Trip Report: CocoView Resort, Roatan, Honduras, Jan. 22-29.

We left Baltimore minutes before a snow storm hit, got back just a few
hours after another one started.

Coco View Resort is a diver's resort, pure and simple. I can't imagine
going there except to dive, although there was a group of elderly folks
who seemed only to snorkel while we were there. So I'd have to modify my
statement to say "...except to dive or snorkel."

The resort is on a small island just off the south coast of Roatan
Island, Honduras. To get there, you take a short ferry ride (on one of
the resort's five boats) through the mangroves to the resort's dock and
dive center. The ferry ride comes after a meandering bus ride from the
airport, which is about the size of a bus terminal in an American city
and somewhat less efficient.

But forget all that. You arrive at Coco View and get a quick welcome and
orientation from one of the assistant managers. Your heavy luggage is
coming on another boat a little later, so you get your room assignments
and settle in. Rooms are either: in bungalows out over the water; in
duplex cabanas out over the water; or in ocean-view complexes right next
to the water. All rooms are air-conditioned and comfortable, but rustic.
Private baths and showers, a strong box for valuables (you won't need
money or cell phones all week, just bill everything to the room; as our
boat captain said one day, "Everything here is free until Friday"), a
bin for snacks to minimize the temptation for crawly things to graze on
your crumbs. No TV.

There is a fitness center on site, where you can also schedule
manicures, pedicures and massages. And there's an Internet Café for
those who can't stand the idea of not checking e-mail for a whole week.

There is also a clubhouse, which is the dining hall, bar, game room and
meeting room for the resort. It overlooks the ocean and the gazebo at
the end of the boardwalk where people can stretch out on hammocks in
between dives. Other than your room and underwater, you'll probably
spend most of your time in the club house. It's open to the air, but
screened for bugs, which are abundant (bring bug spray, 100 % Deet, or
buy their Cactus Juice). A lot like summer camp, actually.

Meals are served at set times for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Food is
good, plentiful and served buffet style. It's not gourmet, but who cares?

You are here to dive. Eating is just to ward off stomach growling that
might scare off the fish. So enough about rooms and food. Let's talk
about the diving.

Your first dive will be an orientation dive on CocoView's Front Porch.
When the resort is full, as it was for us, this is something of a CF. It
normally takes place on Sunday morning, but if you get in early enough
on Saturday, they'll do it then. We were scheduled to get in early
enough Saturday, but we were delayed leaving Houston, so we had to wait
till Sunday morning. That was actually fine with me. I'd been up since 3
a.m., and I don't sleep on planes, so I was way too tired to dive
Saturday afternoon anyway.

First, everyone is assigned to one of the four dive boats (the fifth
boat is used for snorkelers and for ferrying) for the week. Behind each
dive boat, at the dock, there is a hangar where each person claims a
double bin for storage for the week. You just leave your gear there.
There are also freshwater showers and rinse tanks for cameras and gear,
as well as places to hang wetsuits.

When you sign the waiver and show your c-card, you get a little wooden
tag for your bin. If you're going out on a particular boat dive, you
display the tag at the bin, and the crew will set up your tank, BC and
reg for you. You only have to carry on mask, fins, weights and
accessories, and the walk from bin to boat is maybe 10 yards. If you're
diving Nitrox, you analyze your tanks, then leave them in your bin. The
crew will load them, too.

But first, the orientation dive. This is a tour of what CCV calls its
Front Porch. All shore diving is done from here. It starts at a wooden
platform that's in water just deep enough to put on your fins and start
snorkeling out. You'll get a briefing from one of the divemasters, then
snorkel out, following a chain and bottle trail through the turtle
grass, till it's deep enough to descend. On the orientation dive, you'll
be asked to demonstrate buoyancy skills and air-sharing. It might seem a
little silly, but it will help them know who to pay attention to, and,
more importantly, who they don't need to worry about.

Then they lead you to the wreck of the Prince Albert, the buoy marking
the end of Newman's Wall and to CocoView Wall, then back.

