Eileens Turtles

Not a great start for our last day on Roatan.  A bit of rain overnight and then cloudy in the morning.  Got the morning walk in, then it started to pour.  Rained hard off and on until about 10:30, then it cleared up.  Took off to Luna Beach, but missed seeing the guys before they went out for the 11:00 dive.  Paid off my dive debts at the office, worked out to be $37.50 per dive, which is quite a bit more than the flat $25 that I paid the last two years, but the prices at all the dive shops seemed to have gone up.  It's still probably the cheapest diving that you can do almost anywhere in the world.  They're all charging for equipment rental whereas in the past, if you did ten dives they waived the equipment rentals.  Might have to put a BCD on my next wish list.  This year was the first time that I have used integrated weights in a BCD instead of on a weight belt.  Don't ever want to go back to the belt.
After the bill was paid, we decided to stop in at Sundancer and see if we could hook up with Mr and Mrs Idiot from trip advisor.  We got there and couldn't find them, talked to the property manager and found out which place they were renting, but there was nobody home.  When I spoke to the manager I said that I was about to ask an unusual question, but he said that he'd heard them all.  I said that I was here to hook up with internet friends, didn't know their real name, older couple, little fluffy, longer grey hair, and he calls himself Mr Idiot on trip advisor.  Without much hesitation, he said they're staying right there in the next building, and they're the nicest couple you could ever wish for.  Unfortunately we didn't hook up....
We went to the Blue Parrot for lunch, which was right there.  Won't make my to do list for repeats.  After lunch I said I was going to have a cigar, and let's go back down to the beach and walk out onto the dock.  There's a big sign saying Sundancer only, but we made it look like we knew what we were doing and out we went.  Climbed up onto the upper deck and a few minutes later Eileen said, Are those turtles?   About a minute later they came back up for air, and for sure they were turtles.  I didn't realize it, but she has been here three years now and hasn't seen a turtle.  I went back to the car, grabbed the snorkel gear, changed into my swimsuit in the backseat got back to the dock, without my booties that I need for my flippers.  Said I'd go barefoot, so in we went.  Well she was on a mission so I was left in the dust.  Little did she realize that she went right over the first turtle without even seeing it.  I'm 25 metres behind by now, and this turtle takes off to deeper water so I know it's hopeless to try and call her back.  Fortunately, from her swimming I can tell that she's tracking something.  So she did get to see a turtle, feeding on the turtle grass and coming up for air a couple of times.  Good thing, because she said she'd have killed me if I'd seen one there and she had not.
We were going to phone the Blue Harbour people to come and visit their gardens and greenhouses but by now it looked like we were going to get dumped on again, so we decided to just head back home.  Shortly after getting home the sun came back out, so that was a missed opportunity.  Finished off the last of the beer and then went down to Smugglers for a sunset good bye with those folks.  We had a great hour or so with them, so much so that Eileen said to me, why didn't we come down here more often for sunsets with these guys?  Guess we should have figured that out sooner....might have to come back next year....We almost stayed there for supper but decided to stick to the sushi plan.  Neither choice would have been a poor one, Smugglers food is great and so was the sushi, just that it was 10 km away, which on a Saskatchewan highway would be peanuts, but that's a 20 minute drive here.  Not building up to any drama, uneventful drive, and a really good dinner.

mmmmm; sushi.  Mildly cropped to get my finger out of the picture again.

Part way through the meal, the owner came out and told us that they were doing some wine tasting.  Honduras has recently been trying to get a wine industry going.  I've been seeing some ads for this cashew wine, but this is the first time that I've seen it offered.  We sampled a couple of their offerings, but the dry was a little too harsh and the semi sweet didn't cut it either. So, so much for cashew wine. 

Got home, started to pull some things off of the deck for the night, looked up, and there was the Big Dipper.  I've been trying to find that sucker for a month and it was right there.  Upside down, but right there.  I don't know how I could not have seen it before.....

You know what tomorrow is.......pull out the suitcases and pack.  Probably leave the house around ten, pick up some subs to go for a later lunch (not much at the airport), maybe stop at Luna Beach and see if we can catch the crew between dives, and then off to the airport with about the same amount of fumes in the gas tank as we had when we picked the car up......

It's been a great February!!

A Day With Friends

A few showers overnight and then a morning that looked like it could go either way.  The usual morning routine, then off for the last two dives.  Did the West Bay Wall on the first dive but the current was the reverse of normal so instead of ending up in front of Smugglers, we ended up in front of West Bay beach.  Nice dive with lots of deep channels that cut through the reef.  My camera wasn't behaving, it wouldn't turn on so I was a bit worried that it might have flooded, so I ended up just tucking it up against my chest and enjoyed a leisurely dive.  Ended up with 1200 psi left in my tank, which is a huge improvement in my air consumption.  Got back on the boat, washed the camera good with fresh water, dried off the housing and opened it up.  Dry as a bone, and working fine.  It must just have been set slightly skewed in the housing, and was unable to turn on with the outer buttons. 
Got back to Luna Beach and found Eileen chatting with Paul and Rita, who were out for their morning walk, destined for West End on a Kahlua search.  I headed out for the second dive and they carried on to West End.  Eileen took off for a walk to West Bay.  We got half way to the next dive site when the motor on Queenie overheated, so there we were drifting towards Utila.  After about a half hour and one downpour, we got things fixed up and carried on to Mandys Eel Garden, which I think is the only site I haven't done on this part of the island.  Hundreds of garden eels in the sand just below the drop off, but those guys are somewhat camera shy and unphotogenic.  It was neat to see all these skinny little worms poking their heads up about a foot above the sand and then drawing back into their holes when you came near them.  Several nice drumfish (got a good video of one of them)  and a couple more black spotted morays.  This picture is a repeat but is probably the best on that I have taken of a spotted moray:

Black Spotted Moray

And yet another Spotted Drumfish, this time you can actually see some spots.

