Pura Vida Dive Safari to Roatan - Oct. 09

[Bill_C]

We just returned from the first Pura Vida Dive Safari to the Reef House Resort on the island of Roatan and it was fantastic! Although this was our fifth trip to island, it was our first visit to the Reef House Resort.

Looking back on the past week I can honestly say that of all the trips we have taken to Roatan, this one to the Reef House Resort was the most relaxing and enjoyable, and provided us with the best diving we have experienced on the island.

The diving at Reef House Resort was better than advertised – it was incredible! Their boast that the reefs and dive sites they take you to are pristine is absolutely true. We were amazed at the healthy condition and beauty of the reefs and walls of the dive sites we visited. For me, this was an underwater photographer’s dream. I was able to get with my point-and-shoot camera what I considered some great pictures of the reefs, walls, and little critters.

We did two boat dives each morning and had one boat dive each afternoon. The longest trip to any dive site during the week was probably around 25 minutes with 10-15 minutes being the average. When we arrived at the dock, whether morning or afternoon, our gear was on board and set up for us. All we had to do was attach our regulators, make sure we had full tanks, get into our wetsuits, prep our masks and get ready for fun. The crew always had fresh fruit for us between dives and plenty of fresh water.

Our divemaster, Davitt, was as excellent as everyone writing prior reviews has said. Not only was he professional and friendly with a good sense of humor, he was able to find seahorses, nudibranches, and other macro life on every dive. He also spotted out plenty of good-sized lobsters and big crabs that, if we were allowed to catch them, would have made some great meals. The water was warm and clear with little or no current, which made it great for hovering and lining up that “perfect” photo. Best of all, Davitt made the dives relaxing and slow-paced so no one felt rushed to keep up or felt that they had missed an opportunity to see or photograph something of interest. All of our dives were multi-level profiles with maximum depths of between 70 and 80 feet, which gave us the opportunity to spend an hour or more on each dive touring with Davitt and then having time to explore on our own.

The diving at Reef House Resort was memorable in one other way. On all our dives during the week we were the only ones at our dive sites. This was a pleasant departure from our past visits to Roatan where multiple boats from the same resort, or several resorts, arrive within minutes of each other and drop divers on the same site. With Reef House Resort’s dive sites, we didn’t have to compete with other groups to see things before other divers got there and stirred up the bottom or scared all the critters away.

For my full (unabridged) trip report please click this link to the Pura Vida Divers website: http://www.puravidadivers.com/trip_r...roatan_09.html