Comin' Back

It is a little weird to be back in Central America so soon. We are straddling the line between "backpacker" and "vacationer", with our relatively short timeframe, we splurge on some things while opting for others on the cheap. The goal being to keep it less stressful and enjoy our trip. With that all in mind, we haven't had any crazy adventures to share but I will write some words about it anyways.

The first days in Roatán are hard to remember. We arrived just after noon on a Saturday, surrounded by hundreds of middle aged Americans in the airport. They flock here for the cheap scuba diving during what is the wettest month on the Caribbean side of Honduras. We stayed in the same hostal in West End as last year (Casa del Sol) but the feeling wasn't the same. Now home to more long term tenants, it was crowded and dark and noisy. The next door neighbors watched The Voice and listened to Trump speeches. Below us, we heard a guitar and singing until 1 AM, and smelled all varieties of smoke. The bed was uncomfortable, our clothes didn't dry, plus we had a few cockroaches running around. On election night, we somberly watched CNN on the Kindle. But enough of the bad stuff, we actually had a good relaxing time.

With no real schedule, we slept in every morning and made a casual brunch in the room. We would wander into town for groceries and snorkeling in Half Moon Bay. It rained every once in a while but there was mostly sun and plans never got ruined. The only thing we didn't do was rent a scooter, because I have a fear of wet hilly curvy roads. The people are still really friendly and the street food (particularly the Baleadas) is still very good.

On the nicest day we had, Julia and I made the 30 minute walk down the beach to touristy West Bay. The lady who runs our hostal warned us of the occasional muggings that take place along the path, advising us to try running into the water to get away. We opted for carrying weapons; Julia armed with a big rock, I brandished a sturdy stick. No thieves were seen that day, we like to think they were scared off.

It was cruise ship day, so the beach was packed but still amazingly beautiful. The sand is white and the water is clear. It was the first reminder that we are on a vacation, and we soaked it in. After some swimming and mediocre snorkeling, we chose the safer boat ride back to West End and treated ourselves to some good seafood at a decent restaurant.

That is about all that is worth sharing from our time in Roatán. We paid for a week upfront at our hostal to get a discount, so this most recent Saturday was our departure day. The initial plan was to head to the mainland and slowly make our way to Gran Pacifica, but we changed our minds. On our daily strolls through town, we kept noticing the signs for a ferry from Roatán to the other Honduran island of Útila, a route they just opened up 12 months ago. This other island, known to be more of a backpacker scuba destination intrigued us, so we went.

We arrived mid afternoon, and being somewhat lazy, chose the first place listed in our LP guidebook (Rubi's). Turned out to be a good decision because we got a cockroach-free room on the water, with sunset views for $25.  There is one main road through town that follows the waters edge, with a few side streets winding the neighborhoods. The homes are almost all built on stilts, with a mix of English architecture and basic stone. Útila is fairly flat with garbage filled swampland on the outskirts of town. The locals build wooden walkways or coral rock land bridges to access their raised casas. The laid back people speak either a Caribbeanized form of English or Spanish. There is a pretty little beach on the west end of town that we spent our first afternoon playing in, despite the abundance of biting sand fleas. We enjoyed the place immensely.

With just one full day there, we paid a dive shop a few dollars to let us tag along and snorkel. The reef was amazing. We have rarely had the chance to venture into deeper waters and gaze off into the abyss where the reef wall drops down some hundred feet. I will be honest, it frightens me a little, but I love it. Which means we now might be talking ourselves into a return trip to learn how to scuba.

That afternoon we wandered the small streets, enjoyed cocktails by the sea, and purchased tickets for Monday's long travel plans. With 2 extra nights spent on the islands, we now wanted to push on through to Nicaragua. The initial idea was to take the ferry, a taxi, and 2 local buses to a town halfway, stay the night, then a bus, a taxi, and about 4 buses later, we would arrive at our destination. Although this actually sounded kinda fun, we saw a sign for shuttle service to León (Nicaragua) for $55 and this sparked our interest. Julia did some searching online and found a company offering a November special of $40. Amazed to find a direct shuttle for cheaper than all the local buses combined, we were sold.

So here we are now, on hour number 12 in a van, almost to our destination despite some initial worries. We got up at 5:20 AM to catch the ferry to the port of La Ceiba, where we were taxied to our shuttle. Being the low season, they initially said we were the only 2 passengers and offered us a free night stay at their hostal and tour of the city if we would wait until tomorrow. We wanted to get on the road and luckily a traveler from Israel was going the same way, so we felt better about making them take us. The ride is bumpy but a great scenic view of the lush hills of Honduras from north to south. Unless the construction delays continue, we should be checked into a room by 10 PM, and asleep shortly after that.

The next step is yet to be determined. We are temptingly close to family at Gran Pacifica, but still want to see some sights in northern Nicaragua, though they could be tackled during a short side trip sometime after Thanksgiving. Decisions decisions... all we know is that it is nice to be back in a country that we consider a second home.