No turtles today, but there was a free swimming Green Moray, a southern Stingray, and a small Peacock Flounder, hiding in the sand.
Got back to Luna Beach, way late, and found Eileen, Paul, and Rita on their second pre-lunch beer.  The bartender told them the dive boat wasn't coming back, so rather than worrying they all ordered a second beer......Eileen had gotten soaked in that downpour, Paul had been unsuccessful in the Kahlua search although they did find some Vanilla Kahlua at the duty free, but without their passports they couldn't buy.  We said we could take them to Plaza Mar in Coxen Hole, so after I got packed up we all jumped in the car and took off.  Detoured to the Blue Bahia in Sandy Bay for lunch, which turned out to be quite ironic because Paul had actually phoned these guys when he was vacation planning, and almost booked one of their places.  The food was great but as always with this place it was too much, although in our wisdom, we both had ordered shared plates.  However, stuffing yourself with a 3:00 lunch sort of screws up dinner plans.  Made it to Plaza Mar, got the Kahlua although Paul had to go back to the car for a shirt before they would let him in the store.  Rita got in fine with just her bikini, but Paul had to dig into the tee shirts that they had bought in West End.  Took them back home through Coxen Hole and Flowers Bay, I don't think Rita knew where they were until we hit West Bay.  Went up to their condo at Infinity Bay for a drink.  They've got a little studio unit at the very end (furthest from the beach with a deck view of three porta potties), but they're quite happy with the place.  Small but has everything they need.  That was quite the morning walk they ended up on, they must have left about 9 and got home just in time to catch the sunset.
Eileen and I got back to the house and just sort of flopped on the couches for awhile, neither of us really wanting or needing dinner, but about 7:00 we headed to West Bay and Beachers to at least have an appetizer.  Trishes group were there for drinks, so soon after we sat down both she and her daughter joined us and we had a great chat, lots of entertaining stories  Trish is very sociable and her daughter is a real nice kid too.  She had just spent part of the day at at orphanage near Flowers Bay and really had a good time there with the kids.  Would you send your 16 year old daughter off in a Roatan taxi to spend the day at an orphanage?  Anyway, she's talking of going back again. 
Trish and daughter were out for their morning jog and saw a snake at the side of the road, not far from our place.  Trish thinks it was dead but it doesn't really matter, she doens.t do snakes, and now she's not sure she wants to jog here anymore.  Eileen is going to look for the snake tomorrow and lay it across the road.......
Tomorrow, after the snake hunt, we have to go back to Luna Beach and pay the dive bill.  This one is going to hurt, twenty one dives, but it will be worth it.  These guys were really nice to dive with.  They have one snorkeler scheduled on their morning dives tomorrow, so if it is nice and calm, maybe I can get Eileen to come on the boat and we'll go for a snorkel too.  I also left a facebook message with the Blue Harbour greenhouse people and she said if we call her, she'll be there if we want to come back.  So if all works out, we might have a good and busy day tomorrow.  Dinner plans are for the sushi place in Sandy Bay.  Could be a great day, apart from the unpaid bill at Luna Beach......
Late picture add-on; just had a visit on the front door by a cute frog:

He sat on the back of my hand for a brief time, was about three inched long.  Really cool, big black eyes.

The Dreaded Countdown

Only two more days on the island, how quickly a month goes by when you're having fun.  Eileen is looking very brown while I'm only on second stage rouge.  Hardly peeled at all, nose once, chin once, left ear twice and top of the head twice.  Pretty tame year for exfoliation.
Rained pretty good overnight, so we had some good humidity today.  After our standard bacon and tomato sandwiches, we hopped into the car and headed to the Blue Harbour Tropical Arboretum.  We found the Blue Harbour hydroponic greenhouses but the only people around were a couple of gardeners and an armed guard that spoke the same amount of english that we spoke spanish.  Not sure where all the gardens and conservatory are, but we didn't find them.  Headed back towards West Bay but the skies really darkened up so we returned to the house.  Stopped to chat with Trish for a minute (out for her jog) just when a short downpour happened.  She was soaked.  Came back to the house for a little bit, then walked to West Bay.  Sat down at the restaurant, ordered our lunch, and then spotted Paul Melnikel (guy from work).  He and his wife joined us for lunch and had a nice visit.  They are enjoying their stay at Infinity Bay.  Left Infinity and decided to walk the beach.  Found Trish and one of her cohorts sitting on their lounge chairs in a few inches of water, looking quite relaxed.  Both Trish and Paul are talking about this new bar/grill called Beaches, so it's going onto our to do list.  It's pretty close to Bite on the Beach, right next door to where the Argentinian Grill is building a new restaurant.  So many places, so little time.
Continued walking past Bite on the Beach, and then decided to take the road back to the highway from their parking lot.  I've driven it once before (last year).  It was a nice walk, although a little warm.  Peaceful and quiet, through some really nice forest that you really don't see when you're driving.  Eileen had her swim suit on, so she stopped at the pool at the house for a cool down dip.  BBQ'd that last steak for dinner, put on a movie, and did up a blog.  Another boring day in paradise.

Taken on our morning walk

Another bird I need a name for, seems to be a cross between a flicker and a woodpecker

Wanna call this one an Egret, by the side of the road.  He's just swallowed something wormlike.

