December to remember

West End is still pretty slow. Nice for the people who likes to dive in small groups and get spoiled.
We have a new addition to the diveshop, Donkey. Donkey is a kitten somebody stragetically left at Sundowners, and ended up at ours to replace the emptiness of the still missing Molly and Lowfat.

She will never be a Lowfat, keeper of the weightbelts and she will never be Molly the dogfighter. She will be Donkey and will develope her own values for being a diveshop cat. She is cute and adorable, but are not all kittens like that?

West End is putting on its coat of Christmas and seems to wake up again as the businesses that were closed down are open again. Fairylights every where in all colours, fake Christmastrees, one is hanging upside down at the Blue Marlin. Something different.

Something never changes: The road gets grated and then it begins to rain...

For the last week Amanda and her divers had turtle sighntings on every dive, also they saw eels and a blackspotted nudibranch.

We had some of our "old" divers back. Overwhelming to have so many of them back at the same time. It was a wonderful week with a lot of catching up and vino sin queso party at the shop once again thanks to Sandra (James Bond diver, queen of fun and fighting fires when she is not travelling).
Lovely to see Marie Josee and meet Ray, and of all so strange to see Dory here without Gary the captain.
But those two we will see soon.

Things can be tight and difficult at times, but having all these people out there and popping in when you need them most is the most beautiful thing in our life.
I will use Sandras good bye words:
We love us, which means we are all there and means all of us. We love us!

Thank you all for diving with Tyll's Dive and becoming our friends.

Happy holidays and all the best wishes and good health for us all for 2011.

Happy thoughts in gray october days

Dive princesses and dive princes

What makes you a dive princess/prince?

1) you arrive on Roatan and think you will give it a try
2) you give it a try and kind of love it
3)You dive more and actually love it
4) whats that fish whats that little fellow poking out of the coral
5) now you really want to know what you are seeing and why they do what
6) sorry, you are hooked now
7) you don't wanna leave right now so you miss the ferry
8) bad weather, lets stay another day
9) I cant find my wallet
10) the Galaxy ferry at 7 am is too early anyway
11) Lets have a baleada since we missed the 2 pm ferry
12) We can have a dive since we are not going on the morning ferry
13) Group picture, we are really leaving. Okay. (Don't leave)
14) They left.....
15) But we know they left as diveprincesses, nothing less.
16) They went to explore the world, but know where they come from.
17) One fine day they will return.
18) I think 2 particular princesses know this story very well.
19) Is it then why we love what we do?
20) Left for your comment
21) Did not forget the diveprincess who brought the crocs and did the walks
22) We are all dive princesses or dive princes but there is only one queen and she might very well arrive in a few weeks
23) There is the Turtlekid
24) There is the seahorse finder
25) There is the paprazzi photograher
26) There is the finder of seaslugs
27) There is the seaspider girl
28) There is the little boy who one week is facinated by sharks next week by eagle rays (dive prince potential)
29) There is a diveshop family back at the shop who will make coffee and enjoy listenening to all the above findings
30)There is just enough stuff out there for everyone to enjoy. Keep blowing bubbles:-)
It's a beautiful day.

early ocober thoughts

Dive princesses and dive princes

What makes you a dive princess/prince?

1) you arrive on Roatan and think you will give it a try
2) you give it a try and kind of love it
3)You dive more and actually love it
4) whats that fish whats that little fellow poking out of the coral
5) now you really want to know what you are seeing and why they do what
6) sorry, you are hooked now
7) you don't wanna leave right now so you miss the ferry
8) bad weather, lets stay another day
9) I cant find my wallet
10) the Galaxy ferry at 7 am is too early anyway
11) Lets have a baleada since we missed the 2 pm ferry
12) We can have a dive since we are not going on the morning ferry
13) Group picture, we are really leaving. Okay. (Don't leave)
14) They left.....
15) But we know they left as diveprincesses, nothing less.
16) They went to explore the world, but know where they come from.
17) One fine day they will return.
18) I think 2 particular princesses know this story very well.
19) Is it then why we love what we do?
20) Left for your comment
21) Did not forget the diveprincess who brought the crocs and did the walks
22) We are all dive princesses or dive princes but there is only one queen and she might very well arrive in a few weeks
23) There is the Turtlekid
24) There is the seahorse finder
25) There is the paprazzi photograher
26) There is the seaslug lover
27) There is the seaspider girl
28) There is the little boy who one week is facinated by sharks next by eagle rays
29) There is a diveshop family back at the shop who will make coffee and enjoy listenening to all the above findings
30)There is just enough stuff out there for everyone to enjoy. Keep blowing bubbles:-)
(this could also apply to a dive prince)

