Rough Road in Roatan

Oh My !
i hardly know where to start ... i am so far behind   :(
my visit to the island of Roatan, off the coast of Honduras, has been less than ideal.    ...the flight was great, and my friend, Kate, met me at the airport and it was great catching up the rest of the evening, from 2 years ago.
i woke in the morning not feeling great but walked into West End to buy some groceries, ... after 1/2 hour i was weak and headed back home ... decided i had a fever, went to bed, and slept the entire day, and night, and could barely get out of bed the next day, ... after Day 3, i went to the Clinic and started on antibiotics.    i was still weak and 'laid low' for over a week  :(

i was disappointed, because i was really looking forward to my 'vacation' after 'working' for 2 months at Madi's   ...poor me  :(

the 'week' happened to be Semana Santa or Holy Week;  the week before Easter, and a MAJOR holiday for Christians ... and 'party-ers'   ...  a good time to NOT be 'around' if you want any peace and quiet.   My friends, Kate and Tanje, were invited to use the 'guest house' of friends who lived away from the chaos, and they invited me to join them.   we lived like Queens  .... not poor me  :)

this is a photo of our 'Infinity Pool' over looking the sea  ....

and the reef where we could snorkel every day.... for free  :)

i arrived there in a downpour and the next couple of days i was too weak to do any snorkelling ... but ... eventually i improved ....

it's a long way out to the reef ... a 20minute swim over turtle grass and sand .... but the sand that you pass over is 'littered' ... a good 'litter' ... with SEA STARS .... lots and lots of them ... it's awesome and so peaceful !

in this photo you can see 5 at one time .... they were everywhere  !

i bought a new underwater camera with a super-duper macro (close-up) option .... did you ever wonder what a Sea Star looked like ... up close? ....

lkng

kind of looks like they are on the snow ... doesn't it ?

on the sand you will also find a few Upside Down Jelly Fish ....  they pulsate as they are lying there .....they look like they are on the snow too ....

over the sand, we also saw a 'squadron' (my own term) of Caribbean Reef Squid .... and you can see the Sea Stars on the bottom too   :)

we did spend one afternoon helping to clean the algae off the underside of the sailboat of our wonderful hosts, Snider and Lynne ... a very small contribution to their generosity ...

algae on left ... clean on right       ...we still have the other side of the boat to finish  :)

and .... they took us out on their sailboat for the afternoon ...
with their sweet dog, Mindy ... who is very much at home on the boat ... and so well-behaved !

me, Katie, and Lynne ...

the other piece of the 'rough road' is that my computer died ... it's my 'lifeline to the world' ... and it literally has everything i need in it .... passwords, accounts, email addresses ... and ... the ability to post photos on my blog ... obviously i am devastated !

through the generosity and goodness of friends, i will continue to borrow and try to post what i can ... unfortunately i have no idea 'who' was on the email distribution list ... so please pass the word along to anyone that may be interested ... they can always check the blog web page for updates.

Last Few Days on Caye Caulker

I've been here almost 2 months ... the longest time ever.   the plan was to get away for a short 'vacation' like i did last year; refresh, and return ... but luck was not on my side this year.   so i 'worked' all day ... every day ... i am ready to relax ... have my own room, ... my own bathroom,  .... my own shower ... and ... hot water, ....and not have to be  'on'  all day long.... it's tiring for an 'introvert' like me  :)

when i arrived and saw that the 2 catteries could possibly become inhabitable ....  i said i would stay until i saw the kitties in their new 'home' ... and one group of kitties made the transition quite easily.   in fact, the first day that i opened the door for them have their turn to get out and run around like 'kitties' ... they all just looked at me from their comfortable perches and didn't move.    i think that is a good sign and it makes me happy  :)   ...the other group hasn't been moved yet, but the cattery is almost finished and with the knowledge that David and Nico are there, i'm sure it will happen soon.

Speaking of David and Nico ... i went out to dinner with them my last night, and afterwards they took me out on their 'kayak katamaran' after dark

to go look at the bio-luminescense.   Bioluminescence is the production and emission of light by a living organism.    they found a place not too far, out in the turtle grass where they have seen it ... it was great fun ....unfortunately, i only got this photo ... use your imagination  :)

i will miss these guys and wish them well on their year-long tour.

Madi's nephew found this Green Moray Eel in a trap he was using ... he had it in a bucket and i took some photos of it before he released it again ....