A massive tree overhanging the road, on our walk back from West Bay to the house.  That's as wide as this point and shoot could capture.

Tomorrow, two final dives with Luna Beach, then I gotta face that tab...21 dives.  Will see where they are planning to go for the afternoon dive.  If the weather is nice and it's a good snorkel site that is close to Luna, maybe I can get Eileen on the boat.

Sunday Drive

Woke up to a morning that threatened showers but those quickly faded away and the sun returned with full force.  With the end of rainy season and the onset of the heat, it's nice to see all the flowering trees starting to pop out.  There are mango trees everywhere and they're starting to bloom.  There are also a couple of other trees that I have no idea of their names, but the pink blossoms on them are opening out too.
Eileen wasn't feeling 100% this morning (fine now) so she decided to stay home while I went diving.  There were eight people lined up to dive today, so we split up into two groups of four.  My group did the deep dive at Melissa's Place while the other four stayed a bit shallower.  One of our group had trouble getting down (short on weights) so the rest of us hovered about 15 feet while she was getting fixed up.  My mask was flooding and I couldn't figure out why.  Had trouble clearing it, which is unusual, and the when Sylvia saw that I was having some trouble she came over and I thought she was trying to show me how to clear my mask but what she was doing was trying to get her finger along the top edge to straighten out the tope edge of my mask, which I had gotten sort of folded over, thus the leak.  Anyway, when she stuck her finger in I really flooded, so I just surfaced and got things fixed up.  Felt like a rookie.......The rest of the dive was OK, no special sitings although the canyons and channels were pretty neat.  Got back on the boat and started to change out my tank, then noticed that I was missing a strap.  It had broken off the BCD and was not repairable.  The spare BCD was not going to fit, so we returned to the dive shop for a pit stop, then went back out for dive two.  All eight of us went out with Adam on dive two, which was the shallow version of Hole in the Wall.  Again, lots of canyons and channels to explore.

Fireworm (3-4") Don't touch!

Banded Butterflyfish

French Angelfish (12")  They're usually pretty elusive but this guy was quite content to swim around me.  Took some decent video.

Came back to the house after diving and picked up Eileen.  Took the Coxen Hole road instead of the highway.  Pretty quiet on a Sunday.  This time I looked very closely where the road changed from one way to two way traffic, and there is absolutely no signage.  I guess you just need to know it happens.  Went to Herbies for lunch and to watch a little of the Scotties final.  They didn't have it on, but Eileen asked one of the waitresses and soon there were two TV's with the curling on.  Good but very late lunch, that was cheap too because last time we were there we won a free burger with one of their scratch cards.  Watched the game until the end of the fifth, then headed home.  Picked up a couple of things in Coxen Hole and got home about 5.  Neither of us have any great desire for more food, so we're just snacking with an early movie on. 
Tomorrow, snorkelling somewhere and maybe a trip to Blue Harbour, where the have the hydrophonic greenhouses and also some designed gardens and such.  Not too far away so it'll be an easy trip.

The Routine

We've settled right into a pretty steady routine here that goes something like this; wake up, eat, dive, dive, eat, nap, shower, eat, blog, sleep, and repeat.  For Eileen replace the dive, dive with suntan, snorkel, and read.  That pretty much sums up today, and probably tomorrow too.
Nothing special about the dives today, they were not what I was expecting when I got to the dive shop.  A group of four guys had showed up at ther resort, with widely varying levels of experience so instead of our deep exploration day, we ended up doing a couple of the more routine dives nearby the resort.  The first dive had a slow start as they were all getting their counter weights adjusted, etc.  I spent most of the first dive up near the front of the group, as they were all buddied up, but I kept getting overtaken by one or more of them, so on the second dive I dropped back to the rear and just sort of did my own thing. They are a really nice group of guys on some kind of dive holiday, some of them just need to get a few buoyancy issues figured out.  Been there, done that.  I think I will try and drop a few pounds from my weights tomorrow, I'm going down like a rock right now, and my ears are so good, all I have to do is wiggle my jaw a bit and they start popping.   Not much for pictures today, saw a few cute little Yellowheaded Jawfish but the pack was in front of me and they're pretty shy:

Not sure of the ID of this little bottom dweller, but I think it's a type of Blennie

Deformed barrel sponge, shaped just like a Valentine.  It is about three feet across.

Went out for dinner tonight at the Vintage Pearl, which is one of the classiest places I've seen in Roatan, although they do get you to remove your footwear at the door and go barefoot (hardwood floors).  They have a huge wine selection and a menu that changes daily.  They offer a three course meal which includes a soup or salad, entree, and desert for $35.  Not a bad price considering the entrees, Eileen went for the filet and I was torn between the duck breast and the rack of lamb, but went for the lamb.  We added a steamed clam appetizer (good but mine are better) and Eileen strayed off the set menu and got a Baileys cheesecake to go (extra $6).  She's over full, but had one bite when we got home and said that it was really good.  I think she still has some key lime pie to go, in the fridge from a couple of nights ago. 

View of Vintage Pearl from our table.

Mildly photoshopped to reduce the red glare, chin patch remains.....

Tomorrow Adam is planning to do a deep adventure dive with these new guys so I think we might be going up to do the wreck, and then do a second dive somewhere near there.  It's a bit of a boat ride to get there, so we'll do a two tank trip and just come back to Luna Beach afterwards.  Thinking of heading to French Harbour to catch a late lunch and the end of the Scotties final, an ATM for some  lempiras$, and then probably home for BBQ, unless it's late and we decide to do the Sandy Bay sushi place.  It is on our "have to do for dinner" list yet.  So many decisons to make.

