havecarryonwilltravel

As a lot of places in Central America, two things we take for granted in Canada and the US, electricity and internet, are both sketchy in Roatan. Electricity is on most of the time but without warning and seemingly random it isn’t. No lights, no fridge, no AC or fan, nada. One can still eat even if it is in the dark. Most of the cooking is done with propane or on a grill. So, dinner is always an option. The internet has many constrictions on its path to the computer. It could be a bad connection to a satellite, maybe a screw up at the local distributor, there could be a lot of traffic on the supply cable, maybe there are a lot of people at the hotel on their devices, or maybe it is just the router not functioning properly. At any rate sometimes it works, a good amount of the time it does not. Even when it is deathly slow, I still try to check my email every day, how pathetic.

Land’s End Hotel is a ‘resort’. It is most definitely not of the high-end variety. The rooms are rather spartan and the grounds are minimal. When I first got here, I was not overly impressed with the room, but day by day the place grew on me and now I down right like the place. The room is big enough and functions very well as a staging area for our diving and other needs. The common space is functional for the few times we use it. The internet is not available in the rooms but when working is adequate in the common area. The pool is ocean water but is drained and cleaned once a week. The employees are super. The hotel is situated 500 meters from the downtown area so it is very quiet. The inhouse bar shuts down at 9pm so the evenings are quiet as well. The short walk into town is good to wake up in the morning and good to walk off dinner in the evening.

Coconut Tree Divers is not the complete service shop we have run into before. The diver is responsible for their own gear. There are lockers available so we don’t have to hike it back and forth to the hotel each day but each morning we gather up our equipment, account for all the pieces, take it to the boat and mount it on our tanks. The dive masters organize the group and lead the dive and the boat captain helps to get on and off the boat but the rest is up to the diver. It is good to keep up on these above water skills and when everything is done for you it is easy to get sloppy and lazy. Anyway, I really enjoyed diving with these folks and would do so again if Roatan crosses our travel path.

The personal space afforded by Roatan drivers to pedestrians is about ¼ that we get in Canada. The roads are narrow and no sidewalks. People park in No Parking areas. People walk on the road, both sides. When a vehicle drives by I could move my elbow a couple of inches and I would brush the car. This happens even when we are walking and there is no other congestion. They are so use to driving by close to the walkers they don’t turn the steering wheel very far. Don’t think I would ride a bike there.

Sitting at the airport in Houston thinking about when we might go back. Won’t be for a year or so but I think this is a place we can return to.

One of favourite creatures to find in the Caribbean is the Lettuce Sea Slug. We have been diving in Roatan now for seven days and, up until today, we have not seen any sight of these beautiful treasures.

Today, Rudy, our eagle eyed dive master finds not one but three! We are thrilled as we had almost given up hope!

These creatures are very delicate and have ruffles on top of its body.

We can now go home knowing we got to see a favourite.

Quite a few years ago we dove on Roatan’s sister island, Utila. What I remember of the diving is the terrain. The terrain is the memory I will leave here with. The coral is in good shape and there are fish, although not in abundance, but it is the sandy shoals, the coral fingers and the vast expanse of coral gardens that stick in my mind.

I spend a lot of time swimming close to the reef looking for small stuff. There is stuff to find but it is not much. I find a couple of interesting fish or creatures per dive.

If we are on a wall type dive I check into the blue and see what’s out there. On our first dive we were treated to a mobula or manta ray cruising on a morning stroll though the hood. Every once in a while an eagle ray on its way downtown slides by. Turtles are quite populous here and we have seen a few going doing their errands.

Most of the time the diving is quite easy. Doesn’t seem to be big currents and the seas are calmish. Thursday, our 6th day of diving we woke to a downpour with major winds. The swells were big and at 6am there was zero boat traffic. The rain had not subsided for our trip to the dive shop but shortly after we get there the sun arrives. The wind was still strong and the sea was still angry. The dive is on and we get in and out of the boat in very big water. The underworld is surgy but no current and the surge was one of the highlights of the dive, rocking to and fro with the fish and the waving fans.

At the south point of the island is where currents are most prominent. The dives can be drift dives. We have yet to experience one of the currents but we have had 4 or 5 dives at that end. With the water passing by at intervals in both directions the algae found on other parts of the reef gets ‘scrubbed’ off. The coral is in fantastic shape. Because the water is flushing in and out there is more food and therefore more fish.

The dive shop we are diving with ‘Coconut Tree Divers’ has boats with little shelter from the wind. There seems to be a constant breeze and when we get on the boat after a dive I freeze. The shop has a couple of long coats available if it gets really cold but a few minutes in the sun helps a lot. I can’t say I remember being super cold upon leaving the water anywhere else but here and it has been on pretty much every dive.

All in all the diving is pretty good here. There is nothing spectacular but there is enough to keep me occupied and it is very relaxing. Glad we came.