.... i never realized they had such 'fangs' ... YIKES

and just today i saw a post on the Roatan Marine Park FaceBook page reminding people NOT to feed the marine life, (it is illegal there) ...along with this photo of a woman who was attacked by a Green Moray Eel who expected to be fed ...i certainly can see how those fangs could impose those lacerations !

...some of you may have seen a video being posted about a woman who 'made friends' with an eel and it shows the eel swimming ... lovingly... around her ... this is the other side of the coin  :(   ...someone diving with this woman said that no one was feeding it, and that she never even saw the eel coming at her .. kinda scary .... a good reminder to keep a respectful distance from the marine life ...


these are my last 2 design inventions for the cattery .... remember:   nothing on the floor to ease clean-up ... sooooooo ... hanging water bowl ...

and hanging beds for the kitties,  ...Honey says 'thankyou' ... at least i think that's what that face means ....

...they can look out the windows and think they are hiding ...

in the past, i've taken the long (and cheaper) route to Honduras  ... it goes something like this ... leave Caye Caulker on the 7am water taxi to Belize City ... take the 9am Ferry for 5-6hrs to Puerto Cortes, Honduras ... take an expensive 30min taxi (or cheaper 1-2hr bus) into San Pedro Sula ... spend the night at a hostel ... get up at 3am and take a 3hr 'express-not' bus to LaCeiba ... then the 9am Ferry to Utila ... and after a visit, take the 2hr boat to Roatan.

i made a decision to skip Utila this year ... it's crazy-loud-fast main road is still the same and it's such a shocker after 'Go Slow' Caye Caulker... that i'm not as happy when i'm there; and i find myself longing for the peacefulness of Caye Caulker.     And since i spent so much time at Madi's ... it just made sense to me to skip it.    i'll miss checking in on my Little Valentine Kitty that i had neutered 4 years ago ..... but i'm going to assume she's still ruling the roost at The DriftWood.

so .... i decided to treat myself and FLY from Caye Caulker to Roatan on Tropic Air !!!!!!!     ...i was pretty excited about that decision, and i'm worth it  :)

i had planned to not 'work' the day before i left ... but at 6am i heard Madi calling me and asked me if i could 'be in charge' of PAUSE while she made an unplanned trip to Corozol, on the mainland.   ...i admit i wasn't happy about this, but what could i say?   ...it's what you do for friends in need.    so, my last day was anything but relaxing; ... and my relaxing and packing was left until the next day.

thankfully, my flight didn't leave Caye Caulker until 3pm, and the 'air strip' is just a 5min taxi (golf cart) ride down the street, so it's not like i had to be there an hour before the flight .... so i had time to pack in the morning and take one last stroll down Front Street to The Split ....

i only went there once this year for a very short time .... the 'music' they play ... and the volume ... made it easy for me not to go there again ...
but it is SO pretty there ... if you're wearing ear plugs  :)

i took this photo of the 'new' Lazy Lizard ... although the mural on the wall of all the 'lizards' is phenomenal ...

i wanted to compare it with a photo of one of my first visits to Caye Caulker ....

and one of Jolene and I ... about 3yrs ago ?

a lot of building and improvements happening on Caye Caulker ... but,  is it ok if i sound 'old' and say that i kinda liked the old run-down Caye Caulker better  :(
but ... i do still really love it ... there's just something about the peacefulness and quiet  ... a good vibe is what most people say ...


***

so my flight from Caye Caulker to Belize City was 10min ... i love to see things from the air ...
a good picture of The Split and the North side of the island ...

you never know how things are until you see them from above ... like i never knew that Belize City was out on a peninsula ...

and there is only one road in ....

and the flight from Belize City to Roatan was an easy hour ... only 2 other people on the plane ... besides the 2 pilots  :)

i was a little disappointed in the view .... i don't know if it was the time of day, or just normal when you're flying 9,000 feet .... but i couldn't see as well as i thought i would be able to ...

we flew just south of Turneffe Reef ... i didn't realize it was so massive, with so many islands ...

and then also to the south of Lighthouse Reef ... just far enough away that we could not see The Great Blue Hole ... and i could barely make out Half Moon Caye where i truly regret i didn't get to  :(
... Half Moon Caye is at the end of the peninsula pointing to the right in the photo ..

