Diving @ Fantasy Island Resort with side trip to Copan

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Angelika and I returned to Roatan Is. Jan 5-13 of 2008. We had visited on our cruise in Sept. '07 and dived there. We found the place so lovely and the diving so great that we decided to return. We got a good deal on a week's stay at Fantasy Island Beach Resort (yeah, I know, corny name. They didn't have a midget in a white suit...)

Anyway, Roatan is one of the Bay Islands that belong to Honduras. Originally they were explored by the Spanish in the 15th century and claimed by the British in the 17th century. Roatan was occasionally a port for pirates during the heyday of the real pirates of the Caribbean. Nowadays it's a pleasantly third world place that is just on the cusp of being discovered. The island is about 35 mi. long by about 2 miles wide, shaped like a banana. It has a spine of wooded hills that run pretty much the length of the island. We thought it looked rather like a Hawaiian island, just more run-down. The island is definitely third world, but developers have found it. They are building a shopping center with McDonald's, Applebees and some other chain restaurant and stores. The language is Spanish, but most folks understand English and dollars spend as easily as the local Lempiras. Our resort was on the south side of the island. Fantasy Island is a small island just offshore connected by a bridge. There are two pretty white sand beaches; one is good for wading and sunbathing; the other is nice for dipping your toes in the water, snorkeling and watching the sun rise.

Of course the main focus of the week was scuba diving. We did 15 dives during the week. The places were spectacular. Unimaginable profusion of coral, sponges, sea life. Schools of brightly colored fish, huge crabs and spiny lobsters. We saw some puffer fish, sea horse, jellyfish, an octopus and many scary moray eels. Dennis even tweaked the tail of one. There were a couple of shipwrecks to explore, swimming in and out of them. One dive site, Mary's Place, was a mysterious undersea slot canyon at the edge of the reef. We swam through a cleft so narrow there was barely room for us.

On Weds of the week we and friends who accompanied us did a special tour to the mainland to see the ruins of the ancient Mayan city of Copan. Copan was the southernmost of the great Mayan cities, the center of the highland Maya. It is so extensive, that they are still excavating it, even though the site has been known for 160 years. Copan has revealed some of the greatest works of Mayan art and architecture. We took a chartered flight on a two-engine turboprop plane from Roatan. We had expected to fly into a little airport near the ruins, get our passports stamped and have a nice bus ride to the ruins. Turned out, we landed on a grass airstrip in the hills just across the border in Guatemala. the 'airport' was literally a thatched hut. Little Toyota vans took us on a 4WD road (that was a stream for a while) the several miles to the ruins. It's not like the ruins are out in the jungle away from civilization, it's just that the airstrip was the closest to them. It was out in the middle of nowhere. We crossed the border back into Honduras about a mile from the airstrip. The border was a broken-down barbed wire fence with some white concrete markers. The border gate was guarded by some skinny horses by the side of the road. The archaeological site is bordered by a lovely, picturesque town called Copan Ruinas. Very charming place. the little archaeological museum there holds some spectacular stuff.

The ruins were wonderful, of course. As a preteen I had learned about the Mayan sites, so it was the thrill of a lifetime to actually get to one of them. In the museum at the site were some pieces of Mayan sculpture that get pictured in books. We had to fly out in the late afternoon by taking off uphill on the grass strip. Fortunately, they had chased the goats off the runway beforehand.

Coming back we had a bit of an adventure, too. We had to make connections in Houston for the flight to Colorado Springs. It turned out that the travel agent had not really allowed us enough time to get through Immigration passport check and US customs. We deplaned and came into a huge room that was filled with passengers from other flights that apparently had all arrived at the same time. We fumed in the winding line while it made its slow way along. We got through the check, then had to go find our luggage on a huge baggage carousel, walk it past customs officials who didn't talk to us or look at our luggage, then put it back on another baggage conveyor belt to be put into the airport system. What was the point?

Then, we had to go through the standard TSA security check, complete with shoe removal - the whole bit. By the time we cleared that it was already within the boarding window for our plane and we had to get to another terminal. So we literally ran through that terminal to catch a shuttle train to the second terminal over. We got off the train and ran through that terminal too. Just like on 'Amazing Race'. As we ran up to the gate Angelika's cell phone was ringing. It was my son, Zach. Turned out that I'd left my cell phone in the basket at the TSA check. They had found it and paged me, but I didn't hear the page in the airport, so they phoned the last number called - Zach. He called Ange. I had 25 minutes before they closed the gate for the flight. So I ran back through the terminal at full speed, did the train, ran through the other terminal to the TSA desk. They had the phone. Made the return trip at a full-out run and got back to the gate w/ 10 min. to spare. Our luggage even made it back with us.

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