Memphis, TN to Atlanta, GA
Although we woke up mostly
packed and nearly ready to go, it took us until about 4:00pm to tie up all our
loose ends and actually get on the road. It had snowed in Memphis the night
before, making it a White Christmas after all. The drive to Atlanta was pretty
unremarkable, except for getting a bit turned around in Birmingham finding the way
between interstates.
When we arrived in Atlanta, we
found the hotel without trouble. Unfortunately, inside the hotel was a scene for
which we were quite unprepared. When we got there at about 1:00am, the lobby
was full of people checking in. Eventually, we figured out that these were
stranded travelers left in the lurch from canceled flights resulting from the
same weather system that brought snow to Memphis. In my tiredness, I kept calling it Blizzard
Bilbo (rather than Draco; hobbits’s on my mind). The internet said 1900 flights
had been canceled in the last 48 hours, and it seemed like a lot of these
affected people were checking into our hotel. We shouldn’t have been surprised,
I guess, that they gave our room away despite our having already paid for it. We didn’t
call to tell them we would be late or anything.
When they turned us away, they
sent us to the Marriot next door, which worked out fine except for the lost
hour spent waiting in the lobby of the Westin. It was after 2:00am as we
checked in, giving us a few hours of rest before waking up at 6:00am to get to
the airport.
Thursday, December 27, 2012
Atlanta, GA to La Ceiba, Honduras
After a couple hours of sleep,
we checked out and headed to the airport. The Atlanta airport was
incomprehensibly busy, but, luckily, the international terminal was less
intense and running smoothly. Our airplane was relatively comfortable, and our
flight took about three hours. After a pretty long wait to go through Customs
and Immigration, and we were out in Honduras!
We found our driver who would be
taking us to our hotel in La Ceiba. He was friendly, with limited English but
an intimate understanding of the road between San Pedro Sula and La Ceiba.
Driving in Honduras is not for the weak-hearted, apparently. Our driver was adept
at swerving around the bicycles, horse-drawn wagons, and other motorists who
were less bold.
I stared out the window in
amazement. We were driving through a valley with a string of distant mountains
rising up through the clouds. The sights of the second largest city weren’t
much different from those of the small towns along the road. Many/most of the
houses were not completely built, or, not to the degree that I’m used to
seeing. We also saw quite a few homes constructed of bamboo poles with mud
plaster and thatched roofs. This sort of shanty-style housing was total; there
were no fancy American-style houses, just varying degrees of decrepitude.
In spite, or maybe because, of
the poverty, the countryside was beautiful. The homes were painted many colors;
there were endless orchards of African oil palms, fields of pineapple, and the
mountains grew larger as we made our way. Our driver picked up some fresh
lychees from a vendor on the side of the road. I’d never had lychee before and
absolutely loved them.
Two hours of swerving, sharp
curves, and speed changes eventually gave me motion sickness, a condition I
rarely experience. Fortunately, we were near the end of our journey to LaCeiba.
The driver pulled into a warren of houses behind tall walls. He stopped outside
a gate with rainbows decorating it, and we had arrived at the Rainbow Village,
our lodgings for two nights.
Barbara, the German
proprietress, greeted us and showed us to our rooms in the Casa Lila, and we
quickly got settled in. There was an American couple already there, and their
friends arrived a little after we did. They were nice and, oddly, one of the
guys lives two streets over from Carter in Louisville.
We ate an early dinner, and I
went to bed completely whooped. As I fell asleep, the group of Americans
started playing guitar and harmonica and singing, which was a pretty sweet day
to end the day.
Friday, December 28, 2012
La Ceiba: Pico Bonito Parque Nacionale
I woke up around 6:00am and
started puttering around, looking forward to getting some coffee. Breakfast was
included in the room price, so everyone sat down to eggs and rolls and strong
tasty coffee. I loved the pineapple jam.
It turned out we definitely
needed the fuel for our hiking adventure. Barbara tried to book a tour with the
cushy Lodge at Pico Bonito, but they were booked. Instead we got hooked up our
guide, Melvin. It all turned out for the best, I think.
