Trip Report Roatan West End Feb 4-10
Just finished up my week of diving with Coconut Tree Divers & Tec Dive training with Monty Grahm and the Roatan Tec Team
(insert well earned plug here…
Roatan Tec Team - Caribbean Sidemount Diving
PADI Divemaster and Instructor internship Roatan Bay Islands Honduras
Scuba Diving | PADI 5 Star Instructor Development Center | Roatan, Bay Islands
Had a blast. Here are some of the details and my impressions should they be beneficial to someone in the future.
Flight to Roatan...ugh. I covered this in a previous post but suffice to say Pensacola-->Miami-->Washington DC-->San Salvador-->Roatan isn't the most efficient way to travel, but it got me there in only 28 hrs and despite the delay the folks in Roatan were more than accommodating to me despite my hiccup in travel. The airport in San Salvador is actually quite nice and the country side we flew over looked beautiful. The flight from DC to San Salvador & on to Roatan was via TACA and I must say that they were quite nice & pleasant. I even got free meals on all flights with them which was better than what I got on American. C'mon pancakes at 4 am...awesome flight food. I would have no problems flying TACA again in the future, they were especially caring given my lack of Spanish speaking abilities. Of all the airports visited, the Roatan departure was my least favorite. No working screens in the waiting area and the PA system was not the best. You really have to be on your game when departing not to get left behind, or perhaps they just don’t have two departing flights at the same time. Nonetheless I made it out of there fine. Don’t forget that $40 departure tax though.
Accommodations
I stayed at Coconut Tree Cabins (cabin #3 to be exact). I was met by reception and later Mr. Bush the owner who personally helped me with my bags across the street to the cabins. He's a very friendly guy, who on my second to last day stopped by as I was chilling in the hammock on the front porch to see if I needed anything or wanted a cold beer. Very friendly guy. Also, since I booked a Monday night stay but was late they didn't charge me for it. In the states at my local Holiday Inn I would have been charged no doubt. They either forgot or let it slide, anyway I didn't end up paying for the night I wasn't there.
For $45 a night cash I got everything I needed. Honestly, I'm a bit more adventurous than most and since I was a single traveller I could have handled a much more rustic accomodation but the price was right and the location can't be beat. Only Cabins 1 or 2 maybe would have some kind of view of Half Moon bay but who cares really. Your best bet is to stroll down to Sundowners or Lands End (or nearly any bar/restaraunt on the water) for a sunset view. Honestly I didn't do much more than sleep in my room. It's no 5 star Holiday Inn, nor does it intend to be, but two double beds a working shower, toilet, bathroom, small fridge, coffee pot and local TV was more than sufficient. The AC blew cold and when I had trouble with it freezing up they fixed it the next day. Strangely there was no way to adjust the temperature without popping the cover off and doing it manually. I probably have a photo or video of the room and can share it via email if requested.
Situated right on "Grand Central Station, West End Roatan" (tongue in cheek) Coconut tree cabins is indeed right in the middle of things. You will hear the road traffic until it settles down, but honestly I was so tired after being dived out it wasn't an issue. Seems like everything from taxis to dogs barking start just after sunrise, and the taxis & folks in the street mull about past dark. But again not a big issue and no complaints here just an honest observation. If you want really quiet accomodations seek something down the road and possibly off the beaten path. But location being everything this location was indeed close to just about everything. I could probably throw a ball and hit the dive shop and my fav breakfast place "Yahongreah" at Native Sons Divers.
Diving & Dive training
The plan was to do my Sidemount Training and the PADI Tec 40 TecRec course which is essentially advanced nitrox & deco procedures and into into tech. The course "certifies" you to dive doubles up to 130 ft with up to 10 min deco and use of up to 50% O2 for accelerated decompression. I'm looking forward to returning for Tec 45 & 50 and maybe even Trimix. I strongly recommend doing this dive training in the Caribbean. It really simplifies this next step in your dive training and what better venue than beautiful walls, narrow cracks & crevices and the warm water of the Caribbean. Be warned though that if you go this route it is highly recommended that you get additional training before you jump to zero viz, cold, dark diving of equivalent depth & logistics. I must commend Monty & Coconut Tree for the safety & logistics that goes behind the scenes of "tec" diving with them. They had my DAN card on file and the captain knew our run times & expected depths. There were DM's on the boat ready with the O2 if needed. Furthermore depending on the dive site and nature of emergency the Captain knew if it was bettter to haul ass straight to the chamber or back to Half Moon bay depending on the emergency (should it arise).
Monty was super accommodating with my course. I was supposed to start at 9 am on Tuesday but didn't arrive until about lunch time. He was very kind in starting me that afternoon with the Sidemount training. For the next day and a half he had me going through the paces with S drills, valve shut downs, buddy breathing and all of the sidemount skills. We even did peak performance buoyancy "sidemount style" which included swimming under the dock, through a narrow rope obsticle course doing so belly down, upside down sideways and every way else. Pretty cool but personally I thought he was just showing off his buoyancy skills hahaha. But when an instructor can teach you the in’s and outs of frog kicks including the dreaded back fin kick, he’s got the skill.
On the second day we did more confined dives and a few open water dives at the end of which I was pretty dialed in on my buoyancy, safety drills. He even demonstrated how to really take advantage of sidemount diving by leading me through some swim through caverns at "Hole in the wall" where sidemount is really beneficial doing so with one tank out front, and using the finning techniques he taught me. Here's a link to some video. Pretty cool
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dv_jNCtbDGA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEUqsrzwjbY
After finishing up my Sidemount training I did a night dive that was pretty cool. We dove Blue Channel that night. Toby led the group. He's an outstanding DM skilled at catering to the most advanced and novice divers on the boat, “touch with your heart not your hands”. We saw all sorts of things including the dreaded lion fish to octopus and other cool stuff. At one point we all turned off our lights and waved our hands around to see the biolumeniscence -- pretty cool. The official stats were something like 43 ft max depth for 53 min. Most importantly the night dives were done safely with a DM in front and a DM in back of the group. Looks like the night dives are $45 w/ gear and $40 without while the regular dives are $35/30 w/wo gear.