i found this map of the MesoAmerican Barrier Reef ... it show just how long the Second Largest Barrier Reef in the World is  (second only to the Great Barrier in Australia)  .... it goes all the way from Cancun down Mexico's coast, down Belize's coast, and along the north side of Honduras' coast, ... even into Nicaragara....  so you can see how easy it is to fly from Belize to Roatan ...

and ... on to Roatan ... West End is where i stay, and it on Half Moon Bay, you can see it in the middle of the shoreline ... shaped like a 'half moon'    :)

and this is my plane  ... arrived safely  :)

ln;lnb

10 Mar - Another Day of Snorkeling :)

a group of 3 came to the hostel and wanted to snorkel ... and another man arrived who said he would be the fourth ... Madi was gone, so i walked to Wilbur's house and asked him if he could take them the next day. obviously he was happy to do so .... i was hoping to be able to escape to my 'retreat'  Caye; but again i was disappointed; so i asked Wilbur if i could be his 'assistant'   :)

no problems with rain today ... but it's March ... and during March and April they experience the "Easter Winds"  .... that means a lot of wind and high seas ... which is why i was not able to get out to my 'retreat'   :(

a lot of wind and high seas means that huge rolling waves were crashing and roaring over the top of the reef ... which also means the sand is being stirred up .. and visibility is poor ...

but any day in the water is better than any day out of the water ... that's my theory anyway ... and the guests didn't really know the difference.    ...so everyone enjoyed themselves ...

so what did we see ...

SpotFin Butterfly Fish ... without a visible 'spot' ...

a field of StagHorn Coral ...

Yellow Headed Wrasse  ..

the always-amazingly electric-blue juvenile YellowTail Damsel Fish ...  you have to look carefully to see his 'yellow tail' blending in with the golden coral ... he's only about 1 inch long ...

i was happy to see a couple Ocean TriggerFish ... these guys are quite large and you don't see them often ...

yes, this is Mr LoggerHead Turtle again .. the same one that was trying to eat the little BurrFish ...

Gray AngelFish  ..

a pair of Smooth TrunkFish ...

when we arrived at Shark Ray Alley, these Nurse Sharks were more than happy to see us ..

...and it was even crazier UNDER the water with the HorseEye Jacks getting into the game too ...

i love these small bright Blue Chromis with the forked tail ... they brighten up the scenery !

great detail and colors on this YellowHead Wrasse

and of course ... Blue Tang ... aka 'Dory' ...

***

this is another activity that i don't agree with, and is not suppose to happen any more ....  the tour guide grabs a Nurse Shark and turns it over, putting it in a 'catatonic state' ... so the tourists can touch it ...   do not touch, do not disturb   :(

.....but how many battles can i fight ?


other than that .... another great day in the water    :)

20 Feb - 6 Mar

one of the short term volunteers wanted to do a SunSet Cruise before she left ... she went to check it out and said it was only 30 B$ for a 3hr cruise ... i said i'd go and so did the rest of the Volunteers ...  it sounded like fun.    but then i was a bit skeptical after i agreed .... as i was changing my clothes (shorts and tank top) i realized the 'girls' were wearing their bathing suits ... because if you're going on a boat, you should be prepared and have your bathing suit on ..... no way i was wearing my bathing suit.   .... i realizing that i was probably going to be the old lady among a group of young drunken tourists ....

then i had a flash-back to the year that Carolyn, Cinda, Susan and i went to Cancun .... we decided to go on a group snorkel trip ... as we were boarding the boat, we noticed women with their big gawdy purses and gold lame pants on the boat ... we did an abrupt about-face, left the dock and asked for our money back ... we knew those were NOT the kind of people we wanted to spent the day with ... we wanted to party and drink !     .... today, all i could think of was that i was now THAT 'woman'   :)

but, to my 'relief', and everyone's surprise ... there were mostly older couples on the boat  !

we left from the east side of the south part of the island and went through he famous 'Split' ...that was formed in 1961 when a hurricane split the island in two ... 'The Split' is the most popular place on Caye Caulker ...

...it really was a great trip though ... here's our group of volunteers:   Amira, Emily, me, Nico, and David ...

.... a beautiful sunset,

.... an almost-full moon rising ...

and we went all the way around the south side of the island ...and finished up around 8:30  ... fun !


