Another 'Live from Roatan'

[Praxus]

I'm posting this from the pura vida hotel in west end. Am about 1/2 way thru my week here - and unfortunately its been pretty stormy since monday.

The Pura Vida 'resort' is a decent hotel...nothing fancy. Room is pretty small and basic but clean; with ac (not using it) and a decent sized tv. The only english channel is HBO Plus. They have CNN 'en espanol' which I can understand about half of, if I'm lucky Staff are friendly enough. Food is ok, nothing special. Portions are large. Well except for the included breakfast, which is average but certainly acceptable. Maids do a good job each day.

I'm diving with pura vida as well. They provide a friendly if basic service. They didn't ask to see my 'c' card; but discussed my experience with me. As an 'open water' diver on my own; they were careful to buddy me up with a DM (or trainee) who would stay at around 60' with me while other divers went deeper. They typically didn't have water on the boats which I wasn't thrilled by. You had to set up your own gear, basically do everything except carry the tanks around. But hey for 20 bucks a dive what do you want. I've done 9 dives with them and am pretty happy.

Since the weather got stormy monday, they switched the dives to the south side of the island. I'm really glad I have a full 3mm since everyone in a shorty is freezing their butts on in the boat after the dives! Hmm well full suits do have disadvantages; as I had to deal with when having to pee REAL bad on the last dive. They didn't ask any questions when I took my boots off in the water before getting on the boat

Since I just got certified in december this is all new stuff for me. Oh yeah, the motor on the boat failed yesterday...looked like we'd have to get a tow for a few; but the 'captain' fixed things by changing a sparkplug, so no biggy.

I'm impressed by the reef. Best I've seen yet; but then I've only dived off the mayan riviera near Puerto Aventuras, and the Bay of Pigs in Cuba. Fish wise, haven't seen anything much more exciting than lobsters and king crabs; although other divers saw a pipefish on the last dive. There's a good quantity of the usual reef species.

I've been eating a lot at the Cannibal Cafe which I like (mexican seems appropriate here). Had the Thai curry at the vietnamese place. Its good, but they are damn cheap with the chicken. Good thing for the rice, so I didn't leave hungry.

Well they say the weather will get better tomorrow. I really hope so. Getting tired of rain; and want to dive north side some more.

Infrastructure here is really dodgy. Internet was out for the last two days; and power out today. Luckily pura vida has a generator...I'm in my room using the free wireless right now (all hotels should provide this!)

Anyways, besides the weather etc, west end is a cool laid back place. I'm glad I came.

Bye from Roatan..

 

[Doc]

Fish wise, haven't seen anything much more exciting than lobsters and king crabs; although other divers saw a 'pie fish' on the last dive. There's a good quantity of the usual reef species.

I asked Google what a "pie fish" was and got no hits.

As you are diving on the South Side, ask your DM's to show you the really cool stuff that the South side is famous for. It's small and hard to see if you're a tourist like we are, but a DM should be able to give you a South side SeaHorse on every dive.

Look for Arrow Blennies, Neck Crabs, Cryptic Crabs, Arrow Crabs, Secretary and RoughHead Blennies, Juvenile Spotted Drums and more! Tell them what you want to see- they'll slow down and find it for you. use your South side dive opportunities to the full advantage!

The power outages? Sounds like you got 'em covered! Keep reporting in!

 

[danktex]

Sounds like fun. I will be there in two and a half weeks.

 

[Praxus]

Sorry it was a pipefish

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pipefish

 

[Doc]

Sorry it was a pipefish

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pipefish

Coolest of cool. Pipefish are in the Sea Horse family. That's a great find in Roatan... what it's really all about. Stick with that Dive Master!

Let your eyes look for the little stuff, slow down, study small areas and details. Be very amazed.

Tell your DM that you'll give him an extra $20 if he finds you a Sailfin Blennie! http://www.uwphoto.net/pages/gallery_ci00-042.html

 

[laserdoc]

How much are rooms ??

 

[Praxus]

Today was nice for a change. Dived the north side again; but it was somewhat murky.
Had to skip the afternoon dive since I've got some ear pain.

Couple of other finds from the south side the last couple of days - a drumfish; and one that the DM couldn't identify; but after checking the reef fish book I'm pretty sure it was a diamond blenny. Very small brown fishy that seemed to standing on its fins.

laserdoc - http://puravidaresort.com/

 

[laserdoc]

wow great prices!! Staying at Cocoview for I think around 1100 a week the end of May. May have to try this places next time.

 

[Warmwater Wank]

Praxus--You might walk down the road (north from Pura Vida) to Woody's Grocery, next to Argentinian Restaurant and pick up some Swimmer's ear drops. If you do not have perforated ear drums you might use the drops for 5 minutes (no shortchanging!) in each ear. Not medical advice of course but it works--at least as a preventative. I ran into ear discomfort problems after the 1st week in Roatan last July. (Bought some tetracycline at Woody's too but if I say I used it I'll get flamed!) Anyway, I used the drops when I first got to Bonaire in Dec. and 34 dives later, absolutely no ear problems. Not sure how well they work once the problem sets in however. Doc Vikingo (and others) have excellent advice on ear matters if you do a search here in SB. Chase those storms for me, I'm back there in 2 weeks! // ww

 

[the gooch]

I dove with Bananarama in Roatan last year, they are in West Bay Beach- 5mins from West End, and they were absolutely awesome. Mal and Chris are great DMs and Danny is a great Cpt.

If you want to hold off on diving but feel like some snorkeling, the reef right off of the southern most point of West Bay Beach is amazing. I spent 3 1/2 hours snorkelling out there my last day in Roatan.

When I was there I rented a 2 bedroom house in West Bay Village for around $950/week.