Roatan Looks Interesting

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...

The saying goes "The older you are the wiser you get" or something like that, but that certainly does not apply to me. Every year I get older and every year I plan my vacation to start at the absolute butt-crack of dawn...will I ever learn, or in other words "be wiser"??? There's something that happens when I book our flight for almost any vaca that blocks all past experiences and allows me to think that it is OK to book that first flight of the day, completely forgetting what it was like last time when we had to get to bed early (I never get any sleep), get up early and head to the airport just to be able to get to our destination by mid-afternoon at best only to be way too tired and hungry to actually do anything. Dave is actually a trooper through all of this. He gets to sleep early, gets us to the airport and makes sure I don't have a complete melt down along the way. It's reminds me about what they say about childbirth, it's a mother to get ...