Sights, Sounds and Smells of Roatan

Again the little things in Roatan make the experience so very special. The place we stayed the first week was about half way between West Bay and West End. The view from the balcony was just about perfect. I enjoyed it in all its forms, day , night, rainy, sunny. Is I have already explained the Geckos like to make themselves known in the night. One surprising thing was the peepers, tree frogs, as we traveled home at night with the window open we could hear them. But they very much had a Honduran accent.  As with everything else even the frogs had a tropical flair. If you can see past the third world life, the everyday, the mundane or even the beautiful and typical vacation aspects of Roatan you see and hear where the true island lies.

 

 

 

The next day was Monday. We slept in and took some time to relax at the house. We walked to West Bay Beach all the way to the end and finally took to the sea. We headed out to snorkel. Snorkeling on Roatan is such a wonderful thing the reef is just right there. You can walk out to the beach and just go.  The walk there and home was a great adventure and quite a bit of exercise.

 

It’s amazing what little things make great memories. We had a great day in the sun, rain and sea so we decided to make dinner at the house. Nate and I set out to find someone selling fish. I decided to drive. There are really not to many traffic rules in Roatan. It makes driving fun yet challenging.  We pulled up to a corner vendor and asked for fish. He said” no ,fruit.” I said “ ok give me a pineapple.” He holds up 2 I say “ok and 3 limes”. And hand him 100 limpera (5 $) he says "2 banana fo change" of course I say yes who would not want bananas for change. . Then I pull up to this tiny shop where a nice man sells me some frozen chicken. So dinner consisted of chicken, 2 pineapples 3 limes 2 bananna all for $12 but the memories priceless. Cooking in Roatan became a fun challenge. I did not want to spend a lot of money on spices so I bought a little container of bbq spices. Everything was flavored with those spices, garlic, pineapple juice, lime juice and usually rum. I guess you use what you have.  

 

Apparently Roatan smells good even when it rain ,Just another rainy day in paridise. We decided to go adventuring and found the Roatan Rum company. Coffee rum, chocolate Rum, need I say more they taste as good as they smell. Then we drove over to the Plaza Mar to see the Norwegian Dawn in port, we came to Roatan the first time on the Dawn. Upon entering the store we were drawn to back by an amazing smell. We discovered fresh baking coconut rolls yummy, the smell unreal. We met some people riding on the Dawn also drawn to the wafting smell of coconut rolls. We wandered to the adult beverage section where we met a bar tender from the Blue Marlin , he said there was a musician playing that night and we should come by and he would make me a drink, that sounded like a good offer.  After shopping we said bye to our first ride and some passengers riding her ,took our coconut rolls and packed lunch on a real adventure.

 

I had looked at a map and thought it would be nice to drive along the coast.  As we traveled up the side of the island we soon discovered the road was not much of a road and it quickly became muddy orange clay with some road attached. At this point we were honyacking in a rented Yaris.

After many strange looks from locals who live in the wilderness of Roatan we found a place to turn around and headed back to real road .

 We drove the paved road as far as it took us. What a beautiful trip. Parts of the Principal road ride the ridge in the middle of the island. You can see off both sides what a view. We were wandering around in the rain it would be amazing on a bright sunny day. We stopped here and there to explore. It was fun to discover this totally different side of the Island. It reminded me of a trip up deeper into the Adirondacks or any other remote place. I look forward to exploring the south side of the island much more in the future. While it is not that many miles from the North end with all the people it is a totally different place. It was great to discover that even on a small island there are many different places to go and find new things to see and do.  

 We stopped at a fish marked and the plaza mar on the way home to get some dinner.  

We wandered to the adult beverage section where we met a bar tender from the Blue Marlin , he said there was a musician playing that night and we should come by and he would make me a drink, that sounded like a good offer.  Made dinner in Honduras with a giant carrot, pepper , onion, lion fish, shrimp , lime, garlic. With a side of pineapple and an unidentified fruit that tastes like grapefruit.

 

We decided to keep our promise and visit the bartender so off to West end we traveled off to sample some more local music. Here I found a new favorite bartender (at least for the night) and discovered that island drinks have lots of drink and not so much juice, good! The musician playing became another of our Island family Jon Fritz, we also at with Dave our hippie friend from our first night on the island. The girls enjoyed some hula hooping and it rounded out to be another great island evening. West End continues to be an amazing place.  Overall I will take the rain over the snow any day. Oh and I have decided Roatan smells like pineapple.