DIVING-HONDURAS- ROATAN-BAY ISLANDS

...from TELA 1 hour taxi to LA CEIBA-from here 75 minutes ferry to ROATAN one of the island in a group of islands known as BAY ISLANDS in CARIBBEAN SEA off the coast of HONDURAS...

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...ROATAN is a dream CARIBBEAN ISLAND with plam trees-blue ocean-shallow waters and real easy pace-PARADISE in every sense...

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...we spend 9 days on ROATAN ISLAND just diving as the REEF is only 15 minutes away at the most from the coast by boat...

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... here Pritti done 10 dives and Dipak 8 dives...

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...in all our dives we use to dive with 2 dive-masters in a group of 8 people and with us we had ELI from ATLANTA who is also a professional underwater photographer and he took the pictures of Pritti and Dipak and some of the things that we saw underwater...

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...to see some of the things that we saw click on to the LINK below...

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...enjoy & be inspired...

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http://www.yelloideas.com/journey/Honduras/Memories/

...our dive shop-OCEAN CONNECTIONS-it was home from home-great bunch of people-we were real sad to leave them after 9 days of friendship...it backs on to the ocean...

...this area is known as WEST END...

...back of the dive shop...the boat bringing people back from dive...

...back of the dive shop as Kiki bring back empty Oxygen cylinders from the dive boat...

...our beautiful hotel right across the dive shop...we had a suite with kitchen -living room etc-we just wanted to stay here for ever-ROATAN is one place we know we will go back oneday...

....on our patio...we have enjoyed relaxing in hammocks all over the world...

...my favourite drinking hole in all my travel-this bar has COOL BLUE CARIBBEAN OCEAN in the front(see pix below this-VEDANTA playing in the water) and the back(see picture no2 above)-also watched few football matches here-the pix above was taken on the day REDS beat EVERTON 1 nil...

...Vedanta plays in the water at the front of my all time favourite bar as Dad watches REDS beating EVERTON inside the bar...with a few cold ones ofcourse...

...this less than a minute walk from our hotel...

...another place to enjoy some cool drinks---about 2 minutes walk from our hotel...

...WEST BAY beach...5km of pristine white sand and lashing of blue CARIBBEAN waters...10 minute taxi ride from our hotel...the waters are so shallow here...

...the SNOKERLLING was really good too...

...Pritti & Vedanta off snorkelling-I didn't see them for 2 hours...

...BOND GIRL back from her mission...

...I didn't snorkel much here but it was a good photo oppertunity...

...I sat round all day watching the traffic go by... with few cold SOL for company-with slice of lime of course

...and there I am...

...leaving ROATAN by ferry...this ferry hit the REEF few years ago...

DIVING- BELIZE

...Snorkelling in Caribbean sea off the coast of BELIZE...

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...from BELIZE CITY we took one hour boat ride to small key(reef island) called CAYE CAULKER where we spent 3 days snorkelling and diving...

(snorkelling and diving pictures below are taken by either Pritti or Dipak with a underwater camera)

...the visibility was up to 20 meters during all snorkelling...

...US snorkelling at STING RAY & SHARK ALLEY---40 minutes boat ride from CAYE CAULKER...

...snorkelling with NURSE SHARKS(they are no danger to human)...this area is known as STING RAY & SHARK ALLEY...we snorkelled with quite a few SHARKS & STING RAYS...
...we came across a group of 8 NURSE SHARKS resting on bottom of the ocean...some were up to 5 meters...bit scary for all of us but what a sight!

...we came across group of over 30 huge STING RAYS and SPOTTED EAGLE RAYS in just 10 feet of water under us...they were almost touching us as they were gently gliding pass us and they were in such playful mood...real magic...

...spotted EAGLE RAY...
...our guide OSCAR playing with group of STING RAYS...I had to remind him that STEVE IRWINE(crocodile hunter fame) was killed by STING RAY's tail as it punctured his heart couple of years ago...I was a bit scared as they were only couple of feet away...
...beautiful...
...a real dream come true to have seen this...
...couple of them had tails missing,lost in a fight may be or during an attack by another predator like shark...
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...DIVING in BELIZE...

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...we had 3 dives each in BELIZE...

