July 6 - Hurricane Wilma

I don't know if anyone knows this, but I've only been in one hurricane. It just happened to be the largest hurricane the Caribbean had ever seen. Hurricane Wilma is the same hurricane that pretty much destroyed Cancun. They are still rebuilding from this hurricane.

In 2005, I dreamed of doing some more scuba diving after falling in love with it in the Great Barrier Reef. I did a bunch of research on the Caribbean and where I should go. Most places point to Belize as some of the most spectacular Scuba Diving in the area. Digging a little deeper, I found out that an island called Roatan off the coast of Honduras had just as good Scuba Diving, but was cheaper and less crowded than popular Belize. Since I had also wanted to see Costa Rica, this was a perfect option and off I went. I picked the end of October because it was still off season and was supposed to be the end of hurricane season (notice Wilma is near the end of the alphabet).

When I arrived, the island was more beautiful and more laid back than I could imagine. I was able to get in 3 days of amazing diving in before they told us that a tropical storm was coming in and we probably wouldn't be able to dive the next day, but don't worry, we'd be back in the water the day after. We woke up the next morning and found out that the tropical storm went straight to Category 5. The largest hurricane possible. We were supposed to get ready to evacuate the island. We only got hit by the outskirts and never evacuated, but were in 80 mph winds for 2 days and were regularly left without electricity (and were certainly cut off from the outside world). By the time it passed, I made friends with locals and tourists alike and still found it to be an amazing adventure. I was due off the island the next day, so I didn't get any more diving in, but it was still a great story.

The picture above is after the hurricane, it destroyed most of the docks on our side of the island and flooded some of the hotels (I was on the second floor). This was a popular bar and I had planned to visit one night while I was there, but as you can see, I never got a chance.

I love how the sign still says "OPEN".