My views do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer.
The first time I went to Roatan, I didn’t realize we were in Honduras until I saw a sign. Inside the gates there is a shopping area and a beach. Stef and I walked out to the last beach to meet Sujung and her boyfriend (they were eating fish with the head still on it). The water was warm and the ocean floor was covered in sea weed. It was so shallow that we had to swim way out until we found a spot where I couldn’t touch the bottom (that’s my favorite way to swim in the ocean). We laid out on the beach and I came back with sand bug bites that got infected and left me with scars that I have to this day. We called it Disney beach because it was built by Carnival so it felt really artificial and covered with tourists (I mean, the passengers from the ship we were coming from, but, you know). One time I went to the Pharmacy with Alan (our friend the electrician that we met at the family table in the Officer’s Mess) because that sounded like a really cool local thing to do. It was in the shopping area that I hadn’t explored, and it was fun to hang out with Alan but it wasn’t as dangerous as I thought it would be.
So we decided to take Vince up on his offer. Jase and I had met Vince, a steward on the ship, weeks before and he said that he grew up in Roatan and would take us around. So when the three of us were all off on the same day, we tracked down Vince and made a plan.
He got off the ship with a backpack and a suitcase of stuff he was taking home. His contract was up in a couple of weeks. I thought it was so cool that he got to go home every two weeks.
Vince’s dad drives the pilot boat that helps guide the ship in and out of the harbor. I was honored to meet him. When I cruise with my mom, one of our favorite things to do is to watch the pilots jump on and off of the ship onto their little boats.
We told Vince that we wanted the real experience– the good the bad and the ugly. His friend picked us up in a red car and we drove to the ghetto. We got stuck in traffic, so Vince jumped out to go do something and then walked so far ahead that it took longer than he thought it would take for us to catch up to him.
Banana stand.
By then we were hungry. We asked Vince to take us to get some real local food. At a gas station.
We couldn’t read the signs so Vince ordered for us in the local dialect.
We made a big deal about trying to pick out a bunch of different kinds of local beer. It turned out that they were all the same– the cans were just different colors. The guys were making fun of us when we were tasting them and saying which one we liked more.
This lady prepared our food fresh right in front of us.
Here are Stef and Jase in the gas station while we waited for the food to be prepared.
Then we ate it in the car. They were really good fluffy tortillas with beans and potatoes and eggs and meat.
Very similar to one of my favorite things– a breakfast burrito. We passed around all the different kinds.
Then Vince took us to his mom’s house!
And we met his mom!
She had food cooking on the stove. We were still full from our gas station meal, but we had to try the homemade cooking! There was conch (from the conch shells) and beans and rice and plantains and some fruit that I didn’t recognize.
We got a tour of the house. This was the huge kitchen:
And upstairs:
The view from the balcomy was incredible– you could see the ships go by!
There we are!
Then we went out and sat on the porch with the lovey kitty cat.
Vince’s mom rents out the apartments on the right.
Those are fruit trees but I can’t remember what kind of fruit. I’m guessing avocado.
After that we went to the beach to see dolphins.
They were in the dolphin tour place. Vince knows the people who work there. We were able to see the dolphins jumping out of the water as the people watched from boats.
We walked along the beach instead.
When I see rocks I have to climb on them!
It was hot. We found these cool seats in the shade (unfortunately they weren’t temperature cool)
Stef climbed a tree
And we hung out on the beach!
The water was warm.
Then Vince’s buddy came along and picked us up right on the beach.
We had to stop at the touristy shopping area because some of the Filipinos had asked Vince to pick them up some cheap Roatan t-shirts.
We went into the shop where Vince’s buddy’s girlfriend works and met her while Vince’s buddy was driving the car around.
Finally we stopped and did some local errands that Vince needed to do– some more grocery shopping for the Filipinos, and a stop at the place to see if his hard drive could be rescued. You know, stuff people do at home that we didn’t do going from port to port. It was such an awesome day and we couldn’t be more grateful to Vince and his buddy for taking us around.