Top Sites Roatan - The Seamounts of Cayos Cochinos

Do you love diving in Roatan, have you been to all the best dive sites the island has to offer? We doubt that as there are just too many. However there are still some that are less frequented than others. The seamounts of Cayos Cochinos (a deep reef formed by underwater mountain ranges) called Roatan Banks, which is located halfway between Roatan and Cayos Cochinos (a group of islands located between Roatan and the mainland of Honduras). This is a relatively unexplored area and you are basically guaranteed a fantastic dive, with loads of fish, current, and amazing, healthy, vibrant coral. We’ve been lucky enough to spot sharks and massive eagle rays, as well as large schools of creole wrasse, southern sennet and horse-eye jack.

The seamounts of Cayos Cochinos are a special two-tank trip that will leave you in awe. As the seamounts are located 18 miles off the point of Roatan, the trip is very weather dependent, but it's an awesome trip and an incredible experience. We do two dives out at the seamounts and go fishing during the surface interval, so there's a good chance for fresh sashimi between dives. This is the one trip where we don't stick to a strict time schedule, so if the fishing is good or a whaleshark, or or a pod of dolphins pops up we are there to enjoy it! The trip normally heads out around 8:00AM, and we are back some time between 1:30 and 2PM.

The seamounts trip is $110 for a two-tank trip, including the first dive on Enriched Air Nitrox if you're certified for it. We take minimum 4 people, maximum eight, but believe us, it's really easy to get that together. The seamounts can have strong currents, so you need to be an advanced diver for this trip. Check out UMI Productions' video for the seamounts of Cayos Cochinos, as well as their videos for the other dive sites we have to offer, and start planning your trip to Roatan!

Drift Diving at West End Wall

Are you ready for a dive to West End Wall?

West End Wall is one of our top requested dive sites, largely due to its proximity to The Point. Located just off West Bay, West End Wall is where we can experience some of the strongest currents on the island, making it the perfect place for large schools of fish. The currents bring in nutrient rich water that make it the ideal feeding ground.  From big schools of blue creole wrasse, snappers and jacks, this site shows us what a vibrant and diverse marine life Roatan has to offer.

Due to the flowing current, this is an ideal site for a drift dive, where we enter the water, descend along the wall, and head in the same direction as the flow of the current. This type of dive can be very enjoyable as it allows us to effortlessly cruise along the wall. Most often for this site, we go in a southerly direction towards the very end of the island.  Given potentially strong currents, depending on the daily conditions, we consider this a site for more advanced divers.

Water is great at the moment book your dive trip early to avoid disappointment! info@roatandivers.com

Enjoy!

Claire's Roatan Showreel

Two Team RD-ers are back for a visit, so it's time for another scuba video!

Tarik and Claire were with us our first season as our instructor and Divemaster. Before they left Roatan in September 2014, Claire completed her professional underwater videography course with Saaya, producing a showreel with her video highlights as her final project of the course.

In honor of Tarik and Claire's visit, let's check out Claire's showreel to show you her great work and Roatan's beautiful underwater world. Enjoy!

Scuba Diving at Butcher's Bank

One of the best things about the scuba diving on Roatan is the different topographies that we have access to. You've seen Fish Den and Overheat Reef to the east of West End, so let's head towards West Bay now, shall we?

Butcher's Bank is a dive site off of West Bay, and it's loaded with beautiful hard and soft coral, including nice big sponges for hawksbill turtles and angelfish to munch on. Different sand chutes and sand dwelling creatures keep things extra interesting, so keep your eyes peeled for marine animals big and small.

Come and enjoy the best of Caribbean scuba diving and hop on over to Roatan!

Like what you see? Remember to support the Roatan Marine Park so that they can continue to protect our beautiful Roatan reefs!

Scuba Diving at Overheat Reef

Overheat Reef has, over the past three years, continuously been named one of our favorite dive sites. We love it. We love it so much. It doesn't matter the weather, the current, the visibility...Overheat Reef will always be one of our favorite sites for scuba diving on Roatan.

Watching this video, can you blame us? The abundance of hard and soft coral and sheer amount of schools of fish is just phenomenal, and you have a great chance of seeing turtles there. Come rain or shine, you will always find us at Overheat Reef. Enjoy!

As always, make sure to support the Roatan Marine Park in their continuous work to protect our beautiful reefs. The Roatan Marine Park puts in all the dive moorings, they run patrols to protect the local wildlife and work with the local community to become a conservation oriented island, so they're very important to Roatan. You can purchase daily tickets for $3 or yearly bracelet for $10 from your local dive center or from the Roatan Marine Park Eco Store in West End.

Top Sites Roatan - El Aguila Wreck

Our new Top Sites Roatan video is up on the Roatan Travel Network, so let's throw it back to the first one we did at El Aguila wreck!