Roatan, Honduras - almost for Divers only

Dec 15

FRI DEC 12 – DAY 64 – BELIZE CITY TO ROATAN, HONDURAS

I got up at 5am, got a ride to the airport for 6am. To my surprise it was a 12 person airplane, a puddle jumper – pretty cool experience!

Arrived 9am – went straight to my hostel – owned by a Canadian from London, Ontario named Mel. She is super sweet, been living in Roatan over 20 years.

I went to West End – walked around, grabbed lunch at a place called Sandy Buns owned by a couple from Houston, Texas. Yummy!

Went back, went for a swim and had a couple of drinks with Mel at night.

SAT DEC 13 – DAY 65 – ROATAN, HONDURAS

I got up, made a coffee and oatmeal, and out the door by 9am. I flagged a cab and got myself to Westend Divers.

I took my discovery dive course – AGAIN – every time I dive since I am not certified. I really considered getting my open water certification while here but it would have been all consuming every minute I was here.

Initially I was having trouble in the water I kept getting salt water in my nose and throat. Once we went for the real dive, I was golden. My guide, Erin from South Carolina (grew up in Minnesota) – told me that I was better than most of her open dives. She said my form was perfect, my breathing was perfect, she said I really should get my open water certification. She told me this prob 25x or more so maybe I’ll consider it. It was probabaly the 2nd best dive I have ever done behind the great barrier reef in Cairns, Australia. Tho now they are calling this whole area the 2nd biggest reef in the world for divers. So glad I did it, loved it.

Had lunch and ordered a cocktail with my lunch. The glass had to be almost as big as my head. After drinking that, I could hardly eat and I felt immediately sick. I came back home to lie down for a few min.

Then walked to a Christmas market with Mel and a guy from France, Dimitri. I was so over heated from the whole day, the drink and the blasting heat – I walked back and went straight to the cold pool.

Showered and made some calls, worked, ate my lunch food, and hung out in my private room. A great night actually and I got a lot done. Felt much better again too.

SUN DEC 14 – DAY 66 – ROATAN, HONDURAS

I had a rental car delivered to my hostel Sunday morning. I drove out to meet Mel and her boys Deo and Auri at their church – I stayed for the music and then ducked out. Felt so good to be in a church again. They even sang ‘it is well with my soul’ I love that song!!

I spent the day driving around the entire island. Visited most of the towns and beaches, made my way back to West Bay where I walked the entire beach, and settled on a chair with calamari and a glass of red.

I met Johel and Rick at the beach, they invited me to join them for dinner. Rick owns an architure firm in Texas and works remote - amazing how well he does for hardly working - no I’m not jealous… Johel is a massage therapist. They picked me up at 6 and we headed down to west end. We had a great dinner at Silverslides. Great spot with good wine.

Then we went to another bar after dinner where Rick and a guy from Manitoba were getting into it over politics… screaming ready to fight with threats.. I was yelling ‘Stop! Enough!! Stop it both of you” lol … anyway..

Ended up going for a swim in the ocean around midnight, felt so good. It is humid everywhere and that water felt incredible. A night of red wine and good laughs – good for the soul.

MON DEC 15 – DAY 67 – ROATAN TO SAN PEDRO SULA, HONDURAS

I took my time, got up had coffee, packed my bags, said good byes, and went to the Jungle place with monkeys and birds. Wow – I have never had monkeys and birds all over me before so that was something! I loved it – had a great guide named Kenley.

Stopped for sushi then headed to the airport. Flew on a small plane over to mainland Honduras – to one of the most dangerous cities in South and Latin America. Soooooo, I checked in and stayed put … showered, washed my hair, made some food and hung out as my flight is early tomorrow morning.

RECAP ROATAN, HONDURAS

The entire island of Roatan has 110K people. It is tiny.

It is much more Christian than any other country I have visited. Everywhere I have been so far has been predominantly Catholic. Also a number of countries had many 7th Day Adventists.

The taxi system here is any car driving that wants to pick you up, if they see you on the street – they give a couple of short honks.. if you wave back, they stop. You get in, you don’t say anything – you only tell them when you want to get out and it costs $2 U.S. if it’s a private car, about $1.50 if it’s a bigger van / bus. So random. You sit silent in a car picking up and dropping strangers every few miles – nobody chats.

People in Roatan are not as open as most places I have visited. It is predominantly a diving island. I learned that in the diving community exists a ranking system where they judge each other based on how deep they dive. They are actually not very nice to each other.

Even when I reached out, people are closed-minded. Except of course my last night, when I was invited out by locals and had a great time. The bugs are very bad here. And the humidity almost killed me. There must be 1000s of dogs and they bark incessantly along with roosters which start to cockadoodledoo at 1am.

Everything is far apart, not walking distance. While driving, I noticed that thought the island is only 6 miles wide - the entire road system is built more inland so as you drive around the whole island, you get very few tiny glimpses of the ocean. It doesn’t make sense to me. Why not build the road with coastline views around the entire island? It is 1 1/2 hours to drive from top to bottom, and only 15 min to drive across. Surely they could have designed the roads to make the drive unforgettable!! Instead, you drive on rickey roads with predominantly trees to look at. When less than a mile away would be the most incredible vibrant ocean colors you can imagine.

Having said all of that, this place is not really for me. I’m very glad I went diving here since this is the place for it. And thought I did meet a few great local folks, I do not think I would visit here again.

Roatan, I rank you 6/10. You are beautiful but far too muggy, a lot of bugs, and your people are really not super friendly.