21 Apr, Mon

PROBLEM SOLVING
 
raining again this morning  :(   .... really unusual weather here lately

tried to get into my bank account on line again... unsuccessful ... i finally called the bank ... after asking about my withdrawals, i discovered that my ATM card has been hacked  !!!!!!!!!     .... i had heard that this was happening here in Roatan, ...but certainly it wouldn't happen to me ...  WRONG !     .... after a lot of work on the part of the nice girl who helped me at Keystone Bank, we got my card cancelled ...

the thieves somehow electronically take your card number, and they had been withdrawing increments of $100-200 every day or so since 14 April ..... from Miami, Florida .... at least it was from Miami and was easy to track, since i'm not in Miami ... my money will be refunded to my account.    this is a real problem, the thieves still have the money, and the banks will take the loss,  but, in the end 'somebody' has to cover the losses .... 'somebody' is eventually 'we the consumer'   :(

i took a taxi to Coxen Hole to visit the Banco Atlantida, the same bank i used in Utila .... i should have used them the first time i tried to get money at Coxen Hole ... :(

 ... luckily i brought another bank ATM card with me also .... good Girl Scout that i am ... 'always be prepared' ... or was that the Boy Scout motto ? :)

here is a funny, 'bittersweet' story about when i went to the bank ....
there are officers at the door and they 'wand' you and make you take off your sunglasses (that seems strange) .... so i get in the bank, and there were 50+ people in line .. (which i figured would be the case ... banks were closed over Semana Santa, so everyone was there) ... it was going to be a long long wait, at least the line didn't go outside the door and down the street, in the heat ...
but .... the officer saw me look at the line and then he pointed for me to go 'there' ...
 ... i walked that way, but didn't see anything ... except 4 'old ladies' sitting in chairs ...
there is a special window for handicap, and i guess, ...old ladies ... and it seems the nice officer thought i qualified ... that's rather 'bittersweet' don't you think ???????
.....so my wait was comfortable, sitting in a chair, in an A/C bank, and quite short, ok, it probably took 15-20min ... but WAY less than standing in that line for YOUNG people  :)
age does have some benefits  :)

but this issue has caused me to re-think how to get $$ in a foreign country ... they are suggesting wiring money to yourself through Western Union ...it's difficult to keep one step ahead of the bad guys ... :(

it rained a couple of times during the day again  .... ???????????

i got out for a walk late in the afternoon, Katie stopped over, then i met Suzanne for all-you-can-eat-wings at Coconut Tree ....

then to our favorite ice cream place  :)
they also have these frozen bars .... which are wonderful ... the have pieces of fruit in them ... you can see the slice of kiwi, and the watermelon one even had seeds in it !    

Made with Juice

Juice and Milk Added

they even have an avocado one ..

20 Apr, Sun

HAPPY EASTER !

yes, they sell these in Honduras, but they never get the crispy crunchy outer crust on them because it's so humid here ..... so i had to eat them soft ....poor me  :(

Peeps

woke up to rain this morning .... i don't want to dive if it's raining, .... i thought it might clear up by 10, but it really came down instead ...

Rain in Roatan

and more rain, and again in the afternoon, more rain ....

Lots of Rain !

i worked on my blog and photos

about 2pm it stopped and the sun came out .... i needed to get out, so i went for a walk .... i thought it would be cooler but i was wrong ... it was hot and humid ... i love my little room in the garden .... it's always cooler there, and with the ceiling fan on, it's really nice ...

i saw a lot of ripe cashew fruit on the road to the store ... if you missed it, i talked all about how cashews grow and eventually become nuts in my post from 18 March ...

Cashew Fruit

i talked with a friend who told me that SunDowner was having a band from 5-7pm today and, even though it is Sunday (no alcohol), they would be serving.  

i couldn't get ahold of Katie nor Suzanne, ....i need a phone  :)   ...and asked my neighbor, Lee; but she didn't want to go ... so i went to SunDowner by myself around 5pm ..... i sat at the bar and ordered a Monkey LaLa  :)    ... Happy Easter to me   :)

eventually i met a few new people and watched the sun squeeze between the clouds

...that was a different Easter  ...

