ScubaBoard Invasion Central 2023 Roatan
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Doctor Rig
Contributor
RobPNW
Contributor
We fled to the mainland to get to the airport in San Pedro. About half way through a 5 hour van ride, the whole country went into lockdown. Got to the city and had no plan, no flights, no crossing the border. San Pedro is the murder capitol of Central America so we had to get outside of town. To make matters worse, half the hotels didn't want to take customers and were trying to close down and send their people home.
I put together a team of about 5 people and we contacted about 30 hotels throughout the county to make a list of where all the Americans and Europeans were staying, which hotels were trying to close down, pricing and where they were located with regards to crime etc. Looking back we have a pretty clear understanding of how the whole pandemic played out, but at the time, with lack of knowledge, we were kind of imagining lepper colony LOL.
Found a place outside of town in a residential area that had gated security and perimeter fencing but the manager wanted to close down. I asked him how many people I would have to get to his hotel to stay open and he said about 40 more. So called all the places in our list and got 45 people to transfer over. Also negotiated a daily price cut of about 30% since we had no idea how long it would take. Looking outside the fence was like a ghost town. I thought I was an extra in that Will Smith movie "I am Legend".
Plan A was a government rescue flight about 3 weeks in. An hour before we were finally getting out of there, they told us it was diverted to El Salvadore to save a women's soccer team- better political photo op.
Plan B, I was working the problem through my home Congressman, the local embassy, the local minister of commerce and my old Naval Academy roommate, who was a senor pilot for United. I was feeding him notes and he was passing on to the CEO of United. The embassy was useless. My congressman was working the problem with the State Department. At about the 3 1/2 week mark, they made it happen and 3 United planes were allowed in and took about 1,000 of us out of there.
Plan C, was straight out of a Jason Borne movie
There was a very aloof group of 4 guys at the hotel with us. They saw me working the problem and let me in with the group. Otherwise, they pretty didn't talk to anyone. As an ex active duty guy, they were either ex/current special forces guys or "contractors". I have no idea why they were in Central America, but they had $50k in cash in one of their rooms. Draw your own conclusions.They had already set the stage to get a private jet to land in the country, and the airspace was locked down, so they bribed the pilot who was going to land the plane out in the county at a rural airstrip. They were working on bribing the tower operator to let the plane land, and they already had paid a hotel worker to drive us in the van out there at around 2am. Luckily plan B worked
Doctor Rig
Contributor
……….. Holy ****!!!! Talk about stressful!! That’s some experience. Wouldn’t you really like to know the details about the 4 guys from Plan C. Have you kept in contact with any of those people? Hope everyone got home healthy & safely!We fled to the mainland to get to the airport in San Pedro. About half way through a 5 hour van ride, the whole country went into lockdown. Got to the city and had no plan, no flights, no crossing the border. San Pedro is the murder capitol of Central America so we had to get outside of town. To make matters worse, half the hotels didn't want to take customers and were trying to close down and send their people home.
I put together a team of about 5 people and we contacted about 30 hotels throughout the county to make a list of where all the Americans and Europeans were staying, which hotels were trying to close down, pricing and where they were located with regards to crime etc. Looking back we have a pretty clear understanding of how the whole pandemic played out, but at the time, with lack of knowledge, we were kind of imagining lepper colony LOL.
Found a place outside of town in a residential area that had gated security and perimeter fencing but the manager wanted to close down. I asked him how many people I would have to get to his hotel to stay open and he said about 40 more. So called all the places in our list and got 45 people to transfer over. Also negotiated a daily price cut of about 30% since we had no idea how long it would take. Looking outside the fence was like a ghost town. I thought I was an extra in that Will Smith movie "I am Legend".
Plan A was a government rescue flight about 3 weeks in. An hour before we were finally getting out of there, they told us it was diverted to El Salvadore to save a women's soccer team- better political photo op.
Plan B, I was working the problem through my home Congressman, the local embassy, the local minister of commerce and my old Naval Academy roommate, who was a senor pilot for United. I was feeding him notes and he was passing on to the CEO of United. The embassy was useless. My congressman was working the problem with the State Department. At about the 3 1/2 week mark, they made it happen and 3 United planes were allowed in and took about 1,000 of us out of there.
Plan C, was straight out of a Jason Borne movie
They had already set the stage to get a private jet to land in the country, and the airspace was locked down, so they bribed the pilot who was going to land the plane out in the county at a rural airstrip. They were working on bribing the tower operator to let the plane land, and they already had paid a hotel worker to drive us in the van out there at around 2am. Luckily plan B worked
RobPNW
Contributor
Yeah Doc, I could make a movie. I only shared a small fraction of the details. I've kept in touch with one gent that caught the last ferry with me. He was the Chief Information Officer at deutsche bank in Germany. He was working the problem with me.
The plan C guys were a means to an end for me. Any group of people in Central America with 50 grand aren't there sight seeing LOL. It was one of those situations where I decided it was in my best interest not to know any more than I needed. That plan though was about 90% ready. It was going to cost each of us about $8k to make it happen. So I was more than happy to pay United $800 for the flight out
I believe I wouldn't hesitate to join a trip you were involved with. When Shite goes south, its nice to know there is at least one problem solver involved.Yeah Doc, I could make a movie. I only shared a small fraction of the details. I've kept in touch with one gent that caught the last ferry with me. He was the Chief Information Officer at deutsche bank in Germany. He was working the problem with me.
The plan C guys were a means to an end for me. Any group of people in Central America with 50 grand aren't there sight seeing LOL. It was one of those situations where I decided it was in my best interest not to know any more than I needed. That plan though was about 90% ready. It was going to cost each of us about $8k to make it happen. So I was more than happy to pay United $800 for the flight out
xxNeanersxx
New
There is no way that i could be lucky enough to find that there are still spots available for this.... could i? *crosses fingers*
Have you contacted Bay Adventurers to go on the reserve list?
BalekFekete
Contributor
I currently have an open slot in a room with my 22 y.o. son (his older brother opt'd out of the vacation). Can read up on it in the Single Divers thread.
Doctor Rig
Contributor
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