(all pictures taken by Pritti & Dipak with underwater camera)

...all pictures are from our 3 dives...

...dive sites were 2 hours boat ride from CAYE CAULKER...

...this is second biggest BARRIER REEF in the world after THE GREAT BARRIER REEF in AUSTRALIA...

...this BARRIER REEF covers the coast of MEXICO,BELIZE,GAUTEMALA & HONDURUS in the CARIBBEAN SEA...

...the visibility during all dives except THE BLUE HOLE was up to 20 meters...

...beautiful blue reef...
...here Pritti holding a CONCH...

...Dipak diving the reef...
...2 of our dives were at 20meters and BLUE HOLE dive was at 40 meters...
...STING RAY was resting on the bottom of the ocean but as we approched it took off...
...multi-coloured REEF ... FAN CORAL
...many fish of dazzling colours and varying sizes...
...we are both now certified OPEN WATER SCUBA DIVERS...we are hoping to go one stage further in near future to become ADVANCE SCUBA DIVERS and for that one needs to do five special dives like wreck and night dives etc with a scuba -master and if you pass then you are a certified ADVANCE SCUBA DIVER... we both have done one advance dive each already and so 4 more to go...

...Dipak & our Scuba-Master surrounded by BLUE CHROMIS fish...

...to be a ADVANCE SCUBA DIVER one also has to learn to identify types of CORALS and FISH...and we are learning that too...

...Dipak by the WALL---WALL is from where the sea dropps off in to darkness and unknown...we are at 22 meters and from here the sea goes down to over 1000 meters and when you see this darkness where no sun-light ever penetrates- everytime it use to send chill down my spine...

...it's him again...

...Pritti and Dipak at 20 meters...picture by our Dive-Master..

...and it's him again...

...beautiful STAGHORN CORAL...

...GIANT TUBE SPONGE...

...GIANT SEA CRAB...
...when you are diving you never really get scarred of any of the creatures that you see and most of the time they are only couple of feet away from you...but if you see something like that on land you run miles away...it's weird but it's true...

...Giant GREY ANGELFISH...

...ELIPTICAL STAR CORAL...

...LEAFY STINGING CORAL...

...SQUIRRELFISH amongst many diferent coral including SCROLL CORAL(yellow)...

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...THE BLUE HOLE is a tourism poster for BELIZE...it's where divers from all over the world come to dive...it's 400 feet deep and 1000 feet wide...it's a collapsed cave under the ocean...

...THE BLUE HOLE...

...this is exactly how it looked when we were there-deep BLUE...

(this picture taken from archive)

...unfortunatley this is the only picture from our BLUE HOLE DIVE as it was windy day and so water became murky with 5 meter or less visibility and we were 40 meters below the surface...

...BULE HOLE is known for it's number of SHARKS that one can see and we saw some 9 SHARKS in all here and some were huge over 25 feet perhaps...we think they were GREY CARIBBEAN SHARKS and others...we spent total of 25 minutes below the water...I am telling you I was shitting myself but it was great Adrenaline rush...

...in this dive we had to descend very fast to 40 meters using the wall as our marker,then you swim beneath a stalactite-laden overhang and that's where all the SHARKS were hanging out... heart stopping moment for me!...

Belize...Caye Caulker...Tela

...Belize City capital of Belize...nothing to write home about...best thing is CAYE CAULKER and BLUE HOLE for divings are just off the coast from here...
CAYE CAULKER..taking a lunch break from snorkeling and diving....

...sunset over TELA hotel...Guatemala...

...beach at TELA...

...relaxing in HAMMOCK LOUNGE at TELA hotel...

Honduras and Belize

....8th April now in TIKAL at MAYAN ruins in GUATEMALA -off on 9th to across to MEXICO to see MAYAN ruins at PALENQUE ...then towards MEXICO CITY.

...spent last 14 days DIVING in both BELIZE and HONDURUS...

...BAY ISLANDS in CARIBBEAN SEA off the coast off HONDURUS were briliant-we stayed at ROATAN ISLAND for 10 days and dived everyday...here is the 2nd biggest BARRIER REEF in the world after THE GREAT BARRIER REEF in AUSTRALIA-it stretches along the coast of MEXICO-BELIZE-GUATEMALA-HONDURAS.
We did 20 dived between us.