Windy night

Wind is howling pretty good here on the east side tonight, but from the looks of the Saskatoon weather forecast, I think our visibility is a little better than what is predicted for home in the next 24 hours.  I suspect that the bare grass than Glen told us was still visible on the edge of the lane may get covered up.
We decided to head over to Sandy Bay this morning to check out the Underwater Museum, expecting that they might be busy with cruise shippers.  Stopped at the dive shop to get my flippers and booties.  They had absolutely nobody booked to dive today, so when Sylvia saw me she sort of looked panicked, since they didn't even have a boat captain around.  She was quite relieved when she found out why I was there. When we got to the underwater museum, we were the only people around.  They were even going to have to call someone to come and give us the tour, but when we found out it was $35 per person, we declined.  Headed back towards West End, but stopped in at the little bakery that we frequented last year and picked up a couple of their pastries and a loaf of bread.  Good blueberry danishes.....Stopped at West end a picked up a tee shirt that Glen had asked us to get for him. On the way back to West Bay we stopped at the lookout that is right next to one of the zip line operations.  Paid our one tourist dollar to climb up their lighthouse for a look at the scenery, hoping that we could see the Turrets (our housing development), but there was still one hill obstructing that view.  Nice view of the West End area from there though:

West End view, you can see the floating bar moored out by the reef (center right) and the pennisula at Half Moon Bay (right edge)

 Stopped at the house, picked up the beer cozies and went down to Smugglers, thinking we would have lunch and a snorkel, although I knew that the tides wouldn't be in our favour.  It was calm enough but the tide was really low, so we skipped the snorkelling part, had a good lunch of wings and nachos, and soaked up their sun for a few hours.  Screaming hot down there where it's out of the wind.
Came back to the house about 3.  There is this one bird that has been desperatly trying to get into the patio doors on the second level of the house for weeks now.  I don't know what he wants in for.

Need to look this guy up in a birdbook when we get back too.

Showered and headed to CocoLobo for their Friday night happy hour, hoping that Genny might have the same plans.  We parked in an empty lot just outside the entrance to west End, took a few steps towards town and heard someone calling Brian, Brian.  It was Genny, heading into the same parking area.  Perfect!  We walked to Coco Lobo with her and Steven, and had a good time there for an hour or so.  Genny still laughs hysterically when anyone mentions the night that her and Shawnda met the four of us (Betty and Dylaina making up the foursome) after we had come off the floating bar sunset booze cruise last year.  I don't remember the details of the humour that night, but I suspect that Dylaina played a pivitol role.   After happy hour we walked down to the Rotisere Chicken and had dinner.  Full chicken dinner, beers, deserts, and four cinamon buns to go for $25 per couple, tip included.  No wonder that place is so popular. About half way back to the car, I hear someone yelling Brian again.  This time it's Trish and her gang, who had just finished dinner at Tongs and were starting to look for a way to get home.  Eileen said we could take two, but there was about six or seven of them.  Genny couldn't leave until we finished our visit, cause I was holding the bag of cinammon buns.....Got back to the cars, said our good byes and made it home.  They've actually filled in the potholes on the road between West End and West Bay, so the driving is even more fun now than it used to be.  Also a lot safer as there isn't all the lane changing happening while you're evading the holes.  All in all, it turned out to be a pretty good day.

Morning dives booked for tomorrow.  I'm the only one on the dive board, and if it stays that way I suspect that Adam will take me on a bit of a deeper dive that he wants to do. He told me to bring my logbook along with me tomorrow, so that he can check out my dive history.  It's up at Melissas Place which is a site that is straight out from Tranquil Seas.  It'll be a bit of a boat ride, so we'll likely do two dive sites up there and just come back to Luna Beach after the two dives are done. 

Two more dives

Dives 68 and 69 in the logbook, and two sites that I haven't done before.  The first was a drift dive from Dixies Place, that ended up by Divemasters Choice, the second was at a site called Three Brothers.  Both were really good dives.  The wall at the first site was very steep, with lots of critters and interesting coral.  The second dive started along the wall but then finished in some big sandy canyons.  As we were tying up at the buoy on the first dive, the little yellow submarine came chugging up, a guy stuck his head out the top and asked if we wanted to go down together.  We said sure, jumped in the water, and started our decent alongside the sub.  The contraption is home built, and will take tourists for a sizeable fee down to 2,000 feet or so.  The well heeled cruise shipper that was on board wanted to see what divers looked like.....

Karls submarine decending.  I later noticed that black line across my photos, thinking I had a strap or something floating in front of the lens.  Turned out to be an air bubble between the camera and the wide angle lens that attachs on the outside. 

Blackbar Soldierfish; acts a lot like the more common Squirrelfish.

Juvenille Drumfish

Adam took his spear on the second dive and caught a couple of lionfish.  He dropped one of them close to a nice Grouper, and I got a good video of the Grouper eating the lionfish in one big gulp.  Saw another Queen Triiggerfish and a Black Spotted Moray.  Six or seven turtles, and again some good video.
Eileen came to Luna Beach again, hung out on their chairs for the first dive, then walked up to West Bay while I was on the second.  Watched a guy pull in a barracuda while fishing from shore right next to Luna Beach.  He proudly headed for home with his dinner.  We walked into West End for lunch at Earth Mommas, which is a place that does Yoga type stuff in the mornings and serves up smoothies and such, although they do have a small lunch menu.  Had some summer rolls, a burger with grilled pineapple, and a taco salad.  Huge improvement over yesterdays lunch.  Our server was the bartender from last years sunset booze cruise.  Captain Perry has shut down his bar, but today we saw a poster which was advertising an all night open house party on his boat, just bring your own booze and ice......I don't think so......
Got back to the house about three, lazed about for a bit, and then walked down to smugglers for a sunset drink.  Eileen reports that their Monkey Lalas aren't near the top of the ratings list.  Cindy and Richard did have a good day off yesterday, got three dives in, and were exhausted, more likely burnt out.  They're planning to make day off a monthly event.  Doesn't that just make you want to start up a small business somewhere.

