Roatan, Bay Islands 04/29/06 - 05/06/06 trip report

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Hooked-Again

Contributor
Messages
110
Reaction score
0
Location
Colorado
# of dives
25 - 49
The direct flight from Denver to Houston and then from Houston to Roatan were great and uneventful. Our luggage arrived in tact and all together so we felt great about the beginning of our first "Dive Vacation". The hotel representatives were waiting for us at customs and were very helpful in getting our gear from the airport to the resort and our rooms without any mishaps.

The resort: We stayed at Anthony's Key Resort where we found the employees to be cheerful, very cordial and the check-in process was quick, informative and they provided a welcome "toddie" that made it almost painless. I found the resort to be excellent. They have about 55 bungalows some with AC and some without. We chose one without but I would suggest having AC. We lucked out and had nice cool trade winds for all but the last two days and I can tell you first hand that when the breeze stops it can get very warm. The accomodations were comfortable and cleaned every day. The Key has a new pool and bar for those who just want to lounge around and relax and the grounds were well kept up.
On the main island the resort premise includes the office, restuarant and bar with beautiful sunset viewing patio, gift shop, dive shop with gear storage, small snack store, photo shop with rentals, nitrox fill station, dive school, a clinic, and the hyperbolic chamber. The Roatan Institute for Marine Sciences is also located within walking distance. We had a nice variety of food offered at the dining room during the week.
Non-diving activities include sea kayaks, horse back riding on the beach, and the dolphin show and are included in the package. There is also west-end shopping and night life if you are inclined. A must-do IMO is the rain forest canopy tour (zip-line). This was great fun and an opportunity to see parrots and monkeys in the wild.

Dive Ops: Can't say enough good things about AKR's dive operation. You are assigned to a custom pro 42 or 48 dive boat manned by dive master and experienced captain. The DM and captain were very helpful assisting divers in and out of the water. The number of divers is limited to 8 to 10 per boat. They do have a brief buoyancy check before leaving on the first dive. The dive site briefings were good and the divers were allowed to dive their computers. Our boat had several instructors (on vacation) and everyone was diving nitrox. My wife and I were the novices of the group and really appreciated all the assistance and tips given to us by all the other divers as well as the dive master. It made our first dive vacation an outstanding experience. Your gear can be stored on the dock in AKR's gear room that is locked each night. This is very convenient. We took our regulators and computers with us to our bungalow each night but many did not. We never heard of any gear disappearing. For nitrox divers, there are two nitrogen analyzers set up and you analyze and record information on your own tanks. I had my own analyzer to check tanks, and found their equipment accurate so I put mine away.

Dives: 3 dives per day -- 8:30, 10:30 and 2:30 -- four on Tuesday and Thursday when night dives are offered. The air temp was between 80-84 degrees and the water temp was between 80 and 82 degrees. Visibility was between 80 to 100 feet. Most sites were a short 5 or 10 minute boat ride, with the exception of Mary's Place when we spent 45 minutes on the boat. A shore dive location was available, but we didn't take advantage of it nor did we dive on their plane at 35 feet in the bay. We typically had such good dives during the day we didn't dive the extra sites!

1) Green Out House Wall was a 55 foot dive with a variety of fish on the wall. Large grouper, gorgeous sponges.
2) Peter's Place was 75-80 foot dive with stronger currents. The wind came up and the surface was choppy. We saw a large sea turtle, crab, and the ever-present grouper.
3) Fish Hole #12 was a 90 foot dive. Lots of blue wrasse and yellowtail snappers. We found a nice big conch and saw shrimp. The blue wrasse coming down the reef wall resembled a waterfall of blue fish.
4) Herbie's Place was a 55 foot dive. Saw turtles, beautiful coral and sponge. Nice variety of fish -- puffer fish.
5) Mary's Place was to 115 feet. It is a verticle fissure cut deep into the wall. Bright colors and beautiful black coral.
6) Blue Channel dive was 60 feet and saw turtles, puffers, frog fish, and colorful sponges and coral on the wall.
7) Mike's Place was our only night dive to 50 foot. Saw lobster and a baby octopus.
8) El Aguila was the first wreck dive to 110 feet. Saw morays, garden eels, big grouper and a big parrot fish -- one large sea cucumber.
9) Four Sponges was an 83 foot drift dive. Saw big groupers, large barracuda named Angelina (who hangs around looking for a treat). Nice school of fish.
10) Wreck dive on Odyssey to 110 feet. Relatively new wreck that is starting to develop into a living reef. The Odyssey is a 300 foot cargo ship, and we saw a small barracuda, shrimp, sea cucumber and eel garden -- then we swam to the wall and up.
11) Melissa's place was a shallow reef with a wall drop off. We saw lobster, grouper and lots of colorful corral. Parrot fish.
12) Gibson's Bight was a 57 foot dive. Saw coral and sponges, frog fish.
Favorite dives: El Aguila, Blue Channel, Mary's Place, Fish Hole #12, and Herbie's Place.

Our trip home was long, fairly uneventful. Our luggage was delayed -- it arrived Monday at 6 a.m. at our doorstep. Our plane was 30 minutes late leaving Roatan, so we almost missed our connecting flight to Denver (thus the delayed luggage).

All in all, an excellent first dive vacation and we would not hesitate to return to AKR.
The only negative I found on Roatan was the dreaded "no-see-ums". My wife and I were blessed by the bug Gods and didn't get bit. Most of the other guests we noticed did have a lot of bites. We don't know why we were so lucky, we used deet like everybody else and that was all. I would not bypass the great diving we experienced just because of a few bug bites.

GREAT DIVING
 
Sounds like you had a great time. Doesn't this belong in the Central America thread?
 
It does, even though RoatanMan calls CCV his favorite "caribbean resort".
 
Thanks for the Report! I'm leaving Friday night from LAX arriving at FIBR on the 20th. I want to do a beach dive the MINUTE we arrive!!! I'm not anxious, am I? Last year, I went to Coz, and while awaiting the arrival of the rest of my group, I did a beach dive off the resort there and had a wonderful time.
 
Diver_Jan:
Thanks for the Report! I'm leaving Friday night from LAX arriving at FIBR on the 20th. I want to do a beach dive the MINUTE we arrive!!! I'm not anxious, am I? Last year, I went to Coz, and while awaiting the arrival of the rest of my group, I did a beach dive off the resort there and had a wonderful time.


Jan, If you weren't just a little anxious, I would be a little worried about you. I know you will have a great time. We found the diving excellent. If you get a chance try and dive at least once on the west side. Enjoy! Enjoy! Enjoy!
 
E_mcSCOW:
Sounds like you had a great time. Doesn't this belong in the Central America thread?


Of course you are right. Silly me, just because they are islands in the caribbean sea doesn't make them "caribbean islands". Perhaps a moderator can move this to the Central America thread for me.

thanks for the heads up.
 
Hooked-Again:
Of course you are right. Silly me, just because they are islands in the caribbean sea doesn't make them "caribbean islands". Perhaps a moderator can move this to the Central America thread for me.

thanks for the heads up.

Can't say that I understand why they divided it up the way they do. I think I would have a Pacific Central America and a Caribbean but that's why I don't make the big bucks :wink:
 
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