New Years in Roatan, Honduras

[that0neguy1126]

It has been a while since I have posted anything on the forums. After spending so much time upgrading the site this week I figured I would share a trip over new years. I took the family down to Tranquilseas in Roatan, Honduras for some relaxing on the beach in the nice warm 85 degree weather. Also got about 8 hours of bottom time scuba diving. The reef here is beautiful, one of the best in the Caribbean. Which is kind of sad because there was still a bunch of die off. Saw some huge parrotfish, angels, a nurse shark, and a bunch of turtles, lobsters, and crabs.

Below are some pictures of the island, just getting around to uploading the diving footage to youtube now to share.

 

[FishTV]

Well, that looks like a good time!! Did you get to dive, or snorkel any reefs?

 

[that0neguy1126]

Did a bunch of diving and took the kids out snorkeling on the reef. Below is 2 clips of the El Aguila wreck (The Eagle).

[video=youtube;89Hu4Spq1mY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89Hu4Spq1mY[/video]
[video=youtube;ponn5bd9nyA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ponn5bd9nyA[/video]

 

[MartinsReef]

Awesome! We will be there in november for Thanksgiving.

 

[that0neguy1126]

Nice. I am looking at turning it into a yearly trip over new years. Great place to visit. Was even thinking of ways to stay there.

Let me know if you have questions or need recommendations or anything.

 

[rjl45]

I'll be going this April. Have a condo rented on the east side of Sandy Bay, near the Blue Parrot restaurant. I am looking for a good dive shop to go with. Any recommendations? Also, from what I have read, looks like most of the restaurants are west bay and west end. Would you recommend renting a car to get around, or taxis?

 

[rjl45]

Great video! Looks fun. Were you using a filter on your video camera? I'll bring my go pro, but will likely focus more with my housed slr. Can't wait!

 

[that0neguy1126]

yeah I have 2 red filters. one for 5-20 ft and another for 20-80. The wreck is in about 100ft of water. stern is at 110 where the garden eels are. Bow is about 80.

Yea. most of the footage I shot with the gopro sucked. I am looking at getting the LCD back plus the new wrist mount (have the old one). Or looking at getting a cannon powershot G16. Go pro route is cheaper, but G16 is tempting. Housing for my T5 is way to expensive for me to consider.

 

[that0neguy1126]

I'll be going this April. Have a condo rented on the east side of Sandy Bay, near the Blue Parrot restaurant. I am looking for a good dive shop to go with. Any recommendations? Also, from what I have read, looks like most of the restaurants are west bay and west end. Would you recommend renting a car to get around, or taxis?

Taxi are the way to go. Was about $10 a trip from Sandy bay to west end or west bay.

I highly recomend Tranquilseas as a dive shop. Edwin the DM was amazing and it was nice small groups. They cater to whatever you need. For the first 3 dives it was just my father in law and me and the owners dad. The most we had was 6 divers. Was sad watching the Anothy's Key boats loaded with 20+ people.

We ate mostly at Tranquilseas and its worth a try. there are a few other restaurants next door at the other lodges. We ate down at bananarama and the Grand Roatan, would highly recomend the seafood soom at grand roatan. In general the price of food was pretty expensive all over the island. We averaged about $120 for 4 adults and 2 kids per meal.

 

[rjl45]

Thanks for the recommendations! I'll look them up. I always look for the smaller boats; really don't like "cattle diving" off the larger boats. Also, it is nearly impossible to capture any decent photographs with that many people in the water. Always a stray fin or hand waving in the frame...or worse someone following you around because they want to see what your photographing.

And yes, housing an f5 is expensive! Lol I could never quite justify that. I housed my D200, about 7 years ago, still does a good job for what I want...speaking of, I better pull out the gear and check everything out. Thanks!

 

[that0neguy1126]

[video=youtube;FHcUmUry8Vk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHcUmUry8Vk[/video]

Footage by one of the other guests that was staying and diving with us. Joe Pawlik. He was a Marine Biologist from Scripts. Apparently the go to guy for anything sponge related. He was kind enough to give a talk at the restaurant/bar one night during our stay. The sheer amount of staghorn and lettuce coral was unbelievable.