Just got back from a great week in Honduras! Here's the pertinent details...
Water temp around 82 degrees.
Most diving by resort is either dives with coral around 25 to 30 feet deep or so, with wall dives in close proximity - so a 70' dive for start then come back along higher on wall and finish safety stop among coral.
Did manage to dive the Oddessy wreck on the other side of island, but it was done only when requested and seas were calm enough. Wreck site is 2 hr drive (slow and easy drive) by boat around west end and up around island. Starts in around 80' and goes to 110'. Fair to good visabililty. Starting coral growth, but still clean and vertical (as if floating on water instead of bottom) and in one piece. Good dive. Wreck has been there about 6 months and was a planned one. Nice BIG - 5 levels or so - freighter. The BEST part is that there is a table and 4 chairs on the stern side of the boat in around 85' of water - we brought plastic cups, sat down and took a few of what should be very memorable pictures!!
Staff at FI were great! Willie is an instructor there and gave us a specialty course for deep diver. Really competent instructor and felt very safe and secure doing deep dive (bottom sloped down at 135' but didn't seem that deep and there were things to see). Tulio was divemaster and Moses boat driver. Both went the extra mile to ensure that we saw lots of fish and wildlife on the reef. Fresh water, cups, fruit, and dry towels provided on boat with unlimited access to them anytime! Dives were up to expectations, clear water, fish, seahorses, dolphins, lobster, spider crabs, anemone shrimp (purple ones) anemonies, etc. Great diving!
There were some small (1" or so) nonstinging jelllyfish hovering at about 2 to 10' of water to go through on the West end and on the Oddessy, but not much on FI dive sites unless at night dive.
Night dive nothing much, saw one crab, one octopus, one spider crab, one shrimp, sleeping fish...but seas were rough and we did it at the CoCo View wall because boat couldn't go outside breakers.
BUGS were a problem - with 95% deet those suckers still managed to find places to get me! Whenever the wind stops, the mosquitos come out. I think the deet stopped the sand flies/no-see-ums though - no bites from them!!!
FI is renovating their rooms - not really much. Wood floors and some new fixtures, but not what I would call really renovated. Still full air conditioning and nicely appointed rooms though. Water main had broken during our stay and we had a full day and a half of either brown or not much or no water in our rooms, but housekeeping did what they could to provide bottled water for drinking/cleaning when it really was a problem (i.e. no water).
Very honest staff! I left my watch by the showers and my husband left his fins on the boat on separate days. Of course, they were happily either in lost-found or carefully watched over by the dive staff! Nothing was lost- despite what seemed our best efforts to lose these items...
Food was good and plentiful. Lobster night was (always is) on Friday and I had a few! Tons of deserts, fresh ice cream, fruit, etc. always available. Fresh made omlets, scrambled eggs, bacon, etc.. Do stay away from the poached eggs- they were sour. Over all, food was a pleasing experience.
Did you know that FI has its own local soccer team that plays other teams on Roatan? We had a chance to go to a local game and had a great time! Felt very safe among the locals and had a BLAST!
This is a good report and it was over Memorial Day weekend and there were all 5 boats running! (Last Dec there were only 3 boats). There was a big group from TX and a group from Mexico also there. Resort and dive op did well under these high capacity conditions. Dive shop also is bigger and they have separate video rooms, class rooms, etc. and they now offer classes in Rescue, etc. I felt that the staff were really working hard for a good reputation...FI is definitely trying to improve the standard...
Water temp around 82 degrees.
Most diving by resort is either dives with coral around 25 to 30 feet deep or so, with wall dives in close proximity - so a 70' dive for start then come back along higher on wall and finish safety stop among coral.
Did manage to dive the Oddessy wreck on the other side of island, but it was done only when requested and seas were calm enough. Wreck site is 2 hr drive (slow and easy drive) by boat around west end and up around island. Starts in around 80' and goes to 110'. Fair to good visabililty. Starting coral growth, but still clean and vertical (as if floating on water instead of bottom) and in one piece. Good dive. Wreck has been there about 6 months and was a planned one. Nice BIG - 5 levels or so - freighter. The BEST part is that there is a table and 4 chairs on the stern side of the boat in around 85' of water - we brought plastic cups, sat down and took a few of what should be very memorable pictures!!
Staff at FI were great! Willie is an instructor there and gave us a specialty course for deep diver. Really competent instructor and felt very safe and secure doing deep dive (bottom sloped down at 135' but didn't seem that deep and there were things to see). Tulio was divemaster and Moses boat driver. Both went the extra mile to ensure that we saw lots of fish and wildlife on the reef. Fresh water, cups, fruit, and dry towels provided on boat with unlimited access to them anytime! Dives were up to expectations, clear water, fish, seahorses, dolphins, lobster, spider crabs, anemone shrimp (purple ones) anemonies, etc. Great diving!
There were some small (1" or so) nonstinging jelllyfish hovering at about 2 to 10' of water to go through on the West end and on the Oddessy, but not much on FI dive sites unless at night dive.
Night dive nothing much, saw one crab, one octopus, one spider crab, one shrimp, sleeping fish...but seas were rough and we did it at the CoCo View wall because boat couldn't go outside breakers.
BUGS were a problem - with 95% deet those suckers still managed to find places to get me! Whenever the wind stops, the mosquitos come out. I think the deet stopped the sand flies/no-see-ums though - no bites from them!!!
FI is renovating their rooms - not really much. Wood floors and some new fixtures, but not what I would call really renovated. Still full air conditioning and nicely appointed rooms though. Water main had broken during our stay and we had a full day and a half of either brown or not much or no water in our rooms, but housekeeping did what they could to provide bottled water for drinking/cleaning when it really was a problem (i.e. no water).
Very honest staff! I left my watch by the showers and my husband left his fins on the boat on separate days. Of course, they were happily either in lost-found or carefully watched over by the dive staff! Nothing was lost- despite what seemed our best efforts to lose these items...
Food was good and plentiful. Lobster night was (always is) on Friday and I had a few! Tons of deserts, fresh ice cream, fruit, etc. always available. Fresh made omlets, scrambled eggs, bacon, etc.. Do stay away from the poached eggs- they were sour. Over all, food was a pleasing experience.
Did you know that FI has its own local soccer team that plays other teams on Roatan? We had a chance to go to a local game and had a great time! Felt very safe among the locals and had a BLAST!
This is a good report and it was over Memorial Day weekend and there were all 5 boats running! (Last Dec there were only 3 boats). There was a big group from TX and a group from Mexico also there. Resort and dive op did well under these high capacity conditions. Dive shop also is bigger and they have separate video rooms, class rooms, etc. and they now offer classes in Rescue, etc. I felt that the staff were really working hard for a good reputation...FI is definitely trying to improve the standard...
