Roatan Honduras

This past week I had an amazing opportunity to travel to Roatan Honduras with my aunt and uncle.  I love to travel and this getaway was perfect for me!  I get three weeks vacation from work so I took a week to enjoy the beaches of Honduras. I have been on three trips this year (Philly/NYC, South Dakota-Mt.Rushmore and Honduras) and I want to continue that trend in 2013.  I am hoping to go to Vegas, Seattle (the home of Christian Grey :) ), Boston, and one international location.

For all my pics from my trip, go HERE.  Sorry my pics aren't the best, but my camera broke and I only had my phone camera. :/

My plane landed in Roatan about 3 pm and uncle picked me up at the airport.  The runway to the Roatan airport is really small and you are surrounded by water on both sides.  Really cool. 

Interesting/Sad fact:  Did you know that a REALLY good wage in Honduras is $20 a day?  That is just so sad to me. :(  I spend that on shoes or lunch and that's what they make.  We all should take a lesson from that.

Yoga-I had a private yoga session at Earth Mama's in the West End.  Very relaxing!  In the back of the cafe they have a pavilion where they host the yoga and it was so neat.  I definitely recommend checking them out if you like yoga.

On Wednesday night my aunt invited everyone from the Dive Shop over to the  house for dinner.  My aunt and I made mexican food (yes, I cooked!). :) We had wine and margaritas of course.  Can't forget the drinks.

I got to swim with dolphins while I was in Honduras at Anthony's Key.  For the first 30 minutes you are on the beach in shallow water with the dolphins watching them do tricks and petting them.  The next 30 minutes you get to snorkel with them in the enclosure.  The enclosure is a really big sectioned off piece of beach that houses about 20 dolphins (even babies!).  I would be snorkeling, seeing fish and other wildlife and all of the sudden a dolphin swims under me or right be me (close enough to touch).  Best experience ever!  We got to hang out with the dolphins when I went to Seaworld San Antonio back in May, but this was a million times better since I got to be in the water with them.  LOVED IT!  There were a ton of staff and I always felt safe with the dolphins.  None of them were even remotely aggressive.  The first 30 minutes I was with a dolphin named Margarita that was very talkative.  The trainer said that her mom (who I believe they said was the oldest dolphin there) just recently adopted another dolphin because it's mom gave birth to her and didn't want her.  :(  So sad.  She was the mom who gave the kid to the grandma so she could go party. haha.

Do you see the dolphin?!

This is the pathway to the beach from my aunt's house.  Isn't it pretty?  She is two minutes from the beach and a beautiful pier.

The pier by my aunt's house that I would sit on for hours at a time just reading my Nook (I finished a really good series while I was there and I will do a book review about it) and watching the waves.  Very relaxing.

Look at the sting ray!  This was taken right by Tyll's Dive Shop and the Blue Marlin.  This sting ray likes to hang out in this part of the beach.  I had never seen a sting ray in person.

We took a water taxi over to the West Bay portion of the island (we stayed closer to Sandy Bay) and went snorkeling.  I saw several starfish (they were by the sandy beach section in the white boey'ed swimming section) in this area (first time for seeing starfish).
 

 

My aunt and I went snorkeling on the reef at this part of West Bay.  My aunt kept trying to get me to dive, but knew I would freak out if I saw an evil shark or another equally terrifying sea creature coming my direction and I couldn't come to the surface any time (when you dive you can only come up so many feet per minute so I would be stuck-no bueno).  So when she said she saw a barracuda I got scared.  I mean, I have heard the song and I know they aren't the nicest creatures. It was far away so I was fine.

But then we saw an eel.  By this time we were in a shallow section of the reef and I had no where to go except on the reef that scraped the dickens out of me.  I clung to my aunt and she says I almost drowned her, but I don't think it was that crucial.  I was scared.  Eel's attack and I was not about to be attacked.  I didn't go snorkeling after that.

Now you see why I didn't want to go scuba diving?  I would freak out!!

This huge game of Connect Four was at BananaRama's on West End.  They had huge models of classic games you can play.  Did you used to play Connect Four when you were a kid?  I did!!!

What souviners did I bring home? 

This is a turtle necklace that this little boy on the street was selling.  His dad makes all the jewelry and has him go out and sell it at night after school until about 10 pm. :(  Then he has to go to school the next day.  Really sad.  

I also bought a sterling silver starfish (sorry my camera phone doesn't take the best pictures) so I can add to my international travel charm bracelet to represent Honduras (I can't find a silver Honduras or Roatan charm anywhere! Do you know of a place?).

This is a salad and fork and spoon serving set.  They look smaller, but this is a set that you toss salad with.  Love the design on the handle and it is made of bamboo wood I believe.

LOVE this plate!  It's made of bamboo wood and it has four sections for food and sauces.  I wanted to purchase more of these, but they were sort of expensive so I didn't.

My for bracelet!  Yes, it's a fork.  There is a guy that hangs out in West End by the water taxis that has a table towards the end of the day (after 4 pm). He makes the most amazing jewelry that is so unique. My aunt bought some seahorse earrings and I wanted this bracelet.  He made this bracelet specfically for me with purple beads.  LOVE it. It's cooler in person, the pic doesn't do it justice.

I had a super fun time in Honduras and I can't wait to travel to another international destination.  Where should I go next?  I am thinking Jamaica!  My work pays for me to go on a mission trip every other year so I am looking into my options on where to go.  Haiti?  Nicargura?  Germany?  Africa?  Phillapines?  Russia?  IDK, I will get back with you when I decide.