Our Island Retreat!

It is really cold here in Florida this morning!  11o'clock in the morning and it is still only 48˚ F outside.  It is past time to head back to Roatan and warm tropical days and nights!

We received photos today of the new house we will be staying at in West Bay called Casanueva.  What a beautiful property.  We rented it before it was even built which might seem like a gigantic leap of faith but since we know the property managers, Claudio and Emiliana, and their professional approach to all things Roatan, we knew we had no reason not to expect it to be less than spectacular.

You can check out their other properties as well as this one here. http://www.vivapropertiesint.com/

  And we are not disappointed!! 
http://www.vivapropertiesint.com/

The view from the deck is beautiful and I can just imagine there will be many hummingbirds (and bats at night) to keep me entertained.

So the pool and deck await our arrival and I am anticipating cooking lobster and shrimp in the outdoor kitchen area.

Honduras has beautiful hardwoods and excellent craftsmen so the kitchen cabinets and other wood features are just gorgeous.

There are beautiful tile floors and tile accents in the bathroom and the ceilings have exposed hardwood beams....awesome!

I have my bags packed and am ready to go, now just counting the remaining days till our departure!

Good News: Back to Roatan

It was so sad to leave lovely, seductive Roatan in April and coming back to the states proved to be challenging.  After six months of thinking in lempiras, dollars were the mystery currency. Prices seemed to skyrocket and the barrage of visual images from advertising and the glut of merchandise available for purchase was staggering.  Going to the grocery store took so much time because I couldn't stop being amazed at all of my choices. But slowly life in the states became the norm and Roatan my alternate reality.

But life is good and our return to Roatan is fast approaching!  I have started to pack and realize that many things I thought I needed, couldn't live without last year are either available on Roatan or not necessary.  I am looking forward to seeing old friends, visiting favorite restaurants and beaches, and snorkeling in the beautiful water. I think the very first order of business is to put up my hummingbird feeder.  I miss seeing them buzz about and they have already migrated from my area here in Florida.

It has already been cold here-anything under seventy is cold- so this trip can't come fast enough. I will try to post  more regularly now and keep you up on our progress.  Hope you follow my second trip and I will look for new things to add and share lots of photos.

The Adventure Comes to an End

Sailing away

Roatan through my eyes!

Well our wonderful adventure is coming to an end.  I am sitting at the airport waiting to board the plane for home.  It has been a great six months.  We have been fortunate to be able to spend the time here.  We have met so many wonderful people from all different places. I think that was one of the most special parts of this trip. 

Things are getting crowded here with standing room only.  I will continue this later. 

Roatan Wish Willy

Well, we made it onto the plane…it was sort of doubtful for a minute or two. Our luggage was too heavy and we had to take one of the suitcases we had nestled and take two carryon bags.  When we repacked (very quickly), Michael asked if I knew if there was any liquids in the bag.  Not to worry I replied.  As we went through airport security with our now repacked carryon bags, they questioned my metal Christmas tree ( the star has points ---weapon potential, I guess.  Then there was the made-in-Roatan soap…prohibidad. Really?  He changed his mind and slipped it back into my bag.  My jewelry making supplies were in the new carryon bag….oops….pliers and things with sharp points! Not to worry, they changed their minds and let me go on. The only thing they took was a sea shell….they should see my checked bags…most of the weight was my shell collection.

Last Night Blues

The last hurtle was one more security check- this time by Delta personnel.  I passed through with my luggage and no items confiscated.  I was ready to cross the tarmac and board the plane when I realized Michael hadn’t gotten through his security check!  Uh Oh!....I turned back and found that they were questioning my jewelry supplies one more time….the pliers are pointed (but very small).  They said we could check the bag but we already had checked our free allotment. After some conversations back and forth I said just take the pliers already!....So now I have to replace my tools….but I still have my made-in- Roatan soap!

The flight was uneventful (that's always good) and we arrived home late Saturday night.  The temperature was cooler than anything I have felt in six months. It’s sweater weather at night still.

Beautiful day for a sail.

Sunday was pretty and sunny, Scott and his friend came for a quick visit…it was great to see him.  Michael went off to Wal-Mart for lawn supplies and Christopher and I headed to the grocery store!  Wow, what a treat to see fully loaded shelves.  I got all our favorite things but it took me a while to adjust to thinking in dollars…everything seemed so expensive.  It also took me time to adjust to drinking water out of a faucet again.

