Day 297 – “Living the Dream”. Monday, 2/21/2022. This is day nine of our 11-day cruise on the MSC Divina. We are at the Isla de Roatan, Honduras from 7am to 3pm today.
“A good day is waking up”. This morning a really small cruise ship anchored off the pier of Isla de Roatan after we docked. It was the World Voyager. A Nikos cruise ship that holds a maximum of 300 passengers and 100 crew members. It is a Portuguese cruise line.
We ate breakfast
and then headed to wait in the Pantheon theater on deck 6 for our excursion group to gather. The Pantheon theater holds 1,603 guests.
We went on an excursion called Snapshot of Roatan. We walked about 5 minutes at a fairly fast pace to get to the bus. I learned so much about the area. Here are some of the things that I remember. Roatan Island is one of 18 Honduras islands and is forty miles off the northern coast of Honduras. It is 33 miles long and four miles wide. You can see the Caribbean Ocean from both sides. The first language is English, the second is Spanish. The island and Port have gone and are going through major renovations. The island has a small international Airport which has daily flights to Miami, Atlanta, Dallas and a few other US cities. First stop on our tour was a panoramic view on the east side of the island. Of course, it was really a stop to buy souvenirs from local people. One of the local vendors took our picture. Lokk at that scenery!
We switched busses here. Our first bus had bad air conditioning. There was no automatic transmission on the bus and fairly steep hills. There is a daily ferry to mainland Honduras. A lot of people commute to the mainland daily for work. The cost is $75.00 a day. There is a lot of gated communities on this island where United States retirees live. Covid closed the island down for two years. The kids have just returned to school. Gasoline is imported and is currently $6.00 a gallon. Most homes on the island don’t have central air. Their electric bill for twenty days is 200.00 with no central air. If you have central air, it is about four times that amount. A lot of the homes are built on piers. This keeps them high for the trade winds to blow through them. It also allows for heavy rainwater to accumulate under them. The school year runs from February to November with no breaks. Most children walk or ride bicycles to school. Some families hire people to transport their children to school and back. There is no public-school transportation. The children either go early morning or afternoon into night. They have private schools also. We passed a beautiful Clarion suites called Pineapple villas. The resort looked like it would be a great place to stay. The island is clean. Two ships go to United States and bring all the supplies in. The Mesoamerican Barrier reef is the second largest in the world. It is visible from the island and almost entirely surrounds the island. You can walk out to it in many places. This reef along with the Turtle grass, and Mangrove protect the island.
The turtle grass is also used to make tea given to people with asthma and emphysema. The water temperature is inviting every day. In 2021 the island was hit by two cat 5 hurricanes within two weeks. First time in history. Climate is definitely changing. Trash is building in the oceans. No plastic bags are allowed on the island. Plastic can take up to 5 years to disintegrate. Our number two stop was Arch’s Iguana Reserve. Some people eat iguanas. They can grow to 7 feet long. Their tail is their weapon. At this reserve they capture baby iguanas and put them in a cage until they are two. They are then released back into the wild. This farm had 5,000 uncaged iguanas. They were all over the pathways.
We walked through all the iguanas
to a long dock into the ocean. The fish by the dock were huge.
When we left the ship at 8:45 am the traffic was light. At 1 pm leaving the iguana farm the traffic is very heavy. Steps to some of the stores are a test in balance for sure.
There are very few lawn mowers. They use like an electric weed Wacker. Cashews grow abundantly on the island along with all types of mangos.
Our last stop was Las Palmas where we saw this little show.
The resort property and views were wonderful.
We took a thirty-minute boat tour with no life jackets. The boat was full.
After we are out in the water, Steve says, “Where are the life jackets?”. There were none. Oh, but the driver had one sitting by his backpack.
We then had some free time at the resort. The beach and tables out in the water were very nice.
Our towel animal farm is growing.
It was a really nice tour and day because of Jazzy our tour guide. She was excellent.
Today’s product recommendation is for the Rev-A-Shelf. I love this for my pots, pans and lids. The one we recently installed is the 21 inches with a spot on the top shelf for the lids. We will also be installing a smaller one for baking dishes. These are awesome. https://amzn.to/3CzOwwq https://amzn.to/3ZcBuyq
To view the complete daily diary, click here: Living the Dream – Deestimes – Make every step of the journey count