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Published: December 31st 2006
Dec. 27th - Fubar Night
Derrick, Jody, Scott, and Byam (burping... nice)So staying an extra 2 nights turned into an extra 4 nights. I just couldn't leave.
Boxing Day (continued): Scott met up with me and we went to Sundowners bar across the street for "one drink" before the party. He got chatting and I got chatting and we ended up staying for about 3 drinks.
I met an amazing guy named Garnot. His mother is from Costa Rica and his Dad from Germany. He was raised in Costa Rica. Both his parents have passed away and he now lives with his 2 sisters and 2 brothers in Miami. He just finished school for (I believe) some sort of architectural planning. He and his siblings have this tradition of being somewhere new every year at Christmas. We had a really great chat. The best part was chatting about my teaching. He was telling me that he never used to be the best student, in fact he was quite a challenge. He also then said that the person he became today was shaped from so many of the Foreign teachers that he had when he was in school. He assured me that even though I may not see it this
Dec. 27th - Ladies' Man
Byam with Jody and Michelle year, I am truly making a different in these kids' lives. Oh man. It was so good to hear from someone who actually can back that up, having lived it themselves. He just really made me think a lot and gave me a lot of hope and motivation for returning back in January, after a rough December with my students. He was really hot too. We referred to him as "Hottie McHotHot" for the rest of the week.
Scott and I arrived at the Christmas party at Val and Ryan's slightly later than anticipated but there was still some yummy food left. What a fun night. Everyone was drinking and socializing. It was their close friends in attendance... their "family", and yet I was invited. Such awesome people. They were all showing off the presents they got from each other too. They were so creative and thoughtful. They are each other's family. It's so cute. I had a really great time. I gave Byam, Tom, and Andrea each a Canadian pin. They seemed to like that. Byam wore his out my last night in Roatan too. Cute.
Byam was sporting a kilt and so Andrea and I took
Dec. 27th - Matthew and Tom
Tom and the guy we were trying to get drunk... good start him out to the trampoline to get that thing flying up... lol. He had a good hold on it though. He even did a backflip without us seeing anything. We were kicked off the tramp shortly thereafter by the landlord who doesn't allow drunk trampoline. Gotcha.
Also sang some opera yet again. Same Italian song... "Se tu m'ami". Perhaps I should re-memorize something else. lol.
We left the party around 12:30am as Ryan was feeling quite sick. We continued it on the dock near the dive shop though for awhile. Andrea sharing a raincoat with Les (I think that was his name) and rolling around laughing on the dock. Good times. What a great day considering it was meant to be the day I left.
Wednesday, December 27th: Started nice and early with a dive at 9am. I thought about not going but did anyways. I figured I was tired but so was everyone else. So funny to see everyone in the morning. The weather was still really bad on the side of the island we were on so they had us all go over to the other side of the island at Flower's Bay for a 2
Dec. 27th - Some of the Guys
Scott, Tom (a bit of a mess), Derrick, and Rich tank dive. The owner (Alvin) had already taken the boats across on Christmas Day, knowing the weather was coming. Then they drove us over in pick up trucks.
These dives were interesting "fun" dives for me. Tom (divemaster) was leading the fun divers (opposed to the students) but the poor guy had a few challenges. There was one guy who has a non-functioning leg so uses his arms a lot. He also goes through A LOT of air REALLY fast. Then there was his son who equally uses air as quickly. Then there was a cruise-shipper who was only there for the day and was also not so good on air. The first guy kept running into the coral and kicking everything around him. Him and his son also kept swimming ahead of Tom, WAY deeper than they should have been, and not listening to Tom's clinking on his tank. He stripped his carabeaner of it's paint from hitting his tank so hard and so many times. Poor Tom. There was then one other guy and I. I kept trying to do stuff to make poor Tom laugh as he was getting so frustrated. At one point I pulled
Dec. 27th - On the Dance Floor
Matthew, Tom, Jody, Scott, and Michelle my regulator out of my mouth and mouthed the words "What the Fuck?!" to Tom. That seemed to make him laugh a bit. The 3 ran out of air about 20 minutes into the dive. They did their 3 minute safety stop then ascended while we dove for another 27 minutes or so. We were so up and down and all over the place with them. We kept joking that in their logbooks they'd have to write "depth: unknown, all over the place. Time: 20 minutes." WHAT! lol...
The second dive wasn't quite as bad but still bad. Even Jody was pissed and she wasn't even with our group. They were doing their navigation dive I think (for the advanced course) but she saw the guy hitting the corral the whole time too, plus he was swimming into all of the divers too. lol. On a positive note, Tom and I spotted a really cool crab called a Batwing Coral Crab as well as a bright yellow trumpetfish, both of which neither of us had ever seen.
The rest of the day was nice. I actually ran into one of my students who was vacationing with her family.
