Well they had to drag us out kicking and screaming. It was certainly a sad day when we left. However with the pending hurricane we were also glad to get off the ground. I wouldn’t mind being stuck at Fantasy Island, but spending a few days at the airport would not have been fun. The pilot informed us that if our flight had been a few hours later, we would have been spending a couple more days there.
As you know Roatan has received a lot of rain recently. As we were flying in you could see huge sheets of mud run off. I guess I didn’t know that the island was made up of that much dirt as opposed to sand or coral like say Bonaire. When we got settled in we took a walk to the gazebo and were very disappointed by the look of the water. But fortunately the run off didn’t affect the boat dive sites. When we did the Mr Bud there was some mud on the surface, but the dive was great and very clear. The vis might be a little down from it’s normal but I would say that most sites were in the 80’ category. This being our first trip here, I can’t judge what normal might be.
Snagle and I did a shore dive early in the week to the Prince Albert, and the vis from the Gazebo was nothing less than horrible. Keep in mind that we mainly dive lakes and quarries, so when we say the vis is bad, it’s real bad. We crawled across the bottom in about 2’ of vis, got lost a few times, and then finely found the wreck. Down at the wreck the vis was very good, probably about normal for the site. We of course got lost on the way back too. Later in the week we did the dive again and the vis was much better. The mud seems to settle fairly quickly.
We enjoyed all the boat dives, but I found Mary’s place, Mr Bud, and Doc’s dive to be very memorable. Our dive master was very good, I believe is name was Dary, or something like that. The huge walls and canyons at most of the dive sites were very cool.
Everyone at the resort was very nice to us. I enjoyed the food, but I can see why some people are a little critical. I’m easy to please when it comes to food, and I didn’t have any trouble gaining a couple pounds on the trip.
When we first arrived there was no running water at all. That was a little concerning for us, and helped to add to the 3rd world feel for the place. They quickly got it going. It ran a little murky for a while but soon was fine. I heard someone else mention the one pitcher of drinking water a day was not enough, and I fully agree. I would suggest that each room have a drinking water dispenser with a 5 gallon jug.
I loved the monkeys, but I guess they lost a little charm through the week as they made it impossible to leave anything on the balcony. We did get some good pictures and video of them. We saw one running through the trees with some ones scuba mask. When he dropped it we were able to retrieve it and return it to its owner.
So far no one from our group got Malaria or Dysentery although I did get some water in my mouth while taking a shower once (forgot the sock trick). One odd thing about the rooms was the window between the bathroom and the balcony. Although frosted there was a lack of privacy. We were in rooms 200 and 201.
All in all we had a great time. We will be posting pictures and video sometime soon. Probably pictures will come first. Video will take some time editing.
I was exaggerating a little, there is still plenty of food and fun, so anybody going soon will have a great time!
But then again, if it tickles your/ or anybodies fancy, why not I guess..
