We got directions from the rental agency from the airport to the Lions Den Resort (go over the BIG BRIDGE, etc.) Well, it was dark, who could see if the bridge was the big one or not? After driving around for 3 hours, and mostly in circles, we finally located a Dominos Pizza, went in for directions surely they would know how to get there. They did! They gave us directions (at the Burger King turn left, go down and turn left, then go down and turn right) One little problem, the Burger King is closed, no longer has a sign on it. It is a situation where on the island, everyone knows/remembers where and what that place once was (except of course, for us tourists, who have never been there before.) Anyway, those directions did not help, so came time for drastic measures we went back to Dominos ordered a pizza to be delivered to Lions Dive and then FOLLOWED the driver to the resort. It was the ONLY way.

Now we are at the resort, things should be better. NO. I go to check in, and they have no record of my reservation (which was made in June.) Ok, after much checking they found the reservation, on paper next to the desktop computer. No, not ever entered into the reservation system online, only on that one scrap of paper. They have no room (so, it is 11:30 PM, pizza in rent car getting cold, and no place to sleep or eat the pizza. JUST GREAT!) By 12:30 AM, they had finally found a room for us, on the third floor, no elevator, just nice NARROW stairway. My husband has a bad knee and further, is not a small man by any means so this was not going to be a good thing. Oh well, the room had to have a bed and I was too tired, after lugging up all the dive gear, to care too much about it or to eat the cold pizza.

The next morning I awoke and realized that the room was beautiful, it looked out over the resort toward the ocean, had a nice little balcony, two really large queen beds, nice restroom, sliding glass door onto walkway in back, and a nice chair/table grouping near the balcony for drinking coffee, reading the newspaper, and writing up the dive log. Rooms very well kept and very clean. Great view!!! Who could ask for anything more, other than it would be great if it were not 3 flights up! I decided running up and down stairs would be good for me not sure about hubby, however, he finally consented to climb stairs rather than move rooms (thank goodness for small favors.)

On to the diving
Ocean Encounters tries very hard to be a safety first shop. They require that you do a checkout dive before you go out on a boat dive. Checkout dive you get a tank, and go in at the pier and check your buoyancy. No DM, no one at all from the shop is there to see if you really get wet or not. What is the point??? But they REQUIRE this, so we did a very brief check out dive and then went on the afternoon trip to the reefs. First real dive of the trip was the TUGBOAT, this is a reef dive, along the shallow ledge/wall for a ways, then back to the Tugboat wreck (20 ft) where you do the safety stop and check out the fish all around the wreck. They tend to feed the fish at this site, so most of the fish here are not afraid of divers. There were some huge terminal phase blue parrots here as well as the usual yellowtail snappers, grunts, trumpetfish, stoplight parrotfish and others. For an added bonus, if you looked in the right place on the tugboat, there was a octopus hiding in its hole, and blennies (black with orange fins and lips, dont know the variety) were everywhere. Orange cup corals were growing on the tug and this would make a nice shallow night dive, I think.

Second day we made the first two dives in the morning. First Dive was Gills Finger, max depth 65, time was 1:01. Large Green Moray, many spotted morays and large banded shrimp stood out. Second dive was Cornelius Bight, depth 60, time was 1:02. We found 2 small brown, viper-like eels with yellow markings on their tails. I have no book to identify them, so need to look these up later. On the safety stop we were joined by a small squadron of small squid. I did my famous squid charming routine, which brought them in really close. However, once a camera was pointed at them they moved off out of camera range. So I brought them back in close again, and just spent the time (about 10 minutes) looking at them and seeing the colours changed and pulse across their bodies. Way too cool. The DM asked me what I did to bring them in so close, once we were on the boat, but all I could say, is I think at them that they are beautiful, that I would like to see them, and move my fingers in a squid like motion, all of which seems to bring them in close to me (almost eye to eye.) This is not the first time this has worked for me, I have done it many times in trips in Roatan.

Third day: First Dive, Divers Leap, depth: 57, time: 1:00. Saw many scorpionfish on this dive, as well as large peacock flounders and beautiful anemones. Second dive, Shipwreck Point, depth 50, time: 1:01. Many, many fish on this dive. Tons of brown chromis, creole wraase were everywhere. Also, saw lots of large, healthy corals on this dive. Third dive of the day, The Pier, depth 50, time, 1:10. First we went down the wall to 50 feet, then swam from the mooring to the Pier. The Pier was a swin through, very long, very impressive with growth everywhere. With the light filtering through the piers from above it was etherial in nature. Unfortunately, there is monofilament everywhere here, and if this site were cleaned up (removal of bottles and other trash) it would be absolutely awe inspiring. However, for now, take a dive knife with you on this one, entanglement could happen easily here.

