Two tank dives with Reef Gliders. One tank at (more or less) 9AM. The second tank at about 2:30PM. $25 per tank with all equipment needed. The boat leaves from behind the shop and returns you there an hour or two later. Very very laid back. Reef Gliders was adequate but I would not recommend use of their equipment for new divers; the BCs were ratty (to be kind), the tank valve was iffy, IMO, and the regulator leaked from numerous fittings. I was fine using it for the easy dives we were doing but would be leery if there was to be any serious diving.

The reason I went with Reef Gliders was my guide book described them as the cheapest quality operation in town. I don't know about the quality part but, when I checked them out, I immediately hit it off with Justice (sic), pronounced "Yous' tus". Justice is a German who'd spent a year traveling around the world ending up in Roatan.

My dive buddy on the second dive was Frannie, a woman from Caspar, California with property and a home on Roatan. She and her husband had purchased the property 11 years ago and built a get away home. It was very interesting talking to her about the difficulties and experiences they've had with that adventure. I guess breakins while they're gone has been a problem in the past; what they leave behind is a lot for the taking for so many on the island that have so little.

Bob, Mark and Juan spent the day poking around areas on Roatan related to the commercial lobster industry. That included the harbor near Coxen Hole (Juan) and visiting the chambers at Anthony's Key and Fantasy Islands dive resorts.

Anthony's Key is the busiest chamber on the island. Though the operator downplayed how many divers pass through each year (he claimed about 100), the chamber had treated 8 divers just that morning. Further inquiries suggested the chamber had treated more like 700 commercial divers in 2002 during the 7 month period of the lobster season. Only 6 or 7 recreational divers had been treated in the same period.

Fantasy Island Dive Resort also has a chamber. It treats fewer commercial divers because they charge more. Fantasy Island was built by the richest lobster business family on Roatan. Mark and Bob discovered that recreational divers gathered in the common area each evening to share the video they'd shot that day. A plan was hatched to highlight the irony of that situation.

We ended the day at the Twisted Toucan, the hotspot any West End evening.

I did a morning tank dive with Reef Gliders off the westernmost tip of Roatan on a wall named Pablo's Place. Nice dive though it doesn't compare well with Cozumel (other than it's much cheaper these days). With tomorrow's scheduled flight back to Miami, that ended my diving on Roatan.

In the afternoon, I rejoined Bob, Mark and Juan. Mark wanted to get in some snorkeling so I suggested a place recommended by Franny just off the end of her private dock. This required a trip to the end of the road and a hike down the beach to get to. The snorkeling wasn't really that pretty but there were a lot of interesting animals to see if you know what you're looking for.

The plan Bob and Mark hatched the day before while visiting Fantasy Island involved editing some of the videotape shot during our trip and playing that video at the Fantasy Island evening group get together. Mark wanted to get the recreational diver's reactions for use in his story.

Bob spent a few hours that morning getting assistance from a West End dive shop putting together the videotape for this evenings show. The result was pretty powerful; especially the segments showing the disabled divers leaving the church after our meeting on Cauquira.

We made our way to Fantasy Island, each of us arriving seperately (Bob was concerned how the management might act when the video was played). When the video was actually shown, the response by the vacationing divers was, as expected, some confusion and a bit of annoyance. One lady complained the video had nothing to do with diving. In response to a query from Mark asking what the video might be about, one of the divers thought it was about inexperienced native divers getting into trouble. Obviously, there's some irony in characterizing the commercial divers as inexperienced.

After the Fantasy Island foray, we headed back to West End of the last evening of our trip. A nice meal at an Argentinian restaurant (with a bottle of California wine brought by Bob) ended a successful trip for me.