Advertisement
Published: July 14th 2007
Edit Blog Post
It's almost over - boo hiss! But here are a few of my tales to make you seething with jealously!!!
My last week here has been UNREAL. The last day in the clinic went really well and was taken out to lunch by the president and the team! I got a little present, a card and a certificate thanking me for my help and for all the equipment i brought over - and they also asked me to thank you guys as well for supporting me!. I have also been invited back next year!
On Monday morning I headed to Tegus with Jen and stayed in a wicked B&B with an American couple who provides safe accommodation for foreigners. Tegus is notoriously dangerous with lots of gangs, drugs and high crime rate etc and it's pretty minging to look at but so are some parts of London!! Jen and I were scared silly to leave this secure complex but we headed to an American Style Mall and shopped (yeah!). It was weird to see Hondurans being able to afford American prices for food and clothes - its something we're not used to seeing and i
think
unfortunately this is only for the very privileged few!
The next day at 5h30 we headed to Roatan, a Caribbean Island off the north coast of Honduras. It was a British colony before Queen Vic's Reign and she then handed it back to the Honduranians in the early 1850's (forgive me if my dates are wrong) There are a mixture of people here, Afro-Caribbeans, Hondurans and the white expats and three languages are spoken English, Spanish and Creole.
The plane we travelled here in was a "Short 360" 32 seater tin can. (if that makes sense to anyone - see the piccie if not) I had wobbly knees for while and when the engines started i had to put my earphones to keep my eardrums from bursting. Thankfully it was a short journey and the weather was great and my desire to sit on a beach for a couple of days overpowered any worry in my mind!
The island of Roatan is just idyllic. Turquoise waters, white sands, amazing reefs and fishes and amazing weather!! Coming from Danli to here, Jen and I both thought we'd died and gone to heaven! The cabin that
we rented was overlooking the sea about a 5 minute walk along the beach to West End (the main town). It's pretty catered to the American tourist and also a big spot for Scuba Divers, but according to a local British Airways are looking to fly in in 2008 so if any of you get the chance i would recommend it highly before it becomes too touristy!
Its obviously more expensive than the mainland with some stuff being 4 times as much! But when you're paying 2 pounds instead of 50 pence for a main meal its not really anything to complain about.
We headed to Carambola Botanical Gardens as i wanted to do a big of Iguana spotting. It was just a big jungle really which lot and lots of trees and a few flowers here and there. It was also populated by millions of lizards that scuttled accross the paths at 100 miles an hour scaring the hell out of us! They looked like a miniature version of those spitting dinosaurs in Jurassic Park! Anyway, i'd almost lost hope in spotting the Iguana but i found him high above us in the trees enjoying
the sunshine! He was HUAGE with stripy tail but walked off as soon as i got my camera out - may have been due to the screaming i was doing.....
We then hit West Bay - the nicest beach of the island. We grabbed two chairs from one of the resorts and layed them in the water and soaked up the rays while the bluest water i'd ever seen lapped our feet! (jealous yet??) It was cool because the hotel thought we were staying there and came round with free fruit and drinks for the afternoon - bonus.
The next day - i decided to become a real tourist and go visit the dolphins. Roatan has a center for marine biology so i felt a little better going to see a few Dolphins in captivity knowing they are treated well (well thats what i make myself think anyway). The experience was AMAZING, AMAZING, AMAZING! I went snorkeling with 4 Dolphins and i was playing with them underwater and diving down with them. Their favourite game is throwing the seagrass! You wait till a Dolphin comes to say hello and then you throw him the seagrass -
he catches it, then throws it back to you and so on! I played catch with a Dolphin! They are just beautfiul creatures, so graceful and powerful and seeing them swim underwater is an unforgetable experience.
What was also an experience was when the trainer got our Dolphin to swim upside down so I could see her belly button she decided to take a pee on me! No shame!!!
Yesterday we booked to go on a 37ft Pearson (pierson??) Sail boat and cruised round the island with Captain Dusty! We then took a couple of hours to snorkel the reef there. Roatan has the second largest reef in the world and its unpolit due to not many people knowing about it! The divers amongst you would be in heaven! The fish I saw on the reef were just incredible and we were lucky to see a young Sea turtle, baracuda, box fish, Eagle Rays, Lobster, Grouper, Mahi Mahi, Tuna and millions of fish in every imaginable colour!
Those of you who know i freak out in open water would have been very proud of me as I had never been in such deep water
and i didn't panic once. Even tho a Whale Shark has been hanging around recently and there was a possibility of me being sucked to death (as he has no teeth) it was worth the risk and i loved it!
I have come to realise quite a few things during these past four weeks - professionally and personally. I now know that the profession i'm going into is the right one for me - i love working with both adults and kids and i've seen how physio can help made a huge impact on peoples lives both physically and mentally. I know i'm going to enjoy the job and cant wait to start my placement in a couple of weeks time (bearing in mind Harold Wood in Romford is a little different to Honduras!)
Personally i've realised i'm a little braver than i thought i was . If i can work and travel in Honduras - i can do anything..... anywhere!!
So - thanks for listening and hope i've entertained you a little! I'm back to reality with a bump on Sunday and hopefully will get to see a few of you in the near future.
lots of love and signing out scotty!
Marni
xxxx
Advertisement
Tot: 0.159s; Tpl: 0.02s; cc: 9; qc: 46; dbt: 0.0892s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
ada
non-member comment
fantastic writing
It reads like a little story from a book i really enjoyed it . The pictures are lovely and it looks like you had a wonderful time. Well done Marni Love Nana After all the things I first said you have proved me wrong. It really was a good idea to go after all. What an amazing experience for you both professionally and personally, as you have said yourself. You are an inspiration my beautiful daughter and Dad and I are very proud of you. However, it will be good to have you home for a while.