I just returned from Roatan and thought I would make a little report. The trip was awesome. We were actually there to close on our new condo and form a SA corp to hold the Condo and did some diving as well.
The first three days were a steady rain and Viz was terrible. We decided to sight see instead of dive and visited Punta Gorda, Jonesville, French Harbor, Oak Ridge, West Bay and West End. Every where you go in Roatan the people are great and so nice. French Harbor was a little tense. There was a huge fire that gutted the center of town and the politics are pretty crooked. Nothing has been rebuilt and the people are really upset. This is the second time, or so I was told, that this area has burned. There are over 100 homeless people and things are a little tense. I guess there have been a few riots and I felt somewhat uncomfortable when driving through town. Once in the restaurants I was comfortable. If you get there, eat at Romeos and Gios, Great food and wonderful views. I never felt threatened just uncomfortable. You could feel the tension.
Before we left we started treatment with chloroquine. All went well for the first two weeks but this third week is really turning my guts. If it werent that I knew several people in Roatan that have had Malaria and been treated I would forego the treatments but I am a mosquito magnet so I opted for the drugs. Even with Deet I suffered about 30 bites. I did a lot of hiking and that didnt help matters. Malaria treatment/prevension is not fun but worth it in the long run. My wife has had no effect at all from the medication so I guess its hit and miss.
The diving turned out to be awesome after the third day. The skies cleared and the water turn glass flat! This was my third trip to Roatan and I really enjoy the dives there. I usually dive with either Subway in Barefoot Cay on the south shore or Tylls in west end. This trip was my first dive on El Aguila and it was so cool. El Aguila is a wreck just off coast from AKR and sits in about 130 FSW. We did a 20 minute penetration dive at 110 and paid some planned decompression. The dive was so outstanding that it ranked with my top 5. The deep mooring was gone so we just jumped into blue water and as we started down the ship appeared and its massive size gave me shivers! The mast or crows nest was sticking up out of the blue and we circled around it on our way down. My camera wouldnt work so the only pictures I have are what my wife took and those are few. She was in awe and forgot to take many shots. Its a fairly safe wreck, as wrecks go, with many exits so there was always usually an exit in sight. As I said, we planned for some decompression and planned the dive to 120 feet for 20 minutes and never went below 108. We just stuck with the plan as it was the conservative choice and it turned out great.
I dove with two computers. I aquired a new Dive Rite Nitek He and this was the third dive with it. I also used my Atom 1. I was completely blown away with the difference between these two computers. The Nitek is MUCH more conservative. When the Nitek went into DECO mode, the Atom was still reporting 4 minutes of time before NDL. I was floored. I watched and several dives and the difference was staggering. Sometimes the Nitek would be reporting 5 minutes and the Atom was reporting 37 minutes NDL
The Nitek handled the DECO wonderfully although we used tables from V-Planner as the guide.
Below are links to the dive photos I took!
http://www.kona-aloha.com/photos/Roatan_Dec_2006
Enjoy!
Scooter
The first three days were a steady rain and Viz was terrible. We decided to sight see instead of dive and visited Punta Gorda, Jonesville, French Harbor, Oak Ridge, West Bay and West End. Every where you go in Roatan the people are great and so nice. French Harbor was a little tense. There was a huge fire that gutted the center of town and the politics are pretty crooked. Nothing has been rebuilt and the people are really upset. This is the second time, or so I was told, that this area has burned. There are over 100 homeless people and things are a little tense. I guess there have been a few riots and I felt somewhat uncomfortable when driving through town. Once in the restaurants I was comfortable. If you get there, eat at Romeos and Gios, Great food and wonderful views. I never felt threatened just uncomfortable. You could feel the tension.
Before we left we started treatment with chloroquine. All went well for the first two weeks but this third week is really turning my guts. If it werent that I knew several people in Roatan that have had Malaria and been treated I would forego the treatments but I am a mosquito magnet so I opted for the drugs. Even with Deet I suffered about 30 bites. I did a lot of hiking and that didnt help matters. Malaria treatment/prevension is not fun but worth it in the long run. My wife has had no effect at all from the medication so I guess its hit and miss.
The diving turned out to be awesome after the third day. The skies cleared and the water turn glass flat! This was my third trip to Roatan and I really enjoy the dives there. I usually dive with either Subway in Barefoot Cay on the south shore or Tylls in west end. This trip was my first dive on El Aguila and it was so cool. El Aguila is a wreck just off coast from AKR and sits in about 130 FSW. We did a 20 minute penetration dive at 110 and paid some planned decompression. The dive was so outstanding that it ranked with my top 5. The deep mooring was gone so we just jumped into blue water and as we started down the ship appeared and its massive size gave me shivers! The mast or crows nest was sticking up out of the blue and we circled around it on our way down. My camera wouldnt work so the only pictures I have are what my wife took and those are few. She was in awe and forgot to take many shots. Its a fairly safe wreck, as wrecks go, with many exits so there was always usually an exit in sight. As I said, we planned for some decompression and planned the dive to 120 feet for 20 minutes and never went below 108. We just stuck with the plan as it was the conservative choice and it turned out great.
I dove with two computers. I aquired a new Dive Rite Nitek He and this was the third dive with it. I also used my Atom 1. I was completely blown away with the difference between these two computers. The Nitek is MUCH more conservative. When the Nitek went into DECO mode, the Atom was still reporting 4 minutes of time before NDL. I was floored. I watched and several dives and the difference was staggering. Sometimes the Nitek would be reporting 5 minutes and the Atom was reporting 37 minutes NDL
The Nitek handled the DECO wonderfully although we used tables from V-Planner as the guide.
Below are links to the dive photos I took!
http://www.kona-aloha.com/photos/Roatan_Dec_2006
Enjoy!
Scooter