Dec. 29th - Last Supper
Jody and I out for dinner at The Lighthouse Restaurant They had tried to arrive on the 26th but had to spend a night in La Ceiba until the following day when they could get the ferry. Selina was so excited to see me. I was so excited to see her too. According to the dive people, I made quite a scene. Selina is the one with the monkey that I love so much. Anyways, it was cool to see her.
I played cards with Tom for a bit in the afternoon. Spit. He couldn't believe I knew how to play. I couldn't believe he did. Cool card game played in Canada AND Scotland apparently. His rules were slightly different but same game. Awesome.
Wednesday night at Fubar. We started at Sundowners again. Jody, Byam, and I sitting on the beach by a bonfire. So awesome. This was also when Derrick shared his idea of turning the dive shop into a reality tv show about the staff at the dive shop, the fact that Tom and Byam are starving divemasters, Scott's the oddball they throw in there, with guests who never leave. It'd be SUCH a funny show. Derrick was then immitating their accents all night. SO FUNNY.
Dec. 29th - Lobster
My first try at Lobster... SO good and SO cheap (whole dinner for about $15) I can still hear him saying "Tom, do you think we'll be eating tonight, Tom?" lol.
Fubar was fun. Ryan played guitar again. Andrea and Ryan went home pretty early. Everyone else got pretty wrecked. I talked to Garnot (Hottie McHotHot) a bit again. Jody got a good pic for me. Tom was so funny dancing with Michelle (who is now living on the island with her boyfriend). He was dancing with a dog at one point too. We had another dive student there too, taking bets on how many beers it would take to get him drunk. My guess was 3. It took 4. We had a fun night... yet again.
Thursday, December 28th: I didn't get up for the early dive at 9am. I slept off the drinks from the night before. At lunch time Byam and I had a "cook-off". I had been giving him a hard time the previous day when he made pasta sauce using only tomato paste and tuna so he challenged me to a cook-off. It was cute. Both of us in the kitchen, each had one side of the stove and one counter top. There were no veggie trucks out
Dec. 29th - Some of the Gang
Those of us who went for dinner on the last night.
Clockwise: Byam, John, Tom, Rich, Scott, Michelle, Jody, Derrick, and Annabelle selling veggies (as the boats hadn't delivered new veggies due to weather conditions and the water) so we both had to improvise a little bit. I had to buy some canned veggies and he had to use canned tomatoes. He ended up making a tomato/chicken soup using coconut milk, chicken, and canned tomatoes. I made curried vegetables in coconut milk served over rice. The judges were Ryan, Andrea, and Tom. They said both dishes were excellent (they were!) and that they were so different so it was hard to judge. We called a truse and declared a tie.
Our afternoon dive was a pretty good one. Jody, Derrick, and Scott didn't turn up... lol. Apparently Jody was quite sick from the previous evening's events. In the afternoon, Byam lead the fun divers and we saw a Hawksbill Turtle and a HUGE trumpetfish.
After the dive we all sat around for a bit at the dive shop (as we normally do at the end of the day, after the dive) then decided to all head out for dinner together. It was Byam, Tom, Andrea, Scott, and I. We went to a place called "Rotissere Chicken" and as you can guess, they're known for their chicken so that's what we all ordered. Jody and Derrick walked by so they sat with us for a little bit too, Derrick talking again about how awesome the reality tv show would be... "Tom, we made some money today Tom." Oh man... still giggling thinking about Derrick's accent.
Thursday was an early night to bed. We all decided we'd head out the following night for our "last night in Roatan" party. I decided to stay the extra day and leave Saturday since everyone else was leaving Saturday and since I called Walter and he said Friday he'd be late at work until about 10pm anyways. I just wasn't ready to leave. I'd met such an amazing group of people who I really clicked with, and with whom I was really enjoying their company.
Friday, December 29th: Morning started with a drift dive at "Texas". It was a nice site. There was some beautiful coral. We saw a HUGE blue parrotfish as well. The crew we were diving with was nice. It was all the old crew. They set the boats up that way on purpose. It was myself, Scott, Jody, Derrick, Mr. T., Annabelle, John (a Canadian Annabelle had met at a restaurant a couple nights prior) and 3 Germans who had been diving with us before too. Andrea lead us. It was funny too because before we went down she said "Hmmm... I wonder what we'll see. So exciting!" Then at one point underwater, she's waving us all over to look at something. It looks like this tiny crocodile/alligator thing. I knew right away that it was plastic and started making the underwater sign for "bullshit". She and I were laughing. Other people were taking pictures and looking at it. I tried to tell Jody that Andrea was full of shit but she thought I was telling her that someone farted. lol. Derrick was still believing it when we got to the surface and was asking "what was that thing?" Jody replied, "It was plastic. Didn't you see Andrea pick it up afterwards?" Ha Ha.
There was another dive at 11 but Jody and I decided to pass. It was our last day on the island, it was finally sunny, and we wanted to do a bit of tanning. We went to the grocery store, she picked up pringles and I got ice cream, then we head to her resort and lied on nice deck chairs half in the water, half on their beach. It was nice.
