– RANDOM OBSERVATIONS OF LIFE AT A DIVE SHOP ON A PIRATE ISLAND.
New Year, New Crew!
Happy New Year bubble makers! A new season is upon us here at West End Divers and with that, we’ve welcomed some new faces to the fold. Joining Courtney and Alex on the team this year are Bri, former bartender from Upstate New York with crazy...
Read moreShark Attack!!!
“BUUGGSSSS!!!!” “BUUGGSSSS!!!!” I hear Mickey screaming at me through his scuba regulator, and the thirty feet of seawater separating us. We are swimming along the edge of a seamount, about sixty feet deep in the Caribbean Sea half way between...
Read moreCraft Beer on Roatan
The island Roatan is about diving. We have the world’s most pristine tropical coral reef literally at our doorstep. For many scuba diving three and four times a day is not unheard of, but as your dive computer will annoyingly tell you, there must...
Read moreLionfish Stings
Unless you have just arrived on this planet you are aware that the invasive species Lionfish has established, and in many cases has overwhelmed, the waters along the eastern seaboard of the United States, the entire Caribbean, south along the...
Read moreRebirth of a Coral Reef
by Gary Carlson The dive site of choice for the last year or so with my oft dive buddy Mickey Charteris is just off the furthest west point of the island of Roatan. It is a huge area rarely dove by those on a casual dive holiday...
Read moreCrime in Honduras
by Gary Carlson UPDATED FROM SEPTEMBER 2015 Writing about the crime rates in a country where you are trying to promote tourism is like playing with an 800 pound gorilla, you shouldn’t do that! With a long record of ignoring good advice, we...
Read moreSand Flies of the Caribbean
by Gary Carlson At some point in any general conversation about Roatan and the other islands of the Caribbean the subject of our mutual aggravation, the Sand Fly, will come up. Central America, including the island of Roatan, is an Etymologist’s...
Read moreGetting a Driver’s License in Honduras
Another installment of our insanely popular “..in Honduras” series. I grew up in the United States of America, a long long time ago the staff will tell you. Back in the previous millennia, while struggling through the secondary...
Read moreFast Food in Honduras
Unlike mainland Honduras, we do not have any of the multi-national fast food outlets/restaurants here on the island of Roatan! This caused the destruction of a personal myth; that you could not travel anywhere on this planet without running into...
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