This summer, Darwin and I was able to go on a trip to Roatan, Honduras. It was amazing!!!! People have been asking about my pictures but since there are so many I can't possible fit them all on facebook! I decided I will have an excuse to blog and tell you of my adventures. Please keep in mind, I do not have all pictures, just the ones on land. We did go snorkeling, ALOT, but we forgot to get an underwater camera so I have to wait until I can get copies of my brothers.
It was an all couples trip that included me and Dar, my mom and Dad, 2 brothers and their wives (Nolan and Kenia, Brian and Tilynn), close family friends (Marylou and Champ) and my sister and her husband came the next day (Trina and Clarence). We stayed the night at my brothers house so my nephew and a friend could take us to the airport in the wee morning hours (Like 3:30 am). We had way too much fun getting ready that none of us slept (except my parents) that night before. If you know my brothers, you know they are never up to any good.... (more pictures of that later).
We arrived in Roatan on a Friday afternoon after having a 2.75 hour flight to Houston, then another 2.5 hour to the island. I thought it was a perfect amount, long enough to get a little bit of sleep but not too long where it drags on forever if you can't sleep. We got the house called Casa Sienna and it was so beautiful.
I also wanted to show the drop off. It was a ways down but it was sooooo pretty! They had really cool butterfly's that I couldn't ever get a picture of. I guess I got distracted from all the greenery!
We decided to go the the store and buy a bunch of food to cook with in our kitchen. It was nice being able to have the perks of some American dishes but a lot of time we had a lot of rice and beans. Skipping a little ahead, on the Thursday before we came home, my sister in law (Kenia) had her parents come and bring her kids and they made us true Honduran food. It was so good, I even ate it with having a nasty bug in me! It may sound weird but eggs, beans, homemade tortillas, and a special cheese they have is really good!!!! 
 |
| Tree growing on another. |
We mostly just explored the house and caught up on some MUCH needed sleep! I went for a walk with Dar to the beach and took some really pretty pictures of some flowers and cool things. I absolutely loved walking on the beach except down there they have really bad sand fleas so you have to wear really good bug spray with as much DEET as possible in it. These are just some of the plants we saw. The tree was really awesome because it had spikes on it!I didn't touch it because it looked sharp but it was awesome! The flowers smelled sweet, but not too sweet and had a little perfume smell. As for the shark, we were told that people do catch the hammerhead shark and hang it for those to see. We were so excited to see their catch! The next day it was taken down so we thought for sure it had to be real and they cut it up. But, to our dismay, a couple of days later it was back up. It was just a decoration to psych out gullible tourists like ourselves. It was a pretty fun relaxing day in Paradise.
These lovely pictures are what my brothers and Dar stayed up doing. Yes, that is a Justin Bieber poster and a Si picture from Duck Dynasty. If you look real close, they have a to do list but please read that at your own risk! The airport there are kind of like many other airports where you have the drivers hold up sign with your last name on it or the taxi name, or whatever on it. In Roatan, they hold up signs with either the last name or the Hotel/Resort/Beach house you are staying at. Nolan and Brian were holding these posters calling out "Casa Sienna"! Trina and Clarence were so tired and worn out that at first they didn't even realize that was their picture! After giving hugs, they realized it and we all had a good laugh. We had several people ask what the heck we were doing and after explaining this is what happens when you are the last to arrive, they laughed and understood. I think they were just extremely happy they weren't in our family! We drove back to our house for a while and these pictures got hung on our walls right as you walked up the stairs so we can see them everyday! After some rest, we headed into town and rented some scooters for a day of sight seeing and a picnic around the island after church then headed home to change our clothes. I even rented a scooter but after driving it home through their crazy driving, decided it was best to just not drive it anymore. Driving in Roatan (and the main land Honduras) is absolutely crazy! The roads are really skinny and don't have any speed limits. They also aren't kept up very well and have MANY potholes! People just pass cars when it is convenient and just hope people aren't coming or in their way. I think scooters are the most popular vehicle and some drivers pass right in between 2 cars!
