Jan. trip to Fantasy Island Roatan.

I've just joined a group trip from our dive shop in Pittsburgh (Splash), from January 8-15 at Fantasy Island on Roatan.

Yeah, I know. But they had an opening, it was cheap, I didn't have time to plan anything else, so it was the line of least resistance. I was in Ft. Lauderdale last week and the weather was so poor I didn't get any dives in. I need a couple of doses of nitrogen narcosis.

Anywho, if there are any at that place at that time, give a shout and we may bend and elbow (sic).

Best of the season, whatever YOUR reason, to all.



--
But then again, what do I know?

Lou Vallone

LouVallone@aol.com

http://members.aol.com/LouVallone

Don't go, it sucks, just send me the tickets. Trust me, I will not enjoy
myself. Save yourself the aggravation.

"Lou Vallone" <vallone@smomp.org> wrote in message
news:10slp00i98uba1d@corp.supernews.com...
I've just joined a group trip from our dive shop in Pittsburgh (Splash),
from January 8-15 at Fantasy Island on Roatan.

Yeah, I know. But they had an opening, it was cheap, I didn't have time to
plan anything else, so it was the line of least resistance. I was in Ft.
Lauderdale last week and the weather was so poor I didn't get any dives in.
I need a couple of doses of nitrogen narcosis.

Anywho, if there are any at that place at that time, give a shout and we may
bend and elbow (sic).

Best of the season, whatever YOUR reason, to all.



--
But then again, what do I know?

Lou Vallone

LouVallone@aol.com

http://members.aol.com/LouVallone

Thus spake "Rudy Benner" <bennerREMOVE@personainternet.com> :

>Don't go, it sucks, just send me the tickets. Trust me, I will not enjoy
>myself. Save yourself the aggravation.

Rudy, you're such a generous and caring person, they world needs
people like you. In fact, I'll jump up and prevent you from suffering
like that.

>
>"Lou Vallone" <vallone@smomp.org> wrote in message
>news:10slp00i98uba1d@corp.supernews.com...
>I've just joined a group trip from our dive shop in Pittsburgh (Splash),
>from January 8-15 at Fantasy Island on Roatan.
>
>Yeah, I know. But they had an opening, it was cheap, I didn't have time to
>plan anything else, so it was the line of least resistance. I was in Ft.
>Lauderdale last week and the weather was so poor I didn't get any dives in.
>I need a couple of doses of nitrogen narcosis.
>
>Anywho, if there are any at that place at that time, give a shout and we may
>bend and elbow (sic).
>
>Best of the season, whatever YOUR reason, to all.

--
dillon

"When the French are against it, you know we can't
be far wrong." - Adm. Bobbie Ray Inman

"Lou Vallone" <vallone@smomp.org> wrote in message
news:10slp00i98uba1d@corp.supernews.com...
>I've just joined a group trip from our dive shop in Pittsburgh (Splash),
from January 8-15 at Fantasy Island on Roatan.

>Yeah, I know. But they had an opening, it was cheap, I didn't have time to
plan anything else, so it was the line of least >resistance. I was in Ft.
Lauderdale last week and the weather was so poor I didn't get any dives in.
I need a couple of doses of >nitrogen narcosis.

>Anywho, if there are any at that place at that time, give a shout and we
may bend and elbow (sic).

>Best of the season, whatever YOUR reason, to all.

Can't wait to hear what you think of it, Lou.

I was up there the other day and had a drink while laying in a hammock on
their beach. Hope it turns out differently for you, but I was very glad I
wasn't staying there.

"chilly" <slarson@shaw.canada> wrote in message
news:BAgEd.35228$8l.24666@pd7tw1no...

> I was up there the other day and had a drink while laying in a hammock on
> their beach. Hope it turns out differently for you, but I was very glad I
> wasn't staying there.

Why? And did you check out BIBR for me?

Greg Mossman wrote:
> "chilly" <slarson@shaw.canada> wrote in message
> news:BAgEd.35228$8l.24666@pd7tw1no...
>
> And did you check out BIBR for me?

She did, although I can give you more info.

Greg Mossman wrote:
> "Whistler" <whiNstOler@sSan.rPr.cAomM> wrote in message
>
> Please do. In no particular order, how were the rooms, how was the food,
> how were the bugs, and how was the diving (both boat and shore)?

In general, I sum everything up as very good, comfortable, not luxurious.

Rooms: comfortable, but not luxurious. I got the room over the office,
the entire second floor of a small building. Screened in porch,
hammock, 40 paces from the dive shop and restaurant. Mostly I care
about the mattress and that was fine. I did not see any of the other rooms.

Food: good, not fancy. You can always order a hamburger or something
else safe and familiar if you don't like the special. I'm an omnivore,
but I like good food and I enjoyed the meals. The fruit juices are a
little sweet, but the water is drinkable. The local beer is drinkable.

Bugs: there were houseflies, no-see-ums, midges. Some people got bit,
but a simple application of deet fixed that for the most part. They
keep a can of Off at the bar. Fortunately, they didn't find me tasty.
Other than swarming the dinner table for a day or two after the rains, I
barely noticed them. They seed their beaches with nematodes to keep the
bug population down.

Diving: overall, very good.

Dive shop: has Nitrox, trimix if you plan ahead and do that. Staff is
all locals and they are all competant. Nitrox was easy, they have tanks
all set up. I think they have banked nitrox, but I didn't bother to
inquire. They will check pressure and mix with you there, label with
duct tape, log the transaction.