Dive princesses

What makes you a dive princess?
1) you arrive on Roatan and think you will give it a try
2) you give it a try and kind of love it
3)You dive more and actually love it
4) whats that fish whats that little fellow poking out of the coral
5) now you really want to know what you are seeing and why they do what
6) sorry, you are hooked now
7) you don't wanna leave right now so you miss the ferry
8) bad weather, lets stay another day
9) I cant find my wallet
10) the Galaxy ferry at 7 am is too early anyway
11) Lets have a baleada since we missed the 2 pm ferry
12) We can have a dive since we are not going on the morning ferry
13) Group picture, we are really leaving. Okay. (Don't leave)
14) They left.....
15) But we know they left as diveprincesses, nothing less.
16) They went to explore the world, but know where they come from.
17) One fine day they will return.
18) I think 2 particular princesses know this story very well.
19) Is it then not why we love what we do?
20) Left for your comment
21) Did not forget the diveprincess who brought the crocs and did the walks

(this could also apply to a dive prince)

Where did Matthew go?

This is the story. Matthew was the first announced storm to come by Roatan this season (lets just forget about the actually really first one (TS Alex), because that one was too early in the season). We all follow the weather on different weather pages on the internet, since we are a dive community we have to be aware that the boats are secured and bilgepumps are working properly. Well by friday early afternoon it already was clear that Tropical Storm Matthew would make landfall on the coast of Nicaragua and venture inland to mainland Honduras, Which means the islands would go clear with a bit wind and rainfall.
Anyways, everyone goes by continuing on with daily life. Some looking forward for friday night out in town untill the authorities arrive with following announcement: Because of incoming storm, there will be a curfew from latest 10 pm, make sure to stock up on food and water as no vehicles will be allowed out untill saturday 6 pm.
Here are following emergency numbers and so on. Since when does RECO (electric company) answer their phones after hours? Anyways, this was around 5 pm, and Matthew was already zooming across the mainland and we still had peace and quiet.
Uwe did ask the authority person: will I get arrested for checking on our boat during the night? They assured that he would be fine. Uwe did not get arrested for the record.
We have been living here since 1999, and have been through quite a few northerns, tropical depressions, storms and getting the outerwinds from hurricanes and had never had a curfew put on us for that reason.

In a storm with wind and rain, it might be the safest time ever to forget to lock your door and go out walking the street or beach in the middle of the night. The potential looters and robbers will be cuddling up home where it is safe.

Well we guess the Islands had to follow the emergency regulations they have on the mainland. After all, they got all the rain and mudslides in the end.

Saturday everything was back to normal.

Now this week we have rain and it has been windy, but its not a TS , (its just miserable changing NNW/NW/SW), so we can run around in the night if we want to.

PS. Think Matthew went to Belize...

Christmas came early this year

After years of talking about getting a roof extension to give us some shade from the strong afternoon sun, it all turned very fast into action and reality. Big thanks to friends who helped us make this happen. Its AWESAME as Conal, divemaster, would have expressed it. A bit under 2 days and it was done. Amanda, instructor, supplied us with pics.
A lot of people were overseeing the work and the progress. Here Phil and Ken watching from above.
And here is the support team watching from across the road.

The pic'sare kind of in the wrong order, but at least I could finally upload them.
The roof is so nice. Come join us in the shade:-)

Marquito and Carmen are finally back home on Roatan

Marcos (our boatcaptain) and his fiancee Carmen are telling me once again to thank everybody who helped them getting through the months of uncertainty for their little boy, Marquito. Are the doctors going to remove the kidney or not? Is the new treatment they decided to try out gonna work? And on top of all these worries, Carmen herself had to have kidneystones removed.
Thanks again for all donations and great tip money to Marcos which went to help to pay the hospital bills.
Well, Carmen and Marquito are back on Roatan. Marcos is happy. They came for a visit today at the diveshop. (I know the photo got a bit too much sun}. As I understand, Marquito will still be on medication for a long time still. If no complications occur, they will first have to go back for a check up next year. So fingers crossed. He is a sweet little boy, who has been in and out of hospital many times over the last many months.

Mariposa Lodge

Great deals at Mariposa Lodge and Mariposa Pequena this month for walk- ins.

