In diver lingo, a surface interval is basically exactly what it sounds like: an interval of time that you spend at the surface between dives. On multi-dive days, you need a certain amount of time between dives in order to let the nitrogen bubbles dissipate from your blood. Between dive trips, it’s all surface interval – ha.

Our surface intervals on Roatan were mostly spent typing away on our laptops – it was another digital nomad week for us. Mornings were for scuba, afternoons were for lawyering. Not a bad life.

Especially when your afternoon lawyering is done at this beautiful place! We stayed at Barefoot Cay Resort, on the East side of Roatan. It was a beautiful, peaceful spot.

Most of the Barefoot Cay buildings are on a private island. It’s a tiny little island, and in the evenings before dinner Steve and I circled it over and over, getting our steps in (no days off for the Garmin watches!).

We stayed in a little bungalow right on the beach. There was a family of bats that stayed with us – cuddled up together in the eaves of our porch by day. Too cute! Speaking of cute, but in a totally different sense, I was obsessed with the woven pendant lights hanging from the trees near the resort’s restaurant, Silversides.

In the mornings, due to the high winds on the East side of the island, we were loaded into a hotel van and driven to the West side to do our dives. One of the hotel’s dive boats was docked by this gorgeous sandy beach, where our captain, Justin, and our divemasters, Danny and Ron, waited for us every morning.

The street was lined with dive shops. It’s easy to see what Roatan’s favorite activity is!

In between dives, we hung out on our boat – the Marea – chatting with Justin, Danny and Ron, and the other divers (and on one day, snorkelers) while we drove between dive sites or bobbed around waiting for the green light to hop back in the water.

During one surface interval, Justin drove us past the dolphins at Anthony’s Key, one of the biggest resorts on the island. Worth noting: this is not a holding pen. The dolphins are free to come and go as they please; those that were swimming around between the docks were there by choice, much to my relief. (Also, please excuse whatever is happening with the color in this picture. I don’t know why it’s all purple.)

Most days, we wrapped up our dives shortly before lunchtime and headed back to eat at Silversides before diving into work for the afternoon. But on our last day, our dive buddies Alex and Emily suggested that the four of us get dropped off at the Roatan Island Brewing Company for lunch – just to do something a little different.

We shared flights of beer, mango slices with dipping spices, crispy breadfruit – a Roatan favorite – and chicken quesadillas. Yum.

Definitely a fun way to celebrate adding twelve dives to our resumes!

Next week: back in the water for the biggest (literally) highlight of the week. Check in with me then!