Roatan, Honduras, Inn of Last Resort

Author: JoAnne

I'll get to the wonderful diving in a minute, I first have to highly recommend the Inn of Last Resort... Andy and Donna, the innkeepers, are two of the kindest people on earth. They have carved this unique resort out of the jungle terrain and created a rustic paradise on a very remote island. Spend just a few minutes chatting with them and you will learn more about Roatan and the people and the way of life, than any tourism book could ever give you. The staff was so helpful and seemed to absolutely enjoy their jobs. (What a refreshing thing that is!) The resort is self-sufficient, meaning they have their own water treatment system, generator, etc. The food is great at the resort, don't eat out - trust me, we made that very fatal mistake - still sick!!!

Okay, the diving... vis was about 80-90 feet on a few very good days, mostly averaged around 60 feet. Pat, the divemaster at the resort, is originally from San Francisco - great guy, funny, very attentive. He's the type of guy that would be welcome on any dive trip and to have a few beers with afterwards. Great swim-thrus, caves, big coral formations. The night dives were the most memorable. You look down into the coral mountains and see thousands of reflected pairs of eyes glinting back at you from the crevices. Big lobsters and crabs, octopus. Even had turtles check us out on practically all the dives. The grouper were huge... we were able to witness a National Geographic moment - as a very large grouper rested on the sandy bottom underneath a coral overhang, a banded shrimp was cleaning the grouper's mouth then the grouper opened his right gill for the shrimp. Pretty cool, this was in only 30 feet, so the sunlight created perfect light.

I did my advanced certification there and as we were doing the navigation part, a turtle swam right underneath me, then swam upwards to see what us crazy humans with all the bubbles were doing in this sand chute with the compasses. The instructor had a French Angelfish develop a major crush on him during this same exercise - it followed him around like a puppy dog!

Great trip overall, yeah, the bugs there suck but we didn't go there for the beaches. Would we go back? In a heartbeat, but only to stay at the same place. If you get down there, ask Donna about the story of Moises, the little orphan boy they're adopting. It's something you don't realize could happen in this day and age - a tearjerking story. We will be back, maybe next year, and try to go when the whale sharks come in... late August, early September.