We dropped the scooters off at home and decided to go out for dinner. While we were looking for food, we had somebody side swipe up and mess up our van pretty bad! We thought the guy was going to be cooperative with us so we told him we would turn around and meet him. We had Clarence follow him on the motorcycle just in case. By the time we were able to find somewhere to turn around, the guy took off and lost Clarence on a back road. They tried following him but we never found him. Big time bummer! Especially because there the police don't get involved and you need to get money right away or you pay for everything. We had to bite the bullet and pay eventually. Accident #1.
We finally found a reasonable place called the Cannibal Cafe and ordered the food. I think it was like 8:00 before we finally got our food. It was a lot of fun though and the food was delicious. A lot like regular Mexican food with a light twist on it. I didn't get any pictures of the food, sorry.
It was really humid and hot so the makeup i put on pretty much just melted off! We were all happy and full by the time we were done. There was only 1 waiter that came up to the balcony where we were seated which is why it took so long to get our food.
After we were done and paying for the food, me and Trina decided to have a little fun with the mannequin. We were all pretty much ready for bed by the time we went home. We wanted to go get some ice cream they had just down the street but by the time we were done eating, they were closed. We tried finding a place to go dancing but they only had most of the places closed off due to a couple of weddings! We settled for a long walk on the beach enjoying all the little crabs that came out looking for food. They were everywhere! Then on of my brothers decided to try and do some tricks on his scooter before heading home and hit the front brake instead of the back break and broke off the handle! Accident #2.Sunday we woke up and went to church. It was really neat to go to their little church building. The island is so small that they only have 1 ward. The people were really nice and greeted us even though half of us didn't know what they were saying! They had 4 missionaries there that played the piano, passed the sacrament and blessed it. It looked like quite the calling with a lot of service! It was really cool to feel the spirit and know in a round about way what they were talking about. One thing I thought was interesting was they had to lock the doors that went into the chapel during the sacrament so nobody from the outside could come in and disrupt it. Kinda scary but comforting to know we were looked out after.
We only went to Sacrament meeting but headed home to change our clothes and get our lunch ready. Everybody was on a scooter except me, Dar, my mom, and my dad. I'm so glad they had fun on them but I was quite content with the AC blowing sitting in a cushioned chair. 
The views were spectacular made me appreciate all of Gods beauties around the earth.We even stopped and took many pictures with the amazing views!
As we were at this stop, my brother got talking to some other people that said they knew of a place that had some free entertainment that they perform on Sundays. We figured we would go with it and have a look at the culture. What we found was amazing to me! We got to see the culture and how people are able to provide for the family and how they get the whole family involved. They had one of the boys playing one of the drums with 2 older guys. They started out with the girls (probably ages 7-12) dance to the beat of the drums and sing a song. There was even a little girl probably 2 years old that was learning the dance and trying to shake her booty! I think they let her in there as a sure money maker because she was so darn cute!! (I tried adding video of the dancing here but it won't let me add it, sorry!) After the girls got done, they went around the audience and would get people to dance with them. They thought it was funny with some of our dances. They passed around the bucket for tips (which was their only way of making money, they didn't charge us to watch). Remember that little girl that was dancing? During the middle, she was watching her mom dance and thought she needed a tip so she grabbed some of the American money out of the bucket and tried giving it to her!
After the girls danced it was the boys turn. Instead of having a set dance, they had a competition with the 3 drummers. The boys, one by one, would start dancing a dance then the drums would change their beat to match the dance. It was so cool to hear the beats and sounds they would make! The boys ranged from 7-14 then there was some older boys that I don't know how old. I'm guessing some were the fathers of some kids. I loved the culture and sat back admiring how they make their living. As we were getting ready to go, I saw them fighting over the money on who gets what and how much. I want to add here that American money is golden for them because the exchange rate changes a lot. They like to save it until the rate is really good. Right now, $1 US is equivalent to about 20 Limperas (Honduran dollars). Personally, I like Limperas because they make you feel really rich! They have 1's 5's, 10's, 20's, 50's, 100's, 500's, 1000's. It was awesome carrying around their money! WE even saved some for the kids.
