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.