Roatan - Days 6-7

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We've passed the halfway point of our trip. Yesterday we finished our scuba dive certification and did our second open water dive. Beautiful swimming along the reef. There were so many fish next to us, then if we looked up there would be a school or two passing above us also. Our favorite may have been a large teal-colored fish with a yellow argyle pattern on its tail (actually a couple colors, not unlike a blue, teal, yellow and red crayon getting left in the sun and blending together with bits and pieces staying the original color). It chased a smaller fish all around a piece of coral next to us for 10 seconds or so (very cool!), before losing the smaller fish and pooping next to us as it swam away (not so cool). We also liked a big round fish that was black and yellow swirls. When we saw it we were swimming along a trench between coral growths and the fish swam along with us for a ways. We are still interested in snorkeling, but with a dive costing slightly more than snorkel equipment rental we aren't sure which we will do (or both) in the four days ahead. A neat thing about certification is that we can now go dive with a professional anywhere for a pretty reasonable cost. The quality of dive sites and price here is some of the best in the world but we do plan to keep using our certification on future vacations. Also, our instructor Sophie was fantastic and we'd recommend her to anyone coming to Octopus Dive for certification.

Last night we walked along the beach during sunset before going to a nearby brick oven pizza place called Bella Napoly on the recommendation of Kent from Blue Bahia. He has been very friendly and helpful with everything from how to get to the Plaza Mar grocery store, nearby activities and recommended tours, to practical things like how to get on wifi and when the power will come back on (the island lost power for 2-3 hours the other day). All the staff have been great, but Kent and Philip's help/advice/patience is worth noting for anyone planning a visit here. Anyway, Bella Napoly had good pizza and we'd recommend it to other travelers. Right on the road, just past Blue Bahia on the west side of Sandy Bay, but the deck looks out to a grove of banana trees on the other side of the restaurant so it's rather peaceful. Just prior to leaving, Philip took us into the bird enclosure to feed the toucans. We found out they are native to Honduras but not the island, though the pair of parrots in the other enclosure are native to Roatan. The talkative parrot by itself is appropriately named Gabby and has taught the other parrots a few words because yesterday afternoon on our deck we heard a chorus of "Hi", "Hello", and "Hola" from the trio. The little green thing is a Toucanot, a mix between a toucan and a parrot.

Today we plan to sit on the beach or at our dock much of the day and work to finish our books. We found out that cruise ships come in on Tuesdays and Fridays so we'll plan accordingly when going to Gumbalina Park for the monkeys and zipline, then an afternoon in West Bay to check out the beach and the coral that runs right up to it.

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Photos

Swimming off the dock at Blue Bahia
(my tan definitely still a work in progress)

Swimming in the pool at Blue Bahia
(our room is on the second floor of the building on the left)

The parrots
These are the ones native to Roatan

The toucanet
one part toucan, one part parrot

The main road along the island
walking the block or so to Bella Napoly (you can see its sign up ahead on the right)

Comments

[Nancy Rains]

Blue Bahia
Hola Sean and Lauryn, If you are staying with Lisa and Kent please give Lisa a HUGE hug for me. Same for you guys, Nancy