We stopped for our lunch then realized how late it was and had to get the scooters back before they charged us more! Luckily, they didn't charge us for 2 of the scooters that quit working and just counted it even for the handle that broke! Some people went snorkeling that evening to 'enjoy God's creations'. The rest of us just stayed home and played games. All in all, it was a great Sunday full of fun with the family!
Monday we had already made reservations to rent a yacht for the day to go deep sea fishing and explore some islands that not many people get to go see. Me and Dar decided to go a little earlier just in case the boat was early and came across this butterfly that was hurt. After getting some pictures, we decided to release it in some plants. Sadly, as I was walking down the dock to the sand, a big gust of wind game up and blew the butterfly into the water! The yacht showed up and we left our dock near our house at 7:30 am.  |
The captain of the boat was really cool! I don't remember his name but he let us go up to the top and enjoy the view. We saw some really cool flying fish that looked a little bigger than a dragon fly but would come out of the water and fly as far as it could go and skip across the water. It was so neat! We had our fishing reels out and let them skip across the water. We did get warned ahead of time that this isn't the time to go fishing, as the fishing season starts in October. We wanted to chance it anyway. The islands consisted of about 12 I think. 
We stopped at the first one and went snorkeling again to see if we could see other species of fish. We pretty much saw that same but it was still cool to see the reef. We got back in the boat and cruised around more islands. We didn't get to stop or see all of them but we were told one of them has a research facility on it. Another one was rumored to have some pythons discovered on it so nobody was aloud on it. (I think they just said that so nobody would go visit.) The water was so clear and amazing! We stopped at another island where they were waiting for us to feed us some of their island food. We didn't really know what to expect but was told it was really good food! We anchored up and waited for the water taxi to take us to the Island. As we were getting close we could see all of the kids holding trays waiting for us. I thought it was snacks or food. As soon as we got out of the boat, we were surrounded with the kids selling all kinds of stuff. They had necklaces, conch shells, animals made from shells, coconut rolls, earrings, rings, and so many other stuff. Pretty much anything they could make money off of they were selling. We went to where the tables were set and waited for our dinner. 
Right away, I was a little uneasy.I don't like fish but after finding out if we didn't eat it, we would offended them, I tried a little peice. It actually didn't taste like fish at all but tasted like plain chicken. Along with the fish was beans and rice and plantains (fried bananas). I ate most of it but found myself really full! Oh, and while we were eating, accident # 3 happened, the anchor on the boat broke! Luckily that wasn't our fault but our captain and the other boy that was with him had to rush out on the water taxi and catch the boat before it hit the reef! We were on the island a little longer than expected but after buying our treasures from them we went back to the boat and left to go home. It was a little stormy on the way home so there were a few people that go sick!
Just as most of us were nodding off and loosing any hope of catching any fish, the noise went off and we caught a fish! We were all so excited! Nolan was the brave one who reeled it in and had a lot of fun catching it. When we caught the mahi mahi, it was really pretty with its greens, oranges, pinks, and more rainbow colors. We couldn't get any pictures of it because we had to get it below in the box of ice so it wouldn't bleed everywhere. By the time we made it back to the dock, it was very icy, and not as pretty. The is Clarence showing off the catch. They filleted it and bagged it so we could cook it up that night. It was a little fishy so I stuck with the real chicken! The rest also enjoyed some lobster that mysteriously showed up at our house (since it was illegal to catch them, we wouldn't do that...... ;) .
After getting harnessed in and paper signed we got into a truck and rode together up the mountain. The guy in the blue was named Mike and he was one of the guides. There was about 12 of us plus another 4 other people so there was about 5 guides all together. After going down the little trail and dodging cowpies, we made it and was waiting for the rest of the group to join. We all sat down on the benches and there was a big boom and we thought we were going to fall down! Well, Accident # 5. The stilts were just settling a little deeper in the foundation but we sure scared our guide! They inspected underneath and claimed it was safe. Luckily that one didn't cost us any money or do any damages. I was beginning to think we couldn't go anywhere with something happening!
