Goodbye Roatan, Hello Married Life

Last we left off, we were entering another day in the "political unrest" and "coup filled" Roatan - hardly. The Bay Islands have seen almost zero effects from the ex-President situation and the people of Roatan could really benefit from a less dramatic US media. Luckily, we ignored all US State Dept warnings and trusted in Thorntree and local island advice. I digress...

Our travels abroad never separate us from one of our true loves - MLB playoffs. It was time for the Yankees-Twins series, so we sought out a good sports bar. The first place we tried didn't have a TV, we quickly realized this might be more difficult than we planned. Luckily, we ran into a Texan who opened up a bar down here and loved US sports. We had great guacamole (its funny what you miss from home) and enjoyed watching a Yankee win! I should insert a funny story about the local currency, the lempira. The first time we went to an ATM it asked us if we wanted to withdraw 200, 1000, or 2000 lempiras...since we hadn't had a chance to do any research on our new locale, we had no idea what the dollar exchange rate was. Weary of picking a big number, we got out 200 lemps - only to find out we had just paid $3 for an international ATM transaction to get out $10. Lesson learned :)

So day 4 started off like all the rest, headed into town for another morning of world-class diving. To finish his certification Brian had to master a drift dive and peak performance bouyancy. So we cruised over to the Blue Channel, another famous dive site down here. The current is so strong that you drop in at one point on the channel, and you just drift down the wall to get picked up at another spot. The wall is an end of the reef - so in one direction you have beautiful coral formations and in another the big blue open! A drift dive is also nice because you don't have to swim and kick as hard, you just relax and let the current take you on a gorgeous ride. Again, the formations and swimthroughs really add another level to the diving here. We saw lobster, an octopus, tons of fish, and a moray eel. A fabulous trip! Our second dive had Brian going through hoops - literally. But he mastered his bouyancy and officially completed his course. Way to go B!

On our last afternoon we enjoyed our fabulous infinity pool and just took in the view. We were so spoiled by the calm ocean waters of the Caribbean - and the constant breeze made everything even more perfect. We met another couple on their honeymoon and we enjoyed talking to some ex-pats at the beach bar. Funny enough, on our last night in Roatan, we simply got a bottle of wine from a local minisuper and ordered food to go from the kitchen. Watching a funny movie and spending time together on the couch is something we haven't had much for in the past few months. As an astute reader noted, while the vacation part of the honeymoon was nearing an end, our excitement about finally being married is not waning in the least.

Now begins the part of the trip where the realities of travel abroad kick in. After our flight cancellation, coming onto the island, we had to deal with convincing Taca to get us back to the mainland. So we woke up at 5am thinking our Taca flight might get cancelled once again, and that we'd have to jump onto the 6am Sosa flight. We were in "luck" and our Taca flight was on time, 3 hours later. We got to San Pedro Sula and had about 4 hours until our flight to Miami, or so we thought. We went through security on the recommendation that internet was available inside. Negative. No TV, no internet, no ATM, no stores, literally no nothing. We both read about 300 pages in our books and enjoyed the only thing we could afford - airport nachos. Then we found out the only flight in (or out) to the States would be 2.5 hours delayed. Fabulous, our vacation moods were dwindling. But we scrounged up 35 lemps, got a Barena (local beer) and played monopoly on our iphone. We got to Miami in one piece and couldn't let our 16 hour travel day get us down.

We checked into our Best Western (for about the same price as our resort - oh America) and we headed out to South Beach Miami. We had $10 to our name and told the cab driver to take us as far as he could get us. We lucked out and found a fabulous street with lots of outdoor restaurants. We ordered the special for 2 and took in the nightlife. After walking through South Beach, we took in the scene of Ocean Avenue and even A1A (Beach Front Avenue for the Vanilla Ice fans). The trip home provided another American Airlines delay on the way to Dallas, picking up the German Bubs from Mom, and a 5 hour drive home to SA.

