V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N!!

So our long awaited, much needed break finally came! Martin and I took off on Saturday the 16th at about 2 in the morning from LAX and flew first to San Salvador, El Salvador. From there we got on a plane headed for Roatán, Honduras. Roatán is one of several Bay Islands located on the second largest reef in the world (second only to The Great Barrier Reef.) As we approached the island, the pilot informed us that the airport on Roatán was closed due to weather and so we were diverted to La Cieba on the Honduras mainland. We were there only about 45 minutes before we were back in the air for the last 15 minute leg of our travels. That diversion turned out to be a foreshadowing of the rest of our trip.




We were met at the airport by Juan Carlos, who turned out to be a friendly and knowledgeable tour guide. He took us to West Bay Lodge, where we were warmly greeted by our hosts Celeste and Milos who quickly showed us to the bungalow that we would call home for a week. West Bay Lodge has a great palapa where they served us a delicious breakfast every morning, and where we even had gourmet baleadas and lobster fajitas for a few of our other meals! The 7 parrots who live at West Bay Lodge were always more than willing to help us eat our breakfasts!


West Bay Lodge, our bungalow upper right!

Malibu the parrot helped herself to my juice!

Saturday was mostly spent catching up on lost sleep, getting acclimated and staying dry! Sunday morning we were met by Juan Carlos for a day of island touring! Roatán has a fairly complex history. It is about 37 miles long and about 5 miles wide. Like most of the Caribbean islands, it was discovered by Christopher Columbus.




Originally the island was populated by an indigenous tribe related to the Mayans. None of the indigenous people have survived due to slave raids and disease. The usual European powers (British, French and Spanish) were involved in its history over the years, and the island has a fairly rich history as a safe harbor for pirates and buccaneers. In 1797 the English deported Black Caribs (aka Garifuna) to Roatán from other Caribbean Islands. A portion of that population has remained on Roatán at Punta Gorda.



This young boy was captain of his refrigerator.

Punta Gorda

Much of the rest of the population came from the Caymans, and of course in more recent years, from mainland Honduras of which it has been a part since the 1860s. Because of this history English is as much its native language as Spanish is. Over the years, a fairly large expatriate population has grown up there and will likely continue to grow.



Coxen Hole, capital of Roatan



Juan Carlos took us all over the island, showing us the sights including shipwrecks we could see from the land, colorful houses, people congregating with their neighbors and families, walking to church (a very substantial Seventh Day Adventist population), the ubiquitous island dogs, spectacular views, "iron beaches" (basically coral that has become part of the land),



Iron Beaches.


and a special water taxi ride through the mangroves
Emeril, captain of this fine water taxi
the mangroves!

and for a special BBQ lunch at a place called The Hole In The Wall. The Hole in the Wall is owned by an expat named Bob Lee. Bob has lived on the island for 20 years and built his "restaurant" (and I use that term loosely) over the site of his sunken catamaran. He serves only lunch, all you can eat sirloin from locally grown beef, and lobster tails. If you like cigars, he has a big bowl of them you are welcome to smoke for free. He has a big scarlet macaw named Abogado (lawyer). You can only get to his place by water taxi, but it's worth it. The food is delicious and how can you beat the ambiance of a place that is pretty much just a lean-to shack on an open deck on the water! According to Bob, all of his customers are tourists and expats. He asked us where we were from and when we said "Calabasas" he pointed to one of his walls where a family from Calabasas had signed their names just last month!

Martin and the proprietor of The Hole in the Wall


Very weirdly small world. Our tour ended around 4:30 and then Martin and I enjoyed a great visit to the Serenity Spa at West Bay Lodge - salt scrubs and aromatherapy massages. Yummy!







Over our week on the island we learned how to navigate the weather. When the wind starts to pick up, you've got about 30 minutes to find shelter before the rain starts coming down. And it pours. What you can't always know is how long it will rain. It may be for only a few minutes, or it may be for hours. We learned to really "make hay while the sunshines" and took every opportunity to get out of the bungalow and go play every time the weather lifted. We had a lot of opportunities to sleep, read, and lay around. We got a chance to snorkel a number of times - not as much as we would have liked. One of our snorkeling days was PERFECT! The water was calm, visibility was great, and we could not believe how absolutely beautiful the reef is. Truly the prettiest/healthiest reef we've ever seen with beautiful sponges, corals and sea fans. The fish life is abundant. We saw so many kinds of fish, even squid. On our last day on the island we went out and were so fortunate to see and swim with a hawksbill sea turtle.






One day we walked up the beach to Gumbalimba Park where we took a zip line canopy tour. The canopy tour was quite an experience, over 13 lines through the canopy. We saw black iguanas up in the trees and some pretty spectacular views. After the tour, we got a chance to visit the monkeys of Gumbalimba. Monkeys are not native to the island, but they are native to Honduras, including the capuchins. Gumbalimba keeps a troop of about 12 monkeys and while they are permitted to roam free, they stick to their territory and are rewarded for visiting with tourists. The park also keeps a sizable aviary including scarlet and military macaws. Scarlet macaws are the national bird of Honduras.
a black iguana sunning itself in the canopy.





We also took a day trip to Foster's West Bay Resort where we had a dolphin "encounter" and spent half an hour snorkeling with a big pod of dolphins. I had one dolphin come up to me and "gift" me a piece of seaweed; Martin had one grab his arm playfully. It was so cool.




We spent a day walking around the colorful little town of West End Village - the village is home to many dive shops, small hotels/lodges, restaurants, bars, grocery stores, and souvenir shops. This little town has a true Caribbean cool vibe with lots of young people - many we discovered have come to the island from the States to live and work for extended periods of time. The souvenir shops had lots of beautiful items made of mahogany but what appealed to be the most was the Lenca pottery. The Lencas are indigenous peoples of Honduras known for this beautiful and graphic pottery. I wanted to bring so much of it home but was limited to just a few small pieces that I could carry in my carry on luggage to bring home as gifts.

West End Village











Lenca pottery

We left the island Saturday afternoon, with Hurricane Richard trailing behind us. In spite of the weather, we fell in love with Roatán. The people are warm and genuine, the island is not over-developed and jaded, and yet not as primitive as Los Roques Venezuela. We had no problem understanding why so many expats have chosen this as a place to retire.

All in all it was a great vacation and I am so lucky to have a husband who planned it all and did such a fabulous job of it!