Our Latest Adventures in Roatan-the Triathlon 2011 and Banana Thieves

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It’s a rainy morning here in Roatan, and instead of going to visit a new beach spot in Sandy Bay, I am doing laundry and updating my blog.  Yes, there are even chores in paradise!

Last weekend was the Bay Island Triathlon 2011.  It was a beautiful morning and the athletes started off early.  The event was a little late (we are in Roatan after all!) but we were at our posts around 8:30. 

Michael and his Helpers

Michael and I got separated because they needed someone to help capture the numbers off the athletes as they passed the turnaround point for the run and our friend didn’t want the responsibility of seeing the numbers. So my station was about as far away from the action as you could get until there was a runner. 

Michael in Action!

We also had to stay until the very last (slowest) runner made the circuit. It took a few runners to figure out that their numbers could be written on their arms or legs or that they could have been sweated off! In some cases we had to ask because there was no way to be sure. 

Hey, what's your number!

One of the Elite Athletes

They look good coming and going!

Oh and there was no way to communicate with anyone….and we did have a couple of runners needing medical assistance.  Despite some problems in organization and communication, the triathlon was a success and seeing the world class athletes in their running outfits was worth standing in the sun. After the race I met Michael at his station on top of the hill heading into our community (the one with the best view).  By then the luncheon we were invited to attend was well underway as we were the very last to finish.  Michael decided to head home to watch the football playoffs and I went with friends to the Henry Morgan resort to see what was left to eat and catch a glimpse of the tri-athletes. They provided massages on the beach for them and other amenities.  It makes you want to be a tri-athlete…almost.

And they just kept coming!

Here is a link to another site that also has many photo's of the entire event :http://roatanvortex.com/

For those of you who caught my Facebook comment on my bananas….here is an update. 

Our Banana Crop

We did have a bunch of bananas disappear while Dave and Eileen were here.  They were ripening and we were going to pick them the next day but when we awoke, the stalk was gone.  I just figured it was one of the local guys who work around here.  However, late Sunday afternoon the real culprits showed up to steal even more bananas! A family (mom, dad and little boy) drove by the villa, stopped, dad and son got off their motor scooter, came into the yard and examined the bananas.  I was on the top deck and got their attention. The little boy hollers up to me that they were checking on the bananas, and his dad explained they weren’t quite ready yet!  The little boy then explained that they had been taking the bananas here for twelve years!!!! (He couldn’t have been more than eight).  Oh, and they were not locals but French Canadian.  After thinking about this for awhile, we decided it was a little cheeky even for Roatan!  We have lassoed our stock and raised it up away from the walkway closer to the deck and I printed a sign in Spanish and English asking that they don’t take the bananas.  

That should slow them down!! Well Maybe not.

We have a local coming to check on their ripeness and cut them down for us. They're better with a machete than I am. I’ll let you know what happens next!

I mentioned in my last blog about going treasure hunting…sorry it was not for pirate gold, but geochaching. That is a sport of finding caches of treasures left by other people from around the world by locating the spot using gps coordinates. (A typical cache is a small waterproof container containing a logbook where the geocacher enters the date they found it. Larger containers such as plastic storage containers (tupperware or similar) or ammo boxes can also contain items for trading, usually toys or trinkets of little value. From Wikipedia) We decided one of the locations was at a local resort, the Bananarama, at their ice cream parlor.  Michael and I went out for breakfast and decided to see what fare Bananarama had to offer.  While we were enjoying our coffee and juice, I reminded Michael that there was supposed to be a cache here.  The ice cream shop was just opening so I went over to speak to the senora opening the shop.  She spoke no English but finally realized what I was looking for and handed over the cache behind the counter!

Bananarama's Geocache

We enjoyed looking through the trinkets and writing in the log.  There were also several “travel bugs” in the cache that we could have taken and carried to a new cache or gone to the web site to find out the different locations (by serial number) the "travel bug"  had been to. 

Hope you enjoy the pictures. There is always another adventure, something to explore or discover on Roatan!

Follow this link for my additional pictures from last week's triathlon.
http://picasaweb.google.com/gallown/20110123Triathalon2011?authkey=Gv1sRgCMSj5YiG4Kb26QE#slideshow/5567308418903433474