Life is about opportunities, and how those opportunities play out is all in one's attitude.
Bill and I were privileged to be able to visit friends on the island of Roatan off the coast of Honduras recently. Touching down on the runway of RTB we were greeted with the sky falling......WARM, tropical rain. I got my feet wet before officially being in the country! The airport staff obviously NOT impressed with the weather; one staffer had a winter coat with fur lined hood over her head, inflicting the look I know well this time of year, "Really? This sucks." These gringo's obviously were not acclimated to island weather as we thought it was pretty cool (pun intended) to feel the pitter patter of rain drops falling on our heads - no sting like in the north, just a warm, gentle, pleasing mist falling. Ahhhhh..............winter in the tropics!
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| Renan, Curt & Bill - dinner at The Lighthouse |
A tropical depression had stalled out over the island a week before our arrival, the beaches still littered with turtle grass, the street gutters loaded with sand; we had arrived just in time for the next storm system to materialize.
Again, opportunities play out by one's attitude. Our first couple days were quite, well, wet. No worries Mate! Dinner shall be had under the veranda at The Lighthouse, fresh seafood for everyone at the table! Well, almost everyone, not this chic-key-poo! Island drinks flowing, great service, and awesome company to share the evening with. The following day was play-off Sunday with the Bronco's playing, so we were off to find a place where we could watch the game, but first a water-taxi ride over to West Bay, and a walk in brilliant, blue, Caribbean water. Yes, island life. I could get used to this. After lunch at Beachers the sky's began darkening again so back to West End for Monkey-La-La's (the official island drink) and the game at Monkey Island. Let me just say, my friend Tamra in Pinedale told me Monkey Island makes the best Monkey-La-La's, she wasn't lyin'! And after the Bronco's won, we headed to The Argentinian Grill for dinner. One word for them: GREAT!
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| Catching a ride from the dolphins at Anthony's Key |
The next day the sun was shining bright, and with no cruise ships in port, I was on a mission to swim with the dolphins. I could not have picked a more perfect time for this activity as it was just me and one other couple at Anthony's Key Resort. Bill wanted to stay at the house, read his kindle, and relax so Renan joined me. (Tip: When making your reservation, you MUST say ACTION SWIM; if not you will be scheduled for the dolphin snorkel as many people when making their reservation say swim when they really mean snorkel. Really? OK, whatever, we had extra time which allowed us to browse through the marine museum, which isn't really much of a museum, but it does give you a short insight to the culture, butterfly's of the island, and the marine life.) I must say, putting my brand new snorkel fins on for the first time on the edge of the platform was a little un-nerving for me, knowing what a great swimmer I am (you may detect a little sarcasm), but no way, no how is this opportunity going to pass me up. Buck up, Connie, you are about to go for a ride! It didn't take me long, I had those long fins figured out, big smiles, lots of laughs and giggles. My only problem - keep my mouth closed so I don't drink half the bay. You may have guessed, this WAS the highlight of the trip for me!
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| Reading and relaxing on the porch |
Once Bill and I were able to really unwind, the days started to run together. After all, isn't that why one visits paradise - to unwind and let the world pass them by? Visiting paradise in winter means that storms will pass through, but if you're not willing to roll with the punches from the weather, you ought to simply stay home. Roll with the punches we did. I discovered my inner snorkeling fean.....who knew I could get to the edge of the reef, and swim to sea chasing a fish to take pictures? I owe much gratitude to Renan for stopping me from getting WAY to far out! Even got Mr. Bill out to snorkel for a short bit prior to leaving the island. We attempted paddle-boarding.....Bill got to his knees, then sat on the board the rest of the time (and enjoyed EVERY minute of it), I was the first to attempt to get up which means I was the first to crash and burn. Curt turned out to be a pro.....and he was the least interested in going. Renan was really good at it also! They may have found a new sport. I did FINALLY get both feet up on my board, unfortunately, I had one foot to far back, and no matter how hard I tried, I just could not will it forward so I knelt back down. We got rained out, and didn't think to ask Steve at Steve's Paddle Shack to take pictures of us. Really is to bad...it would have been cool to have pic's of that. (I definitely want to try paddle boarding again. Next time though, I will do many many squats in preparation. Apparently I was trying to grip the board with my quad's....I didn't realize just how ridiculous I was being in trying to hold onto that board! Also, I think next time I would be more comfortable wearing a life jacket just until I get it figured out, or pick a day that isn't 'cold' so Steve would stay out with us to get us all up and going. That poor guy, he left us in the bay, told us we could stay out until exhausted, and when the sky's opened up with hurricane type rain, we found him in his shack with a hoodie on!) Bill and Curt did a little bone-fishing from shore, but fishing was about all they got done.. It's OK, they still had a great time! Tried to talk Bill into para-sailing, but we never got it done. We saw hummingbirds, parrots, and mac-caw's, gecko's, an iguana, crab's on the edge of a boat launch, many, many brightly colored species of fish along with a few not so brightly colored; not to mention absolutely A-M-A-Z-I-N-G coral formations. (The reef at Roatan is one of the few in the world that is a 'shore snorkel' reef. It is part of the Mesoamerican Reef, 2nd largest in the world.)
Bill enjoyed many meals of fresh seafood, we all enjoyed island refreshments. We met the Banana Doughnut Man and his wife! The flowers were in bloom and beautiful. Bill got some cigar's from the cigar man on West Bay Beach - what a character! Saw a colony of ants moving bits and pieces of leaves. OK, it might sound geeky, but it was quite the sight! We played fetch with Ohm the coconut retriever (golden-retriever who "owned" the beach in front of Sundowners). We swam in warm, pristine, brilliantly blue water. The sky's even graced us with a couple of sunsets! We visited, we laughed. We unwound, we relaxed.
We had a fabulous time!
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| Far left: sunset reflecting in glass; Middle: parrots, Banana Doughnut Man!, Roatan reef, Far Right: hummingbird on "third-eye mom" |
