Welcome to ScubaBoard, an online scuba diving forum community where you can join over 205,000 divers from around the world discussing all things related to Scuba Diving. To gain full access to ScubaBoard (and make this large box go away) you must register for a free account. As a registered member you will be able to:
Participate in over 500 dive topic forums and browse from over 5,500,000 posts.
Communicate privately with other divers from around the world.
Post your own photos or view from well over 100,000 user submitted images.
Gain access to our free classifieds marketplace to buy, sell and trade gear, travel and services.
Use the calendar to organize your events and enroll in other members' events.
All this and much more is available to you absolutely free when you register for an account, so sign up today!
If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact the ScubaBoard Support Team.
Plantation Beach Resort in Cayos Cochinos, Bay Islands, Honduras, is starting the New Year with its’ first unique ScubaBoard giveaway contest. To prepare for another excellent season of diving, we want to give you our One Week Accommodation Package with Unlimited Diving ($1,349 value) for free!
What exactly are we are giving away?
One week (7 nights) accommodation package and unlimited diving at Plantation Beach Resort!
This accommodation package includes transportation to and from Cayos Cochinos, full accommodations with hot water showers, three meals per day, coffee, tea, filtered water, free Wifi, snorkeling equipment, all Honduran taxes and marine park entrance fee.
The Unlimited Diving package includes up to 3 boat dives per day on our 42 ft. custom dive boat, unlimited shore diving day or night, tanks, weights, and our Valet Dive Services (our dive team changes your gear before, during, and after every dive, cleans and stores your equipment).
To participate in this unique offer, answer one simple question, "Why should you be diving with us in Cayos Cochinos?"
Simply post your entries below to be entered in the contest. We will select our winner by popular vote based on originality, creativity, and need to dive. Comments and likes are appreciated in helping us come to a decision. Second place will be chosen by our Dive Team at PBR, and sent a free PBR t-shirt. Deadline to enter is January 31, and winners will be chosen on February 2.
For more information on the resort, the islands, and our wonderful diving, please visit our Website, Facebook page, or read our reviews on TripAdvisor. To speak with us directly, send us an e-mail at info@plantationbeachresort.com.
The contest allows one entry per person (but please feel free to like/comment on posts as much as you like). The winners will be eligible to stay with us anytime from February 2012-August 2012, excluding Easter Week. This offer does not include bar drinks, gift shop, rental equipment, nor gratuities.
We look forward to hearing from all of you, and good luck!
Experience 3 boat dives per day and Unlimited shore diving in the most pristine reefs in the Bay Islands.
Discover why Lonely Planet features Cayos Cochinos as one of the World's 10 Best Secret Islands. Plantation Beach Resort
What makes the perfect island? Having it all to yourself!
Out of the water and it feels like I'm drowning........
About 9 months ago I found myself in a dream. A dream that involved selling most of my worldly possessions, moving to a tropical destination and finishing my journey to become a SCUBA Instructor. It was a wonderful dream that was loaded with vastly improved diving skills and borderline sensory overload above and below the surface. A dream filled with international friends, mysterious foods and hypnotic sounds. A dream that many divers hope to have when they hang their gear up at night and a dream that one does not want to wake from.
4 months ago that dream ended and I found myself back in a stark, dreary and icy place. One that offers no hope of escape to the tropics I once danced and dove through in my dream world. A place with no water, no color. I lay here, gasping like a fish out of water and hoping to return to the sea that provided the life giving energy I became so addicted to in my dreamworld. I walk around in a zombie like state, hoping one day the dream may return even if only for a short time.
Please, I beg you......take out the hook and throw me back in.
It's kind of a long story, so it's probably best that I start at the end. That eagle ray owes me a beer.
The day started off well enough. I rolled out of bed, threw my hair into a pony tail and joined the other divers at breakfast. We sleepily chatted over our eggs. Eventually the coffee eased our eyes open and jostled our limbs back into action, enough to be able to punctuate the rest of the morning's stories with expressive hand gestures and to set up our gear without being the last one off the boat. After a couple of days of self-consciously getting my head back into the game of diving, it wasn't going to be me.
