La Playa, Helado, y Actividades... Si, Por Favor!

We returned this past Monday (the 12th) from Roatan for a long weekend vacation. It was B-E-A-U-tiful! We stayed in a little house that was across the street from the beach. You would literally walk out of our mini-resort and see palm trees with white lounge chairs and a backdrop of blue, turquoise, and completely clear water. It literally looked like the picture you find and put as your desktop background on your computer when it’s freezing cold and all you want to do is go to the beach, feel the warm sun on your face, stick your feet in the sand and listen to the peaceful noises the ocean has to share.
We got into Roatan Friday (the 9th) right around dinner time. We went out for pizza and arose early Saturday morning to start our activities. After getting breakfast a few of us went kayaking. As we were kayaking we realized that we were able to see right down to the bottom and decided to rent snorkel gear after lunch. The snorkel gear cost $5.00 to rent for an entire 24 hours. We decided to rent three sets between the nine of us. We then went straight out and while some snorkeled all the way out, through the entire bay and out into the ocean, a few of us decided to swim after them. We saw all sorts of different fish… some pretty plain and some that were spectacular and radiating with color!
As a few of us were out snorkeling the others came out in kayaks and before we knew it all nine of us were out in the ocean, knocking each other out of the kayaks and swapping snorkel gear. Talk about a great time!
Afterwards we laid out on the beach for a while and then went back to the house to get ready for dinner. We picked a great weekend to go on vacation, since we don’t have a TV in the house here at the hogar, because the Honduras/U.S. soccer game (winner would go to the World Cup) was on. The nine of us got dressed up and sat in a Thai restaurant, owned by a French man, watching the Honduras/U.S. soccer game at the bar. Talk about a night of culture! After the U.S. won J, we went out for drinks. We went to multiple bars including one where you were required to "walk the plank" to get into which meant crossing a 1 ½ ft. wide plank over the water into a platoon boat. We ended up at a bar with live music. I, of course, couldn’t help but dance and had a BLAST! I think what made it so much fun was that random people at the bar would come up and sing with the band, including freestylin’ to English songs, in Spanish and the indigenous languages of the Caribbean. Everyone was getting into it and just was a really fun atmosphere.
Sunday morning I woke up and walked with Erica to West Bay. It was about an hour walk down the beach from West End. On our walk we encountered sea urchins, slippery rocks, a rusted old bridge that we HAD to cross and finally made it to our destination which was even more beautiful and definitely worth the walk. Roatan is known for the West Bay beach. After snorkeling some more and laying on the beach, others from our community made their trek towards the West Bay beach as well. Each one with stories about crossing the rusted old bridge (which I took pics of and will have to upload- there were holes in the middle of the stairs to get up to the bridge and once at the top it felt like the wind was strong enough to blow the bridge over… but don’t worry Mom, Erica is a Civil Engineer and I had her look at the bridge before we crossed and she gave her approval ;) ).
Erica and I left (by water taxi) the rest of the gang to take back the snorkel gear. Afterwards we decided to grab nothing else but ice cream and ate it on the edge of a pier with our feet dangling off looking out at the beautiful ocean. Once everyone returned from the beach, Rita and I started to make community dinner in the house and we all ate outside on the porch. After dinner, we went to a double deck pier, climbed up to the second level and laid on our backs to admire the stars. Again, pretty awesome night!
We arose early Monday morning to travel the 11 hours back to the hogar by boat, taxi and 2 buses. SO worth it!
What’s the latest and greatest this week? Since we didn’t start work until Tuesday, this week has FLOWN by. Clare, our Volunteer Director, is coming today (Friday the 16th) to visit until Wednesday. We’re all really looking forward to seeing her! Especially the newbies b/c we are all wanting to bounce new ideas we have off of her as well as feel some relief in what we each are struggling with not only individually but as a community. The next 5 days should be very fruitful!
Hope you are all doing well! Please keep those prayer requests coming and know that you are all in my thoughts! It’s been hard not talking to everyone whenever I want and having to update people on my life through a blog. So, please don’t hesitate sending me updates on your lives as well! I want to hear how you’re all doing… email is hard to transfer all of these to the house laptop so if you’re interested in being my pen pal that’s great too! My address should be on one of my most recent blogs!
All my love,
Kate