Roatan - La Isla
On Thursday morning we (John, Juanito, Denia (Jackie's younger sister) and I) hit the road at 6AM to catch the 9:30AM ferry from La Ceiba to Roatan. Our 2.5 hour drive turned out to be much longer, and we were the last few people to make it on the ferry...it was a close call :) The ferry ride was 1.5 hours long. We thought it wasn't bad until we saw the many people vomiting in those little bags.... one particular case stole our hearts. There was a baby girl, about 9 months old; the entire ride she was vomiting. It was heartbreaking. Anyways, the view of the mountains on the mainland were stunning as we pulled away on the ferry. We have pics of this.
We arrived at Roatan to be greeted by an extended family member of Jackie, Matias, who drove us from the ferry dock to our hotel. Matias spent 5 years living in Idaho as an exchange student, and has great English. He gave us the low-down about the island and some short history.
After arriving at our hotel we dropped our stuff in our room, changed into our suits and hit the water. It was absolutely magnificent!! The water was SO crystal clear! This is the day we ran into Brian, our 9-year old friend who told us about the fish and sharks he had seen while snorkeling. He was quite informative and as cute as can be. He was a fish himself; using his kayak to paddle out into the open water, jump into the water with his mask, then back into kayak to go to another spot. He was very adventurous and brave, as far as I'm concerned. He did not fear anything :) Later on we hit a local pizza joint, Shark's Cove, for some of the best pizza we've had. John swears they were hiding some Brooklyn dude in the back to make pizza. It was that good :) After that we headed over to Blue Marlin to participate in karaoke night. John sang, Juan sang, then I finally got the guts to sing, and I picked the right song. The bar was full of Aussies, and they liked that I picked an old Aussie pop song. It was fun :) A few hours later we headed to a salsa bar called NOVA, and Juan does not know what it stands for.... We stayed here for the rest of night dancing salsa, bachatta, merengue, and much more....
On Friday we headed to West Bay for some sun-bathing on one of the cleanest beaches I've seen, and to snorkel around the reef. This is the snorkeling adventure where I saw the largest sea turtle I've ever seen in the wild. It was AMAZING!! We followed it for about 5 minutes, then he turned his whole body around as to say, "OK, I'm annoyed. You can stop following me now." We respected his wishes and moved on. This is also the day that I was stung by a jellyfish, right across my chest. I did not see him....it totally sucked, but in the end I got over it. Oh, and to make a long story short, we met a dude named Sully, about 51 years old, who wanted to go out on the town with us, so as good people we said, "OK." Sully turned out to be the world's biggest liability! A drunk guy from Boston, who only got more belligerent as he drank. We eventually put him in a cab and sent him home...thank god! As the night continued we went to a Thai joint, yes Thai food in Honduras, who would have thought?! It was great! We then spent the rest of the evening at an open air bar where the DJ was spinning some great music! We ran into our water taxi driver, Billy, who is awesome, and set-up a private trip with him for Saturday.
On Saturday we went with Billy to see a dolphin show in Anthony Key. The show was cancelled because a baby dolphin was born the night before. Lucky for us, we docked the boat where the dolphins were and snorkeled around their enclosement. We got to see a dozen or more dolphins, and the baby dolphin. Billy then took us to a popular snorkeling site called Spooky Channel. It is called Spooky Channel because the water is about 50 or more feet deep with walls of coral reef on either side. You can swim right next to the reef and all of the tropical fish!! This was one of the most awesome experiences ever!! Especially since Honduras has the 2nd largest coral reef in the world, 1st is the Great Barrier Reef in Australia :)
Saturday night we had to go back to Shark's Cove for more pizza, actually for their wraps. It was just as good as the first time :) We then headed to 3 different places to experience the night life. The last place that we were most interested in was a wash....we loved the music, loved the atmosphere, but in the distance we spotted Sully. We had to make a run for it. In the end it was perfect. We ended up at a place called Jenny's Bar, where we were treated like royalty :) Some great drinks, a free shot, and some great conversation with a few locals.... not to mention one that was trying to take Denia home with him. We had to run him off :) The one thing that was really awesome at this bar was the hand-carved pelican that was in the middle of bar. It was beautiful! We took pics with it :)
Sunday we made our way back home. This time we sat in the air conditioned part of the ferry; 1. so we could sleep, and 2. so John would not get sunburned, again :)