Sunset over the ironshore near Smugglers.  The legendary green flash is real.  We've both seen it this year.

No plans for tomorrow, although we should find someplace different to get in some good snorkelling.  There are a few possibilities that we'll have to look into tomorrow.

Quiet Day

Cloudy and looking like a rain shower this morning, although there was a bit of a sunrise to see (not a great one though).

Cruise ship passing by at sunrise

Did the walk to Smugglers and back, had some breakfast and eventually decided to walk down to West Bay to see if we could find the coffee roastery.  Took the back road to West Bay, which only takes about 15 minutes.  Found the roastery but there was only a gardener there.  He made a phone call and within a couple of minutes a lady came down and opened up for us.  Picked up two pounds of freshly roasted coffee for 250 lemps.  Trish saw us there so we chatted for a few minutes, we'll probably see her early tomorrow morning, she jogs the main road here every morning and now she knows which house is ours.  Walked back up the beach to Infinity Bay to see if we could spot Paul Melnickle (guy who works at Cameco) but we couldn't find him.  Sat at the Infinity bar and had a morning beer.  Went to the reception office and they phoned his room but there was no answer, so I guess we'll have to try again.  It would probably be easier to find him on a day when there aren't 9,000 cruise shippers on the island.  Walked back down to the other end of the beach and had some lunch at Bite on the Beach.  That's likely the last time we'll ever eat there, the food was awful.  Eileen couldn't eat her fish sandwich and I've certainly had a better burger. Her conch soup never showed up.  Decided to walk home on the goat path (mountain goats), which is a dirt trail that goes straight up the hill behind West Bay and ends up just a few houses away from us.  That's the first time this year that Eileen has been to the top of our hill.  The normal walk on the road up to our place is enough of a climb, and we're only half way up the hill.  The views from the top are incredible.

Near the top of Turret hill.  Just left of center is the peak of our roof.  Shawnda has a house (not in the picture) that is just on our left.

By this time the sun had come out in full force so Eileen headed down to the pool to cool off.  I stretched out on the couch and had a nap.  Read a bit this afternoon and then we headed off to Blue Bahia for dinner, intending to meet up with Ralph and Karen on their last night here, but they were no shows.  Hopefully Karen didn't get sea sick yesterday when they went out for some boat snorkelling.  Dinner was great, half rack of smoked ribs and a plate of garlic shrimp, key lime pie to go.  Deb was doing her Wednesday evening entertaining, cruising the tables singing with her guitar.  Deb was the instructor at the steel pan drum lessons.
Eileen has hit the sack early, and I'm not far behind.  Morning dives booked for tomorrow with nothing planned for the rest of the day.  She might come along again for a beach morning at the resort.  By the time the two dives are over and we have lunch somewhere, it's almost two o'clock so there really isn't much time for anything serious.  Maybe a sunset beer at Smugglers or something.  Those guys were closed today, their first day off in six months........

I think we're in full laid back mde

Few clouds this morning then full sun.  Headed of to Luna Beach after a bacon and eggs breakfast.  Eileen decided to come along today and hang out at the dive resort.  She met up with a Urkranian woman that talked her ear off for most of my first dive, just when she was getting to an intruiging part of her latest Kindle book.  She did a couple of cool down wades into the ocean and found a nice starfish right out in front of the resort.  Although there was a number of people on the boat diving today, the others were all doing a class or else an initiation dive, so both dives this morning were just me and the dive master again.  Can't get any better than that.  I showed them my list of dive sites that I'd done, so both dives today were new ones.  Both of them were nice, but there was nothing too spectacular, although we were able to stretch our bottom times to over 60 minutes on both dives.  My mask fogged up bad on the second dive, which really sucked.  There was one time when I was drifting along, looking to my right and then bang.  My left shoulder collided with a six foot barrel sponge.  No harm done to me or the sponge, but I'm certainly going to do a better job of applying the anti-fog on the next dive.  Couple of pictures:

A fairly big sea cucumber (maybe 18"), crawling over a hummock.  Often see the skeletons of these guys but I don't often see then crawling around.

A huge spiny lobster, nothing here for scale but his legs are at least a foot long, probably more.  That would be quite the lobster tail.

Left the car at Luna Beach and walked into West End for lunch at Off ya Noodle.  I think they're trying to fill the void left by the Noodle Shack departure and they're doing a good job at it.  Very tasty, but not quite the same without the personal service that the original noodle shack delivered.  Walked down to the vege trucks and picked up a few things (watermelon #3), and then hiked back to Luna Beach.  Made a reservation at Rendevous on the way home (3:30 by the time we got here) then lazed about for a few hours.  Watched todays cruise ship sail past the house, they're far away but you can see the camera flashes going off as people are taking pictures of the sunset over West Bay

There was only one boat today but for the next two days there are three or four of them with a total of 9,000 plus passengers.  Sounds like good days to avoid West Bay.
Headed out the door for dinner and felt something on my leg as I stepped out.  Thought it was just a moth but looked down and there was a gecko guy scrambling up my leg.  Fortunately he stayed on the outer layer when he hit clothing, and by the time he got to the waistline he didn't like going upside down and bailed out. 
Did a repeat tonight and went to Rendevous for sushi.  Stuck with the tried and true and had their seaweed salad and coconut ginger soup again.  Ventured out with some new sushi styles and came home very satisfied.  Great place and a very nice couple.
No plans for tomorrow.  Sent an email out to Mike to see if he had any golfing plans for the next two days.  If we don't golf before Friday, then we're not golfing again, they're hosting some national championship tournament and the course is closed starting on Friday.  Might get in touch with Palmetto Bay and see if they're doing any snorkel trips, or we might just do ???

