Photo's from Roatan

http://www.photobox.co.uk/album/821764686

Day 1

We got up early to make sure we had plenty of time to get to the airport. We found a taxi straight away that was quoting the price it should be to, which was nice for once, so we hopped in and got there in no time. Well, it was Sunday morning. We checked in and got some breakfast, in the end being a normal Honduras breakfast but from Mc Donalds!!! We checked out the runway and watched one plane leave, as we'd read that Tegucigalpa is one of the most dangerous airports in the world and when you're there, you can see why. The runway isn't actually too long and then you are surrounded by mountains. The danger is more when you come into land but we would keep our fingers crossed. We boarded the small plane, which only held around 30 people and would hopefully need little runway to take off ! and it all went well. We landed in La Ceiba and then took off to Roatan.

We arrived and were greated by what looked like lovely water and some fine weather. We got out and the taxi drivers began. The fare to west end where we were staying was $20 and that's the price. We knew better, so started to tell them no. After some time, we spoke to a guy from the plane that told us to leave the airport and we'd get one much cheaper, probably $5 or so. One taxi driver heard this and so after a lot of "no thank yous" to him, he finally shouted that he'd do it for $5. Happy days. The fare probably should have been $10 but this git had tried the white man tax approach, so he got $5.

The town is pretty small so we found our place fairly easily and checked in. We'd taken an apartment so we could cook ourselves and the place was really large and would be ok for a week.

We took it easy for the rest of the day, having a look round town, the dive shops and cooking ourselves some food.

Day 2

We had a slow start today and were getting into the Caribbean style easily!! We went out and sorted out the diving, which was very flexible and we joined up for 2 dives the next day.

Around lunch time, we got on a water taxi over to West Bay, the islands best beach. We turned up to a long, thin beautiful sand beach and tropical water. We put ourselves under a plam tree and settled in for the afternoon. Life was getting tough! The water was also like a bath, being around 30C and so no particularly cooling when boiling hot but it was good.
Later on in the afternoon, we were swimming when we notice a local coming out to take a swim. The guy had the tightest red shorts you have even seen (like cycling shorts but very, very thin) and the biggest c*** wrapped to one side. It went nearly across his entire leg!! Think cucumber and you're close!!! We wondered why he wore such tight shorts!! Everyone noticed and there were some funny remarks being said, like you could have an eye out with that etc. The guy clearly knew he had a big asset and probably always was showing it off.

We've decided now that it was time to try and get a bit fitter before we got home. Weight may not have been put on but fitness definitely would be lacking, so we were going to walk home. In the lonely Planet they say the beach is 4kms away. So we put on our new trainers and hit the road. The idea was to do a run, walk thing for what must be the 4kms of flat road… Errr, nope. The first thing we realised was that the road wasn't going to follow the coast and after the first corner, we saw the massive hill. So for the next one hour, we walked in the baking hot sun, going up and up and up and then coming back down at more walking than walk, run pace. A lot of sweat had been shed by the time we got back but the walk wasn't exactly what we'd thought it would be. We were on a road that people drove down relatively quickly, with no pathways and I'm not sure many other pedestrians would use. We also found out that it was more like 6.5kms as well but it was a start.

Day 3

Our first dives for a while but we'd been told that this was the place to do it and it was cheap, at just $30 per dive, with everything included. We turned up to the place we'd decided to go with and got kitted up, checked our equipment etc and got onto the boat. They have some 40 dive sites here and it has part of the second largest reef in the world. The boat didn't go far from the shore and we got into that bath water and went straight down. It was good to be diving again and the anxiety etc goes a little more each time you do another dive.

We did 2 dives on that day and were lucky enough to see lots of turtles (they never get boring), some angel fish, large grouper and many other tropical fish. One of the best things though was just the reef. It was amazing with so much going on. If you swam in close to it, being careful not to touch, you could really see loads of small fish all going about their business. The reef also has a large wall, so you swim out to it and you can swim along the reef wall, looking etc and then turn the other way and you just see a vast amount of sea and at times some other bigger fish like barracuda. It was pretty awesome.

We got back to the apartment pretty happy. The dives had gone well for us personally and it was great dives with so much to see but also, fairly easy dives as well. You never really had to deal with current or anything.

