879. The Bay of Islands

Where: Roatan, Honduras
When: July 16-23, 2011
With: Dave

With our upcoming move to London a mere month away, we decided to take one last trip in the Americas before the focus of all our travels became Europe. Dave had been talking about becoming scuba certified, and when we consulted the book for some great spots to do so, one stood out among the rest: The Bay of Islands.

In the diving world, the reefs off the coast of Honduras are as famous as the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. Some say it's even more vibrant as the untouched reef and the surrounding islands haven't suffered from tourism and development like its Aussie counterpart.

We headed to the largest island of the group, Roatan, where a fabulous all-inclusive, no-frills resort sits poised to give you the ultimate diving experience during your stay: Anthony's Key Resort.

Honestly, even before the diving began, it was clear that this was an amazing place to stay. The main facilities of the hotel sat on the main island of Roatan, while a smaller island (the actual Anthony's Key) accessible only by boat, held the guest bungalows. 

After getting a quick debrief from the staff on how the week would work, we were whisked away to find our hut over the water on Anthony's Key...only to find that we had managed to get the only hut sat right in the middle of the island. No bueno. We politely asked if there were any available huts over the water, and shockingly, not only was there one, but it was the most private and secluded of them all! Jackpot! 

Anthony's Key was a simple island, with sandy lanes, palm trees and bungalows. We had a private boardwalk out to our hut on the water that made us truly feel isolated. The room itself was simple, but with tons of windows, a porch, and best of all, a hammock. 

On that first night, we didn't have much to do except wander the island, enjoy the pool and watch the sun go down. Not a bad start to a vacation!

The next day, we slept in, assuming we'd start diving whenever we felt like it. Somehow, we didn't quite grasp the concept that while the dives were always optional, they sort of had planned on the newbies being there bright and early for the first dive to start our final part of training. By the time we rocked up at 10:30am, the second dive had already gone out, and we'd unfortunately need to wait until the last dive of the day, around 2pm, to start our training. Oops.

While we may have been the slackers of the group, we didn't let it get us down. We used the free morning to investigate the resort a bit more. In the bright morning daylight, this place was even more gorgeous. 

This early in the day, we could see one reason why these waters are great for diving: the water was crystal clear!

From Anthony's Key, we grabbed some kayaks (included in your stay) and paddled over to the more secluded Bailey's Key, another island on the property. I felt like Robinson Crusoe, castaway to a deserted island and left to explore. Not much here except beautiful water and lots of palm trees. Total paradise.

Our trusty steed and the view back to Roatan. 

The view of Anthony's Key from Bailey's Key. 

We headed back to the main island for some lunch and enjoyed the view of the open air restaurant. The food was so good, all locally caught seafood and fresh veggies. The resort provided for three meals a day while you stayed, all with this view. Amazing. 

Then it was time to head down to the docks and get sorted out how to dive. There, we met Tatiana (Dave sighs). Tatiana was a little pixie of a thing that wielded a scuba tank like a champ. She talked us through the process of our first open water dive and the skills we'd need to perform. She made us feel incredibly safe. 

We jumped on a dive boat with our tanks and started prepping and checking, nervous we'd forget something, double checking ourselves and each other (good dive buddy protocol). 

Once out in open sea, the rest of the dive boat (all experienced) jumped off to start their dive while Tatiana took us off the boat one-by-one into the water to make sure we were ok. 

Unfortunately, Dave was just getting over a cold and his sinuses were still pretty blocked up. In an effort to get him down, Tatiana thought his struggle back to the surface was panic rather than ear pain. She helped get him down, but Dave's ears weren't the same for the rest of the trip. More on that later.

I took to scuba diving like a fish. It was amazing. It's like flying. I've always been comfortable in the water, and this was was no exception. I could have stayed down there for hours if my tank allowed me. The skills tests, all of which are meant to put you in the most panic-inducing worst-case scenarios, were fun and easy to me. I fell in love in that moment. 

