2015-October-12 USA, New Hampshire: Three Weeks On Roatan

Early in our travels we managed to secure a housesit on Roatan, Honduras.  We flew to the island directly from Houston and arrived amidst all the other tourists (mainly divers) who tend to arrive on Saturday for the week.  The owners of the place we were to housesit also have a beach rental on their property which is literally on the beach.  They put us up there for the first week while they were still at home.  They kindly had us around to their place for dinner, introduced us to friends of theirs and also took us out to their favourite restaurant before they flew out to USA for their 2 weeks’ vacation.

Week 1: View of blue roof beach house from the dock

Week 2:  House sit on Roatan

Our time in Roatan was spent alternating between walking Hank, the friendly Rottweiler, on the beach and swimming or snorkelling in the warm waters around us.  We had the choice of walking on the pier from the beach in front of us and swimming about 60 metres to a reef,  or driving about 20 minutes to places we could just walk into the water and swim to the reef.  The snorkelling was absolutely amazing!!!!   We saw so many beautiful fish (parrot, damsel, butterfly etc), Caribbean reef squid, moray eels, spotted sea snake, huge lobsters, flounder, lionfish, hawksbill turtle and so much more.   

One of the hazards we faced on the island was the bugs.  The mosquitoes and sand flies are particularly bad at this time of year and Jean was devoured by the latter. We learned quickly to apply strong anti-bug spray liberally and frequently!

Bananas for breakfast (ripening in a hammock)

Roatan itself was an interesting experience.  There are many ex-pats on the island and it survives on tourism.  Cruise ships come in two or three days a week disgorging thousands of passengers for a day's pass.  The locals are friendly, not too pushy when selling their wares and, whilst it is certainly third world, they seem healthy, clean and content especially compared to some other places we have seen.  

Other highlights were sitting on the pier in the evening and gazing up at the huge night skies complete with shooting stars and seeing phosphorescent creatures in the sea (we are not sure what they were). Other evenings were spent watching the fireflies flitter amongst the grasses and trees.

Near the end of our time there we were snorkelling and Jean thought she was stung by something - maybe a jellyfish. The next morning, she woke up with a rash and that was the beginning of a week of rashes, swelling and pain all over her body.  We were on the move again but finally got to see a doctor in Washington DC who put her on drugs to sort out the problem - phew!

Jean's leg looking rather alarming before we got to see a doctor

About The Island:  Roatán, located between the islands of Útila and Guanaja, is the largest of Honduras' Bay Islands.  It is approximately 77 kilometres (48 mi) long, and less than 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) across at its widest point.  The most populous town of the island is Coxen Hole.  We were 15 minutes from there in Sandy Bay.  The island is located near the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef, the largest barrier reef in the Caribbean Sea(second largest worldwide after Australia's Great Barrier Reef)