Stay at Home Day

Could be a short blog tonight, the furthest anyone got from the house today was Eileen in a kayak. Glen was up early for a little puzzle time on the deck then after there was some light and a couple of coffees, he was down for the trial snorkel. The mask repair job was successful so we're good to go with snorkelling. Leisurely breakfast, then all of us headed to the beach. It was actually overcast this morning so when I went out snorkelling I stayed out for quite awhile. Our eel was in his usual hole, the porcupine fish wouldn't come out of his, although I could see his lips and one big eye watching me. I decided to head a bit further north than I'd been before to see what the snorkelling was like off of the next rocky portion of beach. It's going to be fun to explore this area further as there is a lot of healthy growth and lots of channel ways, etc. I spotted another porcupine fish who got under a ledge. I was hovering around hoping he'd come out, which he did not, and while I was waiting for him I saw this odd shaped fin lying on top of the ledge. I finally realized it was attached to a Scorpionfish who was doing his best motionless disguish thing. They really are well camouflaged. They look a lot like the toadfish that I posted yesterday.

Spotted Scorpionfish

Had a decent look at a Trunkfish too. There are several of them out in front of the beach here.

Smooth Trunkfish

More snorkelling and kayaking this afternoon, I went out without the camera and saw another scorpionfish that was a bit smaller than the morning one, but which was sitting much more photogenically than the one I posted. I looks like there may be more opportunities for pictures if I've seen two in one day. A couple of guys next door said that they've seen the spotted eagle ray both yesterday and the day before, so maybe he hangs out here too. It would be great if some of the others got to see him too. Mandy's afternoon snorkel was a bit short lived as she took a sting or something on her leg. Must have been a jellyfish or one of those string of pearls critters. I haven't seen either so hopefully this was an isolated case.

Our almost private beach

Pasta night at home (really good) followed by games on the deck. The only plans for tomorrow are to get some food (mainly produce off the trucks) and book the morning dives for Monday. All of our neighbours left today so there will be some new company around tomorrow, with two of the three houses re-occupied already.

 

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Toadfish

The dive morning routine; couple of coffees and a BLT, then off to West End for the two morning dives. The first was a drift dive along the wall. Nothing too spectacular although the coral was nice on the shelf above the wall. Since we were quite aways from West End for this one, we did our surface interval on the boat and just moved down a few moorings for the second dive. This one was pretty neat, with several canyons that cut through the shelf, leading out to the wall. In a crevice at the base of one of these canyons, Sylvia spotted a really neat looking Toadfish. All the frilly markings on him are camoflague and not moosy growths. Finally seem to be getting the hang of the camera again and got a couple of good pictures of him.

This orange guy was also deep in a crevice in the canyon. All I could really see were his big eyes. the flash picked up his color. I think it's a type of Cardinalfish, but I'm not positive.

Met everyone for lunch on West End after the dive. Glen had stopped at one of the shops to see about repairing his mask but had not been successful. We had lunch at the Asia Express ($6) and then tried a few more places for the mask. At Reef Gliders the guy there was pretty sure that he could fix it, so Glen left it there for the afternoon. We came back to the house and then migrated down to the beach. Eileen took a kayak out and went part way to West Bay and back. I put on my mask and went for a finless snorkel. Saw an eel, a few lionfish, one small lobster, and something that you would call a centipede on land, only this guy was about 10 inches long and about an inch wide. I'll be watching for him again when I'm carrying a camera.

Glen and Eileen took a couple of kayaks and headed to West End to see if John had been successful with the mask. The had a celebratory Monkey Lala at the Barefoot Bar and returned home with a repaired mask. He had gotten the lenses out of Mady's mask and put Glens presecription lenses in them. Glen then got Mandy a new mask and left a nice tip for John.

Drove to West Bay for supper at Beachers where we had really good coconut shrimp and lemon pepper sea bass. Both bills were about $40. No plans for tomorrow apart from a planned pre-breakfast snorkel for Glen. Sent Nanci an email telling them to come down for the afternoon if they were not busy.