This was the first zip line. It was so much fun to soar through the sky but not too long for those in the group who were a little scared. They had several little ziplines to get you used to how it works and the heights and also had some pirate bridges that we were able to cross! I'm so glad I was way ahead of my brothers because they thought it would be fun to bounce on the bridges! Even though we were clipped onto the ropes and we wouldn't fall, it was still a little scary!
Here are a couple of pictures of the group. On the left is Kenia (in the pink) Marylou, and a little of Trina. On the right is Tilynn (Brians wife). We were kind of spread out because not everybody could fit on the same platform. The way that they would work it is one of the guides would go first and be at the end to catch anybody who is going too fast. Another would stay at the first platform and help everybody go. As soon as the next stop would get 6 or so people on it, the first guide would go to the next, the next guide would move up and help the first group and another guide would help the last of the group across.
I wish I got more pictures of the guides because they were all funny!
By the 3rd of 4th one we were all ready to do tricks and liked to pretend we were pro! I guess they had a death a few years back when they only had 1 line to
hang on but now they doubled everything up as an extra precaution. (I think Trina and Clarence were a little grumpy I didn't take their picture first! jk) The other is our family friend, Marylou. Doesn't she look like she has done this before? So serious...... lol. I had the camera most of the time which is why there aren't any pictures of me. 
This was the view I had as I was flying through the air. It was cool to see the tops of the trees and a little glimpse of the ocean. Dar wanted to show off and hung upside down as he was flying through the sky. By the end of the course, I think most of us went upside down one time or another. We even had some that almost didn't make it right-side up before they came to the next platform!
The picture on the left is Marylou's husband Champ. He had alot of fun and wanted to show it! On the right is Brian, one brother. I think he was a little bored by the end of the first course since it wasn't very high. I had a lot of fun but was ready for the extreme course. It was the highest and the longest of all of them.
While we were waiting for all of the group to come down the last line, we had fun with this little guy. His name was Pancho and he even had a little box you could add tips for his bananas. He was a lot of fun but he was stinky. I don't think he has had a bath in a while!
This was the first of the extreme course. It was so much fun! They had to have more guides this round because they were a lot faster and they had to catch you more often. Once again, I wish I could add the videos because I have some of me soaring really high!
This was the next one. On this one, not many people make it to the end because of the slack in the lines. This guy would push his way off the end and wait for you to come. Depending on how fast you were going he would adjust to where he thought you would stop then have you hold on to him as he pulled you in with a rope. I almost made it all the way and was pretty proud of myself until Dar came through and almost ran over the guy! Funny story is they told the guy there was 1 more but didn't tell him it was another guide. The guides know how to go flying on those things, so he started way out ready to catch and when he saw him coming fast, he couldn't pull himself in fast enough and the guy crashed into him. I got the feeling they have a lot of fun together! We went on a couple more and on one they let couples go together at the same time. It was pretty fun and I have a video of that too.... A couple more pictures of the group. Nolan, Trina and Clarence. I never got any pictures of my mom and Dad because they were always in front of me!
After we were all done we wanted to go visit a few other places on that side of the island. We piled in the back of the truck and drove to the Mangrove trees. They were really cool and we got to see another part of the culture. This is the boat we rode on. He has so many crazy stuff hanging on it! 
Anything from baby mobiles and baby shoes to stuffed animals, and empty soda cans! I'm not sure what actually grows on the trees, if anything, but they were still really cool! There is a little pathway between the trees that our guide told us the Indians used them to hide from the pirates. 
They were cool but you see that clump of mud on the right? That's a termites nest... gross! These were scattered around in different areas in the trees. I guess the people leave them alone in hopes that they do the same! Most of the houses were on stillts but there were still some that wern't which surprised us!
We stopped at one of the restaruants for a quick drink. That's where we saw these little guys! We thought the parrot was cool until we saw these bad boys! I'm still not sure if they are real... that's a small space and they never actually moved! Tourist traps........