Melvin arrived promptly at 8:00am
and drove us to a giant pineapple field at the foot of the mountain. Here, he
told us about the manual labor cultivation of basically every pineapple I’ve
ever eaten. I was a little shocked at how labor-intensive the production of a
fruit we use as a garnish in the U.S. I will never see pineapple in the same
light.
From there, we drove further
back to an entrance to the park that is controlled by Dole (as are a lot of
other lands in the area, apparently). We parked the van and got out. Then
Melvin described our hike: three hours, fairly strenuous, an extremely tough 25
minute initial vertical ascent. As we listened, I realized this hike was one we
had read about in the guidebook but decided against because it sounded more
difficult than we wanted to do. But here we were: paid up and ready to do
something.
So we set out, and the ascent
was as painful as advertised. We stopped to catch our breath multiple times,
and I kept thinking that I had gotten us into something no one was prepared for
or especially wanted to do – Pico Bonito was sort of my thing. I offered to
turn back, but everyone was ready to tough it out.
We hung in there and were
rewarded with one of the great experiences of my life. The mostly undeveloped
trail meandered through the jungle, climbing toward a 150 meter waterfall,
Casada Zacate. Melvin was a humble trove of knowledge and on the quiet side. He
was a thoughtful guide, pacing himself with us, removing branches from the
trail, and lending a hand in the tricky spots. We made it, eventually, to the
waterfall. It was exceedingly beautiful and most definitely worth pushing ourselves
to get there and see it all.
The way back, along the same
trail but now as a descent, proved more difficult for everyone, including
Melvin, and especially for Madison. By the end of the hike, Maddi fell seven
times, mostly on her butt but once on her front. She was a real trooper and
made me proud by not freaking out and making it to the end without any major
complaints. I will never forget Melvin and Maddi hand-in-hand making their way
down the steep initial ascent.
When we returned to the van, we
were hot, sweaty, tired, but satisfied. I only saw a few birds – Melvin wasn’t
much of a birder – but he knew plenty about plants and other rainforest fauna.
He caught a lizard, a frog, gathered snails, and demonstrated how to access and
eat termites from a tree colony. I tried a couple too! They tasted like very
fresh toothpicks!
When we returned to Rainbow
Village, we showered, ate lunch, and took naps. It was evening when we woke up.
We hung out, ate dinner, and hung out some more. After Maddi crashed out, JP
and I played War while Andrew read. I got a little anxious about the fireworks
going off all around us outside the compound walls, each time feeling
suspicious that I was hearing gunshots instead of tiny festive explosions. We
listened to some great jazz that JP turned me on to, VSOP - The Quintet, really
great. After passing the time in this way, I called it a night at around 11:00pm.
I fell asleep very sore and very excited about setting out for Roatán the next
day.
Saturday, December 29, 2012
La Ceiba, Honduras to Roatán, HondurasRoatán Day 1
We woke up, drank coffee, ate
breakfast, and make ready to check out of Rainbow Village, bidding Barbara a
warm farewell until seeing her again in one week on our return trip. Our driver
arrived promptly and delivered us to the ferry terminal. We managed to check
Andrew’s big backpack, purchase tickets, and line up without difficultly
despite our non-Spanish speaking.
We boarded the ferry which was
totally full of an interesting cross-section of people – locals and tourists
both domestic and foreign and plenty of folks that looked just like us – all of
whom were promptly given a barf bag once the ferry got underway. Andrew and I
had each taken a Dramamine, so I fell asleep for most for the approximately 70
minute transit. Maddi woke me up when we could see Roatán. Moments later, I
looked over to see Andrew getting sea sick into his barf bag; it looked pretty
rough. Lots of other passengers were sick too. Andrew quickly recuperated and
soon we were disembarking.
We met our driver without any
problems, and he drove us to the Thrifty car rental agency. We wound up in the
little red SUV we were picked up in, all loaded up and ready to rock Roatán. We
called our house rental contact and arranged to meet her in about an hour. We
stopped off for groceries, which was a simple process.
We drove to along the island’s
single main road to meet at the gas station near our house. She was a little
late, and so we got a little worried; Andrew had a little anxiety that we had
just been paying our money to some crafty crook for the last several months.
But soon we were following Taneshia along the road to Flowers Bay.
