La Ceiba Violence

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I am not sure why this thread morphed into a discussion about travel in Mexico.

In any case, it may be tempting to travel to Roatan via San Pedro Sula but please keep a few things in mind.

The flights from San Pedro Sula to either La Ceiba or Roatan are often weight-restricted. If you are traveling with your gear and there is not enough capacity on the flight due to cargo, or for any other reason, your gear may not make it on to your flight. You may have to keep going back to the airport to check on your luggage. It's not worth it. The airline is not going to send someone to your hotel with your luggage. I have been to Roatan nearly a dozen times but I have only flown on international flights (via San Salvador or Houston). I have never lost a bag (not that it couldn't happen). On the other hand, those who have come via San Pedro Sula or La Ceiba and taken a domestic hop have often complained of lost luggage. Some have not gotten their luggage until near the end of their vacation.

If you only have carry-on baggage you are probably better off...assuming that you are allowed to carry all of it onboard.
 
There was no "coup d'etat." Honduras enforced its own constituation and averted what could have been an even bigger problem. Roatan was almost completely unaffected by the political situation. Nevertheless, the dive shops on the island were nearly dead from the reduction in tourism caused by the travel warnings. The only difference I noticed on my arrival in Roatan were a few extra soldiers in the airport.

Hi JL,

Nice to see you here, and thanks for your words of wisdom. I just couldn’t stand it any more and had to jump in here with you. Agreed; silly how these things so often seem to morph totally out of control. Sillier still is how some people on this board pretend to be such experts about things they really know nothing about.

Yet again here we are chatting about the "coup" that wasn't. I live for much of every year in Honduras, on the mainland for the most part, including from July 17 to December 15 last year. I was an official international observer of the November national elections. I worked as a volunteer for 22 hours that day with full access to every aspect of that election as it played out in my region and beyond. I have never seen a more well thought out, organized, transparent, fool-proof affair in my life. I can think of a whole host of major and lesser US corporations and political entities who could and SHOULD take lessons from that very successful effort. Representative democracy is very much alive and well in Honduras, thank you very much. At least it is for now. Who knows what will happen as the international power players wield their heavy handed policies on “the little country that could.” Hondurans are very proud of their new moniker and have now adjusted it to “the little country that did.”

In a military coup, isn't it so that the top general either takes over the government or at least takes a major role? Does anyone here know where the general who arrested Mel (by order of the Supreme Court) is now? Having never taken over the government for even a nanosecond and now retired from his military duties, he is working hard and is making great strides cleaning up the mess we all know as Hondutel, the national telecommunication service which has been a cesspool of corruption for ever.

Dandy Don…that duck don’t waddle nor quack.

I use every kind of public transportation available in the country. I have a home/artists' studio in Copán Ruinas and a regular long-term rental on Roatan. I have flown many times directly into RTB and just as many into SAP. I am quite comfortable either way. I choose which airport depending on where I am going first or last and the rest of my schedule for each particular trip. I rarely use the "puddle jumpers" out of La Ceiba to the islands because my experiences have been that they are much less reliable than the ferries and the connections much more trouble. Try sitting in the Ceiba airport waiting hour after hour and knowing that if you had taken the ferry you would already be 100 feet down on the reef. Do that twice and at least for me it’s “fool me once shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.” I don’t like shame on me.

I have a Honduran business partner who always takes the little plane back to the island if his trip is in the afternoon because his inner ears make it difficult for him to tolerate the afternoon seas and currents. It's all about each individual traveler and their personal needs and comforts. Last time we parted ways for me to take the ferry and him the plane, sure ‘nuf that bird didn’t fly. But, being the resourceful business man he is, he hitched a ride on a private 4-seater with an empty seat…not something I would count on or recommend for the average traveler.

I am always willing to share about specifics when our SB members make specific requests for specific recommendations. I always answer SB private messages. I try hard to resist tirades like this one, but I really love my adopted country and once in a while, I get really tired of the general misinformation and propaganda being tossed about, especially that which has absolutely nothing to do with the diving.

As Dandy Don once wrote to me before our one week of diving from the same boat five years ago come August, "I can see this ain’t your first rodeo." During that week, I think he came to realize that he was right. We both know we will never dive from the same boat ever again. Not enough room in the same paddock for the both of us. We each need our own open ranges and Don, I wish you well on yours. And people wonder why we Texans need so much room.

As for your gear, if you love Honduras like I do, just do what I do and leave your kit on the island with your LDS there. Mine is CTD. I am a very lazy, old lady diver and terribly spoiled. I only want warm water, superb visibility, and gentle currents (well, with an occasion more challenging profile). I love my 60+ minute down times and only having to surface when we have to get back to the dock for those who are waiting for their turn on the boat. I don’t have the time or the money or the desire to dive anywhere else anymore. I don’t need things hanging off my BCD till I look like a Christmas tree. If I get a wild hair to go dive with my buds somewhere off the Gulf coast or the FL Keys or anywhere else, I’ll just use their gear and buy a new seacure. Actually, my gear is so much loved and much used, all my buds think I need new anyway. If I somehow win a lottery or a trip to another hemisphere, it had better come with a new kit.

Forget your worries about the politics. Don’t mess with them and they won’t mess with you, but be sure to give full respect to the regulations and laws of the land. It’s not a difficult concept. If you want to get off the islands and into the mainland, that’s not about diving and a totally different conversation not appropriate for this board.

Do come and dive Las Islas de la Bahia before the expat developers make too many more “improvements.” Take it slow and easy; watch for beauty revealed in the very small and simple things as well as the most enormous and majestic. Find equal beauty in the very simple and huge as well as the most majestic and miniscule. You will find all of that here if you want to.

Hey JL, will we be in country at the same time this trip? For me it will probably be May, June, July, October, November and December. You?
 
Oh, that's who you are. I'd noticed you posting some but didn't put the name with the memory.
We both know we will never dive from the same boat ever again.
Since you've made this personal: Gawd I'd hope not.
 
Sololady,

as another Texan, I hope you won't lump us all into the same group. Loved your post and it's spot on. I'll dive with you any day.
 
Almost makes me wish I was on that boat with Don and the old lady some 5 years ago...
 
Do come and dive Las Islas de la Bahia before the expat developers make too many more “improvements.”

Hmmmm,
Lets see, Maya Key, Mahogany Bay, Gumbalimba Park, Tabyana, Black Pearl golf course are just a few of the larger developments and amazingly they were not built by expats.
 
Almost makes me wish I was on that boat with Don and the old lady some 5 years ago...

I believe the :search: goes back that far here on SCUBABoard.

Enjoy the [-]trip down memory lane[/-] voyage.
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Sololady,

as another Texan, I hope you won't lump us all into the same group. Loved your post and it's spot on. I'll dive with you any day.

I'm Texan, born and bred and damned proud of it, but I've lived all over the US and now in Honduras. We all know we grow all types there.

Just let me know when you're coming down, I truly enjoy making new dive buddies, especially those who have the desire to do something other than only AI's. Those are fun once in a while, but on my budget only once in a while.
 
Donny boy, you made it personal when you kept on and on and on posting on several of these strings. I tried to gently tell you that you were wrong a few times, but as is your nature, you didn't get it. So just get off your soapbox about Honduras politics that you don't understand. This is supposed to be about DIVING.

And I didn't out you for your stunt on this board, others did.
 

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