I arrived Saturday evening in Denver, from a fabulous week abroad on an island in the Caribbean Ocean. I am going to tell all about it!
Saturday Sept 4th, Dan Nunn dropped me off at SFO around 3:30 in the morning. Flying from SFO to Houston took a little over two hours. I met John in the terminal and we had some good old fashioned Texas bbq... from an airport vendor. It wasn't actually that bad either! We boarded the plane teeming with excitement about our adventures to come, and to finally see our wives!
We landed in Roatan early Saturday afternoon, where the girls were waiting for us. We all hugged and said hello and met the clinic coordinator Dee. He was kind enough to drive the girls out to the airport and pick us up! We headed to the white diamond inn where the girls have been staying for the past month to drop off our baggage and relax and eat some lunch. After our meal, the four of us walked the 25 yards to meet the owner of the clinic and to use her dock to go snorkeling. Unfortunately Ms. Peggy was not home, so we borrowed snorkel equipment and went for a 2+ hour snorkel. After an exciting encounter seeing many colorful fish and beautiful columns of coral, we called it a night and went home to cook dinner.
Sunday morning we woke up, made breakfast, and went off to church. We heard a wonderful message about toxic words people can say, and how to avoid hurting others with your own words. After church the four of us walked with, Dee, two other island children that he mentors, and some of the other volunteers in the clinic to go snorkeling on a beautiful white sand beach. We were in the water for upwards of 3 hours and we saw so many beautiful creatures it is hard to list them all. We took a break for lunch and walked down to one of the many hotels on the beach and had burgers and a relaxing time hanging out with friends. After lunch we went swimming in the warm ocean water for a short time before a pick up volleyball game tore us from the water. Dee had brought a volleyball and we played with some island kids and locals who just wanted to play. After 5 or 6 games, Blair and I took a break and watched the sunset over the horizon. After regrouping we all headed back to the hotel for dinner.
Monday morning came, which meant Blair and Lola had to go to work. After they left, John and I took a taxi into Coxen Hole to walk around and get a taste of the local culture. We found a 12 year bottle of a rum that John loves, so we picked that up to bring home for that night. We also stumbled across a wonderful restaurant where we ate Baleadas. These are hand made tortillas, almost as thick as pita bread, with beans, rice, avocado, cheese, and your choice of meat on the inside, then the tortilla was folded over like a soft taco. These were delicious and only 15 limpiras (which is about $0.75 US). We each had a couple of these and a coke and were quite happy! After lunch we walked around the town a little more, and to a grocery store to pick up sundries for the night, and taxied back to go work at the clinic for a couple hours before the girls got off work.
The clinic is a two story building, with the first floor in full operation currently. The second story is almost complete, which is to house several birthing rooms, a pediatric unit and a few other baby related rooms. John and I helped clean organize, and prep some of the upstairs rooms for an inspection coming in the next couple months. After they pass the inspection, the top floor can open and hold and treat many more patients throughout the day.
We met the girls after they got off and after we worked for a little bit and went snorkeling again right by our house. Then we cooked a delicious dinner of curry chicken, veggies, salad, and cervezas!
Tuesday morning after the girls went to work, John and I went snorkeling for a couple hours. Once we got back, we decided to take a quick jaunt into Coxen Hole to our Baleadas restaurant to get lunch and pick up lunch for the girls. We came back to work at the clinic for a little while and brought the girls lunch. Tuesday after noon we decided to go to West Bay to tour the town and see all the tourist sights. We had a wonderful time, and went swimming on the beach. We grabbed coffee from a dive shop/bar (which is a great business model in my opinion) and walked to a great place that serves great noodle bowls. We had dinner there, then that night we went to a really near bar that hosted trivia night. This bar was really cool and had super friendly bartenders, and had a pool with swim up bar which was AMAZING!
This is a picture of delicious appetizers from the trivia night bar- cream cheese stuffed jalapenos wrapped in bacon!!!! Nom Nom!