I spotted our house as we
approached and was impressed; it looked at least as good as it did in the
photos on the website. Taneshia introduced us to our guard dogs, Mongol and
Duke, and then let us in. The house was so amazing that it was difficult to
concentrate on the knowledge transfer with Taneshia.
Then she was gone, and we were
left to settle into our home for the next week. We unloaded the groceries, and
Maddi made sandwiches for lunch. Then we set to exploring our environs.
On the top level, four stories
up, was the crow’s next with three captain’s chairs and phenomenal views of the
coast: empty of houses to the west with the Ironshore lava rock overgrown with
sea grape tree, and, on the other side of the road beyond our caretaker’s
house, lush hills including Difficulty Hill; to the east, the Flowers Bay
hamlet anchored by a simple white church with a small cross on its steeple and
a nearby beach bar that played live music later in the evening, as well as two
kinds of houses: new, fancy rental houses on the shore and a sprinkling of the
very simple dwellings I described before; on the horizon, the dark bumps marked
the location of the Cayos Cochinos islands in the bay between us and mainland
which we could see as a faint outline of mountains. In short, it was about 270o
of awesome view.
The third floor had the kitchen,
dining room, living room, and a bathroom. The spacious kitchen was
well-equipped and nicely laid out around a central island. The living room had
a TV, movie players, and a cool collection of books, movies, CDs, and games.
The dining room was situated on the house’s southside with a fantastic 180o
view of the water out of the huge picture windows. Maddi got settled into the
living room space since she would be on the futon for our stay.
On the second story, there were
two bedrooms, each with its own bathroom, as well as a killer porch off the master
suite overlooking the ocean, a laundry room, and another inviting porch on the
road/garden side. The bedrooms each had individual air conditioner units, floor
models on wheels with vent exhaust hoses the hooked up to the window, quite
different than any other type of unit I’ve seen.
The ground floor had the
entrance to the house and, of course, the grounds. We went down from the crow’s
nest to the ground floor and followed our deck steps to the tide pool. This
circular person-deep hole in the lava rock had wooden steps extending from the
deck leading down into it and was filled with sea water. Nearby, another set of
steps, these concrete, led down into the ocean. The ocean was far from
inviting, however, despite its aquamarine color, due to the powerful waves
breaking against the lava rock shoreline.
We got into the tidal pool which
had a pleasant temperature but was totally unfinished/natural, with lava rock
sides and a sizeable piece jutting out of the water near the steps. Andrew only
had his Birkenstocks and was unable to get in because shoes were required in
the pool due to the lava rock’s sharp edges everywhere. After an extremely
pleasant soak, Andrew and I returned to town to get some flip-flops for him and
other assorted items we’d missed on our initial run.
When we got back, Andrew made
dinner while the rest of us hung out. We ate our spaghetti at the dining room
table and enjoyed ourselves immensely. Maddi crashed out shortly after dinner.
The adults went down to the tide pool and enjoyed an evening soak under the
light of an almost full moon and bright stars shining down on us. Andrew took a
bath and crashed out, then JP went to bed too.
I stayed up to enjoy the lovely
moon and stars and take some star trail photos with Andrew’s camera. I think I
was out on our porch until about 3:00am, but I’m not certain. It surely felt
late by the time I went to bed, as contended and happy as possible.
Sunday, December 30, 2012
Roatán Day 2
Because I was up so late the
night before, it’s no wonder that I was the last person in the house to wake up
at around 10:30am. Andrew made brunch shortly after I woke up, which I enjoyed
immensely, lingering over my toast and coffee and soaking up the amazing
setting.
After eating, I ventured into
the tide pool despite the harsh noontime sun. It was even more fun than the
previous day. I used my mask and snorkel to check out the pool’s aquatic biota,
seeing a yellow and black stripped little fish and a few cryptic
bottom-dwellers. The waves were higher than the day before and kept breaking on
the rocks adjacent to the tide pool, spraying it down from the splash and
occasionally swirling over the walls and overtopping the pool. In those
moments, you could feel the strength of the ocean, and I knew I wouldn’t be able
to get into the ocean from here without getting bashed to death against the
lava rock.
