With the dives yesterday (not the weight-check one, but the other two), I've logged fifty dives since I started getting my certification in late 2014. It's addictive, it takes you to gorgeous places, it gives you a chance to meet other adventurous people, and it is a very personal journey every time.
Yesterday wasn't the greatest, so we were ready to get back on the horse and really see what Roatan had to offer. We had set up all our equipment on the boat before we headed upstairs to the open-air dining room in the canopies where we take all our meals. We had a slightly bigger breakfast (try to fend off the hunger from yesterday) and took a banana and some cereal just in case.
Our first dive site was the "four sponges" - the original sponges got washed away in Hurricane Mitch, but there are plenty more. This site was mentioned as a place to see nurse sharks, but we didn't see any this time. Instead, we were met by sea turtles, a little boxfish, and an early greeting by a big grouper that wanted to get up close and personal. I saw a big barracuda in the deep blue, while Alisa saw a smaller one along the wall.
It was a drift dive, so one-way - the boat would meet us at the end. The current was light, but that might have been because we were swimming with it, not against it.
It was relaxing and beautiful - just how diving should be! We didn't have time to change (and with the sun shining, we didn't need to) before it was back on the boat for a dive on the way to Maya's Key.
"Herbie's Fantasy" was another easy dive (when you have half a tank left after an hour of seeing great stuff, you know you were relaxed). Anemones, sea turtles, and a spiny pufferfish were the highlights.
Today - Monday - was picnic day, so instead of eating back at the resort, we motored twenty more minutes around to the south side of Roatan, where Anthony's Key Resort owns an island with a pool, a museum with replica Mayan structures, and a mini zoo.
We took a tour from Saul (pronounced with two syllables around here), which started with a green parrot who chittered at us, rushed through the museum, then got to the rehabilitated animals.
Alisa and I have been critical of the animals at the resort. There's the Roatan Institute of Marine Sciences at the resort, which keeps a pod of dolphins and hosts snorkels with them. We've both seen articles about how "riding" dolphins' pectoral fins is bad for them, and then there's the Baltimore Aquarium that is releasing their dolphins all together. More on the dolphins later, but I know I definitely went into the tour cautious about the animals' care.
In general, I didn't see anything much different about their care than at the Smithsonian Zoo. The cages were a little smaller, perhaps, but the trio of crocs had a whole lagoon (which didn't stop one from opening its mouth at Alisa and her violet dress). We saw an ocelot and a margay, two different smaller jungle cats. A large aviary had macaws, some turkey-like bird, and green parrot, while the toucan was in a cage by its - he'd actually killed the other birds he'd been attempted to be paired with.
The tour ended with a jaguar - biggest cat in Honduras - and a cougar. The former came up for a scratch when our tour guide went close. The latter had been a pet for a drug dealer before the malnourished kitten had been given to the rehabilitation clinic, and prowled around for a minute as we walked by.
The tour ended and we had five minutes to get back to the boat to do our final dive of the day. "Butcher's bank" had a sandy start, but no rays that we saw. It angled down into a sloping wall with a bunch of crevices. Alisa found a black and white drumfish, and Hector pointed out a starfish, but mostly it was coral city - angelfish of three varieties, two cowfish, and little fishes everywhere.
Back at the resort, there's a shore dive on our little island with the cabanas. With a little bit of sun, I asked if Alisa wanted to go try it out. We opted instead for the snorkeling on the other side of the dolphin island.
Well, we rinsed and put away all our equipment, but kept our masks, snorkels, and fins out for our adventure. The water taxi shuttled us to the other island, and we were on shore to watch the last ten minutes of the dolphin training session.
At least eight trainers were working with at least that many dolphins, at different stations around the fenced in lagoon. Dolphins were swimming out and back, circling, waving their flippers, and then a big finish with some jumping in tandem. It was lightly sprinkling, so there was a stunning rainbow over the resort behind us, competing for our attention. It was crazy how much paradise was shoved into those few minutes.
We continued along the pier to shore and to the stairs for snorkeling. There were a couple buildings - bathroom, changing room, and a covered porch where four gorgeous cats (the house kind, not the wild kind) were getting a meal. We had half an hour or so until sunset, so we got into the two-foot water and set off to find some little stuff.
Between meadows of sea grass were little coral head in some sand. They were home to urchins, long-armed starfish, tiny versions of many of the fishes we saw on the reef, and corals and anemones. A little Atlantic lobster had found itself a hole, while a foot-long sea slug was much bigger than its miniature environment. We saw a pair of "caterpillars", some fringed sea worm we don't know the name of, that were surprisingly fast-moving.
It was just about sunset as we emerged, but a large row of clouds along the horizon made it pretty but not able to be captured in photos. We hailed the water taxi was some whacks to the diving bell gong, and were entertained when it took ten minutes by the dolphins racing around their enclosure - a pair with a baby between! - and one chewing on the pier's post.
Typical evening of shower, dinner (a super yummy and vegetarian enchilada with some pretty cool new vegetable in it - white, fibrous, but soft to cut), and home. I attempted to blog, but fell asleep at 8 instead. Happy vacation!
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