Roatan, Honduras : Fantasy Island Trip Report Roatan Dive Log

Current weather in Roatan, Honduras:

Roatan

We were warned that the bugs were bad in Roatan. We brought both Off and Jungle Juice which we used most of the time. We all got bit a little, but it wasn't any worse than a picnic in Chicago in July. Lily on the other hand was Bug Chow, for some reason she got bit a lot more than Mark and I combined. Mark thinks it's because she ate bananas and he read somewhere that insects are attracted to bananas for some reason.

I was told by a couple people that one of the nice things about Roatan is that large cruise ships don't go to Roatan. Well, that doesn't seem to be the case any more. There was a large Norwegian Cruise Lines ship docked near Coxen Hole.

I recently added some pictures taken by Mark so make sure you check those out if you haven't been back to this site in a while.

Getting to/from Roatan

Fantasy Island

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The entrance to the resort grounds. Viewed: 308 times.	Mark and Lily hanging out near the beach. Viewed: 435 times.	Nice shot of the beach. Viewed: 459 times.
Lily walking along the beach.. Viewed: 478 times.	Mark taking pictures of the little animals I called the Roatan Rats. Viewed: 320 times.	Mark finally gets one to pose for him. Viewed: 563 times.
One of the Parrots behind the resort. Viewed: 161 times.	You get a lot of drumsticks from a Roatan chicken. 8^). Viewed: 484 times.	Another perfect sunset. Viewed: 215 times.

The Fantasy Island resort is mostly two story frame buildings. The main building has the lobby and the main restaurant on the second floor. The rooms are on either side of the main building. Our first room was a little worn looking and our phone didn't work most of the time. We asked to change and the second room was much nicer with a working phone, TV, ceiling fan and small fridge. The AC worked well but wasn't needed. By the time we got used to the warm weather, we turned off the AC and left the screened windows open and the cool evening breeze was actually nicer.

The food consists of 3 meals/day. We found the food to range from good to excellent. Breakfast was usually a buffet of hot and cold cereals, sausage/bacon/ham, pancakes or waffles, some local foods, and an omlett bar. Lunch was usually ordered from a menu and was either sandwiches and burgers as well as chicken, beef and seafood dishes. Dinner was similar to lunch but a bit bigger and a little fancier. The food choices were mostly different every day but sometimes only slightly so. One dinner was pretty fancy with some great choices included an excellent Lobster tail dinner. Yummy.

The dive shop was on the premesis and was very easy to deal with. Boats left daily at 9am, 11am and 2:30pm. When we were there, the schedule called for a trip to Mary's Place on Mon, Wed and Fri, plus night dives on Tue and Thu, if conditions allow. Unfortunately, we arrived on a Friday and left on a Friday so we only qualified for one night dive on Tuesday. We didn't get that due to it being cancelled due to rough conditions. They rescheduled for Wednesday night but that was cancelled due to rough conditions as well. They also advertise dives on the north side of the island but we were told they usually don't do them during the winter due to rough conditions.

When we were there they only ran one dive boat with 6-10 divers at any time. The sites were all close so the boat returned to the dock after each dive. The shop also had showers and tubs with fresh water for rinsing gear as well as a "locker room" for hanging wetsuits and storing equipment that's locked at night so we didn't have to schlep our gear to our room every night.

Shore dives were also pretty simple. We did 4 night shore dives from the gazebo. They left us tanks, including one extra, at the gazebo then picked up the used tanks in the morning.

The Diving

Almost all the dives were boat dives to one of the reefs in the area. Most of the reefs are rather shallow, usually 15' to 40' deep before the wall dropoff. The wall then drops down to 100'+. Many of the sites had crevasses and swimthroughs that made the dives more interesting.

We also did some night dives on our own. We did four of these to the DC-3 plane sunk in about 40' of water and the Prince Albert island freighter in around 60' of water. This made for a pretty good night dive as there are lots of critters around that normally hide in either the wrecks or the reefs nearby. Visibility usually was rather poor especially near the gazebo.