Kids are great.

And so our adventure ends.  The time we spent flew by but people of Roatan and the friends we met will stay with me forever. 

It’s impossible to explain the colors of the sea and the bounty of flowers that decorate the island.  It is truly a lovely place and I leave with only one wish and that is to return….the soonest I can. 

Under Water Roatan

Here are some underwater shots we took this week.  We spotted a lobster that was huge in fairly shallow water.  We could have reached down and grabbed it.  We were so excited to see one in the wild.  When we got ashore we mentioned it to a friend who said he would rather see them every day rather than eat them once. Nice sentiment.  We went back to the same beach today and I found two very large antennae of a lobster in a tidal pool.  I can only guess that someone decided he was easy pickings.  It is not lobster season… I was so sad.

Hope you enjoy the pictures.  It is difficult to capture the beauty of what we see with a camera but we keep trying just the same. 

Spring Break

There are lots of visitors on the island right now.  Spring break is in full swing.  Helicopters zoom by with tourists, large yachts are available to rent right off West Bay Beach…price: $480,000 a week. Now if we can get 100 close friends to share, we might be able afford the rent!

Helios

Want to go golfing…Roatan now features a beautiful golf course- open since the first of the year.

The Black Pearl in Pristine Bay

 But wait! One more month and everyone will be gone except the divers. Everywhere you look there are large groups of college age kids enjoying banana boat rides, snorkeling, diving and of course.....Salva Vida and Port Royal ....the local brews. Easter will be even crazier. But soon May will come with hot humid days, cruise ships will move to other ports and the island will wait for the next season and have a chance to recoup from all the visitors from Spring Break 2011.

Well, only a short time left for this trip.  It is amazing how fast the visit has gone.  We still have lots of exploring left to do, visits to other islands and the mainland so I know we will find a way to return as soon as we can.  Yesterday we spent at the Meridian's beach enjoying the water and sunshine.  We spotted some very large lizards- a type of Iguana lazing on the rocks.

Looks like an Iguana to me!

Last night we had dinner with friends in West End at Besos.  Most of the folks we have made friends with are also going their separate ways as well…Europe, Canada, and the states. We all hope to meet again next year.

Today we snorkeled and toured the North side of Roatan on a speed boat with four other folks.  What fun! Fastest I've ever gone in a boat and the waves outside the reef were large!

Our speed boat...it goes reallllly fast!

We stopped by Anthony's Key Resort, snorkeled in several places and had lunch at Turquoise Bay before speeding back to West Bay Beach.

Anthony's Key Dolphins

Turquoise Bay

But we have so many more things we want to do....guess we'll  just have to come back!

Walking Around Roatan

I mentioned that Michael and I had given up our truck “The Trooper” for the last month of our living here on Roatan. 

We were inspired to try life without a vehicle after observing numerous visitors in the villas functioning quite well without a car or truck.  We also wanted to see how much using taxis (both land and water) compared with the cost of a monthly rental.  We are keeping a log of our transportation expenses.  Everyone in the neighborhood seems to miss our comings and goings now.  We always announced our arrival and departures with very loud squeaks and groans from the truck.  At first everyone thought we were just gone all the time and were leaving us notes on the porch when we were just on the upper deck!

We have found that most locations in the West End of the Island are easy to get to just by walking.  We can carry our sand chairs and snorkel gear with no problem.  We can also grab a water taxi in West Bay Beach to go to West End for restaurants and sightseeing. In fact tomorrow we are going with friends to eat lunch at the Blue Bahia in Sandy Bay.  To get there we will walk into West Bay Beach, catch a water taxi to West End then catch a local van/bus to Sandy Bay.  Total cost one way would be $3.50. 

There is also a nice deli in West Bay Beach where we can get simple things like milk, juice, deli meats and other things and the local vegetable truck comes through the neighborhood offering a variety of things.

There are also lots of folks we know that want to share the cost of a taxi to go out, or they have transportation and offer us a ride for groceries or rides up the hill.  So in general, it seems that a vehicle is great for exploring the island , but is awfully expensive to just have sitting in the parking lot. The other positive is all that wonderful exercise we get from walking up and down the hills.

We have just less than three weeks before we head home.  I am trying to enjoy every second and to impress my memory with all the wonderful sights and smells we see every day.  Life on Roatan is special. For example, on Sunday some of the local men had a soccer match on the beach. They play hard and fast and you best move your chair out of the way or you may find yourself in the middle of the game.