...then we left BAY ISLAND and came in to BELIZE to dive off BELIZE CITY...we spent 3 nights at CAYE CAULKER -did 3 dives each and we dived THE BLUE HOLE and again came face to face with few SHARKS!...

(we entered BELIZE via a small boat from GUATEMALA)

Copan-Hondurus-MAYAN RUINS

...Scarlet MACAW's at COPAN MAYAN RUINS...there were quite a few flying around just feet away from us...
...small Green TOUCAN near COPAN MAYAN RUINS...

...Green/Yellow TOUCAN ....

...COPAN MAYAN RUINS...this place is full relics from MAYAN days over 1000 years ago...PYRAMIDS included...

...very hot day...lots of carvings of animals and birds etc...MAYAN KINGS ruled large part of MEXICO,GAUTEMALA & HINDURAS...

Gautamala and Hondurus...

19th March 08...now in TELA in HONDURUS on the beach -CARIBBEAN SEA-arrived 16th leaving 23rd to go to BAY ISLANDS until 1st April for 8 days of DIVING and SNORKELING...TELA is beautiful town on the coast ,we are in a beautiful hotel on the beach and just lazying ,reading books,hammocks and drinking BACARDI all day as it's only 5 US for 1 liter botttle!!! the Cola is more expensive than BACARDI!...CUBA is not far from here too!

...last week we spent in GUATAMALA looking at LIVE VOLCANOS and old towns like ANTIGUAS-we have criss crossed the border between EL SALVADOR -GUATAMALA -HONDURUS on more than 3 occassions-border crossing is real easy between these 3 nations-they have good understanding between them...

...We have loved GUATAMALA and HONDURUS-both are very lush green and really pretty countries and the people are very friendly and easy going...we will be crossing in to GAUTAMALA again early April to look at MAYAN RUINS at TIKAL...

...we are looking forward to lazying on the beach in BAY ISLANDS-have booked a nice hotel with a package for 10 DIVES each...can't wait...we are hoping to see WHALE SHARK as they gether around here for breeding this time of the year...

...we are running out of space on the BLOG as we 've already used up 91% of the space and hence publishing less than before...

Guatamala...PACAYA VOLCANO

...PACAYA VOLCANO...Gautamala...13th March 08...

...day scene from our hostel in ANTIGUA Gautamala...
...from Antigua 2 hour bus ride then over 2 hours of gruelling steep climb to reach the LAVA FLOW...and what we saw was just mind-blowing...we had to cross some 300 meters of 12 months dried old lava field to reach the actual LAVA flow-and you could feel the heat from lava flow even from far as 500 meters and it got hotter and hotter as we came to within 15 feet of RED HOT LIQUID LAVA FLOW...

...the LAVA FIELD looked like land from another planet far away-all different forms of wrinkles,bends etc....
...after carefully walking across the LAVA FIELD we reached the LAVA FLOW coming out of the crater of Pacaya Volcano and what we saw was just a dream come true-seeing actual lava flow for the first time in our life...some got even closer to toast marshmallows...I am about 15 feet away...


...there were quite a few LAVA FLOWS ...as lava cools on the surface it becomes hard and becomes a lava tube and in the tube lava keeps flowing and that is what we saw here-lava coming out of the crater of the volcano through the lava tube and out for us to see...
...it also started raining and got dark for good effects but we had one hell of a day yet again.seeing lava this close has to be in top ten of best things seen on our tour yet!....
...Vedanta was very brave indeed walking across the LAVA FIELD as it was right damn dangerous many times -Pritti ,myself and our guide Ronni were holding her hands both front and back to guide her down safely...

...I was really overwhelm seeing this because I always thought only them explorers and the likes of Richard Attenborough only got to see this kinds of nature at work...
...STUPENDOUS...

...this pix shows cool lava tube and lava flowing in the lava tube...this our group...

...we had 6 Israelis in our group-let me say that I am not an anti-jew or anything like that-but travelers from Israel are the worst kind of people we have met on our travels-they are RUDE,MOST UNFRIENDLY,ARROGANT,INYOUR FACE,THINKS WORLD OWES THEM A FAVOUR OR TWO and these 6 were the worst of the worst...

...live a little you WANKERS...