Roatan, March 2017

March 12th through the 18th Roatan, Honduras Max and I took a long overdue diving oriented vacation to a resort named Anthony’s Key on the island of Roatan. We had a great time. We managed to go on 9 dives, 5 of which were part of getting our advanced open water certification. High winds did cause 2 dives to be canceled, and murky up the water a bit. But all and all I’m super happy with the trip. I still maintain that Roatan is an excellent choice if you want an underwater oriented Caribbean vacation. But if you’re looking for beach/land activities go somewhere else. There are no naturally occurring beaches on the island. And the beaches they have are infested with sand flies (aka; no-see-ums) so you MUST where insect repellant anytime you’re on the beach. We stayed at Anthony’s Key Resort. It’s is a great place if you are into diving or snorkeling. In addition to the resort the owner also opened a free medical clinic that has one of the 2 hyperbaric chambers on the island. He also started the Roatan Institute of Marine Sciences (RIMS). They have a marine research facility and dolphin training/rehabilitation facility. And since it’s all part of the same compound we could go over to Baily’s Key, where the dolphins are, and watch them anytime we wanted. But we had to pay for one of the dolphin swims in order to get into the water with them. We did the swim where you got into the water with them and give them the hand signals to do various things. In retrospect I think the snorkeling swim might have been better, but we had a good time anyway. Since we were “in class” for much of our dive time I didn’t take as many underwater photos as I did during our last trip. And to be honest, I didn’t do as good a job when I did take underwater photos this time. But I got a few good shots. I also had a new video camera that can also go underwater down to 98 feet, but I only really got to use it on one dive. I edited the video from that dive down from about 45 minutes to a little over 2 minutes. The water was already getting murky from the high winds so visibility had already DROPPED to about 60 feet. In regular conditions, it’s closer to 80’ but can get up to 100’. The video is at the bottom of the page, as well as on Youtube. And yes, my underwater vidography skills need MUCH improvement. Sorry about that.

A nice sunset on our first day. After a day of on and off rain we were treated to an intersting sunset. The Crane made it even more scenic. A wider view of the sun setting behind Bailey's Key. A 30 second exposure at 10:00 PM from the deck outside our bungalow. A night shot of the path leading to the pool area. Looking up at the dinning room on the main island. A view of our bungalow from the dinning room. The water taxi that took us from the key to the big island. That's our bungalow on the right. Bungalow #11. Another shot looking at our Bungalow. This time it's the one on the left. A reflection of one of the resort boats in the window of our bungalow. The hummingbird in the bottom center was just too erratic for me. And he really blended into the background. Bailey's key is home to the laziest cats I've ever encountered. I was told there was about 8 cats living on Bailey's key. And they also like to snuggle with each other. Max and I in the dolphin pool Getting acquainted. Me getting taken for a ride. They were singing to us. Mr. Crabs. Mr. Crabs Baily's key is basically an old reef. There were lots of deteriorating shells. Another old shell. And one more old shell. One section of the key was covered in these wild snake like cactus. Max at the very edge of the key. They cancled the dives this afternoon because of high winds. Bailey's key is also home to a large population of hermit crabs. A tiny little crab that escorted us to the taxi. Max waiting for me to exit the wrecked ship. Me haning out at 110' while Max does his deep dive tasks. At 110' deep there is enough pressure to keep the egg yolk together even while using it as a ping pong ball. Getting set up for one of our navigation dive tasks. Me just hanging out while Max navigates around. Whitney, our dive instructor, leading the way up a crevice. A pretty good sized Green Moray Eel. SQUIRREL(fish)!!! I love these little guys. Puffer fish with freaky eyes. I don't know what this is, but i saw a few of them. A much bigger Mr. Crabs Another Mr. Crabs. I don't know what these guys are up to. And these guys were just hanging out. LOTS of these blue fish on every dive. Same fish. Here's another one of those polkadotted fish. Starfish. And more of them at the bottom A different, but similar star fish. eeeewwwww Baracuda. (As Ann Willson would say) Little Dr. Suess trees that disapear when bothered. when your deep there isn't much color with out a flash. And now with the flash ON. The bow of the wreck we dove. More of the wreck.

Here is a short video made of clips all from the same dive.