Roatan, Inn of Last Resort, by Carl

Diving in Honduras
May 02-09, 1997
Author: Carl L. Wilson, II

Following is my take on the Inn of Last Resort on Roatan,
Honduras. Although I enjoyed the week off and the peace and
quiet the resort had, the diving did impress me.

Another point I think should be mentioned is the absolute
poverty that the people on Roatan live in. The "marine
Reservation/Sanctuary" has very few fish in it of any size.
In one week I saw two groupers longer than 12 inches and
one turtle. My dive buddy saw a lobster at 80 feet on the
wall one day.

The local people have also nearly eaten to extinction the
indigenous iguana on the island. I am sure the lack of
fish and other marine life is due to poor people who have to
eat, being a conservationist is nice, but when you are
starving, it is a luxury few can afford.

On May 02 while I was flying down, I picked up a Time or
Newsweek magazine. The magazine had an article about
Norwegian Cruise lines starting to bring a cruise boat
weekly into Coxen Hole on the island. The cruise boat will
have 848 passengers on it. Roatan may end up being another
tourist center for the cruise lines.

Resort Name: Inn of Last Resort
Location: Roatan, Bay Island of Honduras
Dive Operation: In House
URL---- http://www.dive.com/innlast.html
EMAIL: lastresort@globalnet.hn

Getting There

The only Airline serving Roatan with direct flights from
the US is TACA (Take A Chance Airline). TACA flies directly
to Roatan from Houston, New Orleans, and Miami. It is also
possible to fly to the mainland of Honduras on an American
airline, and take a local airline, such as Isena over to
Honduras.

Supposedly discussions are underway for American Airlines to
fly directly to Roatan. Should I ever return to Roatan, I
would MUCH prefer to use an airline other than TACA.

It is not possible to get a boarding pass from TACA anywhere
but at their ticketcounters in Miami, Houston, or New
Orleans. In my case I was able to gt boarding passes in
Charleston for my continuing flight to Miami from Charlotte,
NC. When I got to Miami, I had to wait in line for a
boarding pass, not sure If I had a seat on the plane or not.
I had purchased my tickets 2 months in advance.

When departing Roatan, the situation is the same. The
resort reconfirmed our flights 3 days prior to departure,
but at the airport we had to go through the whole boarding
pass/check in circus again, but with a new twist. At the
checkin counter, you are asked to declare one bag priority
and one non-priority. If the plane is full of luggage and
freight, I would suppose that the non-priority bags do not
go on the flight with you.

I met several people at the airport who did not receive
their luggage due to TACA's inefficiency.

The airport at Roatan is a new modern building with
airconditioning that works. When I visited in 1995 the
airconditioning was broken and had been for sometime, but it
has been fixed.

Upon arrival, we were met by two customs/immigration agent,
another improvement over 1995, just one was working then.
After exiting customs and immigration, we were met by
representatives of the resort, who loaded our baggage and
took us to the resort by cars and vans.

The Resort

The Inn of Last Resort is a beautiful resort. Very few
trees were cut during the construction of the buildings,
thus the place looks like it was set in the middle of a
tropical rain forest. All the buildings are finished on the
outside with wood lap siding that blends into the natural
surroundings. In a couple of instances the buildings were
built around trees with the trees growing through the
buildings. Grounds are raked and swept every morning and
the shrubbery was beautifully trimmed. There are several
hammocks hung from the trees which makes it possible to
always find one in the shade for a nice nap.

The rooms are large, I think perhaps the largest rooms I
have found in a dive resort short of a suite. The rooms
have two single beds and one double in each room. Each
room has an individual air conditioning unit, two ceiling
fans, and a phone. The only TV I found was two in the main
dinning building.

The rooms have several shelves and two hanging areas for
clothes. The shelves are a nice touch, I had more than
enough room to empty my luggage and spread my dive gear out
before I took it to the dive building. Each room has a
large bath with a shower, no tub.

The resort consists of four building, three of which are
rooms and the fourth that is the dining room/bar. The rooms
all face inward enclosing a courtyard full of trees. The
buildings with the rooms are five rooms wide and two stores
high.

