Arriving in Roatan a whole day earlier than planned because of hurricane Ike, we are able to sleep in. It is a beautiful sunny day and now we can see in the daylight just how fantastic our rental villa really is. We are located right on the ocean and have access to a dock equipped with multilevel sunbathing areas, a boat house full of kayaks and a ladder down into the ocean to make it easy for snorkeling. Mike goes into town to rent a van and upon return takes Dr Cathy and me to the small town down the only road on the island. We hear that this coming Monday, Sept 15, marks the anniversary of Honduras’s independence and is the largest celebration of the year. Along the beach, street vendors are preparing by constructing ... read more

Morning finds us well rested after a night in a hotel near the Houston airport. The rumor is the hurricane will hit Houston later today. At 6am the airport is open as usual, but will be shutting down at 2pm. Our original (pre-hurricane) flight directly into Roatan is cancelled and we are booked on a flight that goes to San Pedro Sula, Honduras instead. We are thankful to be getting out of Houstn, even though we don't know how we are going to get to Roatan once we land. We will worry about that when we get there. We arrive and find ourselves in the long line of weary plane passengers waiting to go through immigration. It takes about an hour, but we go through with no problem. We eagerly make our way to the luggage ... read more

Dr Cathy and Susan head for the Spokane airport Other than a failed attempt to intercept a Fed Ex package containing 400 dog vaccines on the way to the airport, our departure was uneventful. These vaccines were graciously donated by Val Garcia, a World Vets member and Schering Plough drug rep from the East Coast. They didn't make it to Roatan with us, but we will certainly be able to use them on our next project. Thank You Val! The rest of the day was filled with nerve racking suspense with threats of flight cancellations because of the hurricane. A couple of flights had to be changed, and I would like to think that we made it onto an already full flight at the last minute because the ticket agents liked us, but I think they ... read more

World Vets Travel Blog - Wednesday, Sept 10, 2008 Roatan Honduras Day “Minus” One” I usually start with day one, but since this trip started out as such a “nail bitter”, I thought I might include a little of the pre-trip drama. The World Vets Roatan Team will be heading to Honduras. Our goal is to spay/neuter over 300 animals. We will also be vaccinating and treating as many animals as we can during this one week project. For months World Vets has been coordinating efforts with local Roatan volunteers to launch this project. 6 veterinarians and 5 assistant/techs, many who have never previously met, will converge in Roatan to form this team. Dr Wally Diehl from North Carolina, Dr David Landers from Texas, Dr Jodi Arndt from Minnesota, World Vets Dr Cathy King from Washington ... read more

Our Day Off!!!! Belize Diving Services offered all divers a free day of diving and any others a free “Discover Scuba” day. Andrea, Leslie, Susan, Cathy , Alex, Ilona and Mary went diving. We saw string rays, dolphins, a leather back sea turtle, cuttle fish, moray eels, a big grouper, a crab in a conch shell, and many colorful fish along with beautiful corals and sponges. It was fun to watch Alex, Ilona and Mary on their first open water dives as newly certified divers. Carla and Shawn did the “Discover Scuba” Winnie and Amanda went on a snorkel trip while Sarah, Alexandra, Nancy and Dan all stayed on the island. We all met that evening at Zeke’s house for a cocktail party on the palapa (rooftop). Zeke is a retired veterinarian living on Caye Caulker ... read more

Up at 7:30am and off to the second day of surgery and treatments, we stopped off at the Caye Caulker Bakery. It was recommended by locals as well as many tourists. We picked out cinnamon rolls and when it was time to pay, the woman behind the counter smiled and said “Please take anything you want for free. Thank you for coming to help our animals!” Her young son said he would bring his cat “LuvLuv” in to see us later in the day. (By the way, you’ve GOT to try this bakery if you go to Caye Caulker!) During this project, we had two locations. One was at the PAW Sanctuary and the other was at the Belize Diving Services. These were located on the same side of the island and about 1 block apart. ... read more

Today the group met up on the island and had a little time to get to know each other before the work starts tomorrow. After unloading all the gear and bags from the boat everyone headed off to their respective accommodations by island taxi (golf carts). The clinic supplies were taken to one of the surgery areas for some preliminary set up. When we arrived in our rooms we were treated with a welcome pack courtesy of the Belize Diving Service (travel mugs, a veterinary clinic painting by a local artisit, meal vouchers, island map etc). Later, they also gave everyone on our team T-shirts from the dive shop. Wow! That was such a nice suprise. Later we all met at the "split" a great swimming area that was created when the island was cut in ... read more