On second thought, planning 3 full days of travelling on our relaxing honeymoon wasn't the best idea - but we were glad we got to enjoy what we did! Back home in the Mazzarella household, my fabulous husband has put to use our sushi combo wedding gift and made us tuna sashimi, spicy tuna rolls, and tempura avocado rolls for dinner. And once again we're watching the Yankees! Sammy cat missed us so much and Oscar is happy to have the family home. We're so excited to start our married lives together and it couldn't have begun with a better week!

The Honeymoon Continues

The beautiful weather never ceases to amaze us in Roatan. The rainy season is a few weeks late and the sky is free of a single cloud. The island is also free of a single tourist. Well almost. While the nightlife takes a hit with the low numbers, ultimately we love having the island to ourselves. As I previously explained, the town is nothing to write home about, but its small size (and our friendly personalities) have created a bit of celebrity-status for us. We know most of the taxi drivers in town, and we have our own personal one, Miguel, who will wait outside our dinner spot in order to take us home. The fishermen say hi to us when we walk past, and our favorite bartender at the pool, Carlos, knows we love the Monkey La Las - Roatan's drink of choice. We're almost always the only ones at the pool or in a restaurant for dinner - so luckily we enjoy each other's company the best.

So not to rub it in, but we have had lobster every day down here. The best thing about the Caribbean in Central America is the incredibly cheap seafood. Our favorite lunch spot, The Beach House, where we watch the local kids play soccer along the beach and the chef knows us by name, never disappoints. We simply walk up, tell Douglas we want to spend $10 and we get 3 lobster tails and fish and shrimp for 2. Heaven! Since we have our own kitchen, we make most of our breakfasts and eat out on our balcony patio. Beers are no more than a $1.50, but Coke is a whopping $3. Guess which one we drink more of :)

The third day on the island got Brian another step closer to his Advanced Diver Certification. To complete the course he had to take on a wreck dive. One of Roatan's most famous dive sites is El Aguila and looks like something out of Pirates of the Caribbean. Brian, and the dive masters Peter, Kevin and Monte, dove down to 110 feet to visit this sunken treasure. As they swam through the hull, Brian could only laugh as Peter (leading the way) was startled by coming face to face with an ominous moray eel. This however only served to distract Brian from swimming right into a giant grouper. I think its clear Brian loved diving Aguila! On his next dive, Brian had to complete a navigation dive - meaning direct the group via compass then via visual landmarks. [insert joke about men and directions] But once again, Brian passed with flying colors. Diving here shows a different kind of ocean beauty, the coral and rock formations and the ability to dive in caves and through deep channels are unlike anywhere else. While not overly abundant in sea life, the size and structure of the reef system here is breathtaking.

So upon returning home to the resort, we quickly realized our peaceful, secluded beach was now completely overrun with Carnvial Cruise-shippers. Literally, upwards of 400 people were now side by side "enjoying" Roatan. This in turn brought out all the beach vendors and the scene became a mix of drunken vacationers and lazy Americans. Granted being dropped in a foreign place for 8 hours to take in the culture isn't ever what Brian and I plan to do on our vacations, but now we cemented our belief that cruises are not our thing. Luckily it came time for their all you can eat buffet and the cruise-shippers finally left our island, and quiet finally returned. We headed into town for another fabulous dinner at our favorite place, The Lighthouse.

Walking along the beach (even in town) provides a fabulous view of the night sky. It was astounding to us that we could see the Milky Way! Its so unbelievably beautiful to look up and see the galaxy, for a moment we felt truly connected to our planet. Between the reef system here and clear night sky, Roatan is a real escape from the bustling, polluting modern world. As with every other night so far, we once again don't want to go home.

Hola from Roatan!