***


Catteries:
after the enclosure was completed and the protective metal was installed; we had a week of no work on the 'priority' cattery ...  :(    ...the hold-up was that no one was quite sure what Madi's 'vision' was, ... the cats needed shelves way up high so they would be protected from the rains ...... made out of roofing material,  so it would be non-absorbent and easy to clean ...  with a 'backing' to protect the walls  .... and then how the guys were going to install the shelves  ... and .... how were the cats going to get up to the shelves ...

but this week, lots of progress was made ... it's been pretty exciting!  

...the roofing material shelving... with protective backing ... high up so they are protected from the rains ...

... David and Nico (our volunteer builders) designed a GREAT stair system for them to climb on to get up to the shelves ...  as you can see Birdie did the test run and said it was user-friendly and he loved it ...
... they suggested that maybe the little 'steps' could be painted different colors ... so i took the initiative to do the painting 

Birdie thinks it works really well ....

and he can get up to the shelf easily ...

and finally ... a few cages are needed because some cats need to be feed inside a cage because they have 'poor table manners'    :)     .... the cages from the old cattery needed to be configured to fit into the new cattery  ... they weren't very colorful, just old brown wood ... 

keeping with Madi's mandate that nothing be on the floor, they had to be hung on the wall;  the cages from the old cattery are substantial and need strong supports ... and needed to have a non-absorbent backing on them as well to protect the walls, so the top and back was covered with the metal roofing ...
 and i took care of the color detail as well  ... no old brown ugly wood in here   :)

***

one evening (actually night), during the week when nothing was being done on the 'priority' cattery, Madi started painting the outside walls ... out of frustration ... just to see that SOMETHING was being done ... (i understood, i felt the same way) ... but she ran out of green paint halfway up this wall.    a woman, Anja, who lives in Egypt was here, and through conversation Madi learned that she is an artist ...  Madi asked her if she would like to paint something on this wall .... amazingly, Anja is a mural painter ..... and is currently doing a project in Dahab to beautify the walls of the city   ... she was leaving the next day, but extended her stay to work on the wall.   she was amazing ... notice that she painted the Almond Tree that is next to the building ... brilliant !

***


no progress to report on the plight of the SeaHorses .... some Mangrove branches have been broken and are dying due to the jerks tying their boats to them  ... and word is now out on the island where the SeaHorses are, and individual groups of kayakers are now also coming around and wading through the Mangroves to see the SeaHorses   :(     ...it's like having people walk right up to your backyard while you are trying to enjoy your privacy  ...  they are RIGHT there, 8 feet from where our hammocks are ... frustrating ...

it's become a Circus   :(     .... i sent another email to the Belize Tourism Board with the additional concerns and photos of the recent developments ... they in turn said that my information had been forwarded to the 'different authorities' .... and 'thank you for your concern' .....  :(     ...i am still not giving up ... as a friend said .. someone has to speak for the SeaHorses !

i saw a cute little Scrawled CowFish in the Mangroves the other day ... i got in the water to photograph him; but he eluded me ... instead i saw some SeaHorses   ...  so the good news is that 'they' haven't murdered all of them yet  :)

i've done some further reading on SeaHorses ... they don't have a stomach, so their food goes right through them and they have to eat CONSTANTLY ... it must be difficult for them when their feeding is interrupted 7-9 times a day :(

***


this is Chak ... once a ferocious dog ... is now an old guy, enjoying the good life ... and now protecting the level for the guys  :)

 ***

i have to say that i am very impressed with our 2 construction-guy volunteers ... at 21 years old, they are incredibly skilled, professional, mature, and polite ... and they pick up all their tools and put them back in their proper places each day after work !!!!!!    ...really nice guys .. they've known each other since they were 10; it's no wonder they work so well together ... plus they are really having fun taking the kayaks out and exploring.    ...they are traveling for a year, doing 3 month volunteer stints at each location.   ...what great memories they are making!

they worked on this project one day after work ... using scrap lumber and stuff they scavenged from the streets ... and coconut leaves for the seats ... !
...this was the first night ...

the next day they finished it ...

and launched it with one of the other volunteers ... it's their Kayak Catamaran  ...  awesome !

and they disappeared into the sunset :)

i've been here 6 weeks and have desperately been trying to take a 'vacation' before i leave for Roatan .... i want to go back out to Half Moon Caye and snorkel, snorkel, snorkel,  ... all day, every day  .... but i haven't been able to pull it all together yet   :(