In the afternoon, I played Speed
with Maddi and helped her with her puzzle. I went to check out the palapa
across the yard and found a heavenly deck with a swing, an L-shaped bench on
one corner, 3 comfy chairs, and a killer view of the ocean. I relaxed here for
awhile with Andrew and JP, the three of us just sitting mostly in silence and
soaking up the setting.
We decided to walk up the road
to check out Pirate’s Cove. The easy walk from our house took us along a dirt
road lined with a mangrove forest on one side and sea grape trees growing
crooked out of the lava rock on the other side.
We entered the water near the
center of the cove. After a short walk through sea grass, the water opened up
for pretty good shallow snorkeling. There were lots of different kinds of fish,
some shy and elusive and other unafraid and curious. After a bit, it was
decided to return to shore and make our way further around the cove shoreline
to an area perceived as more interesting. Then, after walking ¾ of the way
around the cove, it was decided it was time to return to the house.
Maddi and Andrew went to the
grocery store while I chilled in various places, first the tidal pool, then the
crow’s nest, and finally our deck. Maddi cooked dinner which was very sweet of
her and tasty too – hot dogs, mac and cheese, and baked beans. Yum! Andrew
helped me with the dishes and soon everyone was in evening chill mode.
Andrew and I went to bed early,
but I woke up at 11:00pm on the dot to discover our first electricity outage. I
went up the crow’s next to see if ours was the only house affected. It was not,
with most of island that I could see blackened. After a bit, the lights in the
other buildings around us came back on, but our house remained dark initially.
Just as I was beginning to worry, our electricity was restored too. This was
the first of many rolling blackouts on several nights, starting at 11:00pm and
lasting for about an hour or so.
The wind was starting to kick up,
and it looked like a storm was brewing. So I brought in the laundry from the
drying line and hung everything on hangers in the closet, and I collected all
the books and drinks where they’d been left out on the various porches. Then I
settled onto our porch to relax for a little while before returning to bed.
That wound up being several hours later at around 4:00am.
No storm had happened, and I
figured I’d wasted my time with the rain preparations. But, it turned out, a
big storm came later while we were sleeping, blowing rain in the open windows
everywhere. I was so tired, I slept through the whole thing.
Monday, December 31, 2012
Roatán Day 3: New Year’s Eve
Today has been pleasantly
uneventful on the whole. In the morning, we ate breakfast, then Maddi and I
hung out at the dinner table and each undertook our own creative pursuits.
Maddi diligently worked her way through the construction of her Lego creation –
a blue beach house that can be built three ways; Maddi chose the difficult
pattern and set to work.
I worked on painting four
watercolors in a factory-like process that was intended to yield four very
similar paintings. The process took awhile but I was very pleased with the
result. First, I drew an outline of the coast that I wanted to paint. Then I
traced this initial outline onto 4 sheets of paper. I painted each one in a
series, first greens, then blues, then reddish brown. I let everyone pick out
their own painting as a sort of trip souvenir.
Andrew and JP went for a hike
out on the lava rocks. I opted for a dip in the tide pool instead. I wasn’t in
there very long before a huge wave swept into the pool and knocked me into the
sharp protruding rocks around the pool’s edge. With a bruised back and scraped
forearms, I decided to wait until the wave intensity to dissipate before I did
more wading.
Instead, I ventured up to the
crow’s nest to enjoy the breezes. The electricity had gone out again, and the
house’s highest point seemed like it would be the coolest spot. Andrew came up
too after returning from his hike and set up the hammock chair for me. He
climbed up and attached it to the ceiling and tested it out by sitting in it. I
got in and got comfortable. Just as I began to ask Andrew, “Am I about to bust
my …?!” when the rope broke and I landed square on my butt before I could
finish my question. I was laughing so hard I could hardly get to my feet, and,
when I stood up, the hammock chair was all hung up awkwardly across my arms and
neck with the pole at a crazy angle. I am such a loon! I decided to go inside
and read for a bit after all that since it seemed like a safe bet.
After a while, it was decided a
run to the store was in order, and so I drove since I hadn’t had any alcohol
yet. Andrew and Maddi rode with me as we embarked onto the Roatán streets busy
with people. It was pretty nerve-wracking, but I got us to the grocery store
and back without incident, marking my first time driving in a foreign country.