Fourth day: First dive, Care Pile, depth 101, time 44 minutes. Large pile of cars on a wreck. Nothing to see other than one, lone speckled eel. Reef after the wreck was more interesting. Large beautiful pufferfish, but otherwise this dive (from the viewpoint of the wreck itself) is not one I would do ever again. Second dive, Mishas Mischief, depth 55, time 1:03. Nice coral on this reef, lots of speckled eels, large adult spotted drum, several anemones on this reef as well, including one that was irradescent blue. Beautiful!!! Very pretty dive.

Fifth day: First dive, Jan Thief, depth 53, time 1:02. Finally saw my first sea fan here. Just dont seem to many in this area. Second dive, the Tugboat, depth 50, time 1:04. I could do this particular dive everyday, it is that good. Saw 2 octopus, one free swimming in the day. Free swimming moray eel, scorpionfish everywhere. Tons of fish on the tugboat itself, and of course, I found a place where a large adult spotted drum made its home.

Night dive: Coral spawning dive, depth 30, time: 1:15. Cost was $90.00 per person. 20+ people on the dive boat plus 4 dive masters in the water with the group. Still too many people and everyone was rapidly moving from coral head to coral head trying to watch the spawn, swimming over the top and under divers already there. The surge did not help with the over crowded conditions on this dive, either. Star corals were the ones doing their thing this night and some of the lettuce corals as well. I got to see a HUGE green moray eel hunting on the reef about way through the dive; I stopped watching coral spawn and watched him hunt for about 5 minutes. I went back to the boat when I started to get cold (even though I was wearing a 3mm shorty) 1 hour 15 minutes into the dive. Others stayed down for a bit longer, no one was in the water more than 1.5 hours. I did see 3 different heads of coral spawn, and it was an amazing sight. Was it worth the $90.00 per person cost - No. Was it worth seeing at least once in a life time - Yes. If the price was more reasonable, like $50.00 per person, it would be something I would do more than just one time. As I said to people at the office when I got back home, you just gotta wonder about people paying that much to dive in the dark and watch coral have sex take about being voyeuristic!

Sixth day: First dive, Shipwreck Point, depth 53, time 58 minutes. Found lots of Pederson shrimp on this dive. Many fish, but the DM on this trip was not inclined to stay in the water much beyond 50 minutes. Second dive, The Tugboat, depth 50, time 52 minutes. We spent a lot of time on the boat waiting for a travel writer to show up and board. Apparently she was snorkeling this reef, and the dive shop wanted to make a good impression on her. We get into the water and Bob had leaks everywhere on his hose. I made him return to the boat and I wanted him to used the extra regulator on the boat, however, he chose to not dive. I made the dive with a Dutch lady who was really a very good partner and diver. We both had cameras, so we allowed the DM to take the two newbie (first open water certification dives) ahead, while we took our time and found many things of which to take pictures. I showed her the adult drums hidey-hole, and I hope her pictures turned out as nice as mine did. Also, banded shrimp, eels, and so on. We spent a lot of time with the orange-lipped blennies on the tugboat itself. At 50 minutes, we were being pressured to go back on the dive boat, and neither one of us had even used half a tank of air yet. So, back on the boat head back to the shop. This was my last dive, and I really felt put out that it was so short. Seems, the time we lost waiting on the travel reporter was taken off our dive time, in order for the boat to be back at the normally scheduled time.

Total number of dives this vacation: 11

Total bottom time this vacation: 10 hours and 32 minutes

Food: Breakfast was part of the package, so we ate at Nemos daily. This is served buffet style. With egg dishes made to order. I usually had yogurt and coffee for breakfast. My husband ate heartier fare, like Muesli and heavy clotted cream, along with fruit and fruit juice and coffee. Breakfast was good.

Lunch: We generally ate at Hemingways next to the dive shop between the morning dives and the afternoon dive. Service was VERY slow. Mostly the offerings on the menu were of the bar food type of fare. Food was not good enough in taste or amount presented to account for the prices charged. Food most often delivered to the table cold or cool. You can survive on this food, but not well.

Dinner: We ate once at Hemigways, and the dinner fare was better than the lunch fare. Service was better than during the lunch hour. On another night (far more memorable night) we ate at Nemos. The food was excellent, the pace of the meal was typically European, with time given between each course for conversation, or a cigarette, etc. We had the 4 course menu selected by the Chef. This meal was wonderful. The appetizer was wonderful (I had prosicutto purses containing goat cheese with a wonderful wine sauce, and my husband had salmon tartare. The soup was good and the main course was perfectly seared medium rare tenderloin of beef with a red wine reduction sauce just wonderful. The dessert was a chocolate mousse that was fabulous, I could eat that forever and never tire of it. This dinner was expensive, but well worth the cost

Bottom line, I would do this trip again, but I would not rent a car. A taxi to get to and from the resort will work great for me. We never did really use the car, so the cost was a waste of money. The diving was good, except for the Car Pile, and while the food daily wasnt everything I could want, the night at Nemos made up even for the lacks at Hemingways.