After the monsoon-soaked wedding, we were really hoping for some good weather on our honeymoon. We started at 3:45am in Kyle in, once again, the pouring rain. This lead to us barely making our flight out of San Antonio, only to sit on the runway for an hour and a half. Our day of luck continued and we were still able to make our connection from Dallas to Miami. No problems in Miami and we land in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. After going through customs, we walk over to the Taca flight desk to get on our connection to the island. Or so we thought. Taca cancelled the flight and we were going to be stuck on the mainland for the rest of the night. In a moment of brilliance and orchestrated teamwork, Brian runs over to another counter and gets us on a Sosa flight leaving in 5 minutes. We run to an ATM (who knew airlines took cash only) and I attempt to get a refund from Taca. We hurry to the runway and we were off!

We ran into some more luck by meeting a nice American flying into Roatan who was able to call our hotel and arrange transportation (since our flight was now coming in at a different time). We arrived at our resort and we were instantly in heaven! Honduras is so cheap that we were able to get a condo, complete with kitchen, living room, balcony, and 2 bathrooms overlooking the ocean and the pool for less than a tiny, motel room in the states. We were so tired and hungry after our crazy day, we went downstairs to get some food and immediately fell asleep.

The next day, our first official day on Roatan, was a typical adventurous day in the life of Brian and Liz. We woke up and headed into town (we're staying on the beach in West Bay and the town, West End, is about a 10 minute taxi ride away). Trusting in our Lonely Planet guidebook, we picked a place for breakfast. The "town" is not at all what we thought this booming tourist mecca would be. Its a narrow one-lane dirt road with maybe two-handfulls of stores or restaurants. But we found a gem. We had a fantastic breakfast overlooking the bay and out onto the ocean. The weather here is gorgeous!! Always a breeze and never a cloud in the sky.

So then we went looking for a dive shop - it was afterall the reason we came here. We went to 5 or 6 dive shops, comparing packages and people. We settled on Coconut Tree Divers and wow did we pick right! Upon signing up, we immediately took a refresher course out in the bay with my new best friend Jose. After a fantastic lunch at our same breakfast spot (its slim pickin's down here) we were on the boat for our first dive! This dive shop is great because they are training about a dozen Dive Master trainees. And since its low season (and everyone in the states is worried about the political situation) we are the only "regular" clients! So put that together and we got 3 dive masters each! The water is perfectly calm here and the reef system is exquisite. We saw a big green back turtle gliding along and then watched him eat off the coral! He was amazing!

Our day was a success, we stopped at a minisuper to get some cooking supplies and were lucky enough to flag down our taxi driver from earlier that day. Its really crazy to be the only toursists on the island. Its great and also difficult at the same time. Now it was time for Monday Night Football and dinner. We ate our our hotel bar and talked to some Americans who now live here fulltime. Day 1 was so wonderful, its hard to believe Day 2 would be even better.

On Tuesday morning we were picked up by our dive shop friend and suited up for another morning on the boat. The thing about diving on Roatan is the best dive sites are almost all "deep dives." So you have to be certified beyond Open Water (which is all we are). So Brian decided to go for his Advanced Diver Certification. The previous night he read the book and did his homework questions (we can't get away from studying no matter where we go!). So Brian was going out to "Hole in the Wall" - a famous dive site that bottoms out around 130 feet. Jose made Brian do math problems and write sentences backwards while he was down there to ensure that he wasn't have narc problems. He said the dive was awesome - they dove in caves and swim-throughs. My dive was also great, I stayed at about 45 feet. Again, because we're the only people here, we get super personalized treatment. My DMTs Natasha and Kevin were great. We rested during our surface interval (to make sure we don't get the bends - this diveshop is very safety conscious) and then it was back for a shallow dive. We dove the Aquarium and stayed at about 35 feet. We saw lobster and grouper and all kinds of colorful fish and coral.

We took the afternoon off to sit by our incredible pool and just read our books. This quickly turned into an afternoon nap in the shade. We got showered up for a great night. We took the water taxi into town and ate at the hidden secret - The Lighthouse. Our meal was incredible!! We love it here! More updates to come!