Tracygosnow's travel blogs:
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Paradise
Entry 6 of 20 | show all | print this entry |
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Hello everyone, I'm here on the island of Roatan right now...sitting at my computer and looking out over crystal green/blue water. Roatan is one of the three islands that make up the "Bay Islands". Anyways, let me back up a minute.
I had a great weekend in Tegus. I took my Foreign Service Exam on Saturday morning. It really wasn't too bad. The practice tests I had taken were 100 times more difficult than the actual test. I'm not saying I passed for sure--but it was very easy. A bunch of us went out Saturday night to celebrate. I had the chance to talk with Alan and there was some obvious heavy flirting going on. So I asked him if he was dating the Marine and he said no, they were just friends, although she was obviously very interested in him. So I was torn b/c I am by no means a man stealer but what can you do when two people are obviously attracted to one another. So I was bad and gave him my phone number. Sunday was a lazy day and Renee and I went to TGIFridays to hang out as she is going back home in a week or so. We ran into about six of the Marines there, so we all left and went out dancing. I got to go to my first Honduran strip club--NOT impressive according to American standards. We stayed out until about 6 am and I got home just in time to pack and be ready for my ride to pick me up at 7 am!
I had been invited by Nestor in the MIL group to go on a work/personal vacation with a few other people. So we took a charter bus to San Pedro Sula, which is about 4 hours NE of Tegus. San Pedro is considered to be the business and financial city of Honduras. We just hung out there and relaxed. The next day we went to Puerto Cortes, the largest port in Honduras. We toured the Naval base there and I got to meet the Minister of Defense and have lunch with him and a bunch of other Naval officers. Now, many of you know that I hate seafood. I had the sinking feeling that lunch was going to be a challange and it was! To start, we had conch soup. I discovered that the base of the soup was coconut, so I drank up all of the broth and left the rubber white fish alone. Then the main course was an entire fried fish (eyes and all!), shrimp salad and plantains. Luckily, I love plantains and ate those up. Then I sort of pushed the fish around on my plate and sheepishly looked around to be sure no one could see me!
Wednesday morning we set out at 5 am to drive to Le Ceiba...about a 2 hour drive from San Pedro Sula. La Ceiba is home to Pico Bonita--the tallest mountain peak in Honduras and the largest jungle/rain forest preserve. Unfortunately, we wouldn't be hanging out there at all on this trip-so I hope to make it back there in the future. So we hung out at the airport for our flight to Roatan. It's only a 20 minute flight and it's on one of those tiny little 16 seater planes. I felt like I was in an Indiana Jones movie! It was a very interesting flight to say the least. But it was so beautiful to fly over the water and see the bioluminescents of the reef in the water.
So here I am in Roatan. It's the largest island in the Bay Islands and on a clear day you can see mainland Honduras. This island is famous for its abundant expatriots that now call it home. More specifically, those who may be escaping a sordid past in the US...since there are no extradition laws in Honduras. Not a bad place to hide out if I do say so myself :) So most of my time has been spent just lying on the beach and drinking Port Royal beers--the local brew that only runs about $1/beer. We have a jeep that we've been touring the island in. It's home to some Hondurans, but mostly a lot of Haitin/Jamaicans. The "true" islanders are actually of British/Scottish/Irish descent. Some have intermixed with the black population to become "calacores". The British-descended Islanders speak a sort of pidgeon English that is a bit difficult to understand. I had lunch with some of these people, who are from the original and oldest families that settled on the islands...we're talking like 10 generations back. They
are the big-wigs on Roatan and run much of the fishing industry here. I also had lunch with the Senator of Roatan. Seafood would haunt me again (well, I am on a damn island!) Well, all these people seem to eat is Conch...and it tastes like rubber. They mentioned we'd be having this for lunch and I started to sweat bullets. Luckily the Senator had been buying me beers all afternoon--so I thought with a slight beer buzz I could eat anything. Luckily the Conch was mixed with flavorful tomatoes and cilantro and onions (I latered learned this is called cerviche). So I poured Tabasco sauce all over it and just tried to not think about it. It was fairly disgusting--but I got it down alright. I was incredibly proud of myself!
Today I'll be snorkeling out on the reef. The reef here is the largest next to the Great Barrier reef off of Australia. Unfortunately, the reef is dying very quickly and the Hondurans can't seem to quite figure out that the garbage and other pollutants that they are dumping in the water are what's killing it. This is especially apparent when we drove to the other the side of the island where people's toilets are built outhouse style and are located directly over the water. Other than that, it's just a typical sleepy island--life is very slow here. There isn't a whole lot to do if you're not a diver...that's what people really come here for. I was planning on getting certified, but didn't start in time--so I hope to get back out here again to do that before I go back to the states.
Okay, so I'm off to have lunch at the Yacht club, then snorkeling. We're here on more day and fly out first thing Monday morning...then it's back to the old grind on Tuesday. Hope everyone is well! More thumbnails ...
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