Wednesday we put a little more time in at the clinic during the morning, and got to have lunch with the girls when they got out, more Baleadas yum! Luckily they got Thursday and Friday off to spend more time with us! Wednesday afternoon after lunch we all got cleaned up and went for an afternoon snorkel right by the girl's apartment. After the snorkel, we came back and had a few rum and coke mixed drinks. We then took our drinks down to the dock and the four of us laid out and watched the sun set and the stars come out before heading back to make dinner which was mostly leftovers :)
Thursday morning we all had breakfast and packed for an amazing adventure at an Underwater Museum. This thing is AWESOME, and I know a thing or two about awesomeness. One of the Doc's that works at the clinic and his friend started this joint venture recently and it is starting to take off. The snorkel tour lasts between 45 minutes to an hour, and it is a guided show of many ancient Mayan and local artifacts buried along the reef! Most of these are replicas, but they have a few authentic pieces thrown in that you can swim down and see up close and personal. They also have a simulated ship wreck that you snorkel through and see the skeleton of the ship, some cannons, faux buried treasure, and the mast head of a ship. The last leg of the tour is through a beautiful patch of coral that is vibrant with sea flora and fauna. At the end of the blog there is a little interactive scavenger hunt on the internet, and there is a you tube video of the “ruins” and shipwreck and some of the really neat fish we saw! On the way home from the Underwater Museum, we noticed that a highly recommended restaurant was open, so we stopped for lunch. We had an assortment of soups and burgers, and the islands BEST coconut cream pie. This stuff would make Little Debbie squeal with delight, it was fantastic!!
Thursday afternoon we caught a taxi to West Bay and stayed at a fancy-pantsy resort for two nights! We had our own private infinity pool and a private beach! There were so few people, there that we actually had these all to ourselves! We went snorkeling all across the west side of the island through the little key that the resort owned, and saw more interesting creatures including eels, tiny flourescent crabs, and an octopus!
(Sorry, these are stock photos from the hotels website, but the beach and the pool look just like the pictures, minus the random girl)
On our way back from snorkeling, we ran into another couple in the pool who recommended a restaurant called 360 that was a beautiful lighthouse, turned fancy food place, that had a full 360 view of the entire island and beaches! We decided to walk there since it was close, but turned out to be about a kilometer and change, uphill to the restaurant.
A picture from 360's facebook page :)
Along the side of the road there were many little holes that housed creatures almost the size of my hand... tarantulas! Every ten to fifteen feet we would see something skitter away back into its hole as we approached! The food was amazing, lobster dishes and jalapeno steaks were the most interesting things on the menu, and each were only $14!!! Four of us ate like kings and paid like Dennys. We even got dessert shots of Dissorano and other liqueurs. We walked home stuffed and slept like babys in our king sized four poster beds!
Friday Dee picked the four of us up and took us on a tour of the east side of the island. We got to see a little more of the authentic culture, with less influence of the tourists. It is definitely a poorer side of the island, but the people are still happy and welcoming. We toured seeing sights, beautiful vistas and wonderful people. On the way back from sight seeing, we stopped at a grocery market to stock up and get prepared for fancy dinner round two, which the four of us cooked (mostly Lola and John though). We cooked us crab, tillapia, rice and a huge salad, paired with wine and a fine rum for dessert. After cooking and eating, we watched the Disney movie Brother Bear and had a great time!
Saturday, after cleaning and checking out of the fancy place, Blair and I went back to the apartment to pack and make lunches while John and Lola went on a kayak and snorkel tour. A little while later, Dee came and picked the four of us up to take us to the airport, where John and I had to say good bye to our women :( After getting through security and waving at the girls a final time, John and I consoled ourselves with scotch at the airport bar.
The End- now on to the rest of the web...for the Scavenger hunt on the internet!
Google Map these coordinates to see the following locations on Roatan!
Clinica Esperanza 16.326792, -86.569000
Miss Peggys House & the Beach 16.329336, -86.569338
White Diamond Hotel 16.327920, -86.569810
Here is the video of the Underwater Museum
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXHkfX7tsgM
-Justin
Next update: Denverfest 2010
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