diverrick
Contributor
My wife and I just got back from another great trip to Roatan, and I thought I might share some of the higlights with you all.
We left SFO on the redeye flight at 1 AM in the moring, and flew into San Salvador, then we took off again for what I thought was San Pedro Sula, but the plane didn't go in the right direction. Turns out we made a quick stop off in Tegocigalpa (sp). If you like interesting flights, I reccommend you fly into that airport. you get a close up inspection of what seems like most of the town before landing. I swear we hit a couple of roof tops on the way in! After that stop we were off to San Pedro Sula, where we changed into a airplane they call a flying boxcar (Shorts 320). I thought we were on our way to Roatan, but they had other ideas, we instead flew to La ceiba, and changed planes AGAIN! this time it went out to Roatan via Isleina Airways and we arrived 13 hours after we had left SFO. We had wanted to stay at CCV but they were full, so we decided that Fantasy Island was as close as we could get. They had a great special deal for us, less than 600.00 US for 7 days of diving /Hotel room, AI food. The rooms wer very nice and spacious. The room was pre chilled for our arrival and it felt really good to cool off after that long flight, as some of the airplanes didn't have Air conditioning. We went down and learned what we needed to know about the dive operation, and before you know it we were getting wet. First 5 days, the seas were very rough. Not bad until you attempted to get back abaord. One lady was thrown from her seat and took out the center 4X4 post that held up the roof of the boat. one guy had his tank come loose and damaged his borrowed regulator. It slowly improved over the week. The meals were average in both my wifes and my opnion, but I never got sick, so they get extra bonus points for that issue, as I have suffered before down on the island from "mal de comida". One of the guys saw a hammer head shark, and my wife and I found a baby reef shark resting on the top of the wall, where we watched him for about 5 mins. He didn't seem to mind. We dove alot of sites. I won't bore you with the gushy details, but suffice it to say that even though the vis was poor due to conditions, the diving was still excellent. They run a really nice dive operation, and had no trouble what so ever with the boats or employees. They were all very gracious, and polite. We dove on the Mr Bud, and I was amazed that they were able to get her to to float long enough to get her out to the site! Good choice for a boat dive placement. She was moving around due to swells a bit still, so it will be interesting to see if she stays in place in the long run.
For the most part the Prince Albert wreck was a wash due to low vis. We did get a small window where we were able to see pretty well, but it didn't last. I saw a bunch of Arrow crabs this trip, They seemed to be everywhere, as well as some resident sea horses near the PA wreck.
We also got a good swim by on the North shore dive by an Eagle ray. The North shore was much calmer dive, and a great break in what was an otherwise rought week of diving. We got in 34 dives, all on EAN32. We dove with a group of old fat fellas and one girl that was younger than the rest of em. They had been diving together for 25 years for most of the group, problem was they still had the gear they bought when they started out diving! we named it the "vintage tour" as I have not seen gear that old in a long time, and they had troubles with the gear, (suprise suprise) Everything was very old including some of them who had to have the first BC's ever made and old SP all steel regs. One of them was still using the same T shirt he started with 25 years ago, or should I say, what was left of it, as it was more holes than shirt. I had always heard of "the brick" in terms of a early dive computers, but had never really seen one until this trip. It really is a brick! Heck who needs weights? just strap a couple of those guys on and your set. The group could have used a bit of dive refreashers, as one of the guys had joined with the tour had not even got wet for over 20 years! but they were all very nice folks and we ended up hanging around for dinner most nights with them. Over all, it was another excellent trip for us, and I would hightly reccomend FI as a choice. It is a bit more upscale, as well as european in style, but we really liked it. Down side: was sand fleas seemed a bit more hungry than usual, and it rained a bit every day, Lots of thunder and Lightnening, food didn't change very much over the period we were staying there. Good things: Great rooms, great dive operation, good AC when we needed it, great dive sites as usual, great Dm's and Captains, and Watussa's (sp)
We left SFO on the redeye flight at 1 AM in the moring, and flew into San Salvador, then we took off again for what I thought was San Pedro Sula, but the plane didn't go in the right direction. Turns out we made a quick stop off in Tegocigalpa (sp). If you like interesting flights, I reccommend you fly into that airport. you get a close up inspection of what seems like most of the town before landing. I swear we hit a couple of roof tops on the way in! After that stop we were off to San Pedro Sula, where we changed into a airplane they call a flying boxcar (Shorts 320). I thought we were on our way to Roatan, but they had other ideas, we instead flew to La ceiba, and changed planes AGAIN! this time it went out to Roatan via Isleina Airways and we arrived 13 hours after we had left SFO. We had wanted to stay at CCV but they were full, so we decided that Fantasy Island was as close as we could get. They had a great special deal for us, less than 600.00 US for 7 days of diving /Hotel room, AI food. The rooms wer very nice and spacious. The room was pre chilled for our arrival and it felt really good to cool off after that long flight, as some of the airplanes didn't have Air conditioning. We went down and learned what we needed to know about the dive operation, and before you know it we were getting wet. First 5 days, the seas were very rough. Not bad until you attempted to get back abaord. One lady was thrown from her seat and took out the center 4X4 post that held up the roof of the boat. one guy had his tank come loose and damaged his borrowed regulator. It slowly improved over the week. The meals were average in both my wifes and my opnion, but I never got sick, so they get extra bonus points for that issue, as I have suffered before down on the island from "mal de comida". One of the guys saw a hammer head shark, and my wife and I found a baby reef shark resting on the top of the wall, where we watched him for about 5 mins. He didn't seem to mind. We dove alot of sites. I won't bore you with the gushy details, but suffice it to say that even though the vis was poor due to conditions, the diving was still excellent. They run a really nice dive operation, and had no trouble what so ever with the boats or employees. They were all very gracious, and polite. We dove on the Mr Bud, and I was amazed that they were able to get her to to float long enough to get her out to the site! Good choice for a boat dive placement. She was moving around due to swells a bit still, so it will be interesting to see if she stays in place in the long run.
For the most part the Prince Albert wreck was a wash due to low vis. We did get a small window where we were able to see pretty well, but it didn't last. I saw a bunch of Arrow crabs this trip, They seemed to be everywhere, as well as some resident sea horses near the PA wreck.
We also got a good swim by on the North shore dive by an Eagle ray. The North shore was much calmer dive, and a great break in what was an otherwise rought week of diving. We got in 34 dives, all on EAN32. We dove with a group of old fat fellas and one girl that was younger than the rest of em. They had been diving together for 25 years for most of the group, problem was they still had the gear they bought when they started out diving! we named it the "vintage tour" as I have not seen gear that old in a long time, and they had troubles with the gear, (suprise suprise) Everything was very old including some of them who had to have the first BC's ever made and old SP all steel regs. One of them was still using the same T shirt he started with 25 years ago, or should I say, what was left of it, as it was more holes than shirt. I had always heard of "the brick" in terms of a early dive computers, but had never really seen one until this trip. It really is a brick! Heck who needs weights? just strap a couple of those guys on and your set. The group could have used a bit of dive refreashers, as one of the guys had joined with the tour had not even got wet for over 20 years! but they were all very nice folks and we ended up hanging around for dinner most nights with them. Over all, it was another excellent trip for us, and I would hightly reccomend FI as a choice. It is a bit more upscale, as well as european in style, but we really liked it. Down side: was sand fleas seemed a bit more hungry than usual, and it rained a bit every day, Lots of thunder and Lightnening, food didn't change very much over the period we were staying there. Good things: Great rooms, great dive operation, good AC when we needed it, great dive sites as usual, great Dm's and Captains, and Watussa's (sp)
