Roatan...diving, diving, more diving, and some new friends

photo by: Scott Johnson

For the last week of our Honduras adventure we were on the island of Roatan! The water was beautiful, the weather was wonderful, the company was perfect, we got in a few dives (a day), and Brian almost saw a whale shark!

One of the best things about getting to Roatan was there were no more fried plantains with every meal. At the beginning of the trip I thought they were great, but after a week of plantains I've had enough...But the rumor is there are some good place to eat in West Bay, so off we went the first night to the Argentinean Grill where we met Andy and Anne. We talked with them through dinner and then shared a taxi back home where we met up with the rest of the cast of characters for a beer or two. This is when the stories began...The most memorable was how Eric got Tiffany with the conch shell mating call and then clubbed her to drag her home and marry him. So some of the stories were a little outlandish, but a fun night was had by all.

The rest of the week included a bunch of relaxing scuba diving into the ocean. One of the highlights was going on a night dive w/ a couple of night dive virgins. Tina and Armen were another incredibly nice couple that we got to enjoy some time with, but the night dive with them was one to remember. Tina was a bit concerned, but once she saw a few creatures in the coral, she relaxed a little and took her nervousness out on her flashlight. So for those of you that have never been on a night dive, or SCUBA diving for that matter, there are a bunch of hand signals that one uses to communicate. Many of these hand signals get replaced with flashlight motions during a night dive considering its pitch dark underwater. For example, to get your buddy's attention one would swing the light beam back and forth on the sea floor in front of them. Back to Tina. She apparently saw something amazing and was shaking her flashlight back and forth nearby Armen like she was going to run out of batteries so we decided to go check out what she found. None other than the elusive sea cucumber, which she thought was the leg of an octopus. Long story short she had another flashlight convulsion, and guess what she found...Yup, another octopus, oh wait, sea cucumber! Other than the entertainment that Tina provided it was a nice and relaxing night dive with some incredible phosphorescence as we swam without our lights off.

I mentioned earlier that West Bay had some of the best places to eat. Well surprising the best restaurant we ate at in Honduras was an Indian place called Ooloonthoo. The food was magnificent and the service was good too. This is definitely a place that will make your eyebrows sweat and that isn't even with the dish that says "This preparation is very hot and definitely not for the uninitiated!"

Before I forget I saw two out of the three signs that there is a whale shark in the area. First one sees the birds off in the distance swooping down at the water picking up fish. Once you are nearby the swooping birds, then you get to see the living room size circle of fish jumping out of the water and into some of the birds mouths. Those are the two signs that I saw. The third and most important one is the whale shark swimming by or near the surface...no luck, however, maybe next time.

That is it for Honduras, but here is to many more adventure to come!