Divemasters: The divemasters help out those who need help and let the
others dive. They give good descriptions of the dive sites. They let
you dive. They're good at finding critters to look at. Not perfect.
One would try to keep turtles from swimming off, which I preferred he
wouldn't do. One helped me deal with a leaky o-ring, then turned my
tank back off when I wasn't looking. But on the whole, I was happy with
them. No attempts to control, lecture or any other nonsense like that.

My 7' hose sprung a small leak. One of the divemasters found a
replacement for me in town, replaced it on my reg, reattached the bolt
snap with cave line. Made the whole thing very easy.

Boats: the boat I was on was built in NC, used in Florida before being
brought down. It reminded me very much of the boats I've been on in
Florida. Fast, simple, aluminum benches, aluminum ladders. They just
brought down a bigger boat, but I didn't get a chance to ride that one.

Dive sites: the wall surrounds the island. Reef is in great shape,
preservation is helping the fish come back after years of the locals
supporting themselves off of it. Not so much in the way of big stuff.
I didn't see any sharks, the grouper wer far from the biggest I've seen.
Fair amount of turtles, though. Some big crabs. Plenty of schools of
immature barjack, blue tang, etc. Lots of beautiful fans, sponges,
coral: brain, ribbon, pillar. Lots of big pillar coral, which I
particularly enjoy.

Rarely had trouble getting a particular dive site. Saw other divers on
one dive only. Probably 2/3's of the dives were done as drift dives,
even though there was mostly little to no current.

The underwater topography is magnificent. Walls, pinnacles, channels.

Every dive is a multilevel dive. You can always come up to 25' or less
and still see wonderful reef. Often I ended dives with 10-20 minutes in
15' or less.

Favorite dive site: Spooky Channel. As good as advertised. Did two
drift dives beginning near the shore, drift out the channel in the
current about mid water (40-60', max depth 90'). The channel turns and
winds out to the gap in the reef, where the current reverses. You swim
through out into blue water, then drift the wall. The boat drops you
off and then goes around. Takes about 15 minutes to do the drift out to
the reef after being dropped off.

On the first drift in Spooky I saw two big remora. Mostly was just
mesmerized by the scenery.

Did a dusk dive in the first part of the channel, boat dropoff, swim
back to shore. Avoided going out the channel because of strong
currents and no boat support. Peacock flounder, lobster, several big,
big moray.

Last morning I finally did the snorkeling trail at 6AM. Juvenile drum
fish, conch, biggest hermit crab I've ever seen, anemone with clown fish
or something like that, juvenile gray angel, juvenile barracuda, baby
sea turtle about the length of my forearm. I watched him for about
15-20 minutes before heading back in. Max depth of water was about 5'.
One of the best dives I had, and it was snorkeling.

Getting in to town is easy. Sometimes the employees are driving in,
most times I just walked to the road and hailed a cab. Prices varied
from $3-$5. Getting back...cabs were a little scarce at 10PM the one
time I was there that late, but there was one. Don't know what the
limit was, but I wished I was within walking distance.

All in all, I had quite a good time.

"Whistler" <whiNstOler@sSan.rPr.cAomM> wrote in message
news:y8kEd.65458$gd.48136@twister.socal.rr.com...
> Greg Mossman wrote:
> > "Whistler" <whiNstOler@sSan.rPr.cAomM> wrote in message
> >
> > Please do. In no particular order, how were the rooms, how was the
food,
> > how were the bugs, and how was the diving (both boat and shore)?
>
> In general, I sum everything up as very good, comfortable, not luxurious.
>
> Rooms: comfortable, but not luxurious. I got the room over the office,
> the entire second floor of a small building. Screened in porch,
> hammock, 40 paces from the dive shop and restaurant. Mostly I care
> about the mattress and that was fine. I did not see any of the other
rooms.
>
> Food: good, not fancy. You can always order a hamburger or something
> else safe and familiar if you don't like the special. I'm an omnivore,
> but I like good food and I enjoyed the meals. The fruit juices are a
> little sweet, but the water is drinkable. The local beer is drinkable.
>
> Bugs: there were houseflies, no-see-ums, midges. Some people got bit,
> but a simple application of deet fixed that for the most part. They
> keep a can of Off at the bar. Fortunately, they didn't find me tasty.
> Other than swarming the dinner table for a day or two after the rains, I
> barely noticed them. They seed their beaches with nematodes to keep the
> bug population down.

Actually, the owner was saying that they used to do it, but don't anymore.
I found the bugs to be voracious, both up at BIBR and in town. For good
measure, I was munched down on pretty good while waiting in the terminal
before departure.

(snip)

"Whistler" <whiNstOler@sSan.rPr.cAomM> wrote in message
news:y8kEd.65458$gd.48136@twister.socal.rr.com...

> All in all, I had quite a good time.

Thanks. It's the advertised quality of the shore diving (Spooky Channel)
that intrigued me the most as an alternative to Bonaire which is still a
real pain in the ass to get to from SoCal. I just might check it out this
spring as I'm looking for a relatively laid-back place to practice with our
soon-to-be-purchased UW video system before we hit the more demanding Cocos
in July. Unfortunately Continental wants over $750 for the R/T ticket which
negates the price advantage somewhat, and they only fly on Saturdays so I'd
have to commit an entire week.

"chilly" <slarson@shaw.canada> pounded away at his keyboard resulting
in:
:I found the bugs to be voracious, both up at BIBR and in town.

On my recent trip to Cozumel, I didn't find the bugs at all. I did,
however, detect the pleasant aroma of insecticide once or twice.

Dan Bracuk
If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure.


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