Roatan 2023 (page 5 of 8)

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Day 5: Wednesday, February 15, 2023

Since we are diving on the north side of the island again, we didn't need to meet until 8:15. We got to the restaurant an hour earlier. This time Greta had a ham/cheese/sweet chile omelette and Mike had pineapple pancakes. We met up with all new divers, other then Ross/Tina from Montreal. Then off to the beach to board the boat. The boat we've used the last few days is called Jabba. The other boat we used the first day is named Leia. The resort is named Naboo, which is a planted in Star Wars. Everyone appreciated the theme.

Our first dive today was at Turtle Crossing. And it did not disappoint. About halfway through the first dive, we FINALLY got to see a turtle laying on the bottom. It had two sucker fish on it - one on top, one underneath. As it shifted position, the other sucker first moved to the top. As it moved, both fish just clung onto its back. Early on, an Eagle ray was spotted by Andrea, and Mike got a glimpse but it wasn't sticking around. Later on, we saw another turtle, this one also with 2 sucker fish on it's back. If we hadn't all seen the other turtle go the other way, we'd have thought it was the same turtle. We saw many additional fish, as well as a school of sergeant majors. We also saw a drum fish - bigger than anything we've seen in the past. It had to have been at least 6 inches long, but was very shy and only came out of it's rocky shelter for a few seconds at a time.

Luther took us close to shore for our surface interval again. We could see one place rented horses "Sea Horses" for riding. A bit further down the shoreline we could see goats grazing up on the hill. Maybe it was all part of the same location? We also saw that the sunken boat from the day before had been beached, so it's good it's not out in the middle of the water any more but it still could be leaking fuel.

The second dive was called Eddie's Trifecta. It was not a very deep dive but the hope was that with all the sandy areas, we'd see some rays. Unfortunately our group did not although the one of the other groups did see a few rays. Our group did get to see another turtle. This one was content to swim near us, and let us follow it for a while, so that was fun to see how they swim. Because it was a shallow dive (under 50 feet) we were able to stay under a little longer and look for more unusual wildlife. Andrea found a little tiny creature on a leaf at the bottom. He signalled for Mike and another person to take picutres of it so we could enlarge it later as he didn't know what it was. We saw a few bigger fish from time to time, but lots of small fish, making it feel like an acquarium at times.

Because we are doing a night dive, after we got back to shore, we left our fins on the boat, but took everything else back with us. We cleaned up, and after some quick work of writing in our dive logs and Mike starting to upload pictures, we headed out for lunch. We went to Celeste's Island Cuisine , which was on the main road, just off of the street our hotel is on. Baleadas are a traditional Honduran food (tortilla, beans, creama plus spices , veggies and meat), and were a specialty of Celeste's, so we each ordered that. Mike got Jerk Chicken and Greta got fish. Just before our food was ready, our waitress came over with a worried look on her face and asked Mike if he liked "spicy spicy" food, which he assured her that he did. Then she smiled and went back to the kitchen and we heard the cook laugh, so it sounds like it's a good thing he liked "spicy spicy" food. We got our baleadas, and while we weren't sure if we should eat them like a taco or with utensils (a little of both) - they were DELICIOUS! It was just the right amount of food and was incredibly good. We headed back to the hotel, although after Greta got her phone, she went back out for a short walk to take a few more pictures of the street and surrounding area. Then we both relaxed until it was time for the night dive.

We met at the dive center at 5:15. There was a total of 8 of us. All Canadians except for the two Minnesotans! Andrea gave us a walkthrough of the site we were to explore and showed us how to use the flashlights. We walked down to the beach and hopped into the boat. For the first time on the trip, we were able to watch the sunset (from a boat no less!). Then we each dropped into the water, turned on our flashlights and sunk to the bottom.

It was a shallower dive. We were instructed to shine the flashlights around slowly, to find night creatures like lobsters, crabs, star fish, anenomes, etc. When we would see something, we were to shine it next to the creature so as not to blind it. We got to saw a lobster stoll across the open sand. Other lobsters were seen, but usually trying to hide. We would see lobsters during the day, but usually hiding back and you could only see their tenticles and maybe a leg or two. But at night, you can see them venture out, looking for dinner. Mike also saw both a conch and a starfish moving. It was a little crazy trying to stay not bunched together, but still move around.

At the end, we were all to settle on the sand (which was at 15 feet, so it could count as our 3 minute safety stop). Then we turned off our lights and churned the water, and could see little bioluminescent creatures swirling about. When Andrea signaled, we all stopped churning the water and waited. Then he signaled again and we were all to slowly rise up and try see the string of pearls. Greta ended up not seeing anything, and wasn't sure where the group was, so went back up to the boat which was right above us. Looking down, while next to the boat, she thought she could see them from above, traveling down. The rest of the group did get to see the strings and swam through them. Once we were all back on the boat, everyone talked about what they saw as we headed back to shore.

We did a quick shower and change at our room, and did a quick check of the cameras. Mike was not hopeful about getting good pictures but was pleasantly surprised that they turned out. Then we went down to the restaurant for a late-ish dinner (it was about 8 pm). Elise had recommended the homemade pasta at the Naboo restaurant (the owners of the resort are Italian), so Greta ordered the shrimp pasta with fresh tomato sauce. Mike ordered shrimp skewers with a salad and rice. Everything was very good, and yes, the pasta was execellent.

Then we headed back to the room to relax a bit before going to sleep.

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