altaskier
Contributor
My wife and I are about to leave CoCo View at the end of our first visit here. It won't be our last! There are a lot of great trip reports on CoCo View here on Scubaboard, so I won't write a comprehensive trip report but instead make a few comments.
My wife had only done 4 dives since 2008 (and 14 before then), and then 2 in her new drysuit in Illinois the weekend before; CoCo View was a perfect place for her to build up her diving skills. She was a bit clumsy during our check-out/orientation dive on Saturday afternoon. She then took the nitrox course with Patti at the dive center, and Patti gave her some great tips on buoyancy control before and after the nitrox check-out dive. By the end of the first full day with 4 dives, she took off 4 pounds of lead (and could probably have taken off 2 more by the end of the week). The ease of the dives, and the great help from our divemaster (Ricardo/Gringo) and boat captain (Marco), made it really smooth for her to get comfortable with her diving. And of course we saw lots of fun things, including a hammerhead, toadfish, octopi, and lots of colorful reef fish, lobsters, squid, turtles, tiny shrimp, barracuda... It was a great week for both of us!
On Friday afternoon we took the Eco Tour with Tim Blanton, who runs the photo center at CoCo View (and who also helped me diagnose a problem with my camera setup). For us that was a much better choice than going to the shops that cater to the cruise boat visitors on the west end... Tim is a walking, entertaining encyclopedia on the natural and cultural history of Roatan, so we learned an awful lot about the local critters and also the changes he has seen on the island in the last 20 years. Our trip included a visit to the village of Oak Ridge where we had a relaxing, slow boat ride through the mangroves with Emerald and his great tuk-tuk boat. Very cool; Tim was great!
CoCo View is like a summer kids camp for divers. The diving is really good, and they make it about as easy as it can be. We had great fun making new friends, diving, and enjoying the relaxing ambience of the place.
My wife had only done 4 dives since 2008 (and 14 before then), and then 2 in her new drysuit in Illinois the weekend before; CoCo View was a perfect place for her to build up her diving skills. She was a bit clumsy during our check-out/orientation dive on Saturday afternoon. She then took the nitrox course with Patti at the dive center, and Patti gave her some great tips on buoyancy control before and after the nitrox check-out dive. By the end of the first full day with 4 dives, she took off 4 pounds of lead (and could probably have taken off 2 more by the end of the week). The ease of the dives, and the great help from our divemaster (Ricardo/Gringo) and boat captain (Marco), made it really smooth for her to get comfortable with her diving. And of course we saw lots of fun things, including a hammerhead, toadfish, octopi, and lots of colorful reef fish, lobsters, squid, turtles, tiny shrimp, barracuda... It was a great week for both of us!
On Friday afternoon we took the Eco Tour with Tim Blanton, who runs the photo center at CoCo View (and who also helped me diagnose a problem with my camera setup). For us that was a much better choice than going to the shops that cater to the cruise boat visitors on the west end... Tim is a walking, entertaining encyclopedia on the natural and cultural history of Roatan, so we learned an awful lot about the local critters and also the changes he has seen on the island in the last 20 years. Our trip included a visit to the village of Oak Ridge where we had a relaxing, slow boat ride through the mangroves with Emerald and his great tuk-tuk boat. Very cool; Tim was great!
CoCo View is like a summer kids camp for divers. The diving is really good, and they make it about as easy as it can be. We had great fun making new friends, diving, and enjoying the relaxing ambience of the place.