 

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A day with company

Had our normal morning routine and then headed to Coxen Hole to pick up Eileens brother and wife off of a cruise ship. We came in on the low road so we had a good view of the port long before we got there. The plan was to pull into their parking lot, find them at a pre-designated location, and then take off. We could see a long line of vehicles on the road, so when we got close we just parked and walked in. Good move. What a mass of humanity there was there. Met them as planned and walked back to the car. Managed a U-turn on the street and came back to the house. Early beer on the deck (we had to finish the crate so we could return the empties today), then down to the beach for some snorkelling. Saw a nice Trunkfish:

Smooth Trunkfish

There were also quite a few cute little Flamingo Tongues, probably just over an inch long. I've only seen these guys once before but I've seen three or four of them out in front of the beach.

Flamingo Tongue

We went to Blue Bahia in Sandy Bay for lunch which was a good as always, and then took them back to the dock at 2:00. They didn't have to be back until 4:00 so it was pretty quiet there. Dropped them in the parking lot, did a U-turn, and headed to the airport to pick up Glenn and Mandy. Spotted our fish guy in Coxen Hole and picked up a snapper filet for supper. Got to the airport and found them sitting on the benches out front having a beer and a smoke. Loaded the car, stopped at Bulk Gourmet for some good meat, the bulk beer store for a couple of crates, the grocery store for food and drink, and then home.

G&M loved the house, had a beer on the deck, then went to the beach for a quick swim. More beers, lots of chatting, BBQ'd the fish we had picked in Coxen Hole (it was tough!, but tasted fine). The bad news for the day came when Glen and Mandy were unpacking. Glen pulled out his snorkel mask and found that one lens was out. The frame has been cracked and broken, so he's in a bit of a bind, as he's somewhat blind without the prescription lenses. He's going to take them to a dive shop tomorrow and see if anything can be done.

 

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Golf Day

Picked up Nanci and Gerry at the round about in West End at 8:30 and headed to Pristine Bay for a round of golf at the Black Pearl course. Pit stop at the bakery where we each managed to get a couple of loaves of fresh bread. You gotta get there early on bread days to get any because they sell out fast. Got to the golf course in good time and was met in the parking lot by one of the attendants. He showed us through the clubhouse and the deck where there is a gorgeous view of the beach, ocean, and reef. Went downstairs to the proshop and arranged our clubs. This young fellow, who we assumed would be our caddy for the day hauled all the clubs up and set up the carts while we paid our fees. We did get the "Friend of member" rate, which was good because I had not quite budgeted my daily cash quite right. The green fees were a bit more than I remembered them to be. We paid $95 for green fees ($50 off) and another $35 for clubs. Gerry hadn't brought any balls so he picked up a 15 pack of Pinnacles for a pretty reasonable price, something like $25. An older fellow came to talk to us when we got to the carts and told us that he'd lead us to the first tee, which was quite a journey as there is still some construction going on. That's when we realized that this young fellow that had done all the early leg work was not coming with us. We didn't run into him when we finished, so we're hoping that we see him next time we go so we can get him a few bucks for his efforts.

It was breezy today, which wasn't a bad thing because it would have been screaming hot otherwise. The course was in really good shape and will only get better as it matures a bit more. It's a course that is punishing if you are not on the fairway. I was Ok with that today, but I did lose a couple of balls when I overshot greens. The irons seemed to have a bit more pop in them than my cubs. Gerry on the other hand, had to get the caddy to call in from the tenth tee box phone to get another case of Pinnacles brought out. I ended up with a 98, with a huge number of strokes coming from the putter, so in hindsight, I was pretty happy with my fairway game. Eileen had a couple of bad holes and still almost broke 100 too. Gerry and Nanci had a really good time.....

The couple playing behind us were people that Gerry and Nanci knew, and who we'd met at the Super Bowl party. After our round we all went to Herbies Sports bar at Pineapple Estates for a beer and a late lunch/early supper. It didn't seem like we were golfing slowly but we were out there for close to six hours. We had our lunch, drove back to West End, dropped off Nanci and Gerry, and just made it home before it got dark.