When we got home, I was quite
ready for some of the alcohol we’d picked up and made about half a pitcher of
some stout rum punch. I chilled on my porch sipping my drink while Andrew
cooked dinner. He made salad, steak, mashed potatoes, and carrots. We gathered
around the table, and everyone enjoyed the meal a great deal with lots of good
food and laughter. We decided to leave the dishes for the next day.
The adults retired to the palapa
while Maddi opted to have a dance party in the empty house. We enjoyed after
dinner cocktails before Andrew and I went for a dip in the tide pool. I got in
and found the temperature to be cool but bearable. Andrew got his feet in
before deciding it was too cool for his comfort and enjoyment. He decided to go
take a bath, and I was to come get him at 11:30pm.
After hanging out in the pool, I
went inside and read in the living room until the appointed time. In the
meantime, Maddi crashed out. When I went to get Andrew out of the bath, he was
comatose on the bed. I tried repeatedly to rouse him, loudly saying his name
and shaking his shoulder, but he was out cold.
I took up a spot on the crow’s
nest and enjoyed the excellent vantage point. JP appeared and from here, he and
I watched the busy church prepare for midnight service. We knew the new
year had arrived when fireworks and firearms were discharged along our coast.
The best part was when our house’s caretaker, José, squeezed off a few celebratory shots right beside us.
There were some professional fireworks over toward Dixon’s Cove that were
pleasant and brief.
After a few minutes of reflecting on the new year, JP and I
went our different directions. He went down to the water, and I went to my
porch. The evening was lovely, so I spent a couple hours reading and writing
before hitting the hay. In all, it was a quiet happy New Year.
Tuesday,
January 1, 2013
Roatán
Day 4: New Year’s Day
Happy New Year! I slept until noon! It was a
slowly-puttering-around-the-house sort of day. In the late afternoon, Andrew
and I took a sight-seeing drive around the island. We saw the
mansionesque-houses and residential developments around West Bay, the beach bum
vibe of West End with its strip of restaurants and souvenir shops along the
water and lots of tourists walking around, the out-of-the-way feel along the
way to Gumbalimba Park, and eventually making our way up to Fantasy Island near
French Harbor. We went in to the resort’s desk to find out about the
particulars of a day visit, which turned out to be straight-forward.
When we returned to the house, Andrew made dinner and we all
sat and ate. After dinner, I went down to the tide pool. It was cool but
pleasant. Before I realized what was happening, the boys showed up at the water
toting a bar. They carried down several bottles of alcohol, ice, mixers, and
cups and set it all up on the bench. We had lots of fun playing in the pool
with our cocktails. I was making my drinks quite strong, so I don’t remember
much after this. I know we packed up and went in the house. And this morning I
woke up in bed.
Roatán Day 5
I woke up promptly at 7:00am without an alarm. Everyone was
still sleeping so I puttered around quietly, enjoying strong Honduran coffee up
on the crow’s nest. When everyone was awake, we made ready to go to Fantasy
Island. JP opted to stay behind at the house.
We arrived at the resort just behind a boatload of cruise
day trippers. Andrew and I headed around them as they congregated at the bar
for their welcome drink and headed straight to the gazebo to go snorkeling.
Maddi hit the beach.
At the gazebo, a lady warned us that there were tiny
jellyfish “biting” that day. I assumed she was exaggerating, but she wasn’t.
The underwater delights were as amazing as I remember them from our visit two
years ago as cruise day trippers. But I kept getting stung repeatedly from
unseen attackers; there was no possibility to see and avoid these guys. They
were worse in open water where the most interesting snorkeling was. Andrew
bailed after getting stung up, but I stayed in the shallows for a while longer,
avoiding the worst of the jellyfish but still seeing cool stuff.
I got out to go hang with the family over on the beachside.
Maddi reported there were jellyfish over there too. So I got some lunch, which
was kind of terrible; fish and chips were fish stix and soggy fries. After I
ate, Maddi and I swam around in the lagoon while Andrew read on the beach.
There were some cool fish and far fewer jellyfish. We had fun for awhile in
this way. But, with the jellyfish attacks, we decided to leave after a couple
of hours at Fantasy Island.
