Roatan Looks Interesting

Now that Dave has gotten a good nights sleep and his itching is down to a manageable level we can get on with the rest of our vaca. It's Wednesday morning and first we have our vaca breakfast which today is good ol' bacon and eggs with some toast....yummy. I think vaca breakfast tastes the best, probably because I don't have to make it, but I do make the coffee so it's almost a fair trade off. Of course I also get stuck doing the dishes while Dave goes down to the dock and takes a few casts. We've arranged a boat tour with Marvin the local water taxi driver who takes us through the mangroves into a few of the local bights (think bays) and shows us some restaurants, bars and stores.  He has a hand line that he lets trail behind the boat and he gets a few bites, one which is a small barracuda which Dave reels in. Marvin then drops us off in  Oak Ridge, one of the local towns and we walk along the waters edge until we come to a small place on the side of the road...

One of the big drawbacks of Roatan is the biting bug problem. I had read about it and people strongly suggested that visitors bring lots of bug spray with deet in it, and so I did. We typically travel with plenty of bug wipes to use during dusk and dawn hours where mosquitoes can often be at their worse, especially in any tropical environment but the warnings were strong enough to make me actually bring a full can of OFF w/deet. We discovered quickly during our first week on the West End that even if you just want to have coffee out on your deck in the morning, you better put on your deet. The problem here is 2-fold though, there are tiny mosquitoes that will bite any tome of day if you are near trees and such off the water, then there are sand fleas that will gladly attack you while on the beach. So, every time we went out anywhere for anything we covered ourselves in deet and for the most part we were pretty lucky. We only got a couple of flea bites every day and they took a ve...

Yeah, yeah, I know- wrong direction..... Actually Sunday we did go west and headed to the Carambola Gardens in Sandy Bay. This is over 40 acres of flora with a fairly easy hike up a mountain to a beautiful vista at the top. We meet the owner, Bill Brady who happens to be wearing a Red Sox hat and even though he is not from the Boston area, he is a big time Sox fan so we spent a bit of time talking baseball with him. Since it is a Sunday in the slow season he doesn't have any guides on duty but the oaths are clear and everything is well marked and we would prefer to go at our own pace anyway so we set off to see what we can see. Dave and I really like to walk around in any natural environment and just look at things. Seeing the way a tree grows, seeing flowers, watching small animals in their surroundings is just so cool and peaceful. Here are some of the best things we saw at the gardens: Like my family tree...full of nuts!!! Dave spots the coolest things....a w...

Ok, so I'll admit that through my first week here in Roatan I didn't post much, mostly because I didn't have much to post about. Dave and I were a little lazier than we normally are on vaca and we spent a lot of our first week just hanging at the beach or the house. Friday was a case of the latter. I woke up with every intention to do something but it was a nice cloudy, no chill day and so I picked up my Kindle and headed to the shady deck and began to read. I don't get to read as much as I would like to and sometimes I feel guilty doing so on vacation but Dave and I spend enough time together that he knows that I am not trying to ignore him (at least not intentionally). Many times though he must think so because just as I start reading he starts talking, asking me questions, etc. Really? Did you not just see me start to read? I don't ask the question because the know the answer: "Yes, why do you think I started talking to you?". Let's get one thing s...

Ok, what day is it anyway? There are 2 reasons why I prefer to take 2 weeks of vaca at a time (besides the obvious - it's my time and I earned it...LOL). First because I want to make sure we have enough time to scope out a place just in case it is "the place" and second because after the first couple of days I lose track of what day it is and by the time I do realize what day it is, it would be almost time to leave had I only taken 1 week off. So, now that I know that it is Thursday I can reflect a little on the past couple of days. Tuesday was quite a lazy day, that started by feeding the crab in the empty lot next door. This is for my friend Rob...this fiddler crab was so huuuge. Luckily I was in my apartment and not in jeopardy of getting mauled by a damn crab.. LOL We then took a nice relaxing kayak ride around Mangrove Bight, which is a bay area where our place is located. It was calm and tranquil and best of all, not a lot of work for me. But like most day...

OK - so unless you get sick or really sunburned, there's no way to not have a good day here. We've rented this cute little studio which is just out of the way of the main road in West End but only a 5 minute walk to the action. Since we arrived late afternoon Saturday and we were basically just tired and hungry we mustered up enough energy to walk the 7 minutes down to Sundowners and found that this is the place to be. Great vibe, lots of locals and expats, good cold local beers and decent food with real potato fries...so good. So we hung out for a little while but then it was clearly time for bed, I think it was about 7:00...LOL Sunday was just a relaxation day. I was treated to vacation breakfast courtesy of Chef Dave. Dave went and took a few casts while I did the dishes then we went to the beach and hung out for the better part of the day. We are staying near Half Moon Bay which a nice little place to swim and hang out with lots of boats coming and going for diving, f...