Island Memories!

Infamous ferry ride..the good part!!

Fried chicken for lunch!

LIGHTENING BUGS....OH MY!! A wistful view into the rainforest

All Idaho ho's should travel with this so close to their hearts~~

Saying Goodbye is so hard to do!!

Sigh~~~.........another trip of memories aboard Blew Bayou!!

All-Righty then....back to business!

Every person has checklists. We love to be able to check things off checklists. Which, of course, everyone knows...means that you have accomplished that task.
Here was our guest's checklist for this past week:
1) ride on a sailboat without falling in.....check!
2) see things that glow in the dark.....check! (phosphorescent bay and lightening bugs)
3) skinny dip....check!
4) good food...lobster at almost every meal.....check!
5) snorkel in one of the most beautiful spots I've ever seen....check!
6) dolphins.....check!
7) a unicorn.......ok, I do have some wild and crazy friends, and we did our best on this one but all we could pull out of our hat on the last morning, looking at the last page of the last magazine they brought me...was a picture of a unicorn on a tattoo, so.....check check!!!!!

I last wrote of the ferry ride back to Blew Bayou, which was on Saturday night. Sunday morning, we awake to a completely refreshed lisa and the plan was to sail to West End. It was a bit windy and being the smart cap’n that he is….he put our butts in a cab while he brought the boat around the island! Just in case. Again, smart cap’n! While we’re riding, Katie says, “Ya’ll lemme talk so I can be busy…cuz I feel a leetle queasy. Aaaaaah, the irony. She rides the ferry with a steel-like stomach but might not make it in the cab!! Needless to say, her talking did the trick. For those of you who know her, ‘talking’ is the cure for all!!! Breakfast first…..then a little shopping and a walk thru the town. And guess what we found? YARD SALE! Who’d have thunk it? Seriously…some women were having a yard sale and we were right up all in the middle of it –island style!!
Next stop is West Bay. We dinghed to the beaches because this is one of the spots we were asked to leave from before in the big boat. Can you imagine that?
Lots of sun, lots of beach time and we ran into our LSU newlywed friends there. They were going to the same refreshment stand, Tranquil Seas, that we were going to, so the cap’n asked them if they’d like to ride with us. The funny thing? They’re from New Orleans but have lived in Seattle for the past two yrs! So, the PNW ho’s had a lot to talk about with them. We hung out at the bar for awhile and then had dinner down the beach at the Blue Bahia. PULLED PORK PLATTER!! Can you believe we were eating barbeque on the island? But everyone needed some real home food and it totally hit the spot.
Monday morning, we cruised to Punta Gorda and then anchored for the night at Turquois Bay.
Tuesday morning, cap’n left out early headed for the most eastern point, Pigeon Cay. This was also the place I called a screensaver day and it didn’t disappoint this day either. Absolutely gorgeous. Here, we snorkeled and collected a few shells before our cap’n made us a grilled sausage sandwich lunch! Heading back for the marina because the ho’s had to catch their flight out this morning, we stopped at Hole in the Wall bar for some comedy. Back in time for one last dinner of lobster and shrimp and a recap of our days together. We had a blast and let’s just say that the cap’n had quite the experience with a boatload of estrogen….a brand new experience for him!!
I have so many pics that it’s hard to choose a few for blob but here goes. Most should be self-explanatory….HA!!

Fun in the Sun!!!

Sorry........just have not had time to update. And I will. Soon. We've been going at it a mile a minute and I've got loads of pics to upload but the time just seems to get away from me. My friends are going home on Wed. and I follow suit on Thursday. I promise to get this thing up to date as soon as I get a chance.........
For now I leave you with this beautiful image....cap'n had captured a moth for us at dinner one night and this was the actual release!

Saturday morning...

While lisa and the cap'n are hiking to the top of El Bejucho, katie and I are chillin' riverside. It's only 11am and I've already taken a nap!

Let me see if I can remember some of the hilarity of the week so far.....