When we returned to the house, we found JP had been swimming
in the ocean! He described the giant coral and colorful fish and so I got up my
gumption, watched his entry and exit, and went for it. Entering the water
wasn’t too difficult. The key element was the use of neoprene gloves and Andrew
had gotten for Christmas and remembered to pack. The gloves allowed for four
point traction on the sharp rocks. A wave swept in, and, as it went back out
again, I was riding along. It was AMAZING. It’s hard to believe treasures like
that sit so near me as I write this. Maintaining position in the rollicking
waves was very physically taxing without flippers or a buoyancy vest. I could
feel myself tire after just a couple minutes.
As I returned to the steps, I made it to the first landing
with a hand from JP. As I took a moment to catch my breath, I was temporarily
distracted by the plethora of sea urchins lodged in the rocky crevices around
me. That was all that was needed for a wave to wallop me off the landing. I
fell backward into an awkward sitting position, holding on to the rocks around
me for dear life as I felt the waves try to pull me back out again. JP look
really concerned so I threw up a thumbs-up sign. Visibly relieved, he climbed
down to give me a much-needed hand. Once back safely on land, I couldn’t find
the words to describe the beauty. Then I couldn’t believe that JP had done that
by himself, repeatedly, with no one at the house. It was definitely the sort of
thing that could turn deadly if luck was against you. I was lucky that I got to
do it at all because, just as Andrew was getting in for his first time, José
came over and said that we shouldn’t swim in the ocean because it’s too
dangerous. José’s warning hasn’t stopped JP though. He’s done it at least a
dozen times so far.
That night, Andrew made dinner (chorizo and eggs!), and we
ate and hung out. Everyone was tired from the day’s activities. But I was
well-caffeinated for the night’s meteor shower, the Quadrantids, the first meteor
shower of the new year. I set up Andrew’s camera to do star trail photos while
I waited for the show to begin. I was not disappointed. I eventually saw 37
meteors including 5 fireballs. It was a really nice display, especially
considering how far south we are here. I packed up the camera as Venus rose in
the east with the lightening sky signaling dawn just behind her. It was a very
special night.
Roatán Day 6
After spending all night meteor-watching,
it’s not surprising that I slept until noon. I guess I also shouldn’t have been
surprised that, when I took Benadryl for some weird itchy rashes, I was wiped
out again for a couple of hours, napping until late afternoon. When I woke up,
Maddi and I took a dip in the tide pool to enjoy the sunset.
For dinner, we all set out for West End, the funky cool
strip with lots of stores and restaurants. We headed for Tong’s, a Thai place
with good reviews. We had a lovely dinner with delicious food and a pleasant
atmosphere. We were seated on a dock over the water and given a gas lantern
because the restaurant’s power was out. There were lots of families and locals
and a smattering of Americans. The place filled up and then was on a wait for
most of the time after we arrived.
After dinner, we enjoyed the stroll back to the car,
especially hearing the church members holding service and singing hymns.
Everyone opted to go to bed after we arrived back at the house. It was a short
day but gloriously relaxing nonetheless.
Friday,
January 4, 2013
Roatán
Day 7
Our last day in Roatán was fantastic. In the morning, Maddi
and I enjoyed a last soak in the tide pool. It was hard to say goodbye to that
particular amenity.
Andrew, Maddi, and I went to West End for souvenir shopping
and lunch. Shopping was great. We found a few momentos for ourselves and
nephews and neice-on-the-way. But, in the last shop, Andrew spotted the best
and most unexpected item tucked away in a corner: a beautiful handmade guitar
with wooden vertical inlays running all the way down the neck and body; the
neck and most of the headstock were fashioned from a single piece of wood. He
picked it up and dust flew as he strummed the four remaining strings. It had a
melodious voice. The shop proprietor said an island man makes them, only about
6 per year. Andrew finally asked the big question, “How much?” The shop keeper
said, “One hundred twenty U.S.” Andrew looked a little surprised. I think he
expected it to be cost-prohibitive and was mostly just admiring the instrument.
Fortunately, he took the plunge and made it his.
After shopping, we ate lunch at Longa Linga, a well-reviewed
place that appeared to be a retirement savings sink in its death throes. That’s
not to say it wasn’t nice, on the water, well-decorated, and decent food. Who
knows why there were just a few tables for lunch as other places did brisk
business. Just one of those places.