The main building/dining room/bar houses the kitchen,
dinning room, bar, and lounge with TV, card tables, and a
bumper pool table. On the homepage, the building shown as
the lodge building is this building, it overlooks the sound
and the dive operation.

The FAP meal plan was included in our package. Coffee and
juice with meals is included, sodas are not. I will have to
say this was the best food I have had at a dive resort.

The menu for lunch and supper is posted in the dinning
room/bar each day. No choices. However, supper was always
soup, salad, bread, a main entre, and a desert. Presentation
of the supper meal made one think they were in a fine
restaurant and not a dive resort.

Lunch was usually a lighter meal, but if one wanted, the
staff would bring you second servings.

Breakfast was good. Eggs and pancakes,with bacon and toast.
The one thing I liked was that I could have eggs and
pancakes or some mornings I skipped the pancakes and had 3
or 4 fried eggs.

As I said, this was the best food I have found in a dive
resort.

Staff

The Manager of the resort is Gail ( I am not sure of her
last name). She formerly managed the CoCo View resort also
on Roatan. Gail was effecient and her experience was
obvious as the the resort is a very smooth operation.

Diving

The dive shop/dive operation is an inhouse arrangement. The
Dive Manager is from Denver has been in Roatan at the
resort about 3 months.

The homepage shows a small boat and describes a larger boat.
The resort has two dive boats that are large 42-45 ft boats
that are beamy and comfortable for perhaps 16 divers. I was
never on a boat with more than 12 divers while I was there.

Both of the large dive boats are covered and one can get out
of the sun or lay on the sundeck on top. The boats have two
wooden boarding ladders and plenty of room to stowe gear and
belongings out of the way to keep things dry.

The resort purchased a smaller diver boat when I was there
that is about 30-35 ft., with a top, disel powered and is
hoping to use it when the larger boats are full or they have
a small group wanting to dive together. I think the small
boat pictured on the homepage of the resort is only used for
fishing. Tank pressures were 2800-3100.

The Dive guides want everyone to suit up and walk to the
back of the boat with tank, weight belt and gear on, this is
not the best method.

Although the dive manager and the dive guides are receptive
to suggestions on improving the situation, I do not think
they have had much experience with resort diving.

The biggest problem I have with the dive operation is the
lack of a weighted down line. Some of us suggested one and
the dive guides dropped a 1/4" nylon cord with a two pound
weight on it. I do not think they appreciate the safety of
a down line after wall diving for everyone to hang at 15
feet for 3 minutes. The new dive boat the resort purchased
has a down line on it, a larger rope with approximately a
8lb ball of lead on the end......a real down line.

Diving is mostly on walls and reefs, with several very nice
walls.

The resort has 20 dive sites mapped and most have mooring
buoys on them. The dive sites are all within 10-15 minutes
from the resort by boat. The dive schedule is 8:30Am, 10:30
Am, and 2:30PM. The dive boat returns between the two
morning dives, so you can sleep in and miss the first one
and still do the second two dives.

Although this side of the island is a marine sanctuary I
found few large fish. I saw two groupers about 24" long and
my dive buddy found one lobster on a wall at 80'. The reefs
appear to be healthy and I saw no coral bleaching.

Costs

The Inn of Last Resort has been running a special of
$695.00 for a week with food and diving. Airfare was
$574.92 from Charleston, WV. Book the TACA through their
agent in Miami, he can save you $250.00 or so off the
regular quoted fare of $550.00 Miami-Roatan.

Opinions

The resort is worth visiting for the peace and quietness it
has. Food is great. The dive operation with maturity will
improve I am sure. The staff is helpful and friendly,
speaks good english. Rooms are nice and very large. Staff
turn over at the resort appears to be low, an experienced
staff always makes a resort run smoother.

The resort is about 3 miles from the village of West End, we
made three trips into town and looked around and watched the
tourists. The handyman at the resort dropped us off and we
caught a cab back. Cab fare was 20 limpuras ($1.60US) each.