Jack Scuba
Contributor
First off sorry about the delay in posting. It has been a very hectic few weeks!
I feel that if I don't put this down now I will procrastinate and never put it up.
We stayed at Turquoise Bay Resort on the North East side of Roatan from April 26th until May 1st, then went to Utila's Utopia Dive Village from May 1st to May 8th. Then we returned to TB for our departure on Monday, May 10th.
Turquoise Bay Resort.
My expectations were low for this place as the reviews were a mixed bag. That being said they were a friendly bunch although not the most organized. When we arrived there were only 2 other couples out of a possible 26 rooms. The rooms were really clean and there was never an issue with having hot water - bonus! The food was passable as long as it wasn't the buffet. There were 4 pasta dishes, 4 red meat dishes, some fish dishes. Sides were steamed veggies, rice, potato or fries, with lunch and supper. I was never hungry and they also knew how to make a stiff drink. No complaints on that front! Although if you're a picky eater, or you don't like ordering the same types of food it would get boring really quick! Oh, and avoid the burgers - the ground meat was 'different'. There was a large enough gap between the morning and afternoon dive that you could eat lunch and not feel rushed - but to be honest it was vacation so most of the time I just napped in the afternoon.
We dove the entire week with 3 other guests - the rest of the boat was filled with DM/instructor candidates. The 'professionals' did their own profile and usually went elsewhere so I didn't see them during the dive. The boat itself seemed to have issues with a diesel leak and caused me no end of problems. I am prone to seasickness and diesel fumes don't exactly put me in my happy place. On two occasions I broke the surface of the water and got a film of diesel in my mouth. After that I would remove my fins 2 feet below the surface and then climb the ladder. When asked about the problem they said it was just in the bilge - but the quantity of the slick said otherwise. Either way it was fixed by the end of the week.
Staff at Subway Scuba were really nice and took to their roles well. Our DM was a guide and pointed out things when he saw them. At one point we missed a landmark and he was visibly confused about where he was. If I was a new diver I would have felt uncomfortable, but as it was I enjoyed the dive other than having a small barracuda follow me for a while (he was attracted by the dangling brass clip on my camera - oops!). He apologized, which was unneeded, and then during the SI we found a pod of dolphins so any disappointment quickly evaporated.
On every dive we saw lots of life, but we almost always saw hand-liners or spear-fishermen in the water. Seems very, very short sighted to me. But I am not struggling to feed a family either. I understand this to be illegal, but there is no funding for enforcement. If it doesn't change soon there won't be much left.
We did 2 dives in the morning and then a night dive mid week. The most enjoyable part for me was the Aquila wreck and Starfish channel.
My dive buddy has only dove in Nova Scotia so it was also fun watching him do his first tropical dives. And with that in mind I should mention our night dive.
Him: "it has been so warm I am going to do this dive with just my shirt"
Me: "Well are you at least going to wear a hood."
Him: "nah, it will be fine."
Me (while chuckling): "Ok then..."
20 minutes into the dive he starts poking at his neck. I shine the light and figure it is the BCD rubbing his neck causing irritation and give the universal shrug of "you got me". We keep swimming and after he gets the guide to take a look - which also doesn't help. My buddy wants to thumb the dive so we head back to the mooring and during our safety stop play with the bio-luminescence. At this point I am thinking he's just uncomfortable but we've dove together enough that if he's thumbing a dive it has to be something important. Once we're on the boat he strips down and I can see where the jellyfish has stung his neck, then travelled inside his shirt and stung his back. The captain pours vinegar on his neck and along his back then tells him to suck it up. Not a huge deal and we're laughing about 'told you so moment'. Then everyone else starts coming to the surface and excluding 1 other diver everyone has gotten stung - the worst is a french diver who took it on the lips and cheeks. Ouch!
Not sure how I got away with no stings in my hood, rashguard and shorts.
Fish live didn't seem too diverse in the spots we went to. There was lots of it, but it wasn't too diverse. This was the exact opposite in Utila where there was lots of diversity but not a lot of it.
At the end of the week we were hoping to take Cap'n Vern to Utila but he wasn't picking up passengers due to some 'paperwork issues'. Gossip I heard was that the owner of the ferry didn't like the competition and reported him. But hey that is gossip and who knows. What I do know is that neither of the catamaran captain's were willing to transport passengers during the first week of May. We took a charter plane to Utila and landed in about 15 minutes. I'd recommend it for the view alone! But I also enjoyed landing on the gravel/paved run way and being greeted by trucks with benches. We climbed into the back of one truck while another truck took our luggage. We drove into Utila Town and stopped at a bar for a beer while we waited for our luggage to arrive at the dock. Excellent!