We ate and returned to the house triumphant with our booty.
The sea was pretty calm, and JP had been in snorkeling again. I couldn’t resist
one last go myself. The experience was easier without the big swells, and I
stayed out about twice as long as the first time. JP said, while we were gone,
a snorkeler swam past the house from the direction of Pirate’s Cove direction
toward the sandy beach at Flowers Bay. Apparently the diver spent quite a while
exploring the reef outside our house. So everyone agrees that it’s awesome.
We did laundry, and I took a much-anticipated shower. We
relaxed on the palapa and the crow’s nest and our porch. When it got dark,
Andrew, JP, and I went to West End for dinner. Maddi opted to stay home and eat
leftovers.
The setting of the Half Moon Bay Resort restaurant was
absolutely tranquil, off the beaten path in busy West End. We finally got to
try a monkey la-la, the “drink of the island.” As an overly sweet
milkshake-like concoction, it was something to try. The restaurant had a
begging cat, which amused me, and I indulged it with my puckish impulse to
throw it scraps.
We headed back to the house and chilled on our deck a little
while before bed. I went up the crow’s nest for last respite. I nearly fell
asleep up there because I’d taken more Benadryl. Luckily, my wonderful hubby
woke me up and helped me to bed on our last night of our wonderful vacation in
Roatán.
Saturday, January 5, 2013
Roatán, Honduras to La Ceiba, Honduras
It was a pretty restless night, and Andrew and I both woke
up a little before 6:00am, despite the alarm being set for 7:00am. The weather
had changed over night from mostly sunny with an occasional shower to an
overcast sky with blowing wind and rain.
We steadily worked on packing our bags, and, before long,
everything was done. It was only about 10:00am. After a bit, JP and Andrew went
to the ferry terminal to drop off JP with Andrew’s bag. In the interim, Maddi
and I waited for Taneshia to arrive and check us out. She got there at around
11:30am, and Andrew returned at 12:00pm.
We spent a few minutes on paperwork and thanked Taneshia for
everything, and then we were on our way. We had to get gas, return the rental
car, and be on the ferry by 2:00pm. About 20 minutes after leaving the house,
Andrew realized that I had forgotten to grab his money belt from off our bed
before we left. We hastily turned around and sped back to the house, hoping to
catch Taneshia before she left. The drive seemed extra long on the way back to
the house. When we pulled up, Taneshia’s silver pickup truck was gone, but José
was walking across the yard. He let Andrew use his cell phone to call Taneshia.
She had found the money belt and thoughtfully had taken it to the Thrifty
agency.
We thanked José and bid the house farewell one last time and
raced back to town, feeling more secure that we knew the money belt’s location
but feeling quite anxious about making it to the ferry on time. The gas station
was a busy and confused scene, but we managed to top off the tank and be on our
way. At Thrifty, the car return felt like the slowest possible process. I
watched the minutes on the clock tick to 13:30. Uh-oh. We were cutting it
close.
The driver who took us to the ferry terminal felt confident
we would make it on time, and, luckily, she was right. After the five minute
drive, she dropped us off at the front of the terminal and we could see that it
had not yet begun to board. We tried going through the line with our return
tickets, but it turned out that we had to exchange those tickets for new
tickets. By the time we did that and I stopped by the restroom, the line had
begun forming as we approached the security checkpoint. After a few minutes, we
spotted JP further up in the line. Finally, we could breathe easy. We made it!
I had been making jokes all morning about the choppiness of
the ocean (“It looks like a pukey day on the ferry!”), but I was proven quite
wrong. Apparently, the ferry from the mainland is a much rougher trip as
compared to the return trip; they didn’t even hand out barf bags. So my
Dramamine-taking and Andrew’s Phenegran-taking was probably unnecessary.
We met our driver without difficulty, although it took
awhile for Andrew’s backpack to make it out. Soon we were on our way through
the snarl that is La Ceiba’s traffic. I was quickly reminded that the mainland
Honduran traffic is actually as terrifying as I remembered. I had begun to
think, after a week of driving around Roatán – which can be plenty intense –
that I had overblown the memory of the mainland driving madness. Wrong again.
