Dive Review of Isla Marisol Resort in
Belize/Glover’s Atoll

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Isla Marisol Resort: "Sublime, overpriced.", Feb, 2020, by Mary Adams, MD, US ( Sr. Contributor 27 reports with 9 Helpful votes). Report 11443 has 1 Helpful vote.
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Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	Mary’s Undercurrent review of Isla Marisol February 2020 I signed up online for a week-long stay, Wednesday-to-Wednesday, including 17 dives. Captain Douglas fetched 3 of us in Dangriga for the hour-long open boat ride to Glover’s Atoll and Isla Marisol resort. There, we met Letitia and Mora, resort managers and dive masters. Lety showed us around the tiny rustic resort, which has 11 one-bedroom cabanas and one 2-bedroom bungalow. There is a dining room with space for about 30 people, and a really nice new over-water bar. Water supply is from rain, and Mora said they have a desalination plant, but I did not see it. Electricity is via solar panels and diesel generator. Mora said windmills do not hold up in a salty environment. My cabana was perfectly comfortable, with 2 full-size beds, ceiling fan, and a veranda with clotheslines. There is an air conditioner, but I did not use it. The bathroom was functional, but I discovered after my first dive that I got only about 60 seconds of hot water, just enough to de-salinate my hair and body between dives. The door locks and screens were all rusty, so there was no actual cabana security, but nothing bad happened. Isla Marisol must spray for bugs, I saw only one brown beetle, few gnats and no mosquitoes or no-see um bites. I didn’t discuss that with Lety or Mora, but I suspect DDT is in use in Belize. There were very few birds in the palm trees or mangroves. Food was about as mediocre as Belizean food can get. I think Belize sells the chicken breasts and thighs & drumsticks to a foreign market, leaving Belizeans with the necks & wings. There was pineapple and watermelon (not as ripe as I expected) and papaya, and all the starches. My package included “snacks,” but all I ever saw was bananas, orange juice, and lemonade. I glimpsed a box of Snickers bars arrive on the Saturday supply boat, but we guests never saw one. Desserts were uniformly mediocre - dry cakes, cookies, and “pies.” Food was sustaining, and there was enough of it, but I think I paid for much better. We did get lobster twice, which unfortunately is wasted on me. When in Belize, I eat what is placed in front of me and give thanks and tips. Dive operation was lots of fun, especially with only 3 divers per outing. We boarded the Mountain Lion or the Marisol Tarpon boat (twin 200-hp Yamahas) for a 5-10-minute ride to the dive sites on the outer walls of the Atoll. After a dive briefing, we back-rolled into the water and descended. Visibility ranged from 50 feet to spectacular. Most dives were slow drifts in an easy current along or on top of the wall. My max recorded depth was 81 feet, averages 35-50 feet. After 50 minutes and safety stops, Captain Douglas moved the boat close to us, we handed up our weights, tanks, and fins, then climbed the ladder. Douglas and Mora refilled our tanks between dives. Seas were mostly pretty calm, but there were a handful of wild rides in 3-foot seas. I took a bonine for breakfast every day. The dive shop has several locked cages for storing gear between dives. Rinse capability was spotty; sometimes there was water at the dock shower, mostly not, and there was only one half-filled barrel for rinsing wetsuits. I left mine salty and brought them home salty. My tiny GoPro went to my cabana between dives for a sink dunk. I was counting fish for REEF surveys most of the dives, and observed a moderate number of species and mostly small populations, except abundant creole wrasse, redband and striped parrotfish, yellow snappers, and bar jacks. The reef condition was good at most dive sites, but there were a couple sites where all the corals were dead. Long Caye Wall was the worst. I saw only a handful of nurse sharks, and a few magnificent turtles - loggerhead, hawksbill, and green. I wish I could convince the whole world that a live turtle in the ocean is worth $2000 to this scuba diver. The DMs were hunting for spiny lobsters during most of the dives, and were moderately successful. Apparently there is a spiny lobster season. Glover’s Atoll has a marine protected area inside the Atoll. Mora admitted that the Belize Wildlife authority has trouble enforcing fishing restrictions in the protected areas. There is a Wildlife Conservation Society research station on Long Key. I did not visit it, wish I had. Another diver did visit it and reported its capabilities. There were a couple of snorkelers early in my stay. They were disappointed in the snorkel services. They paid (I think I heard) $75 to be taken a quarter-mile from the resort for what they said was poor snorkeling. I snorkeled around the resort under the mangroves, the bar and the boat docks, and I saw some interesting small sea life, two spotted eagle rays (!!), and a moderate amount of plastic trash of course. Overall, February 5-12 on Isla Marisol was a fine, if overpriced, diving week.
Websites	Isla Marisol Resort
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	251-500 dives
Where else diving	Cuba, Bonaire, Cozumel, Florida Keys, Clearwater FL, Bimini, Roatan, Kona, North Carolina, Flower Garden Banks, Caymans, Palau, Chuuk, Turks and Caicos.
Closest Airport	BZE	Getting There	Fly to BZE, then Dangriga. I traveled by land from Belize City to Dangriga.
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny	Seas	choppy, no currents
Water Temp	80-81°F / 27-27°C	Wetsuit Thickness	2
Water Visibility	50-100 Ft/ 15-30 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	50-minute bottom time, 3-minute safety stop.
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	Lots	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	> 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities	N/A
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities
UW Photo Comments	Captain will hand your camera down to you, and lift it into the boat after. No camera or mask buckets on boat.

Report currently has 1 Helpful vote

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Dive Review of Isla Marisol Resort in Belize/Glover’s Atoll

Isla Marisol Resort: "Sublime, overpriced.", Feb, 2020,

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 Isla Marisol Resort in
Belize/Glover’s Atoll