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February 20, 2007
Caribbean Getaway: Tuesday Feb 20th
We docked in Roatan as Dawnise and I were waking up at 8 this morning. We got some breakfast, spent some time figuring out what to do, given that the snorkel tour we had wanted was full by the time we pre-registered a month before the cruise, and ended up walking into town.
By our best reckoning we probably did about 12 miles today. Three east of the boat and back - through Coxen Hole to where the sidewalk ended (literally) at the base of the switchbacks to the airport back to the boat for a drink and snack, then 3 or so miles in the other direction, where the road ran along the beach.
The executive summary is paradise == abject poverty, but there were lots of incongruities. Photos start here.
Dilapitaded buildings that were never actually finished before their inhabitants moved in next to new construction of spacious homes in rich hardwoods. Cars ranged from rusted out Suzuki Samuris to late-model full-sized Dodge pickups. Really hard to get a read on. Ours were definitely not scheduled tour destinations - just neighborhoods full of "real" people eeking out an existence on a beautiful but impoverished rock in the middle of the Caribbean Sea.
We stopped in a local grocery but didn't find anything terribly extraordinary. Our best guess at the exchange rate was about 33 Lempira per USD, just based on expected prices of goods we saw there.
Got back on the boat around 2:30, went to afternoon tea and ended up meeting and sitting with a handful of Valve folks, and then wandered up to the pool for a bit. Got back to the room and showered off the chlorine.
As I type Dawnise is reading across the table from me, and I'm watching the sun set into the ocean as we make for Belize...
...
Dinner continued to improve - though deserts are still very hit-or-miss. We again ended up sitting with another group, as our dining companions didn't arrive 'till a goof 15 or 20 minutes after our seating and we had already given up on them.
I had the lamb shank ("pirate style" whatever the hell that means), which was pretty good, and when I couldn't decide between that and the seafood stew, a sampler of the latter appeared, which was also tasty.
We were pretty done, and had an early morning muster for a snorkel trip, so we hit the sack pretty soon after dinner.
Posted by dberger at February 20, 2007 11:59 PM