There is a golf tournament coming up on Friday/Saturday that we considered entering but the timing is just bad for us with Glen and Mandy arriving tomorrow. It's $150 per person which gets a practice round on Friday then a two person scramble on Saturday. The proshop guy said he'd include clubs in the price too. The deal is fantastic, and everything goes to the clinic, which we've supported in the past, and used once with Betty and Dylaina. In this heat, Eileen isn't sure she could survive two straight golf days either. Tempting deal but I just don't think we can do it.

Tomorrow is a busy day. We pick up Eileens brother and his wife at the Coxen Hole cruise dock around 9. Spend a few hours with them, get them back to the boat for 2:00, and then pick up Osmonds at the airport. They are scheduled to arrive at 1:15.... Unless they are early, which we were, it should work out OK. Otherwise, they may find out how much airport beer costs in Roatan. Mandy will need a smoke anyways....

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Best Day in the water....Ever!

Missed yesterdays post, took a bit too much sun out on the boat, felt a bit overheated, tired, and head-achie and went to bed before 8:00. Did my refresher course yesterday morning then went out for the 11:00 dive. There had been a report of a whale shark near West End and when we got out on the water we could see a number of boats circling around so we headed out about a mile from shore. They were following the whale shark, so most of the divers got their flippers and mask on and got ready to go overboard. We were out in 6 foot swells and being the swimmer that I'm not, I wasn't going overboard. We followed around for about twenty minutes, the guys made one attempt to see him in the water and I think a few of them got a glimpse. We finally gave up and went for our dive. It was a nice first dive although there wasn't anything outstanding to see. I was happy to get back in the water and was pleased with my air usage, etc. On the way back in, we could see the boats still following so we tried again, this time for at least 45 minutes. I saw his shadow in the water a couple of times but that was it. In the afternoon we went up to French Harbour to look for some cheap beach chairs. Hit a whole bunch of furniture stores that I never knew existed here but struck out on beach chairs. Saw some at the side of the road for sale but at that spot there was a horrible traffic snarl as well as a number of heavily armed polica. We would have been the only gringos on the street there, so we passed on that opportunity. Stopped at Plaza Mar in Coxen Hole and found just what we wanted. We must have walked right past them a few days earlier. Got them on sale too. We went for supper at the Splash Inn in West End, intending to hook up with Nanci et al for Music Trivia night at Buena Vida, but I wasn't feeling up to it so we just headed home.

Today however the water experience was a lot better. We headed out on the early dive and saw a couple of boats out circling again. The sea was calm today and as soon as we got out to the boats the captain says he'd right there. Eleven guys jump in off the left side of the boat, I said to hell with that and went off the right side, Put my head in the water and saw nothing but blue. Took a breath through my non-existant snorkel tube that I'd removed for diving, came up with a mouthful of water. Got that cleared out, stuck my face back down and there he was, 10 feet below me. Absolutely awesome to see. Stuck my head up for air and got one more breath worth of viewing time before he moved off and down out of sight. DIdn't have my camera but I'll never forget that one anyway, probably a once in a lifetime sight.

First dive was one of my favourites called Pablo's Place. A lot of current today so we drifted pretty fast. Gorgeous coral and lots of fish. I need to check out my camera because something must be set wrong. My photos are poor although there is some reasonably good video. Had a surface break then went for dive two. Again another pretty dive with the highlight being a Spotted Eagle Ray that swam past us. Lunch at the $5 beach BBQ, then we went for a West End walk to see if we could find Nanci to tell her about tonights reservation (our internet was down this morning) Very hot walk on the street and no Nanci. Got back to the house and emailed her the info. We were both really hot from the walk so we went down for a snorkel. We both saw a nice porcupine fish and then when I was off a bit to myself I saw another Spotted Eagle Ray. I headed after him and got so close that I had to stop kicking or I would have made contact with his tail. Incredible. He headed off sort of towards Eileen so I stuck my head up and yelled for her to take off in his direction fast. Of course I didn't tell her what to look for and unfortunately she didn't see him.