19 Apr, Sat

MARATHON SNORKEL -- DAY 2

Katie and i got a early start this morning ... well, ... early for us  :)

today's plan ... took a taxi to the Roatan Backpackers Hostel, where Katie knows the owner (she knows everyone:), and we stashed our 'stuff' there, and walked across the road and up the beach again .... past the point where we got out yesterday ... and got in the water a little after 11am ....

same scenario as yesterday .... 15-20min over the sand and grasses ....

Cushion Sea Star

Cushion Sea Stars

then through some really pretty Coral Gardens ...

Pretty healthy Coral 

Coral Garden

and continued along inside the reef ...

HogFish swimming over coral

HogFish

the plan was to snorkel until we came across 'Spooky Channel' ... which is a Dive Site along here somewhere .... they call it 'Spooky'  ... and i thought the other channel was 'spooky' .... so i was anxious to see the one they actually call 'Spooky'  ...
but, we saw an opportunity to get through to the outside of the reef and decided to go, even though we didn't find Spooky Channel  ....

i have never seen this many Blue Tang schooling together ..... incredible !

Blue Tangs, lots and lots of Blue Tangs

in the same area were 3 Scrawled FileFish ... and one was very large ... :)

Scrawled FileFish

i followed it for awhile and watched while it changed color right in front of my eyes ...

Scrawled FileFish -- changing color

then they started swimming with the Blue Tangs ...

2 Scrawled FileFish Swimming with Blue Tangs

Katie was ahead of me, when i caught up, she was pointing to this turtle down below that was looking up, as if he was trying to find a way out ....

Turtle, looking up

we moved away and gave him some room to surface ....

Turtle

and off he went ...

Turtle

we snorkeled a bit further ... and we were there .... it was the Spooky Channel ...

Spooky Channel 

and yes, it was the same kind of 'spooky' as the other one ...

Spooky Channel

with this pretty healthy coral on the ledge ...

Coral at Spooky Channel

aerial view of the Spooky Channel ...it's very narrow and very deep ... and dark ...

Spooky Channel - Aerial View

we took the easy way back inside the reef through the Channel and continued along the inside of the reef ...

4-Eye ButterFly Fish

it rained a couple times while we were snorkeling, ...but i didn't care  :)

Rain on the water

DoctorFish and Blue Tang

Blue Tang

Blue Tang - Juvenile

i thought this looked like a hand ... High Five !

High Five+ Coral

let's snorkel

i love snorkeling

and 'duck diving'

our Marathan Snorkel started at the red dot at the top ... and finished at the green dot in the bottom left corner ... we figure about 2 miles ... ???       ...the black dot is Spooky Channel   ... the green dot at the top is the other 'scary channel'  ...

Map of our Marathon Snorkel

we got out of the water after 2pm ... that's 3 hours today ... add the 2 hours from yesterday ... our Marathon snorkel was 5hours ...

it was great fun !

we walked back to the hostel, took fresh-water showers, and i climbed up the ladder to take this photo ....

View from Roatan BackPackers Hostel

back home and ready for dinner .... Suzanne and i went to Lily Pond for dinner and i told her i would go diving with her tomorrow morning

18 Apr, Fri

-ANOTHER BEACH PATROL
-MARATHON SNORKELING

today Giaco, the RMP Director accompanied me, along with Alan on our West Bay Beach Patrol .... we took turns going out in the Kayak with Alan .... that was fun ... if we saw people who only spoke Spanish i pointed to Alan, who told them 'something' .... i don't know what :)     ....we talked with a LOT of people ... it was pretty crowded in the water and on the beach ....

we got back around 12:30 ... i had a half day to do something ... i got a message to Katie who was anxious to do some serious snorkeling.   ... Katie loves to snorkel as much as i do, and we've been waiting for this opportunity for just the 2 of us to go ...

it took awhile to get organized; but she made a great plan .... we took a taxi to her friend's house at about the middle of Sandy Bay ..... we left our 'stuff' there, and walked along the beach about 20min with our snorkel gear .... all the way to the very end of Sandy Bay ...
we got in the water at about 2pm, and did a 'drift' snorkel all the way back to the house ...... it's a little over a mile snorkel, (i think) ...

Sandy Bay Beach - walk to start of Snorkel Marathon ....

first we snorkeled over some grasses with pretty anemones in them ...

Sea Anemones

 over the grasses is about a 10min snorkel in itself ...