And thus began our week of diving. Every day, we had at least three dives - two in the morning, and one in the afternoon. After two more training dives with Tatiana, we were assigned to a boat that would take us out each day. Her name was the Andrea. Her schedule, dive sites and times were posted on a board on the dock every day, giving us an idea of which reefs we'd be heading to and what the plan was. 

With all the repetition of diving, we felt we quickly became pros. We'd set up our tanks and hang our wetsuits like the old timers. On our boat were some very experienced divers and it was really cool chatting with them about where they'd been and what they were certified in. Suddenly, our open water certification didn't seem like enough. We wanted to be certified in EVERYTHING - night dives, deep water, buoyancy control. Advanced open water, here we come. 

Our dive master really made the experience. While Dave was sad to leave Tatiana, we quickly became friends with Frank who kept a close eye on his newbies, and helped Dave out when his ears just wouldn't regulate. He was our hero. One time, he was steering the boat while simultaneously checking tanks and helping people get in the water. As the last person plopped in, he just grabbed his BCD and tank and jumped in. He didn't even have his flippers on, he just suited up during his 100 foot descent. Not to mention the knife he strapped to his calf while he dove. Legend. 

The diving was superb. Not that I have anything to compare it to, but it was more than I could have imagined. Gorgeous reefs, drenched in color. Fish of all shapes and sizes darting in and out of hidden holes. Some dives took us straight down sheer cliff walls of color. Other dives dropped us off at one point, then let the current sweep us away on a ride along a beautiful sea bed. Each dive was unique and beautiful in its own way. 

Each day of the week, the resort planned additional activities, both dive-related and not. It kept things interesting every day (as though diving alone wasn't enough). We also had a few experiences along the way that made each day special and unique. 

On Monday, the boats went all the way around the island to Maya Key, a small beach where there was music, (limited) drinks, and food. Even so early into the trip, we were already exhausted by all the activity, so this was a nice, relaxing way to spend the afternoon (even though we did one dive on the way there and one dive on the way back). We pulled our lounge chairs right into the water and took a very long nap. 

On the way back from the island, our boat broke down out at sea. Sitting like a cork in the water, we were eventually "rescued" by another boat. Too bad we'd had the last dive of the day or we could have passed the time in the water. 

On Tuesday night, a night dive was arranged. While Frank thought we were doing pretty well, he thought that might be too much too soon. No worries, there was another on on Thursday, so instead, we took the kayaks out to watch the sunset. 

After each sunset, we'd enjoy the view of the moon from our balcony. Rising over the hills, it was stunning and as bright as the sun! And before its ascent, we also enjoyed seeing millions of stars. They were so bright I could catch them on my camera. It was wild! You can actually see Scorpio.

On Wednesday morning, Dave was able to wrest me away from the dive boat to take advantage of another one of the resort's amenities: horseback riding!

My horse used this quick photo stop as an opportunity to pee. Makes sense, into the ocean. 

 On the late morning dive that day, we had a near accident. As I was about to jump into the water, the tank strap on my back burst. Without a spare, I had to sit the dive out. I was disappointed, but Dave sat it out with me and we decided to jump off the boat for our own snorkel trip with the waterproof camera. The colors just couldn't be captured by my camera, but the diversity of the reef can be seen. Despite making the most of the situation, I officially believe that scuba diving > snorkeling. 

What we were unaware of was that the real accident was about to happen back on shore. In my locker, I had placed my bag, unzipped, containing my camera (my bebecito). When we hung our wetsuits to dry in the locker we didn't know that the camera laid right in the line-of-fire of the drip. By the time I got back, salt water had leaked its way in.  I have to admit, I was pretty devastated. The camera buzzed and blinked and whirred when I tried turning it on. I locked it away in our room, leaving it untouched to dry, while I took a moment to myself. [Sitting here, writing about this four years later, I can thankfully say the camera survived (all the photos since have been taken with it). However, whenever the air is humid or it's about to rain, it does start acting up in protest due to this one moment.] 

After drying my tears, we headed out for the activity of the night: the Island Fiesta, which included local dances, hermit crab races, and fire twirlers ("my camera would have loved to play with this lighting . snif."). And a couple of island cocktails, thankfully. 