For the 2pm dive, Tom was taking us to a site called "Canyon Reef". It was awesome. Again we had a good crew diving. It was Scott, Me, Jody, Derrick, Annabelle, John, and one new guy who was a decent diver. This site was AWESOME. We were swimming through "canyons" that were between huge formations of corals. We were in an out of swim-throughs and did a couple things that somewhat were like tunnels. It definately was good buoyancy practice. We didn't see any really cool fish but some sort of jelly fish or something got my knee. I didn't see it but I felt the stinging and saw the marks when we came back up to the boat. It wasn't too bad but was still stinging so when we were back on shore JOdy got vingegar from the other boat and poured it on. Scott kept joking that he was gonna pee on it.
When we got back from the dive, I had promised to make guacamole for everyone. I had found the veggie trucks the previous evening so got everything I needed. It turned out really good too. It went over well with the hungry crowd of divers. Everyone said it was the best guac they had ever tasted.
Shortly after we had to go get ready for dinner. We were meeting up to head to the Lobster Pot and I was totally pumped as I had never tried Lobster. The Lobster Pot ended up being closed as electricity was out that end of the island (apparently typical of EVERYWHERE in Honduras) so we went to a place called the Lighthouse. It was really nice and was right on/over the water. At dinner was Byam, Tom, Annabelle, John, Rich, Michelle, Scott, Jody, Derrick, and myself. It was a wonderful dinner. I ordered the special of grilled garlic lobster with rice, beans, and vegetables. It was the special so it also came with dessert. Mmmm... so good. A bunhc of others ordered the same.
After dinner we went to Sundowners for a bit. Byam was meeting up with his "date" there. She was some blonde girl he met Wednesday at Fubar. Met up with Andrea there too. Her, Jody, Annabelle, and I had a drink of the beach then said goodbye to Andrea and head to Purple Turtle (or as Scott calls it, Purple Onion???) We didn't stay there long and went to Fubar, where we also didn't stay long. It wasn't our usual night of partying but we were all tired and dinner had been about a 2.5 hour ordeal. We all said goodbye and I head to bed. Such awesome people. Hard to leave. We have all spoken of future meetings though. I may try to go diving with Derrick, Jody, and their divemaster friend up in Tobermory. Also, Byam is talking about a "cross-Canada tour" in late July/early August, so that could be fun.
Saturday, December 30th: Got up nice and early for the ferry. I arrived around 6:15. The ferry leaves at 7 but it was PACKED. I had already purchased my ticket back on Boxing day (it's good for a year) so got into the line of people, only to find out that I had to check in at the counter to have my ticket stamped, and had to check my backpack. So I go to check my backpack first and the guy tells me the ferry is full. I will have to wait until the next ferry. Well. the next ferry wasn't for another 7 hours and I was so angry. I was standing around and then thought maybe I should at least try to check in at the counter. I waited for about 10 minutes and nothing was happening. Hondurans were all waving their pre-purchased tickets at the counter. I then heard one of the attendants say that they wouldn't be selling any new tickets but would stamp a few of the pre-purchased ones. I got my hand right in there and she took my ticket first. Hehe. Nice. So then I get to the lady who originally told me I had to check my bag and get my ticket stamped and she took my ticket and said nothing about my bag. I was all ready to tell her I'd put it on my lap the whole time if I had to. The guys at the door of the boat took my bag, gave me a ticket for it and I was on the boat. THANK GOODNESS! I'm so glad I didn't just sit there and wait for the next boat.
Getting my bags at the end of the trip was brutal. It was just like when we had arrived in Roatan. Everyone has these little baggage tickets and are fighting their way at the counter. I decided to hang back til the end, went to the bathroom and everything first.
Got my bag, got a taxi, and was dropped off at a different bus station than I had been to before. This one was still the same bus line but was a MUCH newer and nicer bus. The bus looked brand new; leather covered seats that weren't damaged (you have to have experienced the other buses to understand) and actually reclined. It was about a 6 hour bus ride by the time I reached Comayagua. It felt nice to be "home". I got home, called Walter, had a shower, and started checking e-mails and such. Walter came over for a little while, looked at my pictures and made some dinner. I meant to go to bed early but just couldn't stop chatting with people and doing stuff on the internet that I had not done for 2 weeks.
Today: Woke up. Did laundry. Paid online bills. Checked e-mail. Pretty boring.
Walter is heading over this afternoon for a bit and then tonight we're heading to either Villa Real, or Sangrias if Villa is too busy. We'll see. This will be my first New Years EVER that I will have a date to kiss at Midnight. Crazy. Hopefully tonight is a good night.
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Jeanette Hedley
sounds like fun adventures you're getting up to. hope you have fun tonight. enjoy your new year's kiss! *insert girly giggle here*