It had been four days since I'd arrived. I was traveling on my own, but it took barely a day of slithering in and out of neoprene and exchanging dive stories while ignoringthe mask-squeeze imprints on our facesto make everyone on the boat feel like lifelong friends. That, and tossing a coupla beers back from the very first night. Single traveler tip: I've learned that if you can quietly out-smart-ass the smartiest-ass of the group (aka Gary on this trip), the rest of the group will embrace you. (I'm not that big of a science-journal reader, but I understand this to be a rule across all species.) Anyway. Let's just say I really kicked it at Jenga that first night, in addition to the aforementioned smartiest-ass business.
So, back to the story. Blame it on the manager's welcome rum punch party on day 3. Rum hit me a little hard that many hours after lunch, that soon before dinner. Stepped up to a group of fellow divers, including Gary, in mid-conversation about marine reserves and their advantages, and something about plans to head to Cayos Cochinos next. No dummy to the conservation viewpoint (and definitely preaching to the converted in my case), I preoccupied myself with scanning the horizon for the traveling plate of hors d'oeuvres so I could line my empty belly with some scrumptious conch fritters. Damned if I barely got one mollusk in my mouth before Gary and the other divers descended on that plate and decimated it! Ah well, them's the breaks. So yeah...the conversation, a basic recap: marine reserves good, overfishing bad,less fishing good, encourage a healthier ecosystem,protect the fish, nurture the reefs, much quieter, less traffic, more fish, etc. Then there was some gushing about more to eat, fewer interlopers, and something about wishing they could get a hundred mollusks for every time an eagle ray gets blamed for jumping out of the water and "hitting" a boat motorist... (Hmm... don't quote me on that last bit - as I said, I was a little out of it because I was rummy and desperately hungry.) Since we were all besties by this point, I asked Gary if I could join them on their planned trip to Cayos Cochinos, and he shot me down. The rest of the group just embarrassedly looked away. Wow, that stung. So much for new friends. His gang continued to be friendly to me, but I couldn't help but wonder what was up with Gary...I thought we were cool.
Back to Day 4, post-breakfast, time for the morning dive. Determined to be first off the boat; no problem. Splash. Down. Hang motionless and look around to see who's in the office today. School of yellowtail snapper, handful of blue tangs, a lone black durgeon wandering past, a dark blue sergeant major darting around to defend his purple circle of future offspring. Poke my head closer to see if that tip-of-a-sponge-looking thing is an eel - nope, just a tip of a sponge that looks like an eel. Time passes, and I peer up at the underside of the boat. Still no other divers? Just like that: Splish-splash-splash-splish-splash. Their figures each hit and immediately dissolve in a cloud of bubbles. Just as quickly they reappear but disperse, giant drops of black ink morphing into... a black square, a rectangle...a diamond? The air bubbles suddenly produce beautiful white spots on their backs. I see Gary turn, his back a gorgeous pattern of white bubbles on a silky black plane, and his whole underbelly a solid white formed from the miniscule bubbly froth of his giant stride entry. His face nears mine. And I know this eagle ray before me is Gary, because he's looking at me and he's just smiling. I can't believe what I'm seeing; he's Gary but his face is also some Mighty Mouse version of Gary's. As this is happening, I find myself curiously calmed by the fact that I'm this astonished yet not hyperventilating at this impossible to cognitively reconcile sight. With the most focus and determination I have ever gathered in my underwater life, I fin closer to Gary and look him in the eye. I furrow my brow with a questioning look and shake my head with the simple question, "Whaa...??"
As they swam off into the blue in an elegant squadron formation, I kind of got it. But I also kind of didn't. Why couldn't I go, too? We got along well at breakfast, at the bar, on the dive boat; we were having a great time. Jenga is just a game. But off they went without me.
If it's OK, I'd like to check out this marine reserve at Cayos Cochinos and make sure Gary and I are still cool, even though I beat him at Jenga. Even though he and the others left without explaining why. Frankly, Gary, I don't want to be a jerk, but I think you owe me an explanation. And a beer...
Experience 3 boat dives per day and Unlimited shore diving in the most pristine reefs in the Bay Islands.
Discover why Lonely Planet features Cayos Cochinos as one of the World's 10 Best Secret Islands. Plantation Beach Resort
What makes the perfect island? Having it all to yourself!
Cause I'll dedicate my time at PBR to improving my UW Photography skills! It's difficult to practice UW Photography inside my bathtub when it's -10F outside and the nearest body of water is half-frozen and requires a dry-suit that costs more than my car.
20Likes
LinkBack URL
About LinkBacks
Win Free Diving Package in Cayos Cochinos!
Reply With Quote
This is weird -> 
