To Roatan and Back!!

So last week was a week long of spring break!! Which means I went to the Carribean, an island off of the northern coast of Honduras called Roatan. Last Friday, we had a teacher's training day before we left, and we all learned how to make better lesson plans and played some soccer and basketball with all the teachers. Saturday I packed and ate out at a Restaurant. We left on Sunday morning at 7:30 AM, and got into the biggest coastal town of Honduras (La Ceiba) at 2:30.

When we got there we got a taxi to a hostel and put our stuff down in the rooms. Somehow in between the bus and the hostel, my camera and my spanish-english dictionary vanished. Which really really stinks. Everything was closed on Sunday though, it was crazy how many little shops were in the city, and everything was closed except for a few restaurants on the beach. So we went to one restaurant on the beach that had hammicks to lay in. My friends and I got some drinks and chilled on the beach for a few hours and then went to bed after eating at a different restaurant.

In the morning we took a cab to the big ferry which was leaving at about 9:30. Everyone was really worried about getting sea sick except for me. I bragged about how I had never thrown up, and therefore I would not be taking any drammamine. It was about an hour and a half boat ride and the waves were alot bigger than expected. Anyway to make a long story short I vommited about an hour into the boat ride. It was one of the worst feelings I've ever had. We got there and grabbed a cab down to the West End of the island. The island is 15 miles long and about 2 or 3 miles wide.

When we got to the West End, we rented a cabin for 35 bucks a night for 4 people. So it was pretty sweet. There was all kinds of cool different restaurants there. They had a few native Honduran places, a Switzerland place, a Thai and Vietnamese place, tons of other places. Plus a fish and chips little trailer was there owned by a British dude named "Chippy Banger," he was definitely the coolest guy that we met. He invited us into the trailer it looked like he had a Honduran girlfriend or wife who ran the place with him. In his amazing accent, he boasted about the only fish and chips place in all of Central and South America. Then he commented on how clean his kitchen was and said he had lived in Honduras for 35 years (he was about 60). Then he told us that he had 11 different kids. And finally told us about the people who really understand the Carribean culture of a slower pace of life. He said Americans didn't really understand.

The rest of the week was pretty fun too, we stayed in this place called the Mermaid Cabins, 35 dollars a night for a cabin, 2 double-sized beds, a mattress on the floor, air-conditioning, a refrigerator and a hot shower. And it was about a 2 dollar water-taxi ride from West End, where we were, to West Bay, which is the really really nice beach. Or it's a 45 minute walk from our cabin. We took the walk gladly, on the beach, up and back every morning and night.

I got really burnt the 2nd day from being in the sun all day, so the rest of the week I had to make my resting place on the beach under some palm trees, which was fine with me. I finished reading Desiring God, while I was there, it was well worth the amount of time it took me to finish it. I was convicted by so many things in that book, it was crazy. We went snorkeling too in West Bay, the water was unbelievable, but the fish were even better, the colors of the fish were amazing. All we had to do was swim off shore about 50 yards and there was a mine-field of coral reef there. Huge caverns and caves to swim through, it was really cool, and everywhere you turn there was another school of fish swimming through. We had a decent amount of frisbee time too.

We went out to eat every night at different places, usually spending about 5 to 6 bucks on our meals. We ate at a Thai place, a few Honduran Restaurants, an Italian place, I think that about covers it. They have some of the best Scuba Diving there in the World but that wasn't in my budgets, it was only about 25 to 30 dollars for each trip out, but on my salary that's alot of money. So that was pretty much it. It was a great time and the girls I was with got me sucked into an old TV series called Gilmore Girls, I still can't believe I got sucked into it. It was a good time though, and very very relaxing, probably the best place to just chill that I've been to.