Thurs-Saturday were my Tec training days with class room work 9-11 and afternoon training dives. The open water training dives started out in shallow sandy patches of reef and progressed to the grand finally of Hole in the Wall at 130 ft. I didn't keep real stats or locations for the training dives but the grand finally was Hole in the wall @ 130 ft for 57 min which included a nice & easy ascent & accelerated deco back to the boat. Although this was our "Tec" deco dive we extended the deco further padding the safety margin and making for a really nice & safe dive.
Overall, the diving was great. Coconut Tree has a large spacious efficient boat and load varied from full to basically just us depending on the day & time. I don't recall the dive sites for the "training dives" other than the swim throughs at Hole in the Wall but on the last day we did Tabyanas @ 60 ft for 60 min and Turtle crossing @ 77 ft for 57 min. I did both of these fun dives on Sidemount which was quite fun.
Everyone I met down there were great. PJ & Gay, the owners of Coconut Tree were ever pleasant and helpful folks. Be warned, this is a busy dive shop but they have everything you need from a locker to store your gear for the duration of your trip, to rinse tanks & a cold arse shower to use after your dive. They do alot of training here through this shop so there are always tons of DMT's and instructors around. I'd definitely recommend these guys for any training from Discover Scuba to IDC, to TEc courses with Monty.
One last shout out for Monty. I found him to be a very good instructor and really enjoyed hearing about other Tec dives he's done on the island or his former career in commercial diving. Real world practicality can help you better understand if Tec diving is for you. He even recalled a story where a fellow bowed out of his course on the first day after getting a better understanding of what's involved in this level of diving. Should you dive with him spend a little time discussing your gear and what he has to offer for use during your course. I took my own regs set up for sidemount, the wrong fins and a set of deco regs I didn't touch and a TransPac BC that really didn't work in sidemount. If I had it to do over, I would have brought only my regs, mask(s), 1 ml wetsuit (for the 80-82 deg water in February...), cutting device, Shearwater Petrel computer, and that's about it. He lent me a pair of fins since my split fins just didn't cut it (you really need proper fins to perfect the finning techniques he teaches). Also, just use one of his X-deep sidemount rigs unless you already have your own setup. For the fun dives I did outside of the course he let me use the sidemount rig which made for a fun, relaxing & safe dive.
Nightlife, food & Misc
This is a 3rd world country not Key West, but hey you wouldn't expect otherwise. West End road is now paved but a bit dusty in places. You don't need a car, in fact there's no place to park it anyway. Besides the drive to & from the airport should convince you that you want nothing to do with driving in Roatan. It's a bit crazy and driving any more than necessary is certainly more dangerous than even the most extensive tec diving around. The cab ride from the Airport to West end is $20 each way. Maybe next time I'll pick another side of the island to stay on or explore beyond West End but I was busy enough on my short 6 nights there.
Food -- The baleadas (bah-lee-ah-das) at Cindy's next to Coconut tree were cheap and delicious. These are basically tortilla sandwiches and quite tasty. I ended up eating at "Yahongreah" a small (tiny) place next to Native Divers across from Sundowners most mornings for breakfast. They had the best Honduran coffee!! Really awesome. Very little English and be sure to bring Limps or small bills out of courtesy to them.
My best big meal was at the Thai place where I had the best Pad Thai I've ever had. The food at Sundowners is good pub grub style. I had the chicken sandwich & fries. The food at Coconut Tree Restaurant was OK too but I wasn't feeling well that night. One day for lunch one of the DMT's went to Cafe Escondito for the "diver special" which was curried chicken enchilads that day. Awesome, tasty, filling and for only 100 limps.
As far as nightlife goes, I didn't venture out too much except Saturday night after my course was done. Beers at Sundowners is good. I can also recommend the cocktails at Lands End, literally at the end of the dirt road past Sundowners. Their stove was broken due to a missing part & delivery issues but the cocktails were good and there was a live band later that night.
As far as safety goes, use your head. I travelled in highly trafficked areas at hours when lots of people are around. I didn't feel unsafe at all and would rather walk the streets of West End at night than a desolate run downtown area stateside.
I did the whole trip with cash using my Amex only once. There was no safe in my room but I was creative in terms of protecting my money & hot blingy items like an expensive dive computer. Bring small bills, 1's, 5's & 10's. You'll get some change in Limps and some in dollars depending where you go. I didn't see any real reason to get a ton of Limps anyway since I had enough dollars in small bills. I personally observed at least 1 non-working ATM there so assume ATM’s will be hit or miss. There were some places that handled Limps better than dollars but I just kind of segregated my change and used what made sense for the establishment. Depending on the location cash was always king and credit cards often garnered a 16% “tax”. At Coconut Tree you could use your card for +16% or PayPal for +%5.
There are probably local & gringo prices all over but I didn't see any real issues. I do think that sometimes they may round in their favor (slightly) when converting prices from Limps to Dollars but things are pretty cheap compared to your local Applebees.
Links to my raw un-edited videos on my Youtube page are listed above. When I get some time I’ll edit the video of the deep dive and some of the fun dives.
I can't wait for my next trip down to Roatan !!!
