Roatan 2023 (page 7 of 8)

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Day 7: Friday, February 17th, 2023

Last day diving! We had our breakfast (Greta got the Honduran Breakfast again, and Mike got yogurt/granola/pineapple) and then it was off to the dive shop. This time the only familiar diver was Stuart from Toronto. We also met up with Mike, from Arizona (who hadn't dove for 15 years before his check-out dive the day before) and some other people from Montreal. We have met up with a LOT of Canadians on this trip - similar to St Lucia. The other dive group on the boat was people finishing their open water certification. We were with Andrea, and they were with Ron, their instructor.

We have filled out the last page of our dive books so we bought some Naboo dive logs from Sarena. What a great little souvenir. The first dive was at Overheat Reef. Where we dropped down, there nearby were little numbered signs, with a website indicating "if you find this, contact ++++". Later in the dive, Greta saw a turtle before anyone else in the group and got to swim with it for a bit. There was also a massive trumpet fish, a drum fish that had a small body but huge streamer-like fins, and saw grouper and file fish.

The very last dive did not disappoint. It was at Patrick's Stash. Early on, we saw a turtle. By now we'd seen a few, but this one was HUNGRY and was chomping off big hunks of sponge. Then there were a few huge Angel Fish swarming around him, eating all the little bits that floated off. Their jaws are not big enough to eat the sponge while it's still whole but once the pieces float off, it's fair game to the Angel Fish, and based on their size, these guys eat very well. We could have spent the entire dive just watching this and got some great video. Also during this time, we saw a file fish, grouper and barracuda. It was the perfect last dive.

On the way back to the hotel, we arranged to have the car dropped off and did a quick shower/change at Naboo. Around 1:30, we got the car, and then were off. It was nothing fancy - a Toyota Corola that had seen better days, but that's quite alright. There's only one real main road in Roatan, but we did get off the beaten path once in Coxen Hole, but were able to get back onto the main road, thanks to Google Maps.

We headed up the road, making short detours into French Harbor and Brick Bay. There wasn't much to see but windy streets and some shops, but considering we were on a race with the sun, we opted not to take any additional stops. We also tried Mahogany Bay, where many of the tourist shops are for the cruise ships, but because this was a non-cruise-ship day, we were told by security that no shops were open. We turned around and proceeded up the coast.

As we neared the east end of the island, the narrow paved road turned to potholed gravel. The road was twisty and had sheer drop-offs but there were some amazing views across the island. We didn't stop as there were no places to stop, but it was a very interesting drive. At one point, near the top of the elevation of the island, we saw masts - from a ship? Yes, a pirate ship called Isery was perched at the top of the hill - strange! We carefully wound through hairpin turns, and steep drop-offs on the side of the road. It was quite desolate and then every once in a while, the entrance to what looked like a grand resort would appear. This was definitely a split world here. Eventually we ended up in Camp Bay, where the gravel road turned into something much more narrow and rough. We stopped at Camp Bay Sirena for a drink after the treachorous drive. It was just a little hut on the water, where a number of policia were meeting to chat. Hummingbirds zoomed in and out of the little hut until we realized there was a feeder right on the table. We ordered something to drink and then went to the nearby covered pier to sit at a table. There was one group of people at the next table who handed over a watch-sized hummingbird feeder. From then on, we had entertainment as the little birds chirped and zoomed in and out next to us. Mike took pictures and even had one fly between his face and the camera at one point! There was a food menu to but we opted to skip it. We noticed when someone else would order food, a little boy would hop up, take the paper ticket from the bartender and then run back on shore to another hut where someone would make the food. As sunset was approaching, we hopped back in the car.

It was interesting how many lightposts had pictures of a few select men on them - they appeared to be for an election. On the last part of the drive into Camp Bay, only half the road had been paved - the return road. It was interesting how much quicker the drive on the paved piece seemed when you were ON the paved section, and not the narrow little piece that was unpaved with a steep drop-off. We got 3 gallons of gas at a Texaco - there were ladies there who pumped your gas and they found it very funny that we only wanted 3 galones (after assuming when I said tres, when they thought I meant $30 (treciento dolores).

We'd passed a restaurant on the way up called "Kristi's Overlook" so we stopped for supper there on the way back. It was a TexMex place, but Mike got the fried snapper and Greta got fish tacos. We headed back and the last bit of the drive was in the dark. The roads are very narrow - especially in town. We took one wrong turn due to slow Google, but were able to do a 7000-point turn and go back down the correct way. We parked at Naboo (it seems very few people rent a car so we had an easy time parking in their few parking slots) and stopped at the room for a bit. We were getting low on cash (we'd brought US dollars and used it nearly everything) so we figured out how to use an ATM in Spanish & get Honduran Lempira.

Then we headed down to the beach for a couple of drinks, as it was our last night. First we went all the way to the far end to Las Rocas for a drink. We stayed a bit, and then headed down to Banamarama (Thirsty Turtle) for a beer from the local brewing company farther up the island. Both places were very quiet, especially considering that it was only 7pm or so, on the beach on a beautiful night and it was a Friday. One thing we've noticed is at a lot of these beach places is that the staff may or may not be friendly, will get you your food and drink eventually, but island time is definitely the vibe. We'd have stayed at either place longer but no one ever seemed interested to check back and see if we needed anything else. We made one last stop, at Infinity Bay, which seemed to be the most happening place on the beach that night. We sat at the bar, there was karoke on the one side and a swim up bar on the other. We got a couple beautiful Caipirinha drinks watched people/tv/etc for a while.

Then it was back to the resort for our last night. The bed was a bit hard and the pillows flat. We had two queen beds so at least we could each use two pillows. This would be absolutely the only complaint about the hotel. Everything else about it was absolutely perfect and we'd definitely recommend it to anyone. For divers, it's ideal because you can leave all your gear down in the shop to dry and the rental gear is inexpensive and well maintained. For non-divers, everything else is aimed at customer's comfort. The food was wonderful, the rooms very nice, the staff was wonderful - it was a great experience.

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