Breathing Bottled Air

Roatan is known for its diving - and in fact, when we lived in Portland, Oregon, we would come here to dive. Thanks to our friend Dave on "Jammin" we went diving the last two days. We have all our gear except tanks on board - and he has a surplus of tanks and needed a dive buddy - so it was a perfect match. We pay for our tank fills from a local dive shop. Michael's done more recent diving - mostly to clean the bottom of the boat while in Florida - but Barbara hasn't done much since some Florida Keys and Gulf of Mexico dives with Gene and Pat a bit back (and by a bit - we're talking years!)

On Thursday, we went out to a nice reef - and suited up. That's always the hardest part of diving - getting the gear out, hooked up, and finally on your body. After all that effort, once the air was turned on, Barbara discovered a serious leak in her BC (buoyancy compensator vest). No diving for her today. So she snorkeled and Michael and Dave had a good wall dive. Michael managed to repair the BC with the help of a local dive shop suggesting a method and $28US later - all was repaired.

Today (Friday), we re-geared and went out again to a place near the blue channel and the three of us had a great dive. There were a few turtles swimming about, a large moray in a hole, some giant "good - eating" fish (groupers, hog snappers, grey snappers, ocean triggers - but no spearing allowed in the park), and lots and lots of wonderful coral and fish. We dove along a wall about 60-70 feet with lots of canyons and interesting crevices. It was good to get back into a bit of diving and we remembered why we did enjoy it so much. Perhaps we'll even do a night dive at some point!

Over the last few days, we've had a lot of heavy wind and West End seems to be a good place to hole up based on the East to South East wind direction. On Wednesday, we did make a trip to the larger town nearby (Coxen Hole) via the local bus system. It's about 15 km away and cost 22 lemps (about $1.15) each way per person in a mini van. Like most of these "collectivos" they load in the passengers. We got dropped off in the center of town with lots of small shops and vegetable stands. Some of these little stores are quite fun with everything from pressure cookers to machetes and flip flops. After roaming around the town a bit, we walked to the big main grocery store which is quite well stocked. We loaded up on some re-supplies after our guests and headed back on a bus (with the same driver!)

West End, where we are now moored, is a little resort town with lots of dive shops, restaurants, bars and t-shirt/souvenir shops. When the cruise ships come in the town is packed (and the prices go up). We try to avoid cruise ship days when going into the town or we wait until the folks are re-loaded on their big boats. They seem to get a cruise ship most days. We've explored the town (it's not hard with one main road) and tried a few of the local eateries. The ice cream store never seems to be open - which is probably good for our waist lines.

Boat projects are getting done and we'll try to find an internet café someplace to get some new pictures on the website. No promises.

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