Time to go home...

Woofie jumped into the suitcase to be sure he was not left behind!!

 Saturday, November 29, 2014

Final stroll through town, final packing, final good byes.

Time to head back home.

So long Linda, so long Seagrape Plantation, so long Roatan!  Hope to return some day!!

Calmer seas today.

Views along the main street.

Taxi drivers beep constantly asking if you need a ride.

Seagrape Plantation Resort.  Our home away from home!  Wonderful place and family.  Hope to return!

A peek at our bungalows.

View from the pool.

At the airport.

Taking off!

Hasta la vista, Roatan!!

Island Tour

Friday, November 28, 2014

Weather still too rough to go diving.  So I thought to ask about getting an island tour!  Turns out Cleve leads tours all over the island.  Linda and George were game, so we set an appointment to meet Cleve at 10am to explore!

At the local Rum shop!

Woofie tried some rum.  He liked it!

He took us to some of the places that Devon had taken us to… the rich areas.  Then he took us to the villages where the local folks live.  Of course, there is quite a contrast.  

Some of the local homes.

Cleve and his two oldest boys.

This cute dog belongs to Cleve's mother.

 There are different areas of folks:  the black English, Garafundas, Spanish… we even went to the Spanish area that Cleve grew up in.  And we went to his mother’s house and got to meet her!  Cleve’s two oldest sons spent the morning with us, then stayed at Grandma’s house while we continued the tour.

Yummo!!  More fresh fruit frozen yogurt!

We had a FABULOUS lunch at Cal’s Cantina high on the hill in the center of the island.  The view was spectacular and so was the lunch!  Fresh Lobster that had just arrived that am.  Boy, that was tasty!!

This restaurant is a favorite of locals.  AND visitors, if they ever find it!!

George, Stacy and Linda.

Cleve and Woofie!

Linda and Cleve.  He is always cutting up!

Four fresh grilled lobster tails, salad for sauteed veggies for about $16!!  Didn't get my lobster for Thanksgiving, but well worth the wait!!  

Quite a contrast!  I had a photo of this wreck in an earlier blog, I think.  Today the cruise ship was in the dock!  Changes the entire perspective!

Solar and wind powered clothes dryer!  

Little Venice.  They do travel by boat from house to house.  There are parking lots on the main road for folks that have to commute to work. 

It was a long day, but what a nice way to spend a rainy day when we couldn’t go diving.  Cleve is a great guide and very fun to spend the day with.

Got back to the bungalow and had to pack up… leave tomorrow morning.  I will share a ride with George at 11am.  Linda has to leave at 6:30am. 

What a great trip…  J J J  Sorry for it to end, but will be happy to get back home to the critters!

Happy (Soggy and Blowy) Thanksgiving!!

Thursday, November 27, 2014

Happy Birthday, Vickie!!!

Happy Thanksgiving, Everybody!!

Well, the storm continued to blow all night.  The ocean is much wilder this morning!  The waves are crashing over the gazebo constantly.  It is amazing how it is able to withstand the forces of the raging sea and storm!  I thought yesterday was impressive, but today is topping it.  As long as the wind isn’t driving the rain directly towards us, we have our room door open.  The wind feels nice.  Sandy was asking how this storm compares to ours at home in Ocean Shores… well, for one, I am not on the ocean, so I can’t compare that.  But the biggest difference is that is still very warm here, not cold like in OS.  So here we have the door and windows open, at home everything is closed up tight.  But either place: I am loving the storms!  Puts a damper on diving (darn!) and wandering around town, but not a damper on our enthusiasm in this place!

A video of the storm that Sandy got, pretty impressive!

We will have to brave the storm sometime this am to get on the internet  to check on the flight status.  No planes will be able to get in and out of the airport here in this weather.  The runway is very short and it is right at the edge of the ocean…Sandy may be here a bit longer than planned!

Well, I need to get out to take more photos!!!!!

Sandy checked the internet and there did not seem to be any delays on her flight.  In fact, just walking behind our bungalows to the courtyard area, there did not seem to be any bad weather!  It wasn’t raining, just cloudy skies.  So Cleve arrived in the van and off she went to the airport.  See ya!!

Linda and I got her stuff packed and transferred to my bungalow.  We will be roomies for the next couple of days.  At noon Linda braved the storm to meet up with her pal, Ron, to work on some computer stuff.  OMG it is now 1pm and the storm has MAJORLY AMPED UP!!!!!!  The wind is howling, the rain is pouring and being blown in my window.  Finally had to close it.  The wind blew my door closed.  OOOHHH   WWHHEEEEE!!!  It is exciting!  Hope Sandy’s flight made it out this am… Oops, just lost the power again.  Well, more later!!