Upon arrival on Wednesday, we loaded up immediately and began a cruise along the south shore of the island with plans to anchor close to Pigeon Cay. But as the sailors know, the best laid plans usually change with the winds! So, we anchored at Port Royal for the evening and cooked lobster pasta on the boat. On the ride there, both the little girls sat on the back steps with their feet dangling in the water giggling like first graders! (I was catching up on rag magazine reading that they brought with them!!...priorities, don'tcha know?!) Once we had arrived at destination, plans were to snorkel, so on goes the globs and globs of sunscreen. Then they sat on the tramps with a cold one and that was as far as the snorkeling went! We all sat out there telling stories and being in awe of the starlit sky until way after dark. Alot of this time, the cap'n was inside doing ALL the cooking!! After dinner, we had the Comedy Hour. Ala, clisa....the sailor woMAN!

She brought sailor hats for all of us, including crafting supplies to decorate them. um...we haven't gotten that far yet! And she brought pirate patches and towels and oh geeze.......so much stuff. She checked it all in a body bag for travel! And the tattoos. Of course, the tattoes and we had mucho fun with those!! Pics will definitely be going out to WA and ID of those!! (Big T!!!)

Thursday morning after coffee and sausage and grits, the sails fly up and away we go...

A beautiful, perfect day for a sail. Great breezes, crayon blue sky and of course, we were going in the best direction, heh!! We anchored at Fantasy Island for a beach day. White sand, I think I counted 5 different colors of blue water, palapas .... what more could one ask for? Oh, how 'bout a cap'n that goes back to the boat and makes us homemade nachos with local tortillas, beans, cheese with pepperoni....and luv?????! So. Fun!

As the day winds down and we've just heard the bar play Blew Bayou on their radio, we head back for the boat. Cruise back to the marina for the night because we're leaving for the mainland early in the morning and the baby, boat, will be safe there. A taxi ride to the ferry at 6:30 am and quite a commotion trying to get sophie jane on the ferry WITH me and not in the cargo area.

Ugh. No dogs allowed in the boat with the riders. After much 'discussion' with the authorities and their going to talk to the owner of the ferry! it looked bleak. My friends have to know how much I wanted them to have this lil adventure, because at one point, I turned to the cap'n and said, "Just put her in there". Meaning in the cargo hold. With tears in my eyes. And then, all of a sudden, they walk out and say "ok". We go back thru the security check and it's like all of a sudden there is no dog and we walk right onto the boat. Whew! And she rode just like a baby in her carryon all the way to La Ceiba!!

Adonai picks us up at ferry dock and drops us off at the mercada. We walked all thru the area with Katie's eyes about to pop out of her head at every turn. Dried fish, fresh fish, fresh meats...meaning, liver, tripe, kidney and the like... hanging with their smells wafting throughout our nostrils.........!! All the while, sophie is on my back in her backpack and every kid there patted her or pulled my back, laughing 'perrita' !! Cap'n hollers out "Fried Chicken" and we stop for lunch. O.M.G. Just watching those two look at each other when they saw where we were going to sit down and eat was priceless.....suffice it to say that it was definitely a local 'restaurant'!! Chicken, beans, fried plantains, cheese and tortillas! DEEElish!!

After we had thorougly explored the markets, we hit a bakery for some breakfast items for next morning.....lisa was dying seeing the sandwiches WITH mayonnaise just sitting out on the counter in the heat!!....and last stop was, of course, the tamale stand!

On to the mountains and the Villas Pico Bonito! My heart smiled so warmly when lisa turned to me in the car and said, "Thanks for bringing us to the river!" Makes all the planning and all the anticipation of hoping they'll have a good time worth every second!!

Our 2 bedroom villa is beautiful. But we were hot, so we hit the pool for naps!! Swimming and watermelon drinks with a few monkey la-la's thrown in.....a hike to the short waterfall.....a swim in the river. Ahhhhhhhhh....and just when I was going to say a perfecto day.....I remember the shower! Lisa has brought the sweetest smelling stuff to bathe with and we all had long, leisurely showers that made us smell like fleurs!! Dinner at the restaurant here...bruschetta, pork chops, shrimp, and mauhi-mahui! So, at this point I would say it was a perfect day but alas one more thing takes it over the edge.........they saw LIGHTENING BUGS for the first time ever!! And you would have thought they'd seen Santa on his sleigh in the sky!! And we found out that our good friend, jules, gave birth to a healthy baby boy this day.

