Dive Trip to Clearwater Paradise Dive Resort

Trip was a success.  Great food, great dives, nice accommodations and awesome post dive gameroom/bar.  If you are interested in the pics that everyone took you can see many of them on this shared Shutterfly site for the 2021 Gaunaja Trip.

February 13th to 20th 2021

$1420 per person double occupancy, $1690 single occupancy.

Inclusions:

• 3 dives a day for 5 days (one night dive in there)
• all meals
• transfers to and from Roatan Honduras (airport code RTB)ebru
• accommodations at the 8 room Clearwater Paradise resort mansion
• 19% Honduras Tax IS included
• use of kayaks

Exclusions

• airfare to RTB
• nitrox ($130 for the week)
• bar
• gear rental

How to get there:

Delta, American and United all fly there.   Transfer to Guanaja Island by boat is included in the package and should take about 2 hours.  We’ll be there in time for happy hour.  On the way out the transfer by boat is included.

The resort:

The Clearwater Paradise Resort is a single building with 8 rooms, we have reserved the resort for our group, so there is a hard limit of 16 guests.  The main building is the featured image of this post.  Besides the guest rooms, there is the deck, bar, dining area, and even a small pool.  We are going to be in a very secluded area, with very little around the resort.  So don’t plan on any side excursions, there is no way to get there.  There is a 3 hour tour of a local waterfall mentioned on the website.  I’m game, we can organize that when we get there if there is interest.  We also hear that the birding is Guanaja is good, so bring on the nerd!  There are two rooms that are slight upgrades, they have sitting rooms and a near dining room.  There is no real way to be fair about distribution, so we’ll charge extra $100 per room for this to be distributed to the group in the form of swag from Island Divers!  First come, first serve!

The food:

Heavy on fish, and one night George and Ginger do a pretty cool thing where the bust out a huge pot and boil a bunch of crabs and such and pour it out on the table for a feast.  That will be a scene.  The reports on the food are good for this resort and is a big reason why we picked it.  Home made ice cream sounds wonderful.  They also explicitly invite you to provide dietary requirements if that is something you need.  Just let us know when you reserve a spot and we’ll make sure you are taken care of.

The cash economy: 

This resort is unplugged.   Limited cell phone reception and no internet plan.  So don’t plan on that while you are on this trip!  There is also no ATM, so bring some money for the bar bill at the end of the trip and tips for the crew if you are so inclined, or if you want to get George to take you on a fishing trip or another off-plan excursion by boat.

The Diving:

This is an area where we have a little experience, though that experience is on the islands of Roatan and Utila which are both a little more west and south of Guanaja.  The island is the least developed of the three, and for some reason, the water clarity is better.  These might be related, not sure.  Macro photo opportunities are abundant.  We have found sea horses, orangutan crabs, nudibranchs, and camouflaged porcupine fish.  Some of the most massive green eels are found here.  Whale sharks sightings are fairly common, but we haven’t had that luck yet, and a few of the days we found pods of dolphins on the water.  The reefs themselves are covered in large sea fans.  Be careful about the light brown coral with white edges, that is fire coral, and if you break the stay off the reef rule you will pay!

Here is a video of our last trip to Utila, of course if will not be identical, but it will give you a feel for the type of diving we will be doing

Reserving a spot

As per usual, you’ll need to send a $500 deposit, made out by check to Dive Travel Services to PO Box 30108 Honolulu HI 96820.  That holds the space. The full payment is due by us to the resort 60 days out, so balance is due Dec 10th, 2020.  Check your passport, needs to be valid 6 months after Feb 13th, 2021.  And, as always, life comes up.  Get travel insurance from DAN or somewhere else.  Once dive resorts have the money, it is unlikely that you are getting it back!  Though Clearwater Paradise does have a policy published that is pretty liberal for those types of things.  Email divetravel@islanddivershawaii.com with any questions.  And if you are a single, the single occ rate is really low, this might be a good trip to travel solo.

Come join us in Guanaja, Honduras!

Matt and Sheila, dive travel coordinators extraordinaire!

Update 1/2/2021

This trip is a reschedule of the trip that was cancelled in March of 2020 due to COVID19.  There is room to add to trip now.