Roatan has a way of grabbing you and folding you into the island way.  I love it here.

Mango Creek Lodge Trip (Port Royal)

We had a wonderful visit with John and Jana last week.  The weather was good if a little windy at the beginning of the week.  We spent the first day people watching and snorkeling at West Bay Beach.

http://www.mangocreeklodge.com/

Going to explore Anne Jennings place with Walter one of our guides

Early Monday we left for our trip to Mango Creek Lodge.

We arrived at Oak Ridge with the rest of our group to travel to Port Royal by boat.  Because the wind had been blowing steady from the East for several days, the seas were up.  Terry brought his large sport fishing boat to transport us more comfortably to the lodge through the rough seas.  The sun was bright and the water deep blue so it was a glorious day.  After checking into the lodge, we took a boat tour with a history lesson on the area with Terry. We gathered for a lunch in the restaurant and planned on how to spend the rest of the day. A large group of us decided to go to Anne Jennings Browne’s home site at Fort Frederick while Michael and John took kayaks out to the Cow and Calf cays to look for buried pirate treasure.

Howard Jennings found pirate treasure on Cow Cay

Castle took us to Anne Jennings Browne's home site in the bush

  We enjoyed hiking through the bush and are still in awe of Anne Jennings staying alone out here for years.  Unfortunately there is not much left of her homestead but the views are just as amazing.

Some of our group in the bush

After our excursions, we relaxed as the sun went behind the hills and we prepared for dinner.  Terry and his staff served a tasty jerk chicken dinner with plenty of tasty side dishes and desert of fresh coconut pie. Yummy!

Wonderful food and company at Mango Creek Lodge

 After a busy day we decided to skip a movie (Terry and Patrice have a large selection) and go back to our lodging.  Some folks stayed in cabins over the water others stayed in the lodge.

The next morning after a hearty breakfast of pineapple pancakes and Jimmy Dean sausage we prepared for our mangrove tour and Pigeon Key snorkeling trip.  The wind and seas calmed down and the sun was shining in a deep blue sky…Perfect!

Beautiful beyond belief!

The ride to Pigeon key was fun and we had to take three of the skiffs to accommodate all thirteen of us. It was one of our friends birthday and we planned a picnic lunch on Pigeon Cay complete with champagne and a surprise birthday cake compliments of Mango Creek Lodge.

Arriving in the skiff

One of the kitchen staff even went with us to help set up and serve. We are generally alone on Pigeon Cay when we go as it is off the coast of the Island of Barbaret and at the far East end of the Bay Islands before you jump over to Guanja. This day we were joined by a couple of other boats.

You can walk around Pigeon Cay in 5 minutes

  One must have been a clothing optional group because one big boy (300+ lbs) showed up in his birthday suit!  He had better watch out for the barracuda.  One of the boat staff caught a large one off the beach and several of the guys in the party tried their hands at salt water fly fishing.

John likes to say he caught this with his hands.....right

The staff took us out in the boats to snorkel so we wouldn’t have to swim against the current.  That was really nice and made the snorkeling even better.

Castle with Pigeon Key in the background.

After our wonderful lunch of curry chicken and salad we enjoyed cake and champagne on the beach.  It doesn’t get much better than that…..ever!  We relaxed and swam but we eventually had to prepare for our return to Port Royal and then Oak Ridge.

Pigeon Cay is picture perfect

  We still had a drive back to the West end of the island.  We all wished we could have stayed yet another night at Mango Creek and some of our group were already planning to return for another even longer stay.  You really have a wonderful, memorable trip when you go to Mango Creek Lodge. Terry, Patrice and their staff provide an excellent experience, with attention to detail in an exceptional environment.  I can’t thank them enough. A special thanks also must go out to Claudio and Emiliana of vivaproperties for arranging such a  delightful adventure.

Michael and I at Pigeon Key

John and Jana at Pigeon Key

The rest of the week flew by with boat taxi trips to West End for shopping, lazy mornings in the sun at Meridian Beach and shrimp and lobster dinners. We even made it into Coxen Hole for “Rock on the Dock” at Town Center, more shopping (I found the perfect panama hat) and a final day at Infinity Bay for more people watching, snorkeling, sun and food.  Before we knew it the week was done. Roatan is a beautiful location and one week is hardly long enough to enjoy all it has to offer.

  Jana and I at West Bay Beach