Sandy’s flight was to take a small plane to the mainland of Honduras, short layover then fly to Houston and on to Seattle.  If she got out of Roatan, if the storm affects there, she could be stuck there.  The storm is very impressive.  Anyway, hope she made it home!

I did some reading, photochecks, took more pics and videos of the storm and colored some cards.  Linda returned, wearing a trash bag as a raincoat.  When in the Caribbean, do as the locals do! 

About five pm I decided I needed to get out and off we went to explore a little and get some dinner.  It was blowing, but no rain.  Many shops and restaurants were closed due to the bad weather.  Many boats were pulled up onto the shore and tied to trees to protect them from the pounding surf… this was along the bays that normally don’t have any waves!  Piles of seaweed have been washed on shore.  Looks quite different than it did a couple of days ago!  Certainly no more diving for us!

We had a nice, but blowy, dinner at the Lighthouse Restaurant.  Walking back in the dark, with the wind howling, was an adventure, luckily no rain.

Finally turned in for an early night.  Will need to check the internet about the weather… may affect us getting out on Saturday!

Hasta!

Stormy Weather

Remember:  This is a photo Sandy took the day we arrived.  This is the view from the porch of our bungalow.

Wednesday, November 26, 2014.

This am the weather started to get a little dicey.  I worked on trying to catch up on logging our dives, and getting some journaling done.  It started blowing and raining a little bit.  But the morning dive was still on!  

Here is the view this morning!!

Waves are crashing against the "iron shore" of old coral beds.

This is not our actual dive spot... picture from the internet.  It was kind of rough and raining when we went in.

Because of the wind on this side of the island, we drove to the other side of the island and did and shore entry to Church Wall.   It was pretty difficult to walk/navigate through the surf, but we made it and down we went along the reef with Amber as our dive master.

We swam through a fissure in the wall.  It was a little scary, but pretty neat!  

Did not see as much interesting aquatic life, but a few neat things.  We went down to 79 feet but only stayed down for 47 minutes.  We went through our air pretty quickly.  Well, Sandy and I did, Linda seems to use no air underwater!!  She must be part fish!

We returned to clean up and go to town for lunch.  The weather was getting a bit worse.  Sandy and I took tons of pictures of the big waves hitting the little shelter by the sea.  

Watching the storm is a blast!
But the poor little crabs are probably having a rough time!

We finally went to lunch with Linda at the Earth Mama Restaurant.  It was one of Harmony’s favorites and she kept telling us to go there.  It was excellent!  Sandy and I had Lime Shrimp tostadas that were really tasty.

Lots of debris gets washed up on the beach during a storm.

Stacy and Linda at Earth Mama's for lunch.

Sandy and I had the lime shrimp tostadas!  Delicioso!!

The proprietor said the storm was supposed to hit between 3-4pm… and it did!  Oh my!  The rain started coming down in buckets and the wind was blowing!  We were soaked within minutes of leaving the restaurant.  Linda and I got separated from Sandy while we were doing some last minute shopping.  We finally took a taxi back to the Seagrape.  Sandy ended up getting stuck… in a bar!  Bummer!  So she had a beer and finally made her way back to the bungalow. 

Other critters hung out in the bar to avoid the storm (and hoping for a treat or two!)

It was POURING and BLOWING!!    We were drenched just in the sprint to our bungalow!  Wanted to get even  better photos of the wave crashing on the beach, but it was raining and blowing so hard, my camera was going to get soaked.  You will just have to believe us that it is an impressive storm!

Sandy may not be able to leave tomorrow, there are certainly no planes going out right now!  The forecast expects this storm to last for two days.  No more diving.  Darn!  The power went out about 6:30.  We were hoping to go to town for more live music, but with it storming this badly, there may not be any music.  (All the restaurants are open to the outside, no actual windows!).  The power came back on, but it is still raining and blowing.   Turns out the power did not come back on.  This facility has a large generator.  Sandy keeps going out in the storm to see it up close and personal.  All the surrounding area is in the dark, we are the only ones that she can see with power.

Well, enough writing for now!  Hopefully I will get to post tomorrow. 

Buenos noches!

Ahhh, memories of clear weather for diving...

Linda and George on the boat as we head out for a dive... before the stormy weather!