pm seemed a bit late to me, as the light was typically going by the time you were in the water, but you could probably request a 2 or 2:30pm dive to get more light. The first day seems to be reserved for the relatively shallow dives along Long Caye, no more than 4 minutes or so out of the dock. The second day is two dives off Half Moon Caye and the third off Long Caye. If you are in a Saturday to Wednesday segment, the first Half Moon Caye dive is to 100 ft to evaluate your ability to handle deep diving before the Blue Hole Dive on Tuesday. The remaining two dives on Tuesday seem to be open to guest suggestion, but likely include a "lion fish hunt", where you watch the guides kill lionfish that are delicious during dinner later that day. One of the two boats advertised on their website is broken, and a mechanic was on the island seeing if it was repairable when I was there.
I have limited experience with Caribbean diving, but thought the diving was very good. A cold weather system had brought visibility down to 60-70 ft or so the first day, but it gradually improved each day afterwards. It was certainly better than the diving I've done out of Key Largo, and comparable to Cozumel. The coral quality is better than Cozumel, but it doesn't have the drama of Palancar Caves, for example. Half Moon Caye's wall is riddled with swim throughs that beckon at 40'-60', once the guides are confident that you are competent and won't stress if you disappear from view for a bit. There were sharks and/or rays on most dives and an assortment of pretty fish, gorgonians, fans, nudibranchs and shrimp to admire nearly all the time. A couple moments on walls I was reminded of Peleliu Wall, which is very good, though it's certainly a tier or two below that site. That said, there's very little to actually complain about in terms of dive quality.
The main guides are an instructor and dive master, both of which were personable and have many thousands of dives in Belize. We did have an issue with the pilot-in-training, which eventually ended up with the divers being stranded in the ocean for an hour waiting for the boat to find us. With a very good pilot, you'll typically surface to find that pilot a few hundred feet away looking directly at you. Even with the relatively tame dives on Long Caye, the trainee pilot would be pretty distant and looking in the wrong direction until the guide used his in-line LP hose whistle and waved his fin in the air to attract attention. So during the lionfish hunt, which is not on a dive spot but along a shallow reef between Long Caye and Blue Hole, divers came up in two groups at 45 minutes and 70 minutes to find that the boat was moving away. I came up with the guide at 70 minutes, who immediately united the two groups of divers and set off swimming after the boat. After 53 minutes on the surface, or 78 minutes for the two divers who came up early, the guide reached the boat and we were picked up. This appeared to be a result of a few factors coming together: an inexperienced pilot, a unnamed dive site that the pilot didn't have much experience on, a snorkeler on the boat who was jumping in and out to swim in the shallows so the boat was following her rather than focusing on the divers, and the first two divers up not having any noise makers to attract attention even though they could clearly see the pilot walking about the boat when they first surfaced. To their credit, the entire staff seemed appalled, with one staff member announcing that it was a "frankly a f***-up", and the lodge gifting a few bottles of wine that night for dinner. The trainee pilot was not allowed back on the boat for the rest of my stay, which has the unfortunate side effect that Huracan now has difficulty doing proper drift diving, since the boat has to be tied to a buoy or anchored if the two main guides are in the water. I had forgotten my 3' SMB and spool at home, and had debated with myself about tucking my old 6' SMB in what I now refer to as my 'oh sh**!' pocket. (As in, if I have to open that pocket, I've just mentally cussed because things have gone pear shaped.) I don't think I'll ever go on a dive without an SMB after that experience; there's something comforting about having a large safety sausage to wave as your boat become a dot in the distance. Now I need to add a whistle and mirror to my 'oh sh**!' pocket.
Conclusion: Huracan offers some very good diving from a beautiful and interesting remote island, with excellent customer service. I recommend quadruple checking any special requests to ensure that they reach the staff who will actually implement them and also clarifying the generator noise situation when booking. With those caveats, I recommend this operation.
Stay: Huracan has a lodge with four rooms. A fifth room with outside doors was created while I was there to handle overflow guests. The overflow-overflow guests stay at Itza Lodge, which is a 20 room resort by the main dock that appears to be nearly always empty. The price includes lodging, meals, diving, and the ferry back and forth to Belize City, which takes 1.5-2 hours, depending on the weather. The lodge is located a few minutes walk from both the main 'sunrise' dock and sunset dock. There were never more than 7 guests at a time when I was there, though the owners who were visiting stated that they were booked solid through February and there was about to be a massive surge in visitors for Christmas week.
I double-confirmed a diet request when booking, including on the written receipt, only to be served a meal I couldn't eat the first night. Fortunately, my diet could be satisfied just by going vegetarian. Several staff privately noted to me that there is bad communication between the booker and the lodge staff. If you have special dietary needs, or any special requests for your stay, I would double confirm with the booker, confirm at the marina before getting on the boat, and then personally tell the chef when you arrive on island. I do not trust the communication structure they have in place.
The Huracan website states that power comes from solar panels; it does not state that the battery has ceased to function, so they have to run a generator all night long so guests can use their fans and lights. I stayed in the room closest to the generator and was unable to properly sleep due to the actual shaking of the bed and roar of the generator. Twice I woke up a member of staff and had them turn off the generator around 2 am so I could sleep. During the 'changeover day' (guests leave and arrive twice a week on Saturday and Wednesday), staff built a styrofoam housing for the generator farther away from the lodge to reduce the noise. I also moved into the vacated room on the other side of the lodge farthest away from the generator, and could barely hear it even at night. However, the couple who moved into my old room complained the next morning that they had trouble sleeping because of the generator noise, even in the new location. The owner commented that he had to special order a new battery from the U.S., and I do not know when it will arrive and be installed. When booking, I would check to see if the battery/generator issue has been resolved and, if not, request a room on the side away from the generator (towards the road).