It's Tuesday so you know we went to Tapas and Tunes night at Tranquil Seas with Nanci and her group. The food was great, the music was as good as always, and the six of us had an absolute blast. Eileen and Gerry both have sore ribs from all the laughing. We are anticipating that Catamaran Day is going to be a lot of fun. Fabulous night and an overall great day. Tomorrow; golf day with Gerry and Nanci....

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Super Bowl Sunday

First night in the house was peaceful, although I think we lost track of each other in the monster bed we have. Much quieter than Half Moon was, and when we got up we had our space and our coffee maker, etc. Much better..... Got the watermelon and pineapple cut up and nibbled on those. They taste so much better down here. Coffees on the deck, then a face time session with Glen and Mandy. That works so much better than skype. Headed down to the beach for a snorkel. We spent 15-20 minutes cruising about straight out from the beach. There is some immature coral and lots of common fish. Eileen did have a close up encounter with a big Permit, I saw one small grouper, and she also spotted either a eel or a sea snake swimming about in some turtle grass. We'll try going a bit further towards Luna Beach next time and see what that's like.

We walked into West End about mid-morning. Since Luna Beach dive shop seems deserted, I had to hook up with someone else so I thought we'd go check out the new shop that is next door to Sundowners. After talking to Steve yesterday I thought that there could be some fringe benefits by using this shop and I think that might just work out. As a member of the golf course, he called in our booking and suggested that our group should get the Friend of a Member discount. Booked golf for Wednesday with Nanci and Gerry, so we'll see. Have a refresher dive lesson booked for tomorrow morning and then a real dive at 11:00. (Cute divemaster too...)

One of my "Gotta try this place" has a Sunday brunch so since we were right there we went to Entre Pisco Y Nazca for lunch. Not sure what was Peruvian about their brunch menu but the food was sure good. You just ordered off the menu and out it came. We each had a couple of eggs benedict, some mini bagels with cream cheese and smoked salmon, a few crab cakes, and then waffles with ice crean and cherry brandy maple syrup. It was $15 each but with the 15% tax and 15% tip (which I didn't know when I dropped a pile of lempiras on the table), it added up but was still a good meal with a great view.

View towards Half Moon peninsula

View the other way

Glenn, here is something for you to try. Don't know what it costs, but it would be the next best thing to diving. You ride these devices like a scooter, with your head up in the bubble at the top. Looks like it could be fun....

Underwater scooters

Got back to the house after a very warm walk back from West End. Lazy mid afternoon where I think we both fell asleep for a bit of the time. Too hot for the sun though. Showered and took off in the car for the Blue Parrot for the Super Bowl. The place was packed, probably about 15 of them were friends that Nanci and Gerry have made while here. It was fun but the place was a bit overwhelmed with the numbers. We ordered our food sometime in the first quarter, I got mine fairly quickly but Eileen, Nanci, and Gerry didn't get theirs for a long time, like during half time after the power went out........The lack of power kinda put a damper in the Super Bowl party, so we finally got our tab and headed home. It certainly is more fun driving here in the daytime than it is at night, especially when the whole island is dark. It finally came back on a few minutes ago (9:30). Since the router is back on I can post this and head to bed myself.

Back tomorrow for more, maybe with some dive pictures.....

 

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Orchid Beach

We woke to our usual bright and early, at least an hour before coffee was on at Half Moon. Finally rolled out and were offered coffee from the neighbours, who had scronged a coffee maker somehow. Did our breakfast at Cindy's, which I quite liked with the ham, cheese and egg thingie wrapped in dough and deep fried. Eileen had an island breakfast which was a couple of tortillo breads with refried beans, egg, and other stuffings. Five bucks each. Cindy's is basically a shack about the size of a city slicker tool shed, window in the front, a couple of plastic tables bordering Main Street West End, Cindy cooking and one helper serving. Great place for people viewing as they strolled by.