Wow, that day went fast

Another gorgeous day in Roatan, although Eileen found it a bit warm.  Went for our morning walk with the camera so that I could get a collection of hibiscus pictures.  Eileen is going to scrapbook a collage of them someday, there are some many different ones along the road here.  Finished my book, loaded up an empty crate in the car and then we took off for French Harbour.  The Cerveceria was the first stop.  It sure is easy to get a crate of beer here.  Drive up, pop the trunk, being the nice guy I am, I take the empty crate to their stack and head to the wicket.  By the time I've handed over my $23, the next crate is loaded and the trunk is closed.  Off we go to the bank.  The last time I took a withdrawl in French Harbour, I got an awesome exchange rate, so I thought I would try this bank again.  Had to wait a couple of minutes but when it was my turn I got in and stuck in the card.  All Spanish but I perservered, and again and again, but couldn't get it to work.  Finally gave up and went across the street to another bank, where a guard lets you in the first door to the ATM, then there is another guard at a second door to get into the actual bank.  Had a short wait there, but this time when I got up there I stuck in the card as usual and entered my PIN.  One of the guards saw me and told me that I had to take out the card.  Unlike our ATM's, you are just supposed to swipe you card here and the do the PIN thing.  Got my PIN accepted and then stared to enter an amount.  Hit the 5 and right away the guard pointed to the screen which said maximum 4000, so I cancelled and started again.  Entered 4000 and got another Spanish message.  The guard looked at the TD symbol on my card and pointed to the bank across the street........Back I went.  Did the swipe thing and voila, I'm in.  Hit the English button and nothing changes.  Again and still spanish, so I take my best shot.  Couple of buttons later and English appears "Enter value of payday loan"....I retreat.  Take my next best shot, message says something about unable to complete transaction.  Was hesitant with my third choiceof button interpretation but success.  Got my lempiras from the right account.  Should go log into the bank site and see how the exchange rate went.  While all this was going on Eileen was in a clothing store, so we had to hit there to pay for a new top.....call it an extra banking fee....
Picked up a few groceries at Eldons and from there we went out to the Iguana farm which was pretty neat.  There are some many different sizes, shapes, and colors in those guys,  When you get there they give you some stalks of vegetation that they obviously like, because there are iggys coming from every direction.

Feeding frenzy

Catching some sun

Didn't take long at the Iguana Farm.  It was only $8 each which was good because it was fun but not worth more than $8.  Short trip back down the road to Pineapple Villas and Herbies Sports Bar.  Nice view of French Harbour from the deck but the air conditioning felt good inside.  Watched the tenth end of a Scotties curling match on one of their hundred or so TV's and had a really good lunch. 

View from the deck at Herbies

Headed home, stopped for a couple of pastries at the bakery (closed Mondays...damn) got an ice cream at the Hungry Monkey, then made it to the house.
Eileen needed to hit some water so she headed to the pool, I felt lazy and had a nice nap.  Late afternoon we walked down to Smugglers and ran into Ralph and Karen who had spent a good part of the day there and loved it.  Had a good chat with them and then they headed off to West Bay to catch the water taxi back to West End, Ralph groaning about the hill climb that he was about to endure.  Planning to hook up with them for dinner at Blue Bahia on Wednesday.  Had a couple of beer at Smugglers, it was pretty quiet there.

Smugglers.  Don't I tan so nicely??  How do I photoshop that red to a nice golden brown??  It really isn't as red as it looks......must have been flash exposure

Walked back to the house before it got dark, bbq'd up a pack of buffalo wings from the bulk gourmet that were really good, bottle of wine, some salad, life is good.  Movie playing behind me but I'm not sure there is an audience.....
Have the morning dives booked for tomorrow.  Eileen might come along to Luna Beach tomorrow.    Went through my logbook this afternoon and made a list of the dives I have done in Roatan.  There have been a lot of repeats but I've done 32 different dive sites here.  I wanted to show the list to the divemaster to see if there are any good ones that I have missed.
We've got two more home meals in the freezer and three or four wanna do restaurants left yet, so we're starting to get to the point that we're fitting in calendar spaces.  So many good choices, but we're going for our favourites and a couple of newbies.  Can't be count down time already, can it??

Perfect weather day

Sunny, hot, and very little breeze, too bad we were both so sunned out from yesterday.  Eileen spent the morning at home, did a couple of loads of laundry.  It was washed, hung out to dry, folded, and put away by the time I got back from the morning dives.  Things dry fast up here with the sun and a little breeze, although anything like a towel that has some salt water on it never seems to ever dry out.  Lazy afternoon in the shade, then we went down to West Bay to see the sunset and have dinner.  Ran into Trish and her group before we had even walked the beach.  They're down with a couple of the kids and some neighbours, so I think there is eight of them, staying in a rental just back from the beach that is right above the coffee bean roastery.
Had drinks and supper at the Thirsty Turtle, watched the crab races (ours didn't win), saw the fire dancers, and then headed back to the house.  For the crab races, you can buy a crab (number painted on his back) then they dump them all inside a circle and the first one to the edge wins.  Money raised goes to a charity that is buying baby food for some AIDs kids.

