Roatan, Honduras Bay Islands, May 2013

[luis]

Roatan, Honduras Bay Islands

A group of us were in Roatan the first week in May. The diving was fantastic. The corral reefs reminded me of the reefs 40years ago on the northern Caribbean (Puerto Rico and Virgin Islands).

The amount of coral (even in shallow water) and marine life was outstanding. This was true ocean diving at its best.

We stayed at CoCo View Resort, which is a great dive resort. The resort is set up to make it extremely convenient for diving. The dive lockers are just a few feet from the dive boats and there are showers and numerous soaking tubs all around the area (they change the water regularly).

The dive boats are custom designs for diving and are very roomy and easy to enter and exit the water. They even have a moon-pool entry in the center of the keel.

The shore diving was very good and there is a wreck in the front yard (a small Navy oiler, 160 ft long).

We did 4 boat dives a day and 5 dives with a night dive one day.

We saw lots of Sea Horses, lots of green morays, Hamlets, and a great variety of Caribbean reef fish.

Some pictures below.

Christine


Allan:






The moon-pool entrance into the dive boat:


The anchor windlass on the Prince Albert wreck. The marine live on the wreck was also great.


One of many Indigo Hamlets:


A Hawksbill Turtle




Grouper


We saw lots of scorpion fish


Nassau Grouper


We also saw lots of Sea Horses


Spotted Drum



Juvenile trumpet fish?


File fish


Herman


Allan talking a picture of one of many green Moray Eals. The morays were very friendly.


Go-Pros; Bite size!! (picture posted by Allan)


More pictures to follow.

[luis]

Jawfish


(picture posted by Allan)


Pipefish


Lion Fish. They do hunt them extensively, but they are around.

Sea Horse


Another Sea Horse


Juvenile File fish


Crab


HERMAN the crab; whoops, that should be a HERMIT CRAB. Sorry. (picture posted by Allan)


Banded Shrimp


Lobster


(picture posted by Allan)


(picture posted by Allan)


Flamengo Tongue


Another Sea Horse


Inside the wreck of the Prince Albert


Green Moray with Neon Gobies cleaners





Did I mention we saw some Sea Horses?


Another Sea Horse


Spotted Moray eel


Scorpion fish


(picture posted by Allan)


Porcupine fish


Truck fish


Juvenile Spotted Drum




Scott surrounded by Atlantic Spade fish. These fish would come right next to divers in mid water.


Allan taking pictures of three squids


(picture posted by Allan)


The squids stayed with us for a while for some good picture taking.


Same squids


(picture posted by Allan)


Another Spotted Drum


Another Sea Horse. This white Sea Horses were just…


And another Sea Horse

[luis]

Oh yeah, I forgot to mentioned, the Argonaut continued to work great.
And the owner of the local pro-photography shop want to buy one in bad way... actually he would settle for any of our double hose regulators. He may try to get a Phoenix soon.

(picture posted by Allan)


(picture posted by Allan)

[8dust]

Great photos, Luis, thanks. Really enjoyed them.

Fred

[Scotttyd]

it was great diving with all of you. Here are some of my photos. I agree with Luis - the reef and coral were extremely healthy. My tropical diving is limited to mostly Bonaire - the reef is definitely more dramatic than Bonaire - although the shear numbers of fish and critters are higher on Bonaire, but I did enjoy a different type of diving. The green Moray's and seahorses were abundant!

http://s257.photobucket.com/user/Scottt ... t=3&page=1

[Scotttyd]

apparently my photos were big for the site and it cut off the right side of all of them - if you click on them they will open in a new window and you can see them all

sorry

[swimjim]

Looks like a great trip. Awesome photo's all! Thanks for sharing.

[luis]

Here are some resort pictures.

Arriving at the resort.












Very nice rooms.


Some of the boats and the soaking tubs.








Dining room and gathering area.






Here is one of the many new friends we made in Roatan. It was a lot of fun to watch Bruno play.
Bruno was a little dog with a big personality.

[Herman]

Here are some of my photos from the trip. Hope you enjoy them.

Death defying act!

[thepeanutking]

Very nice pictures Thanks for sharing!

[frogman63]

Thanks for sharing your pics, especially the macro shots; great seahorse pictures.

Brian

[SurfLung]

My goodness... What amazing photography.

[antique diver]

You guys got great pictures! Makes me want to start lugging a camera around again, but I will sure have to upgrade my photo equipment.

[USdiver]

I love the corals found in the western Caribbean, especially Honduras and Belize. Great photos of Roatan's fauna, by all of the posters. CCV is without doubt THE place for divers, vintage or otherwise, you chose well. I gotta get back there, maybe next year.

[ivan's mermaid]

Luis, Christine, Allan, Herman, Scotty, everyone that posted photos, Thanx so much!
They were all great. I knew you were going to have a wonderful time. The pictures of the resort were really nice too. We'll have to talk about a return trip there? Thanx Again,