Dive Review of
inn of last resort in
Honduras/roatan

australia, england, scotland,red sea,israel,malta, utila, roatan, fiji,
cozumel, texas, new jersey,new england, philadelpia

Dive Conditions

 max depth 130 ft, dont mess with marine life - marine park enviroment  

separate rinse tank on the boat for cameras, some what dry area to work on
camera on boat, no table on dock, back after everydive so back to the room
if necessary.  

Overall Rating

After 6 years it was great to go back to Roatan and the Inn of Last
Resort.The resort is the same, great rooms and very comfortable, hot water
and AC units with fans and 3 beds. There is a safe in every room as well.
The monkeys are still there in their cage, a little bigger than I remember,
the birds are there as well as are the dogs.
Donna and Andy the owners are the best hosts you are going to get in any
resort, they are your mum and dad while you are away from home.

The food is just as excellant as it was back in 2001, Donna's receipes
never get old and seconds is always waiting for you.

After the hurricans of past, there is a larger deck and bar, alot better
than before and they have a good cook out on fridays where everyone has
alot of fun.

When we arrived , Ed the maintenence guy gave us the resort speech of what
to expect, two things I disagreeded with, one was there will be no picnic
on the beach on mondays because he doesnt like doing them, doesnt matter
what the guests what[ check out there website- still sayes they do them]
and if we tip a member of staff individually then that person will be
fired, all tips must go into the pot at the end of the week.I like to tip
people who have given be just reward for the week and have gone above and
beyond and not let people take more of the cut just for turning up for the
dive.

On the dive operation I was very disapointed with the staff.

We had the marine park speech from DM Kirk, dont touch anything, chase
turtles, or take anything home, if we are caught then we will be thrown off
the boat.

The dive staff will change our gear over after everydive and wash the gear
and put it on the boat in the morning, please recheck you gear after every
tank change, the tank strap was left undone twice on mine and your gear was
never put back where you left it,when I did try to wash my gear they told
me off.

The diving was very poor, 2 turtkes and 3 rays, 2 scorpion fish  and a
couple of morays was the best we could do, small critters were very lacking
as were the bigger fish, even the groupers were missing in action. This was
the worst reef ive seen for critters in years.

It didnt help when the DM's didnt really point out anything for you to look
at.Kirk would spend nearly everydive on the wall and then look at nothing
on the top of the reef and at the end of the dive just hang at the mooring
line until the dive was over.He lay on the coral to take a photo for a
guest and stuck his hand into a couple of holes trying to pull out a green
moray so people can take a photo.

Wille was the dive shop manager, he showed us alot more but chased a turtle
around in circles for at least 4 mins so people could get photos, the
turtle was not happy and shot sraight to the surface afterwards.

The best dive is always the night dive, but Kirk wants you to do a night
dive without lights, there are strings of pearls here in Roatan,
luminesants in the water, great for 5 to 10 mins to look at but 50 mins, no
way, finally we decided on out with lights and back without.A 60 ft dive on
the wall, everyone knows theres more life on top of the reef than the
wall.We saw nothing really special, only had 20 mins to find something.

Kirk is not very saftey concerned with divers, we had a diver on his first
ever night dive, he was not spoken to about concerns of night diving
espcially without lights, night dive on a wall is never good, one diver got
disoriented and went down to 90 ft, anyone who knows bears den dive site,
he took 16 divers in the cave at one time, with no explanation of what to
expect or how tight it is and what happens if you panic.

This is why I tip personally and I do not want my money to go to people who
do warrant it.

Plus signs on diving, theres no dive times on  most dives, means though
that boat can leave at different times and lunch is cut short some
days,Tommy the old boat captain is back, best captain on the island, helps
divers on and off the boat every time, great asset at the resort. 
I would love to return to the resort, so relaxing and quiet, 5 mins drive
to west end and 20 min walk, but only if the dive shop staff changes. 

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