bshort4
Contributor
Just returned Saturday from a week of diving with Native Sons Divers and staying at Mariposa lodge. First--I flew from Denver (5 am flight-to Houston) and from Houston to Roatan arriving at 12 noon. I was off the plane and through immigration in 10 minutes--waited about the same for my bags then out the door and my driver from Mariposa Lodge was waiting for me--$25 to West End. Loved Mariposa Lodge--one bedroom apartment with complete kitchen, 5 gal. jug of water for drinking, coffee maker with coffee supplied,freezing a/c, tv with lots of English channels, a nice balcony to sit on and just far enough away from main street (one block) so that the weekend loud music didn't bother me to much. No hot water the week I was there--hot and cold were the same--luke warm-but no biggie. House keeping everyday but you need to wash your own dishes, pots and pans and they only change linen once a week. After checking in I walked down to Native Sons Divers and they were expecting me as I had emailed them weeks earlier with fast responses. Left my kit there to be set up for the next days diving. It's slow season there right now so not a lot of people at Native Sons. Most days there were only two divers and the dive master on their big comfortable boat (giant strides, no back roles). I did two dives a day--three are offered which I did my last day. I dove air my first dive and Nitrox 32 on all my second dives. They had a analyzer there for me to use to analyze my tank each day (Nitrox was $10 extra per tank). First dive went out at 9 am and second dive at 11 am--surface intervals were spent at the dive shop each day as most sites are only 10 to fifteen minutes away. Three different dive masters, I dove with all three--Heidi, Hanna, and most with Eddie. All gave good dive briefs on what to expect, direction, depth and length of dives. All dives were at least 60 minutes with some going longer--I came up with over 1000 psi on more than one dive. Dove different sites every dive--none were repeated--swim throughs, canyons, reefs and wrecks. Reefs were in very good shape--the one thing I did notice was lack of fish on the reefs--just not what I was expecting. We did see about 5 or 6 turtles, a few rays, I saw no sharks and about 4 large Moray Eels. Visibility was mixed--from 50 to about 80 feet depending on the reef. Lots of algae on the reefs and in the water cutting vis a lot on some dives. Water temp was a warm 86 degrees which had a lot to do with the algae--people were saying they hadn't seen the water temp that high before and they need some storms to come through and cool the water and blow off the algae. Weather was great--mid 80's, clouds some days, very little wind and seas mostly dead calm. Really enjoyed the relaxed feeling at Native Sons and would dive with them again in a heartbeat--the price was right too! 10 dive package was $300 and every dive over that was $30. We didn't d any night dives as they wanted at least 4 or 5 people to do that and there just wasn't enough people. The boat crew took my kit and tank to the boat for each dive and washed and rinsed my BC everyday. I took care of the rest. All gear was left at the shop each day and was set up on the boat the next day ready to dive. Now leaving Roatan airport was quite different than arrival. They are doing construction on the front of the airport right now--really didn't interfere to much with operations. Long line to check I with United--flight was delayed by two hours--great. Line for security was over a hour long as they only had one scanner for everyone. Three flights all leaving about the same time--not a smart idea as the waiting area is small with only one little place to get anything. One more to eat or drink--another very long line. Thankfully I had a long layover of 4 hours in Houston so made my connecting flight in plenty of time even with the two hour delay out of Roatan. I think if I visit again it will be in the late Spring when the water is cooler and vis is a little better with less algae to cope with. One last thing--finally killed my Olympus TG-3 on the wreck dive to 106 feet with no housing---I had been trying to kill it for the last year or so by taking it deeper and deeper to see it's real limits. I had it to 96 feet the day before and it stopped working but came back to life when I came up to 70 feet. But 106 feet was to much--got about 5 pics and that was the end--it turns on but I can't change any settings or take any pics--sensor is shot--but it never flooded. Time to move on to a new Olympus and a new housing for it.
