Dive Review of Native Sons in
Honduras/Roatan

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Native Sons: "Native Sons Divers and Mariposa Lodge", Sep, 2017, by Robert L Short, CO, US ( Sr. Reviewer 10 reports with 11 Helpful votes). Report 9862 has 1 Helpful vote.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food	N/A
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	Chose Native Sons divers mainly because of their large boat and ability to do giant stride entries. Prices in West End for dives are all pretty much the same--10 dive package $300. They are a locally owned dive shop and the owner was with us on the boat on every dive though he didn't dive--one of his sons was the boat captain and the other son the deck hand. The boat is moored right off shore with no dock so you needed to wade out to climb onto the boat--no biggie. All my gear was taken to the boat and back to the shop each day by the crew and rinsed and set up on the boat the next day. I used Nitrox 32 for all my second dives at $10 per tank extra. They had a analizer there for me to check Nitrox tanks before each dive. Sept is a very slow time of the year and we usually only had two divers plus the DM and only twice during the week we had three divers. Nice dive shop with places to sit in the shade and a small restaurant to buy some food before or between dives. Also a small gift shop to buy t-shirts or other small items. They have three DM's and I dove with all three during the week--most of my dives were with Eddie--a few with Hanna and only one with Heidi who was giving a OW class most of the week. Varied dive sites--never visited any one of them twice. Water was really warm--86 degrees F on most dives which caused a lot of algae build up on the reefs and limited visibilty in some places down to 40 or 50 feet. Other sites had a very mild current which seemed to help the viz a lot. Corals seemed very healthy but many covered in algae--they said they needed a few storms to come through and cool the water and clean off the algae. I was surprised at the lack of fish life after diving Cozumel a few months before--just not a lot of fish. A few rays, a few turtles and eels but over all a little disappointing. But great canyons and swim throughs. One wreck dive on the El Aguila which is a deep dive down to about 109 feet. We did do a limited penetration in part of the wrech and finished off the dive on a shallow reef. I stayed at the Mariposa Lodge which is at the other end of West End from Native Sons--about a seven minute walk through town. Great place! Really loved the small apartment with a kitchen and everything needed to cook if you wanted--including a coffee maker with filters and enough supplied coffee for one person for the week. There is one grocery store in town to buy supplies right next to Native Sons. The apartment had great a/c, a tv with many english channels and a very comfortable king size bed. Also a nice balcony with chairs and a table and a clothes line for drying things. There didn't seem to really be any hot water in the shower--luke warm water only but again no biggie. Very quiet area about one block off the main road so not to much noise from the loud club down the street. Owners are great--lost the room keys on my third day there and they didn't go crazy on me--gave me new keys for only $20 as the key to the safe is expensive to replace--I thought I got off easy! Entry into the country at the airport was easy after some horror stories I had heard. Off the plane (sat in back and exited fast through back exit) and through immigration in 10 minutes, waited about the same for my bags and out the door--if several planes show up at the same time I guess it could get ugly. Its the finger printing that takes up so much time. Mariposa Lodge set up my transfers to West End--$25 each way. Great trip--great weather, calm seas, great dive operation and great accommodations at Mariposa Lodge--I would highly recommend them both--good diving.
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	51-100 dives
Where else diving	Utah, California, Akumal Mexico, Cozumel, Philippines, Roatan
Closest Airport	Roatan	Getting There	Denver to Houston then to Roatan.
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, cloudy	Seas	calm, no currents
Water Temp	85-86°F / 29-30°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	50-70 Ft/ 15-21 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	no
Enforced diving restrictions	Dive master gave the briefing on what to expect, depth, layout of reef or wall. Approx. how long the dive would be--stay with DM. All dives were at least 60 minutes but came up with more than 1000 psi on more than a few dives.
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	None	Mantas	1 or 2
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	> 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish	N/A
Large Pelagics	N/A
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments	Large boat with lots of shade--no table for cameras. A small container with water for rinsing which was only changed once during the week that I saw. No plug ins for recharging but returned to shore between dives so that wasn't a problem. Lots of room on boat with places to put camera so it was out of the way.

Report currently has 1 Helpful vote

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Dive Review of Native Sons in Honduras/Roatan

Native Sons: "Native Sons Divers and Mariposa Lodge", Sep, 2017,

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Dive Review of Native Sons in
Honduras/Roatan