After reviewing and naming the 400+ photos I took in Roatan I'm ready to submit the customary dive trip report. We booked airfare on Delta through Atlanta. No delays and luggage arrived safely. We arrived in Roatan Sept 18 and completed 16 dives from 19-23. 3 dives per day plus 1 night dive. One dive was made on the southside of the island at an area called "Mary's place" and all the rest were on the northwest side near Sandy Bay and West End. Two of the northside dives were wreck dives around 100 fsw. Water temp was a constant 86 F, even at depth. We wore 1.5mm fullsuits mainly for protection and had no issues with it. Nitrox is available but we stayed well within NDL with long dives using AIR the entire week. We were planning on 20 dives but 1 night dive and 3 day dives were scratched due to tropical storm Mathew chasing us off the island and back home 1 day early. Other than that the trip was fabulous. Thankfully for the islanders the storm didn't amount to much but better safe than having it be a full-blown hurricane with us stranded on the island for days while roads are cleared.
Roatan can be flown to directly from several US airports and is comparable to Cozumel for underwater terrain and species of coral and fish. They are both part of the same barrier reef (2nd largest in the world). The coral was in good condition with lots of fully grown soft coral not currently seen in Cozumel due to past hurricane damage. The deep vertical wall formations gently sloping into the blue abyss and the intermediate depth sandy channels separating coral mounds like fingers made me feel at home since the same is found in Cozumel and we have been diving there annually since 2005.
The variety and amount of critters was greater than we've seen in Cozumel. That's why it took me over a week to go through all the photos to find the better shots. Things we saw here but never in Cozumel include juvenile Spotted Drum, Banded Coral Shrimp, Prawns, Rockfish, adult Seahorses, and Fairy Basslets. Not that they can't be found in Cozumel, you just have to look longer and in more places to find them. Peg and I were both surprised that we didn't see a single shark of any variety in Roatan. Maybe it's due to the large number of Bottlenose Porpoise in the area but that's only a guess. It's not prime season for Whale Shark migration so we didn't see them either. We caught only fleeting glimpses of Spotted Eagle Rays in the distance. No sightings of Manta Rays.
The resort we stayed at, Anthony's Key, was very nice. We booked a buy one, get one half price deal which made the total trip cost reasonable. An all inclusive resort, 3 meals a day were included. Full American style breakfast and choice of varied surf or turf for both lunch and dinner each day. All meals were freshly prepared and served by waiters. Included drinks are 24 hour Honduran coffee, juices, iced tea and tap water. Alcohol, sodas and bottled water are available at reasonable prices. The resort purifies its own tap water for safe drinking and bathing.
The dive shop at Anthony's does a splendid job of keeping the dive schedule running smoothly. The personal lockers used for storing wet gear overnight worked fine. They were running 5 boats daily for the day dives and combined divers from several boats onto 3 for night dives since all divers didn't do the night dive. All in all they have the process down pat. Rooms are either on the hillside of the main island of Roatan or across a narrow channel on the resort's private key (island). We had a key room with A/C. I highly suggest getting a room with A/C, otherwise the humidity will make sleeping uncomfortable. Day temp 90, night temp 80. Access to/from the key was by 24 hour small boat shuttle. The resort offers WIFI internet which was accessable from our key room using our laptop, $25.00 for 168 hours of high bandwidth access. We live streamed a college football game on channelsurfing.net the night we arrived. US dollars are accepted island-wide and all major credit cards are accepted for resort incidental expenses which can be put on the room tab during the week. Tips are given at the end of the week to resort staff of your choosing.
We would definitely return to Roatan to dive again. We would stay at Anthony's Key again if we could book another discounted rate which they offer periodically. During hurricane season we highly recommend trip insurance. We bought insurance for this trip (the first time we have ever bought it) and are glad we did. We had to cancel our Delta Saturday return flight and book a Friday flight on TACA airline through El Salvador to Dulles. We were very surprised to see TACA feed us dinner as part of the fare price, and free booze too. Their planes are in as good or better condition as US carriers. All luggage arrived home safely. We are filing a trip insurance claim for the added airfare and rental car expense due to the tropical storm evacuation from the resort, causing our early departure and return trip rescheduling. The resort provided us with a letter confirming our evacuation for insurance submission.
Perhaps I'll add some photos from this trip to my SB gallery, but for now I'll send this report without photos.
Roatan can be flown to directly from several US airports and is comparable to Cozumel for underwater terrain and species of coral and fish. They are both part of the same barrier reef (2nd largest in the world). The coral was in good condition with lots of fully grown soft coral not currently seen in Cozumel due to past hurricane damage. The deep vertical wall formations gently sloping into the blue abyss and the intermediate depth sandy channels separating coral mounds like fingers made me feel at home since the same is found in Cozumel and we have been diving there annually since 2005.
The variety and amount of critters was greater than we've seen in Cozumel. That's why it took me over a week to go through all the photos to find the better shots. Things we saw here but never in Cozumel include juvenile Spotted Drum, Banded Coral Shrimp, Prawns, Rockfish, adult Seahorses, and Fairy Basslets. Not that they can't be found in Cozumel, you just have to look longer and in more places to find them. Peg and I were both surprised that we didn't see a single shark of any variety in Roatan. Maybe it's due to the large number of Bottlenose Porpoise in the area but that's only a guess. It's not prime season for Whale Shark migration so we didn't see them either. We caught only fleeting glimpses of Spotted Eagle Rays in the distance. No sightings of Manta Rays.
The resort we stayed at, Anthony's Key, was very nice. We booked a buy one, get one half price deal which made the total trip cost reasonable. An all inclusive resort, 3 meals a day were included. Full American style breakfast and choice of varied surf or turf for both lunch and dinner each day. All meals were freshly prepared and served by waiters. Included drinks are 24 hour Honduran coffee, juices, iced tea and tap water. Alcohol, sodas and bottled water are available at reasonable prices. The resort purifies its own tap water for safe drinking and bathing.
The dive shop at Anthony's does a splendid job of keeping the dive schedule running smoothly. The personal lockers used for storing wet gear overnight worked fine. They were running 5 boats daily for the day dives and combined divers from several boats onto 3 for night dives since all divers didn't do the night dive. All in all they have the process down pat. Rooms are either on the hillside of the main island of Roatan or across a narrow channel on the resort's private key (island). We had a key room with A/C. I highly suggest getting a room with A/C, otherwise the humidity will make sleeping uncomfortable. Day temp 90, night temp 80. Access to/from the key was by 24 hour small boat shuttle. The resort offers WIFI internet which was accessable from our key room using our laptop, $25.00 for 168 hours of high bandwidth access. We live streamed a college football game on channelsurfing.net the night we arrived. US dollars are accepted island-wide and all major credit cards are accepted for resort incidental expenses which can be put on the room tab during the week. Tips are given at the end of the week to resort staff of your choosing.
We would definitely return to Roatan to dive again. We would stay at Anthony's Key again if we could book another discounted rate which they offer periodically. During hurricane season we highly recommend trip insurance. We bought insurance for this trip (the first time we have ever bought it) and are glad we did. We had to cancel our Delta Saturday return flight and book a Friday flight on TACA airline through El Salvador to Dulles. We were very surprised to see TACA feed us dinner as part of the fare price, and free booze too. Their planes are in as good or better condition as US carriers. All luggage arrived home safely. We are filing a trip insurance claim for the added airfare and rental car expense due to the tropical storm evacuation from the resort, causing our early departure and return trip rescheduling. The resort provided us with a letter confirming our evacuation for insurance submission.
Perhaps I'll add some photos from this trip to my SB gallery, but for now I'll send this report without photos.
