Day 7: Roatan, Honduras

Happy New Year! Last night was so much fun! We absolutely had a blast! We went out with our new friends and bunkmates David, Frank, and Glenn plus a few of our new diving buddies as well (it’s such a tiny island it’s really easy to bump into people you know).

The night started out with us and Glenn at this little snack stand drinking a couple rounds on the little porch just in front of it (pretty much every shop, snack stand, internet cafe, etc sells beer). It was nice just hanging out, watching people go by. We started there because we were waiting for the other two to meet up with us before taking off to the bars. As with this time of year on Roatan it started pouring rain.

First stop

Suddenly a taxi pulls up with (several) people shouting for us to get in. We see some guy we don’t know in the window and out from the other side pops David. There are 3 of them in the taxi plus the driver and then the 3 of us pile in too (not pleasant for me sitting on Saben’s lap in the front seat of a tiny Toyota!) As soon as we are all (mostly) in the car, we’re off. Just as someone is asking where we are going, the taxi stops and someone else shouts “Aqui! Aqui!” We literally drove 4 shops down, like a quarter of a city block, and got out! We were at the only reggae bar on the island, which like most reggae bars, only had one Rastafarian in it. Its a nice open air bar right on the water.

The place to be

David, Frank, Glenn, and a random Canadian

Saben, Glenn, and Frank

So we hung out there for a while and totally missed the turn over of the new year! There was no count down or anything, and none of us were keeping track of time. All of a sudden we just hear people start cheering and yelling. Shit…we missed it. Pretty anti-climatic but oh well right? So a 12:02 “New Year’s Kiss” this year. We hung out there for a bit longer till we got the bar-hopping bug and headed down the road to another bar called Nova. It’s this open sand/dirt area with a concrete step up with a DJ and dance floor. There were 2 really good fire dancers and a hot DJ.

Fire Dancer in action

We picked up another couple of people and somehow lost Frank and David and then headed up to Flowers Bay to a locals-only (well, mostly…) club called Hip Hop. Oddly enough there is no hip hop music, only some reggae and the occasional country music song. We skirted around the bouncer and didn’t pay the (expensive) cover and then ran into the crowd before they could do anything about it!

Hip-hop

After Hip Hop, we caught a taxi back to our respective sleeping places of the night and fell into rock-like sleep. Several hours later we woke up to beautiful, warm first daylight of the new year and had a big breakfast of banana pancakes. Saben and I took a 30-40 minute walk from the West End (where we are currently living) to the Black Rock at West Bay for some renowned snorkeling (You can take a water taxi for $2-3 US but we opted to walk). First day we spent together since the PADI course began! It was a beautiful, very fun walk across some sandy/rocky beaches, ankle-deep water and over a lookout bridge and through the backyard of a very posh resort. On the way there, Lin spotted a troubled seahorse writhing on the sand just beyond the water. Saben rescued it by scooping it up and putting it into some deeper water beyond the surf. Poor little thing! We rented our snorkeling gear at a little stand on the beach by Anthony’s Key Resort for $10 US/person (cheaper if you bring your snorkeling gear from West End—rental there is only $5 for 24 hours). The reef is literally about 5-6 feet below the surface so we swam through some really narrow channels between the coral. We got to see tons of fish—rainbow parrot fish, schools of both angel fish and sergeant majors, some small barracuda, lots of un-inflated puffer fish (there is a virus going around the island among the puffers and many of them are dying so they don’t flee when you come close to them), and plenty more fish we couldn’t name. The coral bites though! Saben got a nasty scrape on a couple of places up his leg. It’s really an amazing place for snorkeling and really does meet all the expectation and talk-up that people give it.

West Bay

Later that day we ended up running into Glenn and had dinner at “the shack” (red snapper all around…yum!). Fantastic start to the new year!