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We
know we have have a welcome cocktail waiting for us, so no dawdling there.
This will be our 5th trip to Anthony's key Resort in Roatan Honduras. The resort
is located on the north central part of the island. One of the reason for so
many trips here is the convenience of the dive sites from the resort. You do not
have to spend a lot of time on the boat traveling to and from the dive sites.
We go thru orientation and then take a little skiff out to the key. This
little cabana on the key will be home for 7 nights. As we soon discover after
being gone from
AKR for 8 years they have installed a pool and bar on the
key. Now the only reason we have to leave the key is for food and the dive
boats. Our cabana is on the very north side of the key, the Caribbean reaches
our deck steps. We can snorkel in the ocean just off our secluded deck. The
crash of the waves on the steps 
can be heard all night. The next morning comes early after a night of restless
sleep as you adjust to the sounds of the ocean and dream about the days
activities. The morning dives will start off the back of the boat for a check
out dive.
Things like checking weights and buoyancy control are what this little
dive is designed for. Then we head out to the big water and and the first real dive of
the year.
Rupert the boat captain is a familiar face, one of the few old timers
still left at the resort. We head out to the open water to do our first dive of
the year. I watch all the people putting there gear together it reminds me of my
first open water dive in Mexico many years ago. Every one is very excited and a
bit apprehensive of what they will see once below the water. Your first open water dive
is like your first love you never forget. Even when you have 100's
of dives the first dive of the season always causes a knot in your stomach. Once
the first dive is over life is good. You know you have not lost the touch and
you also know what draws you back year after year. The thrill of diving can be
different for each person. With the dives sites being so close to the resort we
go back into the dock after every dive to replace the empty tanks with full
ones. We do 2 dives in the am then off to our room to take a warm shower then up
to the restaurant for lunch. Breakfast is a buffet and lunch you order off the
menu with usually 2 or 3 choices.
When lunch is over you head back to your room
to get your wet suit that you have rinsed in the shower and head back to the
boat. All this back and forth is done by taking a small boat out to the key and
back. By the end of the week you have had lots of time in the saddle (skiff).
There are about 140 to 150 people at the resort at 1 time. Most of the people our
from the USA, places like AZ, CA, CO, NY, FL, PA, TX seem to pop up a lot. Many
of the people brought their young kids with them and their grand moms to watch
them. Once we get our 3 dives in for the day it is off to a hot shower and happy
hour in the bar. It just does not get any better than that.
As I noticed on
Lewis's t shirt dive, eat, dive eat, dive drink, dive dive, dive shore dive,
dive eat. The second full day of diving involves a wreck dive setting on the
bottom at 110 feet called the Aquilla. When you are doing a deep dive like that
you always do it first thing in the morning, and each successive dive is to
shallower depths. Roatan has about 25 named dives sites around the island. They
also do an optional shark dive on Monday am. They have other activities
like horse back riding, zip line, picnic to Maya Key (a recreation of Maya ruins
with live animals) and night party with crab races on the key. They do a good job
of trying to keep their guests occupied! The rain and wind came in early
this am so today's dives involved a bus to the other side of the island while
the boats where ferried over. In today's case it was the calm side
of the island. We go horse
back riding at 4 pm this evening along the
north beach up thru the village where the young kids are playing soccer. We ride in the water so as not to interfere with their game. We stop to
take a picture of us on our horses. I attempt to get close to Mary's horse and I
see it raising it's leg. I am assuming it is going to scratch it's stomach but
it is about to let lose on me. The guide had warned me about one of the
horses kicking but did not say anything about Mary's horse. I start to raise my foot
but it kicks my horses stirrup and breaks the stirrup while my foot
is in it. We change the stirrup and head back to the resort. By the time we get
back to our room my foot is starting to swell. I take a quick shower and start
icing it down. By that point I am not able to walk on it. Just as the rest of
the group were
about to leave for dinner without me the resort hostess and the Doctor show up. The Dr.
checks over my foot, determines that it's not broken, puts some cream on it and wraps
it. I will be good to
dive the next day. We are up early the next day to take the bus to the other
side of the island to go on our last 2 dives of the trip. This trip we see about
the most different kinds of fish we have seen so far. We saw a big crab, 2 lobster, a few
small spotted eels, a moray eel and a trumpet fish. We are taking the boat back
to the resort which means a 45 minute boat ride on rough seas. The last night on
the island brings local dancers to the bar for our enjoyment. After a good-bye
drink and dinner, it's back to the room
Last updated on 11-14-2009 .
Copyright Gene Lucas 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008,2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018. All rights reserved.