Blogs from Roatán, Bay Islands, Honduras, Central America Caribbean - page 9

It’s official. I am now known as the “Turtle Girl” Sorry it has taken me so long to give another update, but things have been pretty crazy on the little island lately. Last weekend was an El Salvadorian holiday so Fantasy Island was booked solid Thurs-Sun, and my new resort, CoCoView had no room until Saturday, so I was in a pickle trying to improvise places to stay and where to pack/store all of my gear (yes, there is a LOT of it). I had also been dealing with a couple different sicknesses during the past couple weeks, so I would come back to the dock every day feeling completely drained and not feeling like going much of anything, especially writing. Anyway, long story short, things worked out fine, I had a bed to sleep in ... read more

I have now concluded my time in Roatan. Things that feel strange now that I am back home: using a phone/driving for the first time in three weeks, functional showers, eating a real salad, throwing out all my dead plants, being able to flush toilet paper, saying hello instead of hola, not waking up to the crystalline Caribbean, palm trees, and a tropical breeze. My last day on Roatan included the tagging and release of a new turtle and some tasty red snapper and wine with friends. Make that lots of wine. In total, I logged 39 dives on the island! I am so lucky to have been given this opportunity by my friend Noel, I hope to repay her someday with another adventure (I'm thinking somewhere with surf and/or hiking). She showed me the type ... read more

Tuesday morning and facing only two more full days here. It has gone quickly - especially since reaching the halfway point a few days ago. Yesterday we spent the day in West Bay, which is just about at the western tip of the island. The guidebook said that it has Roatan's best beach and we weren't disappointed. White sand, very light blue water almost absent of sea grass, and a wall of rock (old coral) at the end of the beach that is a beautiful, dramatic boundary to a very pretty stretch of beach. We liked the beach more than Sandy Bay (mainly docks) and West End but West Bay is the first spot we've seen with large hotels along the beach and dozens+ of chairs in front to sunbath in. We walked along a well-trafficked ... read more

Today we did our first open water dive. We checked with the dive shop here (Octopus Dive School) yesterday and decided to do the two-day PADI certification course. This will enable us to dive on future trips, and since Roatan is supposed to have some of the best diving in the world we figured this is the place to learn and get certified. We had homework last night and actually stayed up quite late reading the book (73 page chapter with additional video on DVD) and got up early this morning to cram. First Kate giving us homework for the wedding and now more homework on our honeymoon! We talked with the instructor a bit before going out to the end of the dock and putting our equipment together and getting in the water. Definitely unlike ... read more

Well, if you read the previous blog you know that I finally got my hands on a turtle, 3 weeks later. I wasn't able to get out and track today because of the dive locations, but hopefully we can get close tomorrow and give it a try. It's pretty tough without the boat access I had planned for. The man who my advisor insists I need to use to help me track is not exactly the type I want my work to be associated with. He is definitely a nice enough man and very generous, but he keeps many animals on his property and the living conditions, especially for the primates, are unacceptable in my mind. I realize we are in a developing nation, but it breaks my heart to see animals housed in inferior living ... read more