So, yeah..............NOW, I can honestly say it was a perfectly perfect day in Honduras!!

oops, here come the hikers.......Back later for pics and more hilarity!!

Oh Boy......as our friend, Antoni, and taxi driver would say. We are back on Blew Bayou now after a very rough ride back across the ocean on the ferry. 1 1/2 hrs of windy, rough waters and some of us got just a leetle bit seasick. Poor, poor clisa.......she hiked to the top of the waterfall this morning, has a cough and a bit of a cold.......and then...the ferry ride. Oh Boy. Let's just say it was one she will never forget. I was miserable and had stomach cramping so bad from the motion of the ocean and nerves that well, Oh Boy. But Katie? Strong, brave and smilin' all the way back across. She and the cap'n have gone to have dinner while the other two weinies stay onboard. Sweet lisa is in the bed looking for a long night of sleep.....

I'm sure days...no. Make that weeks from now, we'll all have a good laugh about the adventure this afternoon and appreciate the memories that were made in LaCeiba!

(trying to go thru pics to decide which ones to put here, but now I realize I have to wait till another day to get permission before I do it..............oh my! you know what that means!!)

Happy Days....!

It's late. Tired, but oh so content! Good friends + sailing the blue seas make for contentment.

Have to go to bed right now for we are getting up very early to catch the ferry with the locals .... hmmmm, wonder if there will be any pigs or roosters on there?.....to the mainland for a few days, but just wanted to pop in to let ya'll know that all is well. Girlfriends arrived on Wed. and we've been hitting it hard since then. Won't have internet in the mountains so it will be weekend before I can write a good, long post. And put some pics up. Don't leave me, for you will laugh and laugh at some of the antics on Blew Bayou this week!!

Tomatoes, anyone??

Today it's all about the FOOD!! and where we get it....
Last Saturday, we were in LaCeiba walking thru the mercada, the market place. I am always amazed....the smells, the sound of people talking and laughing.....but mostly? The colors! I just have a feeling that if the same scenario was set up and played out in the states.....a farmer's market of sorts....there is no way that the colors would come close to what a Central American market looks like! Everything is so vibrant, so alive!
Deciding what we would eat for lunch this day was kinda like walking thru the state fair, trying to decide if you want a corn dog or an elephant's ear. Heh! We finally decided on a plate lunch. From the ladies around the corner from the bus stop and across the street from the tamale man. Yes, before you even wonder......we did buy more tamales. One can never have enough tamales stashed away!! I digress. So........the whole family was there. Sitting on rocks. Watching the people, mostly us cuz we do look a bit out of place.....hmmmmmmm, can you imagine that? This day, the family is cooking smoked chicken, rice, salad and the ever famous tortillas. Pics will show the set up and the cap'n getting right into the middle of the action! He acknowledged to the woman, "Pollo?" and the lil boy in striped shirt looks up at him and says, "Chicken!!"!! Haha!We then took our plates to a bench in the town square and chowed down. Y-U-M-M-Y!!
We crossed back to Roatan on Sunday and since it took about 5 hrs, we just decided we'd done enough work for one day! So, we layed around putting off our chores.....which would be cleaning the boat and provisioning for our next guests.
Side note: marina managers had warned us that they had seen someone with a purple visor that had LSU on it. We had a mission. At dinner on Monday night, they sat right next to us and in the course of conversation, the guy mentioned that they'd been so busy getting married the previous Saturday.....I promptly told them that they should tell everyone they were honeymooners. He said....."Um, you pretty much just did!" haha. So, we're thinking how funny it is that someone from good ol' Loosiana is here with us....Tiger fans at that.....when today, we find another newlywed couple from Loosiana who are also Tiger lovers!!! What are the odds? 3 LSU couples all at the marina swarming together. I truly think that LSU fans could prolly take over the world if we wanted to!!
Last pic is a taco from a jucos stand right across from the grocery store today.
If the sunny tropics don't lull one away to heaven, the food sure will!!

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!!!