Sunday afternoon, we had our first boat dive, at a site called Anka's
Place. Most of the dive sites are either in view of or very near the
resort. A 10-minute boat ride is a long one. It is all wall diving. The
briefing is virtually the same every time: We'll go down the mooring
line, out to the wall, swim along the wall at 60-70 feet for 15 or 20
minutes, come up along the wall and return to the boat on top of the
wall at 25-40 feet.

I don't mean to make it sound monotonous. The sites are very good, and
some, like 40-Foot Point and Mary's Place, are excellent. There's not a
lot of big life - I only saw two barracuda all week, no sharks, one
small king mackerel. But lots of small critters, especially at night,
and excellent sponges and soft corals. Stony corals are less abundant.
There is a fair amount of black coral, too. There is generally more fish
life on top of the reef than on the walls.

Dives are guided, but not limited by time. The guide will get out of the
water first to help divers back on the boat. Most of my dives were >50
minutes. If you want a surface interval long enough to move you up a
pressure group, keep your first dive short. The ride to the second dive
will be very short.

The second dive from the boat is a drop off dive. They position the boat
at either Newman's Wall, CocoView Wall or the Prince Albert, the captain
says "Get off my boat," and you giant stride in, descend to the wall or
the wreck and swim back to the resort. It's very easy. You can opt to
stay on the boat and ride home if you prefer.

There are two boat trips daily, at 8:30 a.m. and 2 p.m., and both follow
that pattern. Dive a nearby site, then do a drop off dive on the way
back. You don't have to do either of them. You can opt out or do shore
dives instead. Tanks are always available. It's a short walk from the
gear area to the shore entry.

That's where you'll do night dives, too, and they're worth it. Most
nights we just explored the Prince Albert. It's been down nearly 20
years and has good growth on it. Lots of coral and sponges, and at night
some wonderful creatures that will make you think you've stumbled on the
bar scene from Star Wars. Brittle stars, sea cucumbers, basket stars,
tiger tail cucumbers, beaded sea cucumbers. There's a big grouper that
seems to spend its nights on the wreck, and a resident green moray. Also
lots of copper sweepers and some glasseye snappers, a few lobsters, and
if you're careful and lucky, maybe a seahorse or two.

There will be a couple of opportunities for other options. One is an
all-day boat trip with three tanks and a lunch stop. This gets outside
the resort area. We went to a site on the West End that was not as nice
as the wall dives we were doing around the resort. Second dive was a
drift dive on the way back. Then we stopped for lunch at a nice
restaurant in French Harbor and did a drop off dive on CocoView Wall on
the way back in. Extra cost for the all-day trip, including lunch, was
$10. On the whole, I wouldn't recommend it. The first site was not as
nice as our wall dives, as I said, and we ended up just having three
dives during the day that day instead of our usual four. We did do the
night dive that night, of course.

We also did one boat night dive (extra cost $20) that was worth it.
Within sight of the boat, I got good photos of squid and octopus, and we
saw lobsters, eels and all the usual night critters.

This was my first trip diving Nitrox, and I think it really made a
difference. I did 25 dives over 5.5 days, and I was far less tired each
day and at the end than I was when I did 22 dives on Grand Cayman in the
same period of time a year and a half ago. There were some aspects of
this that made it easier, but I still think the Nitrox made the difference.

There are a few other things you can do if you're so inclined. The
resort offers one night of dinner out, where they take you to a nice
restaurant. And there's an island tour on Friday afternoon, when you're
likely not going to be diving anyway because of your no-fly time.

On the whole, I'd give this a 4.5 on a scale of 1-5 with 5 being best.
Downsides are a lack of ice cream, the fact that one of the vendors who
visits regularly makes his living selling black coral jewelry, and the
lack of variety. I love wall diving, but I like more variety. That said,
this is pretty good wall diving, and I'd do it again with enthusiasm.

The whole staff is excellent, very friendly and service oriented, and
they work their a.ses off. Boat crews are also excellent. We were on the
EZ Diver I all week and had Tulio for DM/guide and Gringo ("Get off my
boat") for captain.

There is also a small dive shop on the premises with some gear and
accessories and lots of rental gear. They can also do repairs. I needed
a HP hose. They replaced it in 30 minutes, $23.