Sea Anemone 

until we get out to the Coral .... then into a beautiful Coral Garden .... it was nice to see such healthy coral here ...

Healthy Coral Garden

this Smooth TrunkFish was blowing in the sand looking for food (i assume) ...

Smooth TrunkFish - looking for food

and this little Slippery Dick (honest that is the name of the little green fish)  .....was right there ready to take advantage of anything he could find  :)  ....

Smooth TrunkFish w/Slippery Dick 'freeloader'

also saw this Flamingo Tongue .. haven't seen many of these since i left Utila ...

Flamingo Tongue on Sea Fan Coral

we continued on the inside of the reef until we reached the 'scary' area i had found a couple days ago ... it was just as 'scary', but today i was a little braver  :)  ....

Coral Ledge

 i noticed a little fish hovering over the top of the coral (in the top of this photo) ...

Coral ledge w/BandTail PufferFish

i looked him up in the book when i got back ...

BandTail PufferFish

it's a BandTail PufferFish

BandTail PufferFish

only about 3-4" long ...

BandTail PufferFish

the scary channel still provided some pretty Coral photos with the dark blue background ...

Coral on edge of Channel

we started working our way further out through the coral reef when we saw this HUGE Rainbow ParrotFish .... he was much larger than the 'huge' Rainbow ParrotFish i had been seeing at West Bay .... 'huge' is a relative term  :)     ...this guy was so much thicker through the 'shoulders' (fish don't have shoulders, silly)  .... but you can see there is a big hump behind his head ... he was HUGE ....

Rainbow ParrotFish

then we started looking to find our way through the coral reef to the outside of the reef ... this is not easily done, but we did it ... it's like being in a maze.    the coral is up to the surface of the water, so you can't go over it.... and the waves are breaking over the top of it ...you have to find little 'avenues' through ... sometimes you think you can get through, only to find you are at a dead end, and have to back out, and try another way .... it's fun  :)  ...and it can be a bit dangerous if you get into a spot where you are 'trapped'  ....

this photo gives you a little bit of an idea of what we were doing ... the shore is at the top of the photo  .... we snorkel through the pretty blue waters and grasses, 15-20min,  ....to the darker color, which are the scattered Coral Gardens,  ....which becomes thicker, deeper, stronger Coral, which protects the shoreline during storms ..... and you can see the 'avenues' where you can 'safely' get out beyond the reef, into the open sea ...

Drawing of Shore, Coral Reef, and Open Sea (w/feet markers)

it was fun being out there .... the waves are pretty large and at times i couldn't see Katie ... but the awesome thing is being able to see so many fishes ... the coral is below you far enough that you can't really see it ... but so many fishes !   ....  these Black Durgons, aka, Black TriggerFish ....

Black Durgons

i've usually only seen one or a couple of them together ....

BlackDurgon

and this pretty grouping of fishes... i see Sergeant Majors, Blue Tang, Spanish HogFish, Queen AngelFish, Blue Head Wrasse, Blue Chromis, and StopLight, Princess, Yellow- and RedTail ParrotFish ... WoW !

Many fishes over Coral

i saw 2 Scrawled FileFish ... big ones ... love them !   ...

Scrawled FileFish

and pretty far down there was a large Green Moral Eel that was out of his hiding place .... 

Green Moray Eel

that's unusual, since they normally hunt during the night time ... but he was after something ...

Green Moray Eel

and 2 HUGE LionFish .... the biggest LionFish i've ever seen .... and they weren't hiding either .... they were swimming freely ... the one was a distance from me, but i would swear it had a Blue Tang in it's mouth ..... ?

LionFish - HUGE

it was a 2hr ordeal .... i really enjoyed it.... 
coming back through the reef .... proved to be much more difficult that getting out there  :(  .... but we eventually made it ......

on our way back into shore i saw this VERY large Hermit Crab ... much larger than the 'large' one i saw under the Dock in Half Moon Bay .....

and this very small SquirrelFish ... defending his territory ...

SquirrelFish

it was nice to pick up our 'stuff' at Katie's friends ... and use their fresh water shower before heading back home .... it was almost sunset ....

Pre SunSet at Sandy Bay

we're thinking we need to do the rest of the Sandy Bay reef tomorrow .....  :)

i walked into town and had Taco Taco Taco, from the guys on the street ... good tacos !