Finished eating, walked back to Half Moon, packed up, and then walked back into town to get some veges/fruit from the trucks. No trucks to be found. Saturday is a slow day. Ran into a guy (Steve) who saw my golf hat and he started a conversation. He owns a paddleboard place in West End, and we rode out in a van with him a few years ago to a charity event. His business is right next to Sundowners bar which is right next to the radio station (more on that later) and is tied in with a dive shop......the divemaster at the shop is also a big golfer,,,,he mentioned something about friends deals at the golf course (we might go twice). Might be worth the parking expense at West End to dive with them and get them to book our golf.... Will find out tomorrow. Packed suitcases,loaded the car, paid the bill, and headed to the bakery. No bread until Monday. Side trip to West Bay to alternate bakery. Not open yet. Screw it, we'll hit the house. Found the place with no problem, had small issue with the lock box but soon had the key and we're in. Nice place. Big high ceilings, well stocked kitchen, nice beds, screens on the deck doors (not common), and tons of room. Pictures of the view on the website are a bit slight of hand though. Not that it really matters as we still have ocean view and are up high in the breeze. A calm afternoon might be tough as the sun is gonna be coming straight in, but that is gonna be the case anywhere here.Couple of views from the deck;

 

 

Not bad getting down to the beach, there is a common stairway that all the orchid residents use. A few steps to climb but we knew that going in. Several double kayaks on the beach too. Will be great to try and get out to the reef. We all need to practice the kayak re-entry in deep water though...

Got unpacked and headed out for lunch and groceries. Went the West End road thinking we'd stop for a second look at vege trucks. Piulled into the parking lot (now a paid lot) and right behind us was a vege truck that looked like he was just turning around or something. Loaded up with his produce, paid our dollar for parking, and headed for lunch. Decided to do Blue Bahia because we both like it and we are probably going to take in-laws there in a few days. Just as I hit the turn signals to go into BB, I see a sign for Mayoka Lodge. That is the resort that I do not know the location, but their restaurant is on my short list of places to try. We tuned in, parked, and found the entrance. Got up to their main level and OMG what a view. There was one person working and we asked her about the restaurant. She told us that they do not do lunches anymore. Bummer.....Side story; I had just said earlier in the day that I had not seen the couple that owned the radio station. We have lost touch with our friend Gennie, and if anyone knew if she was going to be in Roatan then it would be her. Well this woman who greeted us was the radio couple. She knew us as Gennies friends but she too has lost touch with her. I'm gonna have to track her down through her Dad, who recently retired from Cameco and lives in Battleford. End of the lunch story, we walked through the Mayoka property which is gorgeous and then went a few hundred feet to our original destination Eileen had a burger and i had a smoked brisket sandwich. We knew better than to order the onion rings with just two of us there. Great lunch. We'll do the rings when there are four of us.

Up to Coxen Hole, $150 bucks for groceries then we ventured through the heart of the town looking for my fish guy. Didn't spot him, so circled bck around and went by the cruise docks so that we could get a better idea of parking when I pick up the in laws. I know that it is kaos down there but it did look pretty easy.

Election year comong up here, so half of the road to Flowers Bay is concrete. Working on completion then the stretch to West End is next. What a great surface is was while it lasted. When it ended it was aweful....Speaing of roads, it was amusing to see the workers today on the road beteen West End and West Bay. The road has hundreds of nasty potholes and there were several crews trying to fix them. They would go into the bush, fill a five gallon pail with sandy clay, dump it in the pothole, and then tamp it down by hand. The roadway hazard markers (there are curves every hundred feet) were piles of the same sandy clay with a stick in it and a pop bottle on top. One of the young workers signalled us for water, but we had none. Wished we could have helped.

Spent the afternoon rather lazy. Several beer, bottle of wine and some music. Failed miserabley with the charcoal bbq. could barely burn my finger on the grate. Finished the meat in a fry pan (2 hours later) poured a rum and worked on the blog....All in all it was a very delightful day, tomorrow will be even better. The weather today was awesome and the forecast is for much of the same.

 

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