Travel Days

Day 1 Moncton to Toronto to Roatan

Packing for 6 weeks. Tried to do it in just 1 large suitcase plus carryon but no way. 

Just a reminder of what we left behind

We have room to take stuff back now since we have 2 large suitcases

Some of Andre's camera gear that goes in his carry-on

Today we flew out of Moncton on to Toronto where we will meet up with Liam and Joey, overnight then off to Roatan the next day.  This was one day we were all hoping for nice weather because of flights all on different airlines, all went perfectly!

Arrived in Toronto right on time.  Shuttle to the airport hotel.  Joey and Liam were already there, yeah to spending 10 days with them.  We arrived at 6:30PM, supper at attached Moxies, then off to bed for 2AM wake up call for 6:30AM flight.

Even though we are frequent travelers I still like to get to the airport early.  We had all checked in 24 hours early online, and had seats near each other, but I still would rather wander an airport than stand in line with hundreds of people at a check in counter.  Turned out check in was quick, they took our $50 for checking 2 luggage and off we go.  Only a couple of hours to kill.

Typical teenager

Looks like our flight is the best choice this early morning

This is what 4 hours of sleep does to a person

Get on the plane, it is full at the front, but the back basically empty.  We all actually got a full row to ourselves to spread out and try to get some much needed sleep, Liam was the most successful here, I’m not even sure if he knew we were on a plane.

Plane was less than 1/2 full, we each go a row to ourselves

Arrived in Roatan right on time.  A very small airport that took us no time really to get through immigration due to our plane being nearly empty.  Only part we found funny was why were expats greeting us?  I love it when locals greet us, this was really a little strange. 

Hope that our beach is not full of seaweed like this one

Our sightseeing plans will work around how many ships are in port.

Touchdown

Airport is right near the water, beat this plane in, Yahoo.

Need to go outside, That's ok

Talia from the B&B Puerta Azul where we are staying the next 10 nights arranged airport pickup for us.  For an extra $5 it included a stop at the grocery store.  We knew we had a casita that included a small kitchen so took advantage of the stop, plus grocery stores here stock liquor J  Also forgot how many snacks a teenager can eat, we should have stocked up on more of these. 

First impression of the casita is it is so small!  We have a small kitchen and living room that are not air conditioned, so basically unusable during the heat of the day.  One bedroom and bathroom are also in the Casita with a huge king bed.  There is a breezeway to a separate bedroom with a king and single with their own bathroom right beside us where Joey and Liam stayed.  It grew on us quickly,  Wendy was a little grumpy after the lack of sleep and really not impressed, but a 2 minute walk to the beach right after some food for lunch really turned her mood around.

We spend the afternoon on the beach reading and relaxing and hiding under palm trees out of the sun.  The entry to the water is not nice, really grassy and muddy, but they have built a long dock that takes you out to the clearest beautiful water we have ever been in.  You can easily watch fish just walking out the dock.  There are only 5 other cabins on the property, and most people do not tend to stay around during the day, so we basically had the place to ourselves.  Today we were the only ones on the beach.  We do have some visitors from chickens and roosters, as well as some dogs.  The dogs all seem to be well kept, and are really not interested too much in us.  We do talk about what time chickens and roosters get up, we will see in the morning.

There are locals homes on either side of the B&B.  Also some locals have tied up their little fishing boats right from the shore beside us.  Today there are 2 young boys climbing in and out of the boat jumping off the front.  One of the boys has stripped of his clothes and is jumping in naked.  We have come to the conclusion that his mother told him not to get wet today because as soon as they finished playing in the water he put some clothes on and headed off with his friend who was  soaking wet in his shorts and tshirt.

Today we did not venture far from the dock on our snorkel adventure.  We are all tired, but excited for tomorrow because we can see where the reef is, it will be a bit of a swim, but definitely very doable for us.  We do see quite a few fish right at the dock, tomorrow should be great!

At the end of the afternoon I notice that I have bites all over me, I never get bitten so this is not a good sign.  We all get up and realize we are all covered in these bites, thank goodness they are not itchy!  I could play connect the dots on my legs.  We are going to have to find a better solution for getting out of the sun rather than sitting on the beach.

When we were driving to the B&B this afternoon we passed by a sign for a restaurant called Salty Mango that didn’t seem to be too far away so decided on that for supper.  We decided to walk the road, turns out this was not our best idea.  It was very busy, and a little scary.  It is a 2 way road that does not have any sidewalks, lots of pot holes that people are avoiding.  It will be a first and last time we do this, or at least that I will do this.  It was only a 20 minute walk, but about 19.5 minutes too long for me. 

Joey Liam and I all ordered fish tacos, very yummy but way too much food.  They were served on corn tortillas, which are not my favourite, and these ones really fell apart so I did not enjoy the shell so just ate the filling.  Andre had some kind of curry.  Liam not feeling the best, so we skip dessert, find a taxi at the road, not doing that walk again especially in the dark.

Yummy drinks, Monkey LaLa

Fish Tacos

Curried Chicken breast with Plantains. 

Salty Mango

Back at the B&B we take a walk out on the dock.  Beautiful start lite night, and the moon is like a cradle.  Sure wish we knew more about the constellations.  I say this every time we are in a place where it is so beautiful and clear, time to get onto some research on this.

At the end of our pier

It is now 9PM, we head home for some much needed sleep, we are all exhausted.