Soon we pulled up at Rainbow Village where Barbara met us
warmly and showed us back to Casa Lila again. We threw down our bags and headed
straight to the restaurant. We were all pretty famished by 4pm or so when we
arrived. After dinner and a little reading and relaxing, Andrew and I hit the
hay at 7:30pm. Whew! It was a full day with an even bigger one ahead of it.
Le Ceiba, Honduras to Atlanta, GA to Memphis, TN
We woke up for the last time in Honduras with a long day
ahead of us. We finished packing when we woke up at 6:00am with an hour until
our driver arrived to take us to the airport in San Pedro Sula. Barbara opened
early to accommodate our early departure, a solid Bavarian goddess wielding
strong hot Honduran coffee. Our driver arrived at 7:00am, and we bid a fond
farewell to Rainbow Village and, to a lesser degree, to La Ceiba. The return
trip to San Pedro Sula was much less intense than our first driving experience
thanks to both a more mellow driver (he turned out to be the first driver’s
dad) and to a less crowded roadway on Sunday morning.
I tried to soak in all the sights as we departed: Pico
Bonito’s aptly named peaks, the pineapple fields – some harvested in the last
week – the humble homes, the happy hard-working people starting out their day,
laundry hung to dry on innumerable lines, people pedaling bikes with bundles of
fuelwood on the back or a milk can balanced on the crossbar between arms
holding handlebars, kids driving a herd of cows along the road embankment and
spilling onto the roadway, African oil fruit palm orchards with ferns or
philodendrons covering their trunks, the sugar cane fields, the people waiting
for the chicken bus or running roadside fruit stands or carnarias, the
automatic weapon-toting police at checkpoints, the dazzling colors of the blue
sky with green mountains towering into it and intersecting fluffy white clouds,
and the rainbow of paint colors on homes and businesses. It was all really,
really beautiful.
We arrived at the airport at 9:30am, and our flight was
scheduled 1:30pm. Andrew checked his bag so that he could carry on his guitar.
Our last meal in Honduras was donuts and coffee from Dunkin Donuts. Kinda lame,
but the dulce de leche-filled was tasty but too rich to finish. We all had to
stand in line with lots of other travelers to pay an airport departure tax to
the Honduran government’s main bank to the tune of about $41 per person.
Finally we went through security to wait at our gate. I
tried to sleep knowing I had a lot of driving ahead of me. An hour before our
scheduled boarding time, I woke up and went with Madison to browse the shop,
culminating in one of my most foolish purchases ever: a $7 bag of Reese’s
Pieces from the duty free store. It was a big bag but not that big. We waited
for about 30 minutes past our scheduled boarding time until they announced that
they were going to set up stations to do additional screening of everyone’s
carry-on luggage. They began the screening and boarding at 1:15pm. I’m not sure
when we got on the plane, but it felt like it took forever. The cabin was
crowded, and Andrew and Maddi were sitting on one side of the aisle, while I
was on the other side. We didn’t leave at the scheduled 1:30pm; I don’t know
how far off from that we were.
We landed in Atlanta at about 5:30pm. We picked up Andrew’s
bag from the luggage carousel and then waited in the excruciating long line at
Customs. Eventually, after about an hour’s worth of slick America the Wonderful
propaganda films playing on giant multi-screen digital displays, we were
allowed to exit the airport. We shuttled our way to the long term parking
garage, loaded up into Bertha, and hit the road for the six hours to Memphis.
We stopped at Cracker Barrel for dinner but otherwise made
otherwise made good time toward home. I pulled into our driveway and pulled up
into Andrew’s car bumper a couple times before figuring out that I was hitting
his car and that I was not going to fit into the driveway. None of my
passengers were too impressed. At any rate, we got home at 1:30am on Monday
morning. JP walked to his sister’s house after picking up his Social Security
card out of our fire safe (we’d advised against his taking out of the country).
Andrew and Maddi took Monday off so well turned in for a
long sleep, back home again. The pets were ecstatic we were home. Nola’s eyelid
got scratched somehow so she had drops for it and had to go to the vet on
Monday. Andrew and I and Cuba and Delta and Kesey and Nola all snuggled up in
our big comfy bed. We were home at last.
Travel
is the only thing you buy that makes you richer. – Anon.
