Having gotten through perhaps the busiest months of 2011 at the Bananarama Dive Center, many divers have asked us, "Do you live and work here all year round?" The answer is, "YES"!
There are many reasons why Bananarama's Dive Instructors are some of the most experienced on Roatan Island. Between Sofia, myself, Martin and Marco, we have well over 20 years combined Roatan Island experience, above and below the water, coupled with more than 12,000 logged dives (well, actually we have stopped counting :)
Roatan affords us and our guests quality, year-round diving with excellent visibility and comfortable water temperatures throughout the year. This makes working here much more attractive than seasonal positions and locations at other popular world dive destinations. We have good bosses too!
Roatan is blessed with some of the best diving in the Caribbean and Meso-American Barrier Reef system, which is the second largest in the world. On our recent dive trip to the Red Sea and Egypt, we returned to Roatan content that 'our' reef has continued comparable health, to another one of the world's diving hot-spots.
The management of the Roatan Marine Park here on Roatan, means we are working within a sustainable infrastructure and adhering to environmentally conscious dive practices, which unfortunately, cannot be said of some other popular diving destinations. I couldn't imagine working and diving somewhere where for instance, dynamite fishing or anchoring on living reefs was tolerated.
We Instructors, also enjoy guiding certified divers as much as teaching courses. Roatan and West Bay in particular, provide us with the perfect location and conditions for entry level courses, while also being ideally located for diving either side of the Island. This unique setting is often remarked upon by well traveled divers, who have previously had much longer boat or van journeys before finding their dive site. We all benefit from our ideal setting. For all of us, the diversity of our clients, the huge amount of repeat divers, and the overall island vibe, would make Roatan a difficult place to leave behind.
Increased links to mainland Honduras and North America, well stocked supermarkets, varied restaurants, a stunning 18 hole golf course and numerous non-profit community and fundraising events, mean living here has never been so enjoyable, did I mention the weather yet?
And finally, just when we think we've found everything there is to find underwater, something new appears or something amazing happens.............and that's the beauty of diving here.
We hope you will enjoy diving with us as much as we do. You may come as guests, but you will leave as friends.
Bananarama Dive Center Slide Show |