This is long so I will continue in a 2nd part.
I feel that if I don't put this down now I will procrastinate and never put it up.
We stayed at Turquoise Bay Resort on the North East side of Roatan from April 26th until May 1st, then went to Utila's Utopia Dive Village from May 1st to May 8th. Then we returned to TB for our departure on Monday, May 10th.
Turquoise Bay Resort.
My expectations were low for this place as the reviews were a mixed bag. That being said they were a friendly bunch although not the most organized. When we arrived there were only 2 other couples out of a possible 26 rooms. The rooms were really clean and there was never an issue with having hot water - bonus! The food was passable as long as it wasn't the buffet. There were 4 pasta dishes, 4 red meat dishes, some fish dishes. Sides were steamed veggies, rice, potato or fries, with lunch and supper. I was never hungry and they also knew how to make a stiff drink. No complaints on that front! Although if you're a picky eater, or you don't like ordering the same types of food it would get boring really quick! Oh, and avoid the burgers - the ground meat was 'different'. There was a large enough gap between the morning and afternoon dive that you could eat lunch and not feel rushed - but to be honest it was vacation so most of the time I just napped in the afternoon.
We dove the entire week with 3 other guests - the rest of the boat was filled with DM/instructor candidates. The 'professionals' did their own profile and usually went elsewhere so I didn't see them during the dive. The boat itself seemed to have issues with a diesel leak and caused me no end of problems. I am prone to seasickness and diesel fumes don't exactly put me in my happy place. On two occasions I broke the surface of the water and got a film of diesel in my mouth. After that I would remove my fins 2 feet below the surface and then climb the ladder. When asked about the problem they said it was just in the bilge - but the quantity of the slick said otherwise. Either way it was fixed by the end of the week.
Staff at Subway Scuba were really nice and took to their roles well. Our DM was a guide and pointed out things when he saw them. At one point we missed a landmark and he was visibly confused about where he was. If I was a new diver I would have felt uncomfortable, but as it was I enjoyed the dive other than having a small barracuda follow me for a while (he was attracted by the dangling brass clip on my camera - oops!). He apologized, which was unneeded, and then during the SI we found a pod of dolphins so any disappointment quickly evaporated.
On every dive we saw lots of life, but we almost always saw hand-liners or spear-fishermen in the water. Seems very, very short sighted to me. But I am not struggling to feed a family either. I understand this to be illegal, but there is no funding for enforcement. If it doesn't change soon there won't be much left.
We did 2 dives in the morning and then a night dive mid week. The most enjoyable part for me was the Aquila wreck and Starfish channel.
My dive buddy has only dove in Nova Scotia so it was also fun watching him do his first tropical dives. And with that in mind I should mention our night dive.
Him: "it has been so warm I am going to do this dive with just my shirt"
Me: "Well are you at least going to wear a hood."
Him: "nah, it will be fine."
Me (while chuckling): "Ok then..."
20 minutes into the dive he starts poking at his neck. I shine the light and figure it is the BCD rubbing his neck causing irritation and give the universal shrug of "you got me". We keep swimming and after he gets the guide to take a look - which also doesn't help. My buddy wants to thumb the dive so we head back to the mooring and during our safety stop play with the bio-luminescence. At this point I am thinking he's just uncomfortable but we've dove together enough that if he's thumbing a dive it has to be something important. Once we're on the boat he strips down and I can see where the jellyfish has stung his neck, then travelled inside his shirt and stung his back. The captain pours vinegar on his neck and along his back then tells him to suck it up. Not a huge deal and we're laughing about 'told you so moment'. Then everyone else starts coming to the surface and excluding 1 other diver everyone has gotten stung - the worst is a french diver who took it on the lips and cheeks. Ouch!
Not sure how I got away with no stings in my hood, rashguard and shorts.
Fish live didn't seem too diverse in the spots we went to. There was lots of it, but it wasn't too diverse. This was the exact opposite in Utila where there was lots of diversity but not a lot of it.
At the end of the week we were hoping to take Cap'n Vern to Utila but he wasn't picking up passengers due to some 'paperwork issues'. Gossip I heard was that the owner of the ferry didn't like the competition and reported him. But hey that is gossip and who knows. What I do know is that neither of the catamaran captain's were willing to transport passengers during the first week of May. We took a charter plane to Utila and landed in about 15 minutes. I'd recommend it for the view alone! But I also enjoyed landing on the gravel/paved run way and being greeted by trucks with benches. We climbed into the back of one truck while another truck took our luggage. We drove into Utila Town and stopped at a bar for a beer while we waited for our luggage to arrive at the dock. Excellent!
This is long so I will continue in a 2nd part.