The token sunset picture from West Bay

Crabs heading towards the finish line

Anole escaping from the deck with a chunk of watermelon

Did two really nice dives today, especially nice because there was some varied terrain and because it was just me and the dive master.  He brought along a spear for the lionfish and we puttered along at a very leisurely pace.  He speared one lionfish when we were quite close to a huge Grouper, but this Grouper didn't seem to be interested.  Too bad because I've seen some pretty neat video of groupers taking lionfish off of a divers spear, and this Grouper was a big one.  Saw some interesting stuff.  It seemed to be Grouper cleaning day because we saw several "cleaning stations" where Groupers come and park themselves, then a swarm of minnows and Cleaner shrimp will crawl over the Groupers and clean them off.  In the case of the minnows, they go right inside the Groupers mouth and clean off his teeth and cheeks.  Got some decent video of one of them.  The divemaster put his hand down where there was one cleaner shrimp, and the shrimp came out and crawlwd over the back of his hand.

Big Grouper with his mouth open, getting his teeth cleaned.  I watched this happening at a second location which I videoed.  When I got a bit too close the Groupler took off but within seconds another one came into position and took his place.  The symbiotic relationships some fish have is amazing.

Also got some really good video of a couple of turtles.  The ones we saw today we quite casual about the two of us getting in close to them.

This was my fish of the day, a Queen Triggerfish.  I've never seen one of these before, and this guy followed us around for most of the second dive. 

And finally, these two little guys called Flamingo Tongue.  I see pictures of them all the time but I rarely see them and have never gotten a good photograph.

Tomorrow, I think we're going to go up to French Harbour, restock the beer crate, get a few groceries, visit the Iguana farm, and probably have lunch at a Sports bar at Pineapple villas.

Catamaran Day

Well we all absorbed our full share of sunrays today.  A nice breeze on the water and not a cloud in the sky.
Started off by picking up Matt and Tracy at a condo type place down on the water between West Bay and West End.  If you think our hill is steep, you should see that one.  Got over to West End to meet up with Ralph and Karen, and found four other people waiting for the same catamaran van, all of whom were from saskatchewan.  Worked out just perfect for the group, the van fit ten people just right.  Got to the cat at 9:00 and off we went.  It was a little rough on the eastbound leg until you got your sealegs, but it was quite tolerable.  The highlight of that segment was the escort given by a pod of eight dolphins that swam along right in front of the boat for at least five minutes until we veered off for Port Royal Bay and shalllower water.  I took some video but it was so bright out that I couldn't really see what I was getting, and it didn't turn out.  Bummer.  Only took one picture of the boat/group and I ended up with my fingers over the lens of that skinny little camera.

Here's our first snorkel spot at the Cow and calf islands.

This stop was just like I remember it, so many different colors of coral, especially the dark red that you just don't see elsewhere.  There was a really nice starfish:

Something that must be related to a spiny urchin, but this guy was all covered in fuzz:

And one pretty colorful squid:

We then pulled anchor and continued on the the wreck, where we moored again and had another snorkel.  Starfish all over the place (dozens), a few people saw an eagle ray, and there was a southern stingray gliding around although we only saw him from the boat.  A few of us got in the inflatable pontoon boats and motored off for a cruise through the mangroves.  Interesting as always, but no nice birds or critters this year.
The cook on the boat outdid herself this year.  During the day we were served fresh cooked peanut butter cookies, banana muffins, a couple of rounds of pizza bread and of course the same fabulous fresh made salsa, and then for lunch we had shrimp skewers, chicken skewers, meatballs, rice, caesar salad, and fresh buns.  Deserts were some carrot cake and another cake that I think was something chocolate bananna.  I think everyone was sort of blown away by the food.
Got back to the dock at 4:00.  I think everyone was just about sunned out by then but everyone agreed that it was a great catamaran day.  Actually Karen said it was one of the top ten days of her life, so that kind of puts it up there.
The top of my head is tingling a bit tonight, I think I caught a bit of burn while snorkelling because I had my hat on the rest of the time.  There must be a thin spot up there on top.....The van got us back to West End, we dropped off Matt and Tracy, got home, and hit the showers.  We were so burnt out that we just cooked up a couple of denvers for supper and then crashed.  Eileen popped in a movie but I checked the cover and it`s 178 minutes.  Bet she doesn`t make it, because I know I won`t.
The best one liner of the day comes from Ralph.  We came around a corner on the way home and there was this guy walking up a hill with an armful of grass, leading a donkey on a rope.  The rope seemed quite taunt, so Ralph says ``That guy is literally dragging his ass.``  All ten of us had a good laugh over that one. 
Got the morning dives booked for tomorrow.  Not sure what the afternoon holds.  One of these days soon we`re going to need to do a run to the Cerveasia and we`re out of briquettes, but I`m not sure what all will be open tomorrow.  Maybe that`s a Monday trip.

