Elenka and I first came to the village of West End, Roatan in the spring of 2010. Back then a pot-holed dusty, dirt road ran along the waterfront, about a kilometre in length. Joggers, those with a limp, and cars all avoided this nasty main drag. Even so, restaurants, hotels, bars and dive shops seemed to thrive then, as they do now. And Half Moon Bay - a section of West End - where Elenka, her sister Judy, and I are staying saw few boats.
 
That's all changed: Sue, of Gary and Sue, our next door neighbours at our hotel, Posada Arco Iris, went for a reef snorkel the week before last. She lifted her head from the water and got hit head-on by a motor boat. It was a hit-and-run, but luckily another boatsman saw her floundering and came to the rescue. She had to be flown by emergency ambulance to the mainland where an MRI detected a slight skull fracture, and care needed to be taken so she wouldn't develop pneumonia from all of the water her lungs had taken in. It's thought that her dive mask might well have saved her life. For although there's a deep cut on her forehead, the now broken mask took the brunt of the blow. The day after Sue's accident another woman was hit, this time by the propellor of a water taxi. We don't know how the lady in the second accident is doing, but Sue's doing just fine. Water Park rangers are anxiously installing new marker buoys. Meanwhile, swimmers and boaters, as well as Elenka, Judy and myself don't understand the buoy system. It's become chaos to the max in Half Moon. 

A couple of years ago the local government decided that the pot-holed road that runs through West End should be paved. They even built a roundabout to provide better, more fluid access to the beach. Last night, as we left the restaurant where we had dinner, car horns were blaring. A guy in a car driving west had stopped the local fruit and vegetable truck which was travelling in the opposite direction, to do his shopping. A little farther down, the "fluid access to the beach" roundabout is anything but. It's now the place where taxis park waiting for fares. Those with the need to enter this kilometre long gridlock simply have to wait. It's just the way it is.
 
I wanted to make the "road" story short and sweet, but I can't, dammit. The situation is too ridiculous. Almost all of the small beach towns - especially the ones on islands - Elenka and I have ever been to don't have a bloody road with gasoline powered automobiles separating the beach from the local businesses. Other places build a parallel road running behind the businesses and away from the beach. In some places, horse and buggy taxis are used for getting the drunken or luggage bearing tourists from A to B. Motorized, Indian rickshaws could even be a consideration - it's not that they don't exist in this part of the world. There! I feel better now.  
 
No more complaints: Aside from bad decisions made by people who shouldn't be in the position of deciding things, West End is still a funky little village filled with ever-friendly people. Almost all of West End's visitors are divers. With it's underwater caves, caverns and colourful marine-life most dive sites are no more than a ten minute boat ride away. Today alone, I saw five massive sea turtles and a pair of eagle rays. Roatan may not have the best reef system in the world, but it's the best I've been to. 
 
We've recently been moved to a new one bedroom at Posada Arco Iris. It's hidden near the back of the property in a jungle-like setting where the birds sing more romantic songs, the geckos are greener and the mariposas more plentiful.

Stop the press: Elenka is hounding me because of my focus on the negative. Let me make it clear, for the record, that we are able to snorkel in Half Moon Bay. And we are able to avoid getting run over by boats. All we need do is stay away from them. She also said that I should have written about our snorkel the with dolphins. Next time.