All of us girls had our hair up in ponytails so I thought maybe if I let my hair down he would like me. Nope! He came and pretended to like me then bit my ear! It didn't hurt, just felt like a puppy bite. We started to leave then my Dad wanted to get him.
Now, my dad almost sliced his finger off with a saw about 10days before we left for the trip which is why his hand is all wrapped up. He still made the best of it and did all the activities we did. That monkey jumped on his shoulder and wanted his bandage. My Dad didn't want him grabbing it so he hid it behind his back where the monkey couldn't see it. That monkey got so mad at him!!!!
I felt bad because here was our boat, with shade and an awesome tour guide who told us the history of he mangrove trees and area and the other boat had a guide who maybe spoke 1 word, which was his name, and didn't have any shade! By the end of it I didn't know which boat i would have rather gone in because being in the same boat as my brothers was crazy. They would lean to one side and make the boat go as far as it could just to see us squirm and hear the guide say, "Its ok, no worries!" We got done, dry I might add, and headed back to the zipline place for our ride back to our house.
We mentioned to him we wanted to visit an Iguana farm that would be on the way to the house and he agreed to stop by there. We wern't even sure if it would be open as it was already after 5!We got there and the lady let us in since it was just feeding time
and they were still out.
They were everywhere and were huge! They were even on the roof of the house! We asked the owner if they ever run away and she said they actually stay put because that's where most of them were born and raised. They even had some chickens that thought they should be in the trees too! Crazy chickens!
All together they had the iguanas, chickens, monkeys, turtles, fish, birds, and yes a Turkey! That turkey thought he was so cool, Dar and Clarence were doing turkey calls to him and he wasn't sure what to think! He did have some really pretty feathers!You know when you catch yourself doing something that you always laugh at others doing? Well, being born and raised in Arizona, I would laugh at people taking pictures of the cactus because they were everywhere!
Well, I did the unthinkable.... Yes, I took a picture of a cactus! In my defense, it was a different one that had rounded edges on it. I didn't know they could grow there! Visiting the farm was fun to do once but I will probably never pay to see iguanas again. They poop everywhere!
Wednesday some woke up and went snorkeling.When I woke up, I did not feel good! I really didn't want to be sick today because that was the day the cruise ships came in and all of the shops were open for souvenirs. Tilynn was sick too! We wanted to go shopping so we tried to brave it with some medicine and off we went! We got dropped off to go shopping and both cars left to find a auto place to get a new tail light for the truck! Well, the shopping part they dropped us off didn't have much and the little they did have was waaayyyy too expensive! We started walking to where we thought they were and I very quickly regretted going! From the heat and humidity I started feeling worse! We finally found them after walking for about 15 minutes and we all drove to some stores that had decent prices. The thing about Roatan is everything is negotiable. They always higher the price really high and will always lower it for you. I loved getting the prices down and feeling like i got a bargain! We shopped around for a little bit before heading back home for some lunch. We stopped at a big market that had a bunch of souvenirs and while I was putting a turtle back on a shelf the shelf moved ever so slightly and the shot glasses went crashing down one by one and the whole bottom shelf broke! Accident # 6 Luckily one of the lady's who worked there saw that I didn't touch them and they just fell down so I didn't have to pay for them. They did, however, follow us through the store after that watching us!
When everybody was done, we went home so me and Tilynn could go right to bed with a bunch of sprite! Others went back to other shops for more shopping, including my sweet husband who had to buy all the rest of the presents for our family! Kenia kids and parents came from the mainland to spend the rest of the week together. I don't really know much of what everybody else did because I was sleeping in my room most of the time. My night time I was feeling a little better and even played some games and gambled with chocolate!
Thursday is the day that Kenia's mom cooked all the meals with true Honduran food. I've actually had all the food before from living with Kenia when she first moved here. I forced myself to eat the food and forget about the bug.
We had to wait around for the guide to come get us so we created a little fun! When they guide came we went straight into a cage and my nephew, Carlos, wanted to pose as one of the monkeys!
