Winter on Roatan

Some gorgeous sunsets as the weather changes with increased rain, more swells, and actual waves on the outer reef. Winter on the island.....an all pictures post! 

Oh yes and a kitty, we named Chiste (joke in Spanish), after she showed up on our doorstep just days after we were wishing we had a cat! 

 Be careful what you wish for, right? 

On a friend's boat.....

Taken on my walk from speech therapy along the beach yesterday....

 
 


later at the dock.....

 see the moon?

Marino and friends last week on the water taxi to West Bay

The Rainy Season

How to read outside in the rain

It is hard to capture just how hard it can rain here!

The rainy season has arrived! A month late and not in full swing, but still it is here and it is lovely. It typically rains all night and then two to three times a day with sunshine in between. It has cooled off to the high 70's at night which means we need a blanket! The wind, weather, and water currents have changed direction and now come from the west and not the east. Unfortunately this has brought an abundance of plastic trash to our beaches and ocean. It is not only unslightly but is dangerous for the sea life. The jellyfish are gone however since the water is slightly cooler.

Frogs and tadpoles are in puddles and their croaking can be unbelievably loud at times. Mosquitos are also breeding and should be expected to arrive en masse about the time my mom and aunt arrive for American Thanksgiving! Dengue fever is on the rise and various cold and flu bugs are going around. I have had an usual number of client cancellations in the last couple of weeks. Herons and egrets are now commonly found at the water's edge and hunting for fish. There are many more birds in general along the shore and they can often be spotted with a recently caught fish.

The ocean, which had been silent for the first four months, can now be heard from our house as waves crash onto the outer barrier reef.  The water is more churned up than usual and the last dive we did had very poor visibility. We still snorkel whenever we can and last weekend Lucia joined us for a swim to the "underwater museum" which is an attraction which has been set up with "artifacts" that have been placed in a sandy area a swim from our dock. She rode a rubber boat home, but it was so awesome she swam out there by herself! Marino continues to swim to the reef with us. Just the other night, he and I swam to the inner reef right before and during sunset with our friend Rawane. It will be one of those times I always remember. The light was gorgeous, the ocean active, and the water felt divine. We spotted a green sea turtle, 2 lobsters, a school of blue tangs, and much more.

This is the first season we have had since arriving in Roatan and the change is welcome. An umbrella and ziplock bags are always in my backpack now as the rain can start suddenly and be a ferocious downpour in moments! I love the sound of the rain as I fall asleep every might and the feel of a light  blanket on me. It feels cozy in our wooden house.

Green Iguana Mural Project

Dan-Last week my 7/8th grade class (total of 6 students) put together a mural for a competition held by a conservation group to bring awareness about saving Green Iguanas. The Green Iguanas are almost extinct on the island because of being killed to eat and loosing their habitat.

In three crazy days the students came up with an idea, gathered materials, then painted, glued, and taped a mural together. I do not feel that I am much of a visual artist so this was way out of my comfort zone. There was as much pushing and pulling to get this done as there was to do any other type of school work, which was challenging for me because I thought there would have been more enthusiasm over "being out of the classroom". In the end the kids took a lot of pride over there work and out of 5 schools that entered we took 2nd place! Very exciting for the students, myself, and the school. The 2nd place prize was 3,000 limperes, about $150. Below is a note that I sent to the parents to describe the project and a short exert from what the kids wrote about the project.

The 7/8th grade class has been furiously busy making a beautiful mural for the Conservacion de la Iguana Verde project, which is sponsored by the Bay Island Conservation Association. This is a competition that many schools around the island are participating in. There is a L5,000 first place price!

We can save the Iguanas by leaving them alone! Let them live free in the wild so they can re-produce more Iguanas. Iguanas are a vital part of our Island’s fragile Ecosystem. They eat fruits such as bananas and plants like trumpet leaves and Hibiscus. They help spread the seeds for many native plants.

Talk to your friends about not eating Iguanas and explain why they are important to the Island. Help save the fragile environment of our Island. Pick-up trash, recycle and re-use materials like plastic bags and bottles. Report to the BICA if you see someone killing or trying to catch Iguanas.

Our mural is made out of all recycled materials. We used every part of plastic water bottles to show that are many ways to re-use materials. Plastic bottles litter the beaches and forest of our Island and contribute to taking away the environment of the Iguanas.

Life is Goood in .... Panama

Old and new in Casco Viejo

Musings on our time in Panama….a vacation to the city and mountains for us beach dwellers! We spent 3 days in big Panama City. We spent a whole day at the Panama Canal watching big ships come through and seeing the museum that included information not only about the building of the canal but also about the expansion that is taking place. Fascinating! To avoid rush hour, which is horrible here, we spent a couple hours at a huge American style mall eating in the food court and window shopping. Very surreal after our quiet life on Roatan! We visited the old section of PC, Casco Viejo, that is undergoing a gentrification. It is very dramatic with ramshackle buildings right next to boutique hotels. The area has an incredible view back to the skyscrapers of the city. Lucia’s favorite part of the PC was renting a 4 seater bike and riding out the Amador Causeway with the city on one side and ships exiting the canal on the other. Beautiful and a workout for the parents since we did most of the pedaling!

