Blogs from Roatán, Bay Islands, Honduras, Central America Caribbean - page 11

Heavens yes! Honduras is geliefd bij ons, ik zal je vertellen waarom.. Een vlotte grensovergang laat ons achter in de hoofdstad van Honduras "Tegucigalpa" (wie herinnert zich dat niet meer van middelbare school) een stad waar je niet wil zijn langer dan 48 uur. Omdat we veel moesten reizen met bussen die voor de verandering niet elke tien minuten stopte voor voedsel kwamen we uitgehongerd aan, geen ontbijt, geen lunch en geen pizza's als avondeten. Middels een direct taxi naar ons hotel vielen we vlug in slaap om vroeg wakker te worden voor ontbijt wat misschien wel het meest onaantrekkelijke ontbijt was wat ik ooit heb mogen aanschouwen. Twee uitgedroogde boterhammen een omelet van 2cm dik en zwart spek. Helaas, langer uitstellen van eten zou bijna gevaarlijk worden dus we moesten wel. Een bus bracht ons ... read more

Today we started off at Doc’s Dive again with hopes of spotting the same turtle from Friday. Unfortunately the dive was cut short when a few new divers drained their tanks too early so we were not able to swim up the chimneys. The visibility was not nearly as good due to the rough surface conditions churning up detritus in the water column over the past couple days. It’s still better than anything on the Atlantic coast of the U.S. No turtles, but we did sight a large crab under a ledge, a moray eel that I followed down to 100ft, and some lionfish. The next dive was Mr. Bud, a wrecked fishing boat around 50ft., very similar to Prince Albert. It was neat to swim through some of the compartments, a little spooky at times. ... read more

The first site I dove on Roatan was Mary’s Place which is renowned for a crack in the reef wall large enough to swim through (max depth 85ft). Many of the typical reef fish were spotted and the most significant find were a couple of seahorses, so nothing majorly exciting, but the scenery was great. It had been a hot minute since I last dove (over a year) so I spent most of the dive getting reoriented with achieving neutral buoyancy and trying to relax. Diving is a lot like riding a bike, it’s easy to pick up again. Of course it doesn’t hurt that the water is the perfect temperature for trunkin it at 86F and the visibility is perfect, virtually unlimited. I also felt safe because besides the dive master, the other divers were ... read more

So I am getting unfortunately used to the daily cockroach visitors in my house which is kind of disgusting. Wayne is going to bring roach motels from the US which I can not find here. They have sprayed the place down but apparently that did not kill them all. In any event, here's an update of what I've been doing: The vision checks have wound down for the time being as the three other students who were going to the schools with me leave Monday. But hopefully if any of the other volunteers are willing I'll be able to carry out their work once they are gone. I have started to work with the nurse here to do HIV testing. We went to El Suampo (an area of the island) last Wednesday and went to Lost ... read more

So I have arrived back in paradise for the second time. The last time I was here was March 2009 on vacation. While I was here I heard about "Miss Peggy's Clinic" and decided to e-mail her about volunteering at her clinic. After briefly stopping in San Salvador I arrived at the small one room Roatan airport. I was greeted by Dee with a beautiful sign that said my name and Cilnica Esperanza. We stopped at Plaza de Mar grocery store so I could get a few essentials such as coffee and water. I then made it to my apartment which is amazing and right on the water. In fact I went snorkeling today and once you get far enough out there is some of the most amazing snorkeling I have done. For those of you ... read more