Day 4

We were going to do a day of diving and then a day off, so today was another day just to chill out. We decided to go back to West Bay and spend the day there as it had been nice the first time. We turned up to an absolutely packed beach. Where had all these people come from was our only thoughts!? It couldn't have only been from one plane coming in. We got off the taxi and after wandering a bit a guy called Captain Bill !!! came up and asked us if we wanted to go fishing. Nope, we didn't but he asked if we were from the cruise - ahhhh, so there's the answer. We headed back towards the spot we'd been at the previous time and it was entirely covered with sunbeds at "a cruise has just come in for the day" prices. So we went nearly to the end and found a non sunbed area and settled in for the day.
We met some people who we'd chatted to one evening in Ometepe, which was pretty nice and quite surprising. They took a spot by us as well, so was good for us both to be able to have an extra couple of eyes on our stuff when we wanted to take a swim.

Martin went for a snorkel as well, since part of the reef was really close to shore. It was good but not like diving. He also managed to get a bit sunburnt as well !!!

Day 5

We got up slowly again as we were diving and our first dive was at 11am. The same procedure as the first day where we did 2 dives. For the first dive they took us to Mandy's eel garden which was located just outside of West bay. When we had dived for five minutes we arrived at a large sandy area where we understood where the name came from. There were hundreds of eels sticking up from the sand. When you came close they quickly burrowed themselves in the sand. It was really cool to see. Further along our dive we saw a big barracuda and then a dead shark. Someone must have fished it and to make sure they didn't get caught they cut the head and fins off and dropped it in the sea. It was such a shame to see as it is a protected area and sharks are becoming endangered.

After a quick bite to eat we rushed back for our second dive which took us to the Green Outhouse. It was a lovely dive where we saw 4 turtles, a large moray eel, some decorative crabs and some large lion fish. The reef was really pretty so it was lots to look at.

When we had finished diving for the day we headed back to the apartment to cook some dinner.

Day 6
As Martin was still a little red from the previous sun bathing, we took it easy for the morning and then headed to the beach of West End, named Half Moon Bay, for the afternoon. The beach is fairly nice but there are only parts of the water where there is no sea grass, so swimming is limited.

We sat and chilled in the sun (Martin in the shade!) for the afternoon before relaxing some more in the sea. Then a couple of older Americans guys turned up and made some remark about if they came in the water, would they have to cuddle as well !!! We then spent the next hour or so chatting with them and had a really good laugh. We even went to the local bar and got a couple of beers to sit in the water and enjoy. Before we knew it, the sun was going down and it was getting on for 6pm. So we went our separate ways, they just beginning their week of intense diving and us coming to the end of ours.

Day 7

Unfortunately we could not do two dives today as the whole dive shop was closing in the afternoon to greet a big private group. So our last dive on Roatan took us to Gibson bight, which turned out to be really nice dive. We saw a huge lobster, another Barracuda, huge moray eel and lots of tropical fish. The dive took us through some canyons which had beautiful corals on either side.

In the afternoon we chilled out on the beach before going for a couple of drinks to end our time in Roatan.

Day 8

We had an early start (5.30AM) as we needed to be on the 7.30 ferry to the mainland. We had been told this journey could be pretty rough so we had taken sea sickness tablets just in case. The boat trip was not bad at all and we both fell asleep. When we arrived into La Ceiba we asked a taxi driver to take us to the bus station. He asked us where we were going and we said San Pedro Sula. So he took us to a petrol station and said the next bus would arrive in half an hour. A little confused we got out and found where to buy a ticket. Although we ended up paying way too much for the taxi he got us to a bus stop that was probably much safer than the bus station. After three hours on the bus we arrived in San Pedro Sula and we got off. We found the bus to Puerto Cortes pretty easily and to our surprise it was air conditioning. After another hour we arrived in town and walked off to find a hostel. We found a hotel two blocks from where we got off the bus and checked in. It was not a very nice place but it would do us for the night. We were pretty hungry after the travelling so went to a traditional restaurant called Pizza Hut. The town seemed a little bit dodgy so we stayed in for the rest of the night.

Tomorrow we will take the boat to Belize, our final country before going home from Mexico.

Photo's from Roatan

http://www.photobox.co.uk/album/821764686