Western Caribbean: Roatan

Tuesday, January 21: My sunrise run was thwarted by a sign advising the deck was wet, therefore closed. There was no sunrise to see anyway, so I headed toward the fitness center for a little rowing and treadmill time. I got warmed up walking the ship, because I must admit I got confused about where the fitness center was. I was right the first time, the door just wasn't in the right place. Me, lost? It happened a few times on the ship but I always found my way eventually! 

We had a leisurely breakfast at the buffet and watched as the ship pulled in to port. A few rusty old hulks were visible.

After a leisurely breakfast, we departed the ship and took a tram over to the little island below and hung out at Mahogany Bay for the day. Though the skies were disappointingly cloudy, it was 82 degrees and quite warm.

First of all, we had to get past these pirates who really wanted to take their picture with us. We successfully maneuvered around them, thwarting their evil plans.

Maybe if someone had gone ahead and been photographed with the pirates, he wouldn't have felt the need to insert himself into everyone else's pictures!

Will, Venisa and Anthony

Will, Galen, Carol

All right, finally ditched that guy!

So many photo ops.

Riding the tram.

Galen and Carol coming in for a landing.

From Carol's point of view - Venisa and Anthony, and Will & I ahead of them, heading toward the beach.

We went back to the ship for lunch and walked across afterward.

Once again, Will hit the water immediately.

Will and Carol did some snorkeling but didn't get to see a whole lot. Everyone was in and out of the water, lounging in our chairs and enjoying having drinks brought to us.  Carol took this lovely picture after Will asked me to hold his drink while he was getting settled in his chair. He wasn't thrilled when I tried to give him back my nearly empty one.

We enjoyed the beautiful flowers and foliage when we walked to and from the ship.

We discovered this little hut with the swing when we took the "Nature Trail".

Galen and Venisa

Oh and look, there just happens to be another photo op along the trail where Venisa and I need to sit and rest.

It was fun to see all the plants growing outside that we only see as houseplants.

The sun came out intermittently, and eventually drove all of us into the water with our floaty mattresses. That was one of the most fun times of the trip, all of us out there having a great time in the water, with the obligatory brats among us splashing other people. Never feeling very safe in the water, I felt perfectly secure when Will and I joined our floaties at the feet and stayed together. But then…the sun disappeared again and drops of water began falling from the sky, so we gathered our things and went under cover for refreshments.

Carol and I stopped off at a few stores on our way back to the ship.  I came across an amethyst ring and a necklace/earring set of stick pearls and amethysts that I fell in love with and had to have as a souvenir of the trip. Carol also found a lovely necklace. As we were ringing up our sales, the clerk told us they had a special promotion and if you spent over $100 dollars, you got a free palm tree pendant. Since Carol and I together totaled over $200, she would give one to each of us, even though we were paying separately. How sweet of her.

Well, she had my purchase all beautifully bagged by the time we found out my credit card was declined. She took me to the back room to call Visa to let them know my card was not being fraudulently used,  I really was in a foreign country. I was on hold for a very long time and enjoyed visiting with the clerk. She was a very sweet girl, grew up on the other side of the island, and she assured me they go to wonderful beaches that tourists do not know about! I admired her dress and she told me it was the store uniform. She has three of them and she does not enjoy washing and ironing them! I finally decided to take Carol up on her offer to use her credit card so we went back to the front. Guess what, Carol's card was declined this time. It was 5:00 and the ship was leaving at 5:30. I decided I would call again and stay on hold until 5:15. (We were about a 2-minute walk from the ship.) Well, I had to walk away without the jewelry. I have never wanted any jewelry as much as I wanted that.  Oh, it hurt to leave it.

But the sweet clerk came running out after us with my free palm tree pendent, telling me she wanted me to have it. (Carol had offered to give hers back but she let her keep it too.) 

I gave her a hug and wished her a wonderful life! We rushed back to the ship and made it with plenty of time to spare at 5:23! There wasn't much of a sunset but it was pretty nonetheless.

 We watched it from our balcony, then I went for an exhilarating run around the promenade deck before showering and dressing for dinner.  I loved watching the colors of the sea and sky as day turns into night.

Each night when we sat down at our table in the dining room, the waiter brought a basket of rolls to the table and served us. On the second night, Will found himself with a rather tough hard roll and was rather annoyed by it, asking the waiter to take it away and politely expressing his belief that rolls should be soft. The next night, our waiter brought him a separate basket of soft rolls. We were pleased to see the soft rolls appear for him again this night, and every night except one thereafter! (The rest of us liked the hard rolls!)

Another delicious seafood entree. Of course, this was usually preceded by several appetizers, soup, salad, etc. and followed by dessert.

This was a sugar free dessert with an orange sauce. Can't remember what it was called but it was quite tasty.

It was a perfect day to count gifts of sky, water and memories. We agreed that the memory of our day on the beach and hanging out together in the water on our floaties under those unpredictable skies was a wonderful gift!