I sit here with a very full heart. It is Good Friday. We made a short hike today, and on my way down, I imagined the hike that was made carrying the cross. And then the actual nails. I don't know....something about being in a completely different world from the one I'm used to living in, so in tune with the land and my surroundings, just really makes me stop and think about this day of the year in a way that I've never done before. I have felt closer to God today than any day I have ever spent kneeling in prayer in a church.
Of course, sitting on a balcony that overlooks Rio Cangrejal and seeing a magnificent waterfall just across the river from me, tends to put one's heart right into God's lap! We came here to escape the celebration and party of Semana Santa, Holy Week. The serenity of this place is undescribable. Toucan birds. Whoompa birds.Butterflies. Cool, cool breezes from the rainforest drifting down as the sun sets behind the mountains. People who are so helpful and nice that if you have to be around anyone, they are the ones you want to spend your time with. I have no idea what time it is. Barely, remember the days. And it's ok. It's exactly what I feel like I need to be doing.........just soaking it all in.

We arrived in the town of LaCeiba yesterday about 10am. Went to the grocery store and picked up some breakfast items and TAMALES! This is the home of the best tamale in the world. And we then headed straight for Villas Pico Bonito.
The place we stayed last time we were on the mainland. Just because we love it so much. And after being onboard for 5 1/2 weeks, it was EXACTLY what the doctor ordered for me! We enjoyed the company of the owner in the palapa bar(from Dallas!) (which looks so much like Rio Bonito!) and I went for a swim in the river. Collected some rocks as I do everywhere I go. A nice, leisurely dinner and an early night..........with breezes blowing thru every window in the house.
This morning, my lovely husband who is not only a very fine sailor man but also a great cook, made me breakfast. BACON and fried eggs and toast. Man, oh man.......I haven't had a rio bonito breakfast in a long time and this one hit the spot. Better than fillet mignon. Or even fresh tuna steaks! After very leisurely enjoying a morning on the balcony, we made a short hike to a smaller cascada and then played in the river. I even have bruises on the 'bottom of my feet' to prove it! So. Much. Fun. To the bar for some internet time and a monkey la-la and the invention of a new drink! Watermelon and vodka/rum. Seriously ya'll..........they put watermelon into a blender, add water and brown sugar......we suggested the vodka! and it is the perfect afternoon refreshment. Back to the cabana for a nap. And that, my friends, is my accomplishment for the day!! Yet, I feel so rested and so complete that the only thing I could even find to gripe about might be the loudness of the crickett chirp or the musky smell of the jungle air!!!! HAHA! And believe me, I am in full appreciation of all that surrounds me and know that I am so undeserving of the beauty of this day. It's just been too perfect.

Tomorrow, we plan to go to town and experience a bit of the celebrations......which means we will prolly find an outside café bench to sit on and watch the people. The mercada is such a fun place to watch people…local people who love life.
Then, weather permitting, we will sail back to Roatan to get ready for guests. HA! Girlfriends..guests??
I think not. Just two wild and crazy chicks coming aboard to cruise and have a wild and crazy time!! And believe me, we’ve got a wild time planned for them!

So, I close tonight, hoping that all of you have a very Happy Easter and that you find it in your hearts to realize how blessed we all are! And how thankful I am that my college roomate’s husband is making the turn back to good health and that my children are all happy, safe and healthy.
(Easter Bunny…………I promise that the next Easter Sunday that I’m home, we will have the biggest, best and most fun Easter egg hunt, ever!!!

A few posts back, I showed a pic of the cap'n doing his mountain activity of "raft watching" from a boulder. Well, he's perfected his art now and simply puts his feet up on the balcony of our room to be the "Best All Round White Water Rafting Watcher"!! And he wonders why his bones are sore today? Why, it's all that mountain exercise!!
The nice people I talked about earlier? We just 'happened' to mention to richard, the owner, that our only complaint about the place would be that there are a few limbs blocking our view of the waterfall from our room.......um.....the next thing we know "my friend" is cutting those suckers down right in front of us!!! And hauling the remains away. He was very proud of his work and we just looked at each other and thought.......We better be careful what we ask for!!!

Some Easter beauty for you!

If you look closely, you can see the waterfall behind this beautiful bloom!

A blooming poinsetta for Easter Sunday!!

And this one's for you, Josh................LOOK HOW CLOSE THAT SHIP GOT TO US!!!!!!!!!