Mary's Place

Coxen Hole · Bay Islands · Honduras

Mary's Place is Roatan's most talked-about dive site, and for good reason: there is simply nothing else like it on the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef. Located off the south shore of Roatan near the community of Sandy Bay, this site features a dramatic volcanic fissure that has split the reef wall into a series of narrow canyons, some barely wide enough for a diver to pass through with outstretched arms nearly touching both walls. The dive begins on the reef top at around 12 metres before descending into the main crack. The fissure walls are encrusted with a staggering density of soft corals, tube sponges, rope sponges, and gorgonian fans in every imaginable colour. Light filters down from above, creating an atmospheric dimness that makes the coral pigments seem to glow. Arrow crabs perch on the sponges, flamingo tongue snails dot the sea fans, and green moray eels peer out from crevices in the narrow walls. As you work deeper through the canyon to about 25 metres, the fissure opens at the bottom and you emerge onto the main wall face -- a moment of genuine drama as the confined passage suddenly gives way to the infinite blue of the deep wall. From here, you can drift along the wall face at whatever depth suits your certification, with the wall dropping far beyond recreational limits below. Buoyancy control is critical at Mary's Place. The narrow passages leave little room for error, and contact with the walls would damage the fragile coral growth that makes the site so special. For this reason, most operators recommend Advanced Open Water certification and demonstrable buoyancy skills. Photography inside the fissure is challenging but rewarding -- wide-angle shots capturing the walls converging overhead are among Roatan's most iconic underwater images. Mary's Place is diveable year-round, with water temperatures ranging from 27 to 30 degrees Celsius and visibility typically between 20 and 30 metres. The south shore of Roatan offers calmer conditions from March through September, when seas tend to be flattest. Dive operators across the island run trips to Mary's Place regularly, and it is consistently the site that visiting divers request most often.