The animal life in Roatan is very similar to other places in the Carribean. The only other Carribean island I dove was Cozumel so that's all I can compare it to. There seemed to be less fish in general in Roatan than Cozumel. Although some sites did have an abundance, others seemed pretty sparse. The coral is quite a bit better than Cozumel, especially soft corals. I've never seen such large colonies before.

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A Hawksbill Turtle swims right past our group. Viewed: 269 times. More: Dive 58	The variety and density of both hard and soft corals was amazing. Viewed: 165 times. More: Dive 50	Viewed: 358 times. More: Dive 52
Our divemaster swims past yet another huge Vase Sponge. Viewed: 283 times. More: Dive 56	A Green Moray Eel peers out from its hiding place. Viewed: 196 times. More: Dive 59	This large Black Grouper was also looking for a free meal. Viewed: 194 times. More: Dive 60
Viewed: 588 times. More: Dive 62

I was really happy to have some underwater video made of our group on several dives. The video is available in QuickTime and Real Video formats on dives 56, 58, 59, 63 and 64.

Driving Around Roatan

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This party bus was parked on the side of the road. Viewed: 200 times.		Party Bus Viewed: 164 times.
Picture of the Dolphins in their pen at Anthony's Key Viewed: 199 times.	Lily posing on the dock by the dive shop. Viewed: 340 times.	That's good to know! Viewed: 373 times.
These are some of the nicer rooms on their own Key. Viewed: 287 times.	Two very good reasons to try Anthonys Key next time! Viewed: 618 times.

We also drove quite a way to the east side of the island. The scenery was stunning but there wasn't much to do there. Mark took a lot of pictures here so I'll put some of those on-line as soon as he gets me copies. We tried to drive to Coco View to check it out but we found there is no way to get there by car. We went back to Fantasy Island and used kayaks to get there!

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One of the rooms at Coco View. Viewed: 239 times.	Shot of Coco View from Fantasy Island. Viewed: 258 times.	Evening shot of Coco View. Viewed: 144 times.
View of lush green Roatan. Viewed: 204 times.	Palm trees, blue skies and blue waters. Viewed: 194 times.	A rainbow on the way to a dive site. Viewed: 154 times.

What are these critters?

The first one is the weirdest thing I've ever seen. At first I thought this was an Eel, but once I got close I realized it was no Eel! First of all, instead of a mouth with sharp teeth it had curled tentacles at the end of the body in a circle surrounding a mouth. Ok, so I thought it might be a sea cucumber but I've never seen one move this fast! It seemed to move pretty quickly and was following my dive light. I only saw these at night on 3 out of 4 of my night dives to the Prince Albert wreck. These were always on the wreck but in different places each night. It looked to be about 2'-3' long.

Answer: Thanks to everyone who responded! The consensus appears to be that this is a type of Holothuroidea commonly called a Beaded Sea Cucumber. The picture in Humann's book doesn't look that much like what I saw, but the description seems to be accurate.

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Viewed: 430 times. More: Dive 52	Viewed: 357 times. More: Dive 55	Viewed: 588 times. More: Dive 62

The second one should be easier. Also on our night dives we saw an animal that looks like a Caribbean Reef Squid. Mark is convinced it's a Cuttlefish. I didn't know Cuttlefish were found in the Caribbean which is why I think it might be the Caribbean Reef Squid.

Answer: Thanks to everyone who responded! I have little doubt now that this is a Caribbean Reef Squid as I confirmed that Cuttlefish are only found in the Pacific.

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Viewed: 358 times. More: Dive 52	Viewed: 254 times. More: Dive 52	Viewed: 237 times. More: Dive 55

Comments From People Like You! Roatan, Honduras 2000	add a comment
Thomas Seitz 02-Jun-2006 12:34
I truly enjoyed your commments and pictures of Roatan, Honduras. My wife and I are planning a 7 day dive trip this July.  Like yourself, I have been to Cozumel (twice) but due to the recent hurricane, I understand that a lot of the corral formations are closed for clean-up.   We are staying at the Bay Island Resort on the North end.  I want to ask---how many days did it rain in Roatan when you were there?  The most recent weather shows rain each day for a week!!!!  Take care and maybe we will see each other in Cozumel or Honduras.         Tom and Greta Seitz, Palestine, TX

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