CoCo View Resort, Roatan, Honduras

Author: Jason DeSalvo

Roatan -- CoCo View -- January 16 - 23, 1999

It took several weeks for me to sit down and write this report because my feelings about this trip were somewhat mixed. I had heard about CoCo View for so many years that it reached almost mythical status -- "the Best Dive Resort in the Caribbean." Well truth be told, I can't imagine a much better dive resort. The problems I had with this destination had little to do with typical dive vacation complaints and more to do with the environmental impact the resort is placing on the surrounding environment (but more on that later).

First the good:

A quick word to those of you worried about damage from Hurricane Mitch -- the only effect I saw on the reef was actually beneficial. The massive coral bleaching that was reported in late summer and early fall 1998 is virtually all gone!! It seems that when Mitch roared through it stirred things up so much that the water temperature dropped by 2-4 degrees. There was far less bleaching here than I've seen anywhere in the Caribbean in recent years with the possible exception of Little Cayman.

The dive operation runs like clockwork, the divemasters are helpful, knowledgeable (especially Jimmy) and will let you do your own thing or guide you (at your option). Four (4) boat dives per day (although 2 of them are drop-off dives at the house reefs -- Newman's Wall in the morning and CoCo View Wall in the afternoon). The boats leave at 9:00 am and 2:30 pm and the only profile restrictions are to limit your bottom time to 65 minutes and go no deeper than 130' without notifying your divemaster first.

Unlimited shore diving to both house reefs, the best of which is along CoCo View Wall (a 5-10 minute swim to the start of the wall). This wall gets better and better the farther you swim east, away from the resort. Since the wall starts in only 10-15 feet, with aluminum 80's we had several dives that were 1:20+ !! Overall, we did 19 dives in 5 days with average bottom times of 50 minutes.

The marine life was fabulous, and although there is truth to the rumor that there's not a lot of big stuff (we saw no sharks or large rays on the entire trip), the coral, macro subjects and fish populations at certain sites were first rate. As a matter of fact, there were far more large schools of fish on this trip than on my trip to Grand Cayman in November, 1998! At the end of a dive at Mary's Place, on the top of the reef in about 30feet of water, I saw a coral head no larger than 3 feet in diameter with 10 different species of hard coral on it!

Some special dive sites:

CoCo View Wall -- Beginning about 100 yards east of the hotel. You'll see Orange Cup Coral under many of the ledges, tons of healthy Lettuce Coral, huge schools of Creole Wrasse, Spotted Drum (on one dive we counted 12 -- 8 juvenile and 4 adult) and enough Blennies and Gobies to make your Paul Humann book wear out!

Gold Chain Reef -- Very healthy stands of Staghorn Coral, large schools of Surgeonfish, Blue Tangs and Doctorfish. Great macro in the shallows.

Calvin's Crack -- Similar geologic formation to the famous Mary's Place, but less visited and in better shape. It's a huge crack / canyon in the reef that's really fun to swim through. Several resident Arrow Blennies, Chestnut Morays, and some of the largest Channel Clinging Crabs I’ve ever seen.

Menagerie -- In my Top 5 Fishiest Caribbean Dives. Largest schools of Creole Wrasse I've ever seen, large Chubs, huge Yellowtail Snappers, several 2 - 3 foot Yellowfin Groupers, and several Scrawled Filefish feasting on Moon Jellyfish floating just off the wall.

40 Foot Point -- Another great fish dive, although this one was a bit different. Once you get to the spot where the wall comes to a point (ask the divemaster for directions), swim out from the wall between 30 and 100 feet at a depth of 20 feet and WOW! Huge schools of Horseye Jacks swimming around and around in circles. If you approach slowly they will incorporate you into the school! Make sure you're comfortable with blue water diving as the wall was not visible to us where the fish were schooling.

The Not So Good and the Bad:

The vis, the vis, the vis... On our best dives it got to 60-70 feet, at it's worst (at low tide in the channel just offshore from the resort) it was 5-10 feet! On most dives the vis averaged 35-50 feet -- not bad, but certainly not crystal clear. This despite the fact that we had virtually perfect weather -- sunny and 78-82 degrees everyday except one.

By the fifth day of diving, the sites all start looking the same. That's not to say that many of them weren't fabulous the first 4 days, there just isn't a lot of variation and you start to notice it. Don't even think about a trip longer than 7 days (at least to dive). By the way, Mary's Place is a highly overrated dive site. The inside of the canyon has been so silted up from the mass of divers that routinely pass it, that it's a virtual dead zone. The reef top at this site was the highlight for me -- it's healthy and has great variety.

CoCo View is located on the south side of Roatan, and many of the dives are done right offshore from some of the largest settlements on the island. Roatan is poor like you have never seen and the sewage system consists of outhouses built right over the water. The result is that in some spots downstream of these settlements, the algae growth (particularly Y Branched Algae) has run rampant and is suffocating the reef. This is also true for Newman's Wall -- one of the CoCo View beach dives. Since Newman's is downcurrent of both CoCo View and Fantasy Island, there is some massive algae growth on the reef top that has killed or is in the process of killing what must have been some of the most beautiful gardens of Lettuce Coral I could imagine. We found the lack of sewage treatment particularly bizarre for a dive resort that has been considered by Rodale's Scuba Diving to be one of the most environmentally friendly dive resorts.

To add insult to environmental injury, the resort burns its garbage! On the Friday before we left they were burning plastic jugs, soda bottles, etc. with such reckless abandon that my dive buddy actually left the resort for the day, and I grabbed an aluminum 50 and hooked up my reg in my room just to breath without being poisoned! We asked hotel personnel 3 times to stop the offensive blaze and finally (only after speaking with the owner) things under control, but not before half of my last day was trashed.

The food is good, but certainly not gourmet. You'll never go hungry, and there is fairly good variety, but it's prepared to diner standards. Even though all meals are included, spend a little extra money and go to Geo's and Tres Flores. The former is a seafood restaurant in town that everyone raved about (I don't eat seafood so I didn't go) and the latter is an awesome Mexican restaurant with the best Mexican food I’ve ever had. The added bonus is that Tres Flores is perched on the top of one of Roatan's highest hills, with an awesome panoramic view. Don't miss sunset and don't worry about spending too much -- taxi ride, meal and drinks for four rang in at an easy to handle $60 U.S.

The Basics:

The land portion of the trip cost $850 PP for the week including all meals and diving. This price includes an extra $50 to stay in the over-the-water duplex bungalows which are the nicest rooms (although they don't have air conditioning).

We flew via Continental to Houston and then picked up TACA. We changed planes in Belize without TACA losing anyone's bags. As a matter of fact, TACA was actually more enjoyable to fly than Continental. The TACA portion of the trip was around $450 (book through Roatan Charter to get this fare).

Water temps were 78-80 degrees the entire week and with the exception of one day, the seas were calm. A 3mm full-suit was perfect thermal protection during our week stay. As discussed above, the vis averaged 35-50 feet.

At the risk of sounding negative, go visit this paradise soon, because with the island growing as fast as it is and the lack of any real environmental standards, these gorgeous reefs are not long for this world.