THE RAYMONDS: Roatan, Honduras

Helloooo Honduras! Our first port was to the island of Roatan- we made plans to go snorkeling and kayaking to take advantage of the awesome reef right off the island... BUT to our disappointment, our excursion was cancelled!! (BOO!) They said the water was too rough and had cancelled all the water excursions. So we decided to just get off the boat and be spontaneous!

So we rented a scooter!! We were confident we wouldn't get too lost, considering the island is only 32 miles long and 1-3 miles wide. What an adventure it turned out to be!

I got to enjoy the beautiful scenery, while Jason concentrated on the pot-hole filled roads! He drove that scooter like a champ! GO JASON!

Bye-bye cruise ship! I hope we can find our way back to you! (yikes!)

Beautiful! (I'm talking about my husband, but you can say it about the background :) )

We made it to the tippy-top of the island, with beautiful views all around and an old lighthouse.

Gorgeous.

Look! We pulled over quite a few times to take a closer look at the wild life, banana trees, and breath-taking views.

We found it! (by accident...) We noticed quite a few people going down this little road, so it was only natural to follow! And look what we found:

THE BEACH!!!!!

Notice there really isn't anyone in the water. That made us feel a little better about not getting to go on our previously planned adventure. We did some a couple of people trying to snorkel, but they seemed to just be fighting the rough waters the whole time- plus they said they weren't seeing anything. So now I feel ALOT better :)

Stud.

Back to the scooter! Hmm... where does this road go?

Well let me tell you- we drove down this road and decided to pull over to look at some houses. We're standing there, on the side of the road, talking and I feel this weird sensation on my right foot. (PS- I was wearing sandal-like tennis shoes) So I look down and realize that I am standing right in the middle of a huge ANT HILL!! AHHHH!! My foot is covered in ants. You can imagine the freak-out screams and dance that followed. Yikes! It took Jason a minute to realize what was wrong with me, hehe, poor guy. And I'm sure the locals just thought we were crazy Americans! I got my shoes off as fast as possible, and took care of the situation with any grace that I had left. Luckily. they weren't fire ants- but they did leave some horrific little bug bites that itched like crazy! Ugh, dang Honduras ants.

Cool tree.

Bus, house, shack, casa?

Love my camera timer :) and love this picture, it's paradise! (except for all the poverty...) This is the tip of the island!

Why can't I grow these in Nampa?!

Or these?!

There were some random locals watching us like hawks! Kinda like we weren't supposed to be there... so we left :)

So all the pictures of Roatan stop here. And let me tell you why: shortly after we got back on our scooter, we got caught in a tropical rainstorm!! At this point we were in the middle of nowhere, soaked. We kept driving and around the corner we came upon this little hole-in-the-wall diner with locals eating and a carport! We were mostly interested in the shelter from the carport, but then decided to be brave and go get something to eat. At first, we weren't even sure if it really was a restaurant- there was just an outdoor (but covered) patio with a coca-cola sign with a tiny 19-inch TV playing some soccer game. Finally, a woman came out from the kitchen and we asked her if there was a menu. She said no, but then proceeded to tell us what they had to offer. I had the garlic shrimp and Jason had the stewed chicken. Our meals also included a small side salad, beans, rice, and fried bananas!! Oh my, I have never had fried bananas like this before. DELICIOUS. AMAZING. FANTASTIC. I was head over heels for these things! Luckily before we left, I got the cook to show us how they were made- someday I will re-create the dish. Someday. Needless to say, this was the BEST dish we ate all week! Better than any of the cruise ship food even! However.... the dish gave me food poisoning later that week. Boo. More of that story to come later, aren't you excited. HA.

After our amazing, bacteria infected meal- the storm had lightened up enough to get back on the scooter and head back to the other side of the island. We found their city center and did some touring while trying not to get trampled- driving there was a crazy madhouse! Jason drove that scooter like a champ!

Then back to our little boat we went. We were exhausted! What a day!