Min. 3 nights at the Mariposa Lodge for $35 a night (1-2 people), 3rd person +$10
Luxuary accomodation, hot water showers, TV with DVD (no cable, but they have a big selections of cd's), fully equipped kitchen, bottled water supplied, safe box in room, daily housekeeping.

Mariposa Pequena for $20 a night (1-2 people), 3rd person +$10
Shared bathrooms with hot water, shared spacious well equipped kitchen, ceiling fans, bottled water supplied, personal lockers, daily housekeeping.

Enjoy canadaen Sue and Mikes hospitality.

And its only 2 minutes away from Tyll's Dive!!!

New face at Tyll's Dive

Let us introduce Amanda and welcome her to Tyll's Dive.
Amanda is taking over from Kala who is going back to Canada mid June. We don't need to change on the board that we speak Canadian, since Amanda is also from Canada.

Luckily Clay and Lisa arrived from Arizona on thursday, after not having been here for about two years, and wanted finally do their advanced course. Here they are going over homework, and what they saw on the dive.

Feeling comftable busy is a good feeling

There is nothing better than have some nice people wandering in and out of the shop. Enjoying their dive experience with Mo and Rino.
After Semana Santa was over it got kind a quiet. But still had some great divers coming through from the cruiseship. People who do not like "cattle-diving".
Then Ernesto contacts us. Me and some friends are coming down for a few days. Always thinks he is from Nicaragua, bu everytime he has to correct me, no Guatemala, I lived in Nicaragua. But we remember always right that he likes the german football team from the last World Cup.
Ernesto is a diveenthusiast, and got a treat going out this afternoon one on one with Rino. And they spotted an octopus feeding on a conch. They told they wanted just to stay put and watch this. So rare to see.
And now we wait for them all to come back from the nightdive. Hope they saw "Strings of pearls".

What a nice letter

Til:

"Uwe-Dorte Bockwoldt"

Hello again Dorte!

We just returned from our trip Sunday night, so I am just beginning to get caught back up with reality ; )

We VERY MUCH enjoyed our scuba diving experience with you and Monique.

Everything went very smoothly--Tony was wonderful--and it was VERY reassuring to know that you had those details handled for us ahead of time.

I was very glad not to have to deal with the scammers at the port and have to haggle on transportation to and from your place and be assured return to the ship on time. Not knowing the local customs, and being a single mother, I was very leary and YOU made it all work out just perfectly!

Tony was a true gentleman and very attentive.

That being said, it was our scuba experience with you all that was BY FAR the highlight of our trip! We can't wait to come back and are thinking of maybe staying out there on the West End by you somewhere for a week next year and really take the time to enjoy that gorgeous little piece of paradise!

Be sure to Thank Monique for holding my hand throughout the entire dive experience--I was clearly the most difficult diver and she was a true GEM! Love HER!

When things settle down here a bit I will send the photos you requested and would be happy to write a review for you on Trip Advisor or do anything else I can to help you and your wonderful business thrive!

Thanks again for everything!

Fondly,

Linda Zubek and family

Largo, Florida

April

It's mid april already. Time seems just to fly by. The dmt's (Jacquie, Conal and Mike) have finished and flown out of the nest. Left is Kala and Chase to take out the divers, but not for long.
They want some new adventures before they too have to go back home.
This is the hard thing living and working in a place like this. The changeover of people.
You get to know so many great people, but one day they have to go back home.

At least we have found a new instructor, Amanda. This is fantastic because she knows most of the divesites here and been on the island for a while already. And she is a very sweet person, and we are sure we will have a good team again.
I have to mention that Mo and Rino still will be helping out. And of course Marcos is here and still the best boatcaptain. So there will still be familiar faces around at the shop.

Cruiseship season is slowing down. Less ships coming in now untill fall. Last week we had a couple a taxidriver brought in. They loved the diving and are planning to come back later this year for a week. Well now they for sure have to, because in the hurry after the dives to get back to the ship in time, they forgot their regulators...
At least they got our flyer so they can contact us. So far they haven't. The cruiseships charge up to $1 pr minute for internet use.

Updates on Marquito.
Today when Marcos was getting the boat ready for the night a phonecall came from Carmen, who is still in Tegucigalpa with Marquito. Last we talked to her she was hopeful, things looked better. But the message today was Marquitos condition had taken a turn to the worse again.
I saw Marcos out at the boat, hiding his face. I think he was crying or most likely trying not to.

