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!