You can rent paddleboards and kayaks from the beachfront of Itza Lodge. The Huracan staff did not tell anyone that they had their own kayaks that staff could transport to the shore. The only reason I found out is because a guest was talking to the owner about renting Itza kayaks and the owner asked why they didn't use the lodge's for free. I don't know why Huracan staff wouldn't have volunteered that information, esp. since they actually directed guests to Itza. In any case, I recommend paddleboarding around the lee of the island, where I ran across about 5 rays in 5 seconds and tracked a baby nurse shark through the mangroves for a few minutes. There's no doubt that the island is beautiful.
Otherwise, I thought the staff was amazing, going above and beyond in their efforts to make you feel welcome. Chef Dyron in particular made some truly delicious meals. I spent plenty of time reading books and watching the sunset at the back dock, which is what I wanted to do when I wasn't diving. One very minor quibble is that the owner wife was in the lodge. She is not a diver, a gossip and apparently bored much of the time, which means that you'll run into the lodge after a dive for a quick rinse and relaxation and she'll stop you in the hall, dripping salt water, to dish dirt on Itza or some aspect of the lodge. Some people might find that amusing; I was irritated that I was having to find ways to politely extricate myself from predatory chatting, rather than the no-nonsense diving and lounging I wanted to do.
Diving: There are typically three dives, at 8 am, 11 am, and 3 pm. As no dive site is farther than 15 minutes, you typically return to Long Key for meals and lounging around inbetween. 3pm seemed a bit late to me, as the light was typically going by the time you were in the water, but you could probably request a 2 or 2:30pm dive to get more light. The first day seems to be reserved for the relatively shallow dives along Long Caye, no more than 4 minutes or so out of the dock. The second day is two dives off Half Moon Caye and the third off Long Caye. If you are in a Saturday to Wednesday segment, the first Half Moon Caye dive is to 100 ft to evaluate your ability to handle deep diving before the Blue Hole Dive on Tuesday. The remaining two dives on Tuesday seem to be open to guest suggestion, but likely include a "lion fish hunt", where you watch the guides kill lionfish that are delicious during dinner later that day. One of the two boats advertised on their website is broken, and a mechanic was on the island seeing if it was repairable when I was there.
I have limited experience with Caribbean diving, but thought the diving was very good. A cold weather system had brought visibility down to 60-70 ft or so the first day, but it gradually improved each day afterwards. It was certainly better than the diving I've done out of Key Largo, and comparable to Cozumel. The coral quality is better than Cozumel, but it doesn't have the drama of Palancar Caves, for example. Half Moon Caye's wall is riddled with swim throughs that beckon at 40'-60', once the guides are confident that you are competent and won't stress if you disappear from view for a bit. There were sharks and/or rays on most dives and an assortment of pretty fish, gorgonians, fans, nudibranchs and shrimp to admire nearly all the time. A couple moments on walls I was reminded of Peleliu Wall, which is very good, though it's certainly a tier or two below that site. That said, there's very little to actually complain about in terms of dive quality.
The main guides are an instructor and dive master, both of which were personable and have many thousands of dives in Belize. We did have an issue with the pilot-in-training, which eventually ended up with the divers being stranded in the ocean for an hour waiting for the boat to find us. With a very good pilot, you'll typically surface to find that pilot a few hundred feet away looking directly at you. Even with the relatively tame dives on Long Caye, the trainee pilot would be pretty distant and looking in the wrong direction until the guide used his in-line LP hose whistle and waved his fin in the air to attract attention. So during the lionfish hunt, which is not on a dive spot but along a shallow reef between Long Caye and Blue Hole, divers came up in two groups at 45 minutes and 70 minutes to find that the boat was moving away. I came up with the guide at 70 minutes, who immediately united the two groups of divers and set off swimming after the boat. After 53 minutes on the surface, or 78 minutes for the two divers who came up early, the guide reached the boat and we were picked up. This appeared to be a result of a few factors coming together: an inexperienced pilot, a unnamed dive site that the pilot didn't have much experience on, a snorkeler on the boat who was jumping in and out to swim in the shallows so the boat was following her rather than focusing on the divers, and the first two divers up not having any noise makers to attract attention even though they could clearly see the pilot walking about the boat when they first surfaced. To their credit, the entire staff seemed appalled, with one staff member announcing that it was a "frankly a f***-up", and the lodge gifting a few bottles of wine that night for dinner. The trainee pilot was not allowed back on the boat for the rest of my stay, which has the unfortunate side effect that Huracan now has difficulty doing proper drift diving, since the boat has to be tied to a buoy or anchored if the two main guides are in the water. I had forgotten my 3' SMB and spool at home, and had debated with myself about tucking my old 6' SMB in what I now refer to as my 'oh sh**!' pocket. (As in, if I have to open that pocket, I've just mentally cussed because things have gone pear shaped.) I don't think I'll ever go on a dive without an SMB after that experience; there's something comforting about having a large safety sausage to wave as your boat become a dot in the distance. Now I need to add a whistle and mirror to my 'oh sh**!' pocket.
Conclusion: Huracan offers some very good diving from a beautiful and interesting remote island, with excellent customer service. I recommend quadruple checking any special requests to ensure that they reach the staff who will actually implement them and also clarifying the generator noise situation when booking. With those caveats, I recommend this operation.
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