Updates on Lowfat and Molly.
None.

Weather updates.
It wanted to turn ugly today, but the sun won the battle, and the 2 canadians could still do 2 dives today. The sea was a bit bumpy, but now this late afternoon its calm, its sunny and warm.

Life is good.

Chasing the sunsets

Kristin Haynes has over the last months been a busybee here in West End.
She has made a painting of nearly every diveshop, bar and restaurant by now.
Postcards have been printed and the profit from the sales goes to the SolFoundation:
www.solroatan.org
You can see more if you visit www.kristinhaynes.blogspot.com

Marquito

The letter from Carmen

Marquito

Marcos is back from Tegucigalpa. Carmen and Marquito have to stay over there.
They have not done the operation yet. The doctors decided to try another treatment after they had to postpone the operation twice.
If that does not work either they have to operate, but they have some hopes it might.
The donated money has been deposited at the hospital and Marcos brought over a copy of the receipt.
It goes towards the treatment, laboratory tests. Carmen and Marcos have been assured they will not have to come up with the whole amount again if there has be a surgery in the next month or two. Guess you can call they got a package deal.

Carmen , sweet Carmen, also send over a letter to thank everyone who has been and still is helping them economically.
She also wrote a little note to explain Marquitos medical condition, but it contains medical terms which we need help with to translate and explain.

People Carmen and Marcos want to thank (and we at Tyll's too) so far:
Ed and Mo, who got generous tip on the 8th of march at the Blue Marlin, because they told it would go to the little boy.
Claus and Fran, who were visiting the island.
Jacquie (also muchos gracias for helping make this happen), Conal, Chase, Michael, Capt. Alex, Ruthie, Jenny Myton, Jenny Blenny, Kathryn (RG), Gay (CCT), Nina, Erna, Wolfgang Gehring , Marty and David Sperow, Diane.

Besides that Marcos tip money and pay for looking after Moody Blues for Noelle, went into the pot as well.

There is a saying, just not sure its quite like this, but you will understand the meaning.
Many small creeks makes a big river.

When help is needed.

This is something new to us, to ask people for money. But its not for ourselves at least.

We are trying to collect money for Carmen (worked for Justus at the Purple Turtle) and Marcos (our boatcaptain for years now.) Their 8 months old son is having surgery on thursday. Most likely he is gonna have one kidney removed. The treatments so far has not helped and the kidney is very bad. Carmen has been in Tegucigalpa for over a month now. They only have the income from Marcos now. We and Justus have lend them money for the unsuccesful treatments.
The baby is in hospital Maternidad Infantil in Tegucigalpa and before the surgery its common practice to make a deposit. In this case it's lempiras 11.000.

Its all on a very short notice, so we have not had much time to arrange anything.
Jacquie, divemaster in training, has been very helpful with coming up with ideas, where I would have gotten stucked.

But people here have been great at chipping in. Many small amounts sums up in the end and we are positive to be able to deposit the amount at Banco Atlantida by wednesday.

This is the beautie in a small community, people do look after each other in times of need.

Thank you all.

Missing cats

So these are the news.
Molly, the dogfighther and Lowfat the Padi professional have been missing for over two weeks now. Where are they, where are their furry bodies?
Understand diveshopcats have their jobs assigned to them, and they are missed. Our rhythm every morning has been thrown off. Molly and Lowfat have been, well they have characters as the cats they are. And now they are gone, abducted by aliens who wants to study diveshopcats...or they got killed. Who knows. Nothing left but their 8 kg bag of catfood. Dissapeared from the surface of the crust of this island.

2010, this is gonna be a great year.

It has been months since there has been any activity on this blog. There really hasn't been much to post. But now Christmas is over and everyone in West End (diveshops, restaurants and bars) had a busy week. Everyone is feeling things really will be better again on the island.

Cruiseship business is picking up. Not all cruisers want to stay in a big group, and thats where the small diveshops in West End come in. Who wants to dive in a group with 14-15 other divers. The marinelife will scatter away when they see all the bubbles and flaring arms and legs.

As to the weather, it has mostly been fine, but when we have a northern coming in we quick change from bikinis, boardshorts to warm clothes to keep warm and dry.
And we can warm up and hang out with Ed at the Blue Marlin across the shop.




2010 can only be a much better year. Already with the diveshop staff and dmts the vipe is great.
Yes cheers to good happy year.