Off on a bus blaring Spanish language music videos for 4 hours and then a smaller bus packed to the gills, all so we could spend 3 nights in Santa Fe, Panama. We first checked in out because of the name and then realized it was the kind of place we wanted to visit. A quiet mountain town of 3000 people nestled in greenery and low clouds. We stayed at a lovely place with a friendly owners that took us on a hike to a waterfall and the National Forest. Our favorite activity in Santa Fe, other than our rainy afternoons having siestas, was floating with tubes on a beautiful river that we walked to from our hotel. We spent a glorious sunny morning floating down, hauling back up, and swimming. The water was clear and not too cold. Something we will remember for a long time. We also had a memorable meal at the local diner at the bus station where the power went out and the meal was served with a pause. A rainy walk to the hotel to play charades by flashlight.

Our trip home to Roatan was memorable for the wrong reasons! It took us 25 hours to travel 700 air miles. The airport was full of angry Central Americans all with rapid fire Spanish, free potato chips and soda, huge lines for everything even the bathroom, and 4 hours sleeping in a hotel! The upside (there is always at least one!) – we were all REALLY happy to come home to our sweet little wooden house in Sandy Bay and to miss a day of school.

our small plane leaving Roatan

Marino loved the canal

family in the city

Buildings in Casco Viejo

Lucia's first time with skyscrapers

happy girl on the 4 seater

The view from our room

cold water!

a beautiful waterfall

Maiden voyage

I can do it!

we both fit

rowing the tube

Mr and Mrs. Poppins

Lychees are our favorites.

At the PC fish market! Huge shrimp.

I think this one is still alive!

waiting and waiting at the airport...

bananas in Spanish

Marino ran out with money in hand when he heard the fruit and vegetable truck this evening. His first solo shopping in Spanish! She asked "Quieres cinco?". He said, "Si". He came home with 5 pounds of bananas, a smile, and no money left. Lots of licuados are in our future! All that fun for 40 lempiras ($2).

Scuba Diving!

happy divers with our instructor

Marino:

Diving is great. I saw a moray eel come out of it's hole, a queen angelfish 2' long, and a sea turtle. The test was hard for me, but we ended up getting certified as open water divers!!! We had to take off our masks under water and I was good at that but it hurt a lot. I wasn't scared. I was good at floating, not touching the ground or being at the surface (hovering). I didn't like having my air turned off underwater. We did four open water dives. It was fun going off the boat backwards with our gear on. It was hard putting our gear on in the water, but I did it. I look forward to more diving because I want to see more fish!

Kim:

It was mentally hard for me to not panic underwater with some of the activities we had to do. Removing our masks, swimming without them, and having our air turned off - all at 30' under. For me it was a mental and stamina challenge. The last two days were 10 hours long!

For Marino the book learning was challenging. He did not find the underwater stuff hard at all and had no fear. You have to take a final exam and test taking is his nemesis. We sort of had to drag him through that part of it.

The whole process took 4 days, but we had a great instructor who completed his first diver training with us! We are looking forward to some amazing dives. If you want to get certified to dive, Roatan is a great place to do it. Beautiful reef and cheaper classes than many places. Yesterday we did 3 dives to complete the training and the last one was to a depth of 60 feet. We saw a moray eel freely swimming, sea turtles, unbelievable coral formations, huge fish and lots more. My favorite was the bioluminescent coral tubes that look like they glow in the dark. When Marino got stung by a jellyfish, he said it turned iridescent blue afterwards.  It is an incredible world down there. I love it.

Independence Day in Honduras

Lucia:  My tooth is growing in! I miss you a lot. How is school going for you? School is great for me. Yesterday are school went marching for independence day which is when the Honduras became free from the British who had made them their servants. We get to march we all are carrying big and little flags and posters too. The roads are closed because of marching. each school has different clothes that you have to wear. At our school we have to wear blue jeans and we all ordered shirts that said sbas on the front of the shirts which stands for Sandy bay Alternative School. At our school we have the pre-k and kinder pom-pom girls that carry pom-poms and go in front of everyone in line. We also have little boys and girls that show jobs of and they go in the front too. We have miss roatan and four other places that became free from the British too. We have miss independence and mr. independence too. They both stand in the front also. We have the older kids that hold the flags. We also have a band that goes after the flags. One of the flags is our flag! Yesterday after the march we did not have school and now we have five days off of school because we had the marching day and then Saturday then Sunday then on Monday we do not have school because it is independence day and then we do not have school because it is teachers day. The next two days we have school and then on Friday my class is going on a field trip to see the dolphin show. After we did the marching we had a water fight with icy cold water. What we did was we got the bottles that had the water in them but we drank all of the water and filled them full of water and then dumped icy cold water on people. I kept dumping water on marinos friend named Sebastion and he kept dumping cold water on me. By the end we were all soaked, especially  me. We all had a lot of fun. Again, I miss you a lot.

Love,

Lucia   

P.S I hope that you have a good time. It is hot and rainy which means there are a lot of bugs and I have a lot of bug bites all over me. Good-bye
(This is a letter that Lucia sent to Helen an Phoebe, but she said I could post it as a blog entry too!)

Pictures to follow.
me and my friend Camila.

    

marino and friends.

 

special people above and the smallest and cutest pom-pom girl.

 above is all of the teachers and below is my teacher ms. Laura.

 me holding a Honduran flag.