So, there haven’t been very many updates, because I haven’t done too much lately and my flash drive kept deleting everything that I wrote, but, now that I am back from vacation, here is my update.
Our vacation started on Saturday early morning when we called some taxi friends to drive us to the bus station, where we took an 8 hour bus ride to La Ceiba. Upon arriving, we found out that because of the hurricane in Hattie, the ferries to the island would not be running. One of our friends heard that we could take a plane, but it would cost a little bit more. We figured it would even out because we would lose our hotel money from the island, and then we would have to pay for a hotel in La Ceiba, so at 2:15, we drove to the airport to make it to the 3:00 flight to Roatan. After fighting with the guy behind the counter about prices, we finally managed to get on some small cargo-esq planes. After a 20 minute flight, we made it the island, more than an hour ahead of scheduled time. We got settled into our hotel/lodge and went out searching for dinner because we were starving. We found a small baleada place, and even met some locals who told us some good places to go. That night, we explored the town and beach to seek out some fun things to do the upcoming week.The next morning, we started out bright and early (because I seem to have lost my ability to sleep past 6 am) by chilling in our hammock, lying on the beach, playing cards, and basically just relaxing. We took a bus/van to Coxen Hole to get our groceries, and then hung out on the beach some more. We took a hike to find Gumbalimba Park, the park filled with monkeys and parrots where we wanted to go the next day, and along the way, we met some fellow Americans who were just looking for jobs on the island. We ended up being in West Bay and it was getting dark, but a guy offered us a ride back to our side of the island, West End, so we took it, went out for dinner and hung out a bit more.
Monday was rainy almost all day so we hung out inside, but we decided to go to a nice bar restaurant for dinner as a whole group. Everything at the restaurant was great! The whole restaurant is just actually on stilts in the water, so we got to watch the sunset while we were eating our dinner. They even had dessert, something that is quite rare for us to see. After dinner, it finally stopped raining, and we set up our plans for the following day.
Tuesday was our expensive but AWESOME day! We started out the morning by going to Gumbalimba Park where we got to play with some monkeys and parrots. Since we were there before the cruises showed up, the guides were super friendly and even called the baby monkey down for us. It was super adorable! The parrot named Josh got to sit on our shoulders and eat seeds from the guide while we took pictures. The guide then took us across the Pirate Bridge, where we could look into the lagoon below and see tons of sea creatures and lots of turtles (aye, sea turtles). We then walked through a garden where lizards and other land animals were sun bathing. After walking back through the caves to get to the other side of the park, we hung out by the pool until lunch time, where we all got nicely fried. After lunch, we took a taxi to a water reserve where we got to swim with dolphins. It was a two part trip. First, we got to meet the dolphins and get pictures with them in the shallow water, and then they let us go out and snorkel with them in the deeper water. The dolphins were so playful and loved chasing after grass that we could throw. The reef below was teeming with different colored fish, too, meaning there was always something to see.
Wednesday was just a beach day when we got to go snorkeling on the second my beautiful reef in the world. Christina and I even found a sunken submarine! It was a bit scary at first not being able to breathe normally, but after a while, I got used to it. We took some kayaks out and looked at the reef from above the water, which you could still see a ton of stuff. After kayaking, Melanie and I went out snorkeling again and we were just coming in as the sun was setting. Our whole group got together to cook spaghetti and we had a communal dinner on our beds, just talking about all the things that we have loved so far (and I got to talk to Kooba, so I was extra happy). We decided to stay a few extra hours on Thursday so we could snorkel more and spend more time on the beach.
We took the ferry back to La Ceiba, and met up with another student at our hostel and then we explored the city for a while. Friday morning, we walked to the sea so she could see it, and we saw this old falling apart dock, which, being the adventurous college students we are, we climbed on and met a bunch of local fishermen. Upon getting back to our hostel, we took a truck to the cabin in the woods part of our hostel in order to white water rafting. Rafting was amazing! We even went through level 4 rapids, and almost made it without falling out. Our guide, Angel, decided to take us “surfing” but our raft just folded underneath us, and we ended up in the water. Our group laughed the whole way down the river. At the halfway point, there are three rocks that you can jump from, and of course, we picked the highest one, 10 meters (about 30 feet). It was so scary the first time, but quite the adrenaline rush. After our rafting, we came back, and jumped off the rocks again, when I slipped and hit my head on the rocks, but thankfully, somebody caught me before I fell off the edge. We ate a community dinner and then just hung out on the porch/bar until past midnight. We took a super crowded bus with all of our luggage in the morning, and then made it back home safe and sound.