Another laid back day

Got up this morning with the wind still blowing, went for the morning walk to Smugglers and back.  They are right at the tip of the island that seperates those that get the east breeze and those that do not.  There was just enough wave action showing at their point today that we decided we would not try and do a snorkel there.  Had some breakfast, the bacon, lettuce and fresh tomato is becoming my routine. 
Have to tell you about garbage day here.  I was really curious how that garbage truck was going to manage this hill.  Turns out that it doesn't.  The local gardeners/maintenance/whatever else have some young guy who wheels each garbage container down to the bottom of the hill, and once the truck comes, he pulls the containers back up the hill, and this is one serious hill.  Guess that is what a portion of the Home Owners Association fees would cover.
Hopped in the car and headed for West End.  Hit the gas station for 1000 lempiras of gas.  Saw a guy sitting at a table there selling corn that really looked pretty fresh.  Bought three cobs from him (18 lemps); we're such suckers for fresh corn.  OK, so it turned out to be rather flavourless white corn that we couldn't eat.....somebody has to get them some updated seed down here for their corn.  We are a little spoiled at home with what we grow.
Walked the entire beach of West End right down to Luna Beach where I'm doing my diving this year.  Are there ever a lot of changes in West End, so many shops closed down or for sale.  I think this street construction has put a few places over the brink and they couldn't survive until the job ends and things return to normal.
Had a nice snorkel at Half Moon bay, the visibility was really good today.  Baby sharp tailed eel, trunkfish, lots of lobsters, banded coral shrimp, more caterpilar guys that I need to look up....
Lunch at Half Moon, then back to the house for a lazy last half of the afternoon.  Eileen did a bit of sun at the pool, I read some book (almost finished another one....), did a video house tour with Glen and Mandy, did up a strip loin on the bbq with a side of fresh corn....
Tomorrow we pick up a couple of people we have never met and head off to catamaran day with them.  The weather is supposed to be sunny and the winds moderate.  Should be a near perfect sailing day.   Sorry, didn't take a single picture today.......

Besos Bug Got Us

We couldn't resist the lure of an evening at Besos any longer.  Stopped in after my morning dives and made a reservation.  Left the house a little early for the reservation, intending to watch the sunset from somewhere in West End, but we mis-timed it a bit and ended up a few minutes too late.  The best we got was the early dusk from the beach at sundowners bar.

Dusk bonfire at Sundowners, the bar behind me was hopping.



From the picture you can see how calm the water is on the west side, not quite like it is here on the east.  Once we consumed out happy hour beer, we made our way to Besos.  The standard order of a Caesar for Eileen, one of the few places in the Caribbean that you can get one of those.  Of course we had the ranchero chicken wings as an appy, and for main course I had a lobster and Eileen had a chicken pasta.  Excellent as expected.
Did two dives this morning, a few more divers than has been the norm.  I think there were six of us.  One of them is a bit of a pain in the butt, the typical american who needs to learn a bit of etiquette, nuff said.  Several turtles, two or three clusters of juvenille drumfish, they might be one of the most delicate looking fish that there are, a freindly green moray, a number of different types of shrimp, and one caterpilar like guy that I'm going to have to look up at the dive shop on my next visit.  Here's a few pictures:

I'll call this a banded coral shrimp, for now.

Caterpilar guy

Another shrimpy guy inside a barrel sponge

A friendly little moray eel (they have to open their mouth for respiration)





No plans at all for tomorrow, although Eileen does want to get out snorkelling somewhere.  Forecast is unchanged; hot, sunny, and breezy.  Have to hit the northwest side to take advantage of this great weather.







Steel pan drums

I can't believe that a few days ago I was asking for a breeze, we got it now.  Unlike the prairies, it doesn't seem to go away in the evening either.  It would be nice if it mellowed just a bit so that we could open up the deck doors in the bedroom at night, but we'll survive.  There certainly aren't any mosquitoes out.
Headed off to Flowers Bay this morning for our steel pan drum class.  I had told them before that I didn't have a molecule of musical sense in my body but Deb convinced me that geologists rock and the only person she hadn't been able to teach steel drum to was a rocket scientist.  So I too am a graduate of the intro to steel drum class.

Getting warmed up



We have a good video of the final tune that we played but I don't seem to have the right cables here to download off the video camera......I'll have to u-tube it later.  We were there for 1 1/2 hours and had a good time.  We can't remember if it was Glen and Mandy or Betty and Dylaina that went with us to the Blue Bahia last year for dinner, but it was the woman who did the singing that night that was the instructor.

The rest of our class mates covering up their drums.



Since we were only two blocks from the Cameo factory and it was a cruise ship day (so it was open) we stopped in to see what they had.  They had some gorgeous stuff, I don't know what most cameo type stuff is done on, but this is all on conch shell.  I suspect Eileen is going to dip into the money stash and go back there one day.
Continued on towards the grocery store, since we were already in Coxen Hole by now, and I decided to go a different route, this time the correct direction down that one way street.  Guess what.  There's the guy with the white cooler beside the Church that we've been trying to find for ten days.  He's the ??brother?? of the fish monger that the chef at Blue Bahia told us about.  We picked up two pounds of sea bass filets for $8.  Did them up on the bbq tonight.  Very sweet and mild tasting fish.
Suggested that we stop at the new sushi place in Sandy Bay for lunch (it was still only 11:30).  We stopped in there and found that they were open.  Good decision.  Now we're torn as to whether the best sushi on the island is at Rendeavous or at this place called Takos.  Their Wakame (seaweed salad) was terrific and they had one sushi type roll that was dipped in tempura and deep fried to crisp up the coating that we have never seen before but that we want to have again.  I can't claim to be a well versed sushi connesuir, but these two sushi places in Roatan are by far the best we have ever experienced.  Wasn't a budget lunch, but we were stuffed and well satisfied.
Got in touch with Julie today and made some alternate arrangements for the Saturday catamaran.  There is a van picking us up at the entrance to West end at 8:00 (Ralph and Karen are joining us).  Karen, take note if we don't catch up to you before then.
Dinner at home, bottle of wine, hear a movie playing behind me, life it tough.......Got the morning dives booked for tomorrow, otherwise no plans.  Gotta get to Besos soon, we're almost at half way here.  Only two weeks left......send money, not sure the cash is going to hold up, oh but it's payday in two days; sweet.  I could do this for a living.