Without the camera, the trip became very dive-focused. I could not be swayed otherwise. I even went on one dive without Dave. I loved it so much, I couldn't miss one. 

On the Thursday morning dive, as we were pulling into the dock, a random scuba diver emerged from the depths and terrified us all as he climbed on our boat while we were docking. In his hand was a line holding several strange, spine-covered fish. Frank explained that these were lion fish. While they are native to reefs in Asia, they were introduced to Caribbean waters and have been devastating the natural ecosystem. They eat everything and have no natural predators. As a result, locals are paid to spearfish for them to try to keep the population down. One of the guys on our boat offered the local fisherman money right there on the spot for a few of them, then had the kitchen cook them up for his lunch. 

On Thursday night, the next night dive was scheduled, and we were both ready to give it a shot. It's a bit odd going out  on the boat at dusk. Normally, in those crystal clear waters, we could see straight down to the bottom. But when the sun goes down, all we saw when we looked into the water was our own reflection staring back against the dark abyss below. 

We were unfortunately separated from Frank for this dive, and the young Aussie gentlemen taking us down was way more relaxed than we needed. When we tried to let him know that Dave's ears had been having trouble adjusting, he brushed us off, saying that the water was too shallow to cause a problem, but that he'd keep an eye on us to make sure we didn't have any issues. 

Of course he then jumped right in and swam away without a second look back at us. As Dave struggled to adjust on his descent, we encountered the main predator of a night dive: jellyfish. Attracted to the light of the flashlights we carried, they hang out close to the surface of the water, making it imperative that you descend the 20 feet to the bottom as quickly as possible to avoid their sting. 

Dave and I....basically had an underwater fight. Looking back, it was actually hysterical as we couldn't talk to each other. While he angrily gestured that the dive instructor had taken off without us, I tried my best to calm him down. He did not want to calm down, and as my frustration started to boil over, ZAP. Jellyfish sting to the neck. I tried one last time to coax him down, and as he resisted, ZAP, right across the cheek was my second sting. I was out. I gave him the only hand gesture I could think of to say "screw you, I'm out" and swam away thinking, "he's close enough to the boat, he'll live".

I met up with the rest of the group who were all kneeling on the bottom of the seafloor. Dave met up with us a few seconds later, and through a series of underwater sign language, he apologized. While I was still mad, I couldn't stay so for long after what happened next. 

The instructor had us turn off our flashlights. After about a minute of allowing our eyesight to adjust, what we saw was something out of a movie. Something I can only describe as magic. Out in the distance, we saw thousands of tiny blinking lights. So many that it was like looking at the NYC skyline. Called "The Strings of Pearls", it's caused when microscopic shrimp leave trails of phosphorescence in their wake. This photo I found doesn't even do it justice. Imagine this times 1,000. 

 

As if this isn't cool enough, anytime we moved a hand through the water, a glow of trailing bubbles would follow behind. Like a clump of fireflies, tiny microorganisms gave off a bioluminescent glow as you move past them that made you feel like a great and powerful wizard or something. Honestly, I would brave many more jellyfish stings (though maybe no more fights) to witness something like that again. Honestly, magical. 

On our final day, we took advantage of another one of the resort's facilities: the Roatan Marine Science Museum. After touring the research facilities, we were boated to Bailey's Key, where we were enclosed in a paddock with the local pod of trained dolphins!

A marine biologist gave us a brief explanation on these fascinating creatures and let us pet them as she spoke.

They were so warm and slippery, but tough and muscular at the same time. You could feel the power beneath the skin. 

Then the dolphins gave us a little show.

Finally, the photo ops. Kisses abounded. 

By the time we had to leave on Saturday, it felt like we were leaving family behind. Between Frank, our fellow divers, and the staff at Anthony's Key, we were sad to leave not just the place, but the people. It was an amazing trip, and one we've spoken SO highly of to anyone who will listen. A beautiful place, a top-notch resort, and two very experienced divers that came out of this trip.