When we were all in there 
wondering what we were doing in there, he knocked on a log and out came these cute things.They looked so fuzzy and soft but to our surprise they wern't! They were actually kind of rough and dry. They were still fun to hold! The male is bigger and was too aggressive to hold but we passed the female around. Her paws were so soft and she loved peanuts!
After passing it around for everybody who wanted to hold it, we put it back in its log and moved on. From what I heard, they added more animals and added on to the cages!
Because of all the extra tourists, they had split 1 big cage with a few monkeys in it to 2 smaller ones with only 2 monkeys in each. One of the monkeys loved all of us and climbed on us without any problems. The other monkey was new and wasn't used to humans yet. It was cute to see him climb as high as he could go to get away! I can't say I blame him....While we were in this cage, the cage next to us had 2 monkeys and one started screaming at the other. Come to find out, it was the girl monkey that was screaming at the male. The male moved as far away from her as possible. Not much different from how humans act! My Dad tried taking some pictures and the monkey was so curious from him.
He would not let him take a picture without 'helping' him. It was too funny! I had one that liked to sit on my shoulder like a parrot. He was so cute!
I didn't realize that there would be birds too, which is why I wore my swimming suit. But boy, after the monkeys, I wished I had shoulder pads with some of the birds we saw. They were so beautiful and awesome to have so close, but their claws were so sharp!!! Luckily all I got was a little scratch on one shoulder. Not sure which I preffered, them sitting on the shoulder or the head! Birds and sunburns do not mix well! They were so pretty and friendly. He said there were 2 that liked the shoulder and the rest liked to land on heads. They had really sharp beaks though, while on Champ's shoulder they tore up the brim on his hat! Oops!
I think Darwin was just scared they were going to poop on him!We got to see other birds too, which were really pretty. I'm glad we didn't have the choice to hold these toucans because watching them eat mad me scared to loose a finger!
These green birds were so cute! They would copy us and make a weird noise. I have that on video too. Man I wish it would let me add videos.....They had a squirrel and some deer there too, but that wasn't something we've never seen!
Friday morning we got up and started getting our things together. Luckily they had a washer/dryer there so nobody went home with a lot of dirty laundry.We made it to the airport and our plane was a little late. We had a little fun with some of the merchandise we bought, even if it was at someone else's expense! Gotta love family! Our plane eventually came but I'm surprised they didn't' boot us out of the country!!!
We landed in Houston for what was supposed to be a 4 hour lay over. Plenty of time to go through customer and recheck our luggage in. Well, we got through everything in about an hour. We thought maybe we would have good luck getting home but boy, were we wrong! Our flight was delayed 15 minutes because the plane was late. As we waited around, another 15 minutes added onto it. Then, another 20 minutes. I think we all walked that airport all the way through at least twice! The plane finally showed up and they said we could board as soon as they get the plane stocked and gassed up, another 30 minutes! They finally announced they were ready to board and as soon as the first group started boarding they kicked everybody off and said there was a problem and maintenance was working on it.
Funny thing was, when we first landed in Houston from PHX, they had problems with their gate we were supposed to get off from. We had to buckle back up and change to another gate. When Trina and Clarence got to Houston, they had to wait for their plane for over 30 minutes because of a problem that corrected itself when they restarted the plane. Comforting, huh?!
So they announced that it wasn't going to be available and we had to change to a completely different terminal and wait for another plane to become available. They announced they would make snacks and drinks available while we wait which consisted of pop, water, peanuts, and candy bars.I was disappointed they didn't offer free movies on the plane!
Normally I would've been upset and cranky, but no, not with Tilynn with me! We made our own fun with cards and the moving sidewalks. I'm surprised they didn't call security on us! I don't think our husbands claimed us for that time....
We finally landed in PHX around 12:30 and after getting all our luggage, we got home at 1 AM. We were plenty tired and luckily my dear sweet kids let us sleep in. Needless to say, I will NOT be choosing United if I can help it!
I am so grateful for the chance we had to go on this vacation and for Cari and some of Darwin's family for watching my kids. It was a much needed trip for us to go on. We probably won't go again for another 6 years but, hey, I can always see this picture and have something to look forward to!
Thanks for reading!!!!
