January 12 - Roatan

                “GOOOOOOD morning!  Wake-y WAKE-YYYYY!”

                This sing-song greeting booms through the breakfast buffet dining room every morning around 8 a.m., courtesy of a tall, slender Jamaican man in a dazzling white officer’s uniform.  He has a shiny bald head, and a dazzling white smile to match his uniform.  The dining room staff chimes in as he walks through the dining room, repeating his greeting:

                “GOOOOOOD morning!”
                     “Gooooood morning!”
                “Wake-y WAKE-YYYYYYY!”
                     “Wake-y WAKE-YYYYYYY!”
                “GOOOOOOD morning!”
                     “Gooooood morning!”
                “Eggs and BAY-KEEE!”

                All the diners get a kick out of it.  I thank God I do not have to live with this man every day, for I would have to kill him for being so cheerful so early.

                This morning we are anchored off the coast of Roatan.   Unlike the other places we’ve visited, this island is mountainous.  It is beautiful.

           About 10:30, we rode a tender to the pier.   A Caribbean band and some dancers were performing at the end of the pier, and we stopped to watch them for a few minutes.

                The shopping area was small, and it did not take long for us to make our way through all the shops.  Joey and Gus headed straight for a Harley Davidson shop.  Pennie and I wandered into some other shops that sold jewelry and clothing and other tourist crap, and we eventually lost track of the guys.  We decided to stop at a corner restaurant, thinking that they’d walk by, sooner or later.  Sure enough, they did.  We had snacks – salsa and chips, quesadillas, tacos, and frozen drinks.  (I think I like the food better at my old stand-by Mexican restaurant at home!)

Over lunch, Joey and Gus told us about a Zip-Line adventure they had discovered.  We decided to give it a whirl.  A guide led us down the street and up an alley, where he turned us over to some locals who helped Joey, Pennie, and Gus into zip-line harnesses.  (I was grouchy and had a headache, and I opted not to zip.  Besides, somebody had to stay and guard our bags and cameras.)  We all climbed into the back of an enormous old 4-wheel drive pickup truck and were driven up an impossibly steep hill.  At the top, the driver told the zippers to get out and told me that I could walk back down the hill or ride down it in the truck.  I opted to ride, of course.  The ride back down the hill was scary enough that I was glad I hadn’t tried the zip-line!

At the bottom of the hill, I waited on a bench under a thatched hut.  I was sitting there, admiring the flowers and the greenery, listen to the locals talk in some language that I did not recognize, when I heard a strange voice say, “Hola!”  I looked over my shoulder, and there on the back of the bench sat a green parrot.  He said "Hola!" again and started doing wolf-whistles.  (I thought parrots only spoke English!)  ;)

          While I was admiring the parrot, I  heard a whirring noise and looked up in time to see one of the guides zipping across the sky and landing on a platform high in a tree. I grabbed the camera and began to shoot video as Pennie appeared.  She landed on the platform next to the guide.  More whirring noises, and there came Gus and Joey.  Once everyone was in, the guide leapt off the platform, and zipped to another tree on my left.  Pennie, Gus, and Joey bailed off after him. 

Joey was doing antics in the air, letting go of the harness and throwing his arms back.  I told him he looked like a minnow on a hook! 

          They all said the zipping was GREAT!  I began to wish I'd done it, too.

          After the zip-line adventure, the owners sent us around to the back of his house, where monkeys, parrots, and toucans hopped around in large cages.  The guides took a few of the monkeys out and let us hold them. 

We had all bought Cokes from the small bar under the hut, and the monkeys recognized the bottles and tried desperately to get at them.   Gus poured a little bit of Coke into the lid of his bottle and let one of the monkeys drink from it.  When Gus raised the bottle to his mouth to take a drink of Coke, the monkey stuck his tongue between Gus’s lips and the mouth of the Coke bottle, trying to sneak a drink!  It kind of grossed Gus out, but I'm still laughing about it.  ;)

          My monkey meddled in my purse, looking for a treat, and then climbed on top of my head.
         
          We reluctantly returned the monkeys to their owners and started the walk back to the pier.  On the way, we spotted a straw market, and took a quick detour through it.  Once again, the salespeople mobbed us:  “T-shirts, only five dollar!”   We bought a few things, then continued on to the pier. 

          In front of one of the shops, we met a man from Memphis.  He had been in touch with his family back home and had learned that it is snowing in Memphis today.  Awwwww…we feel so bad for them.

We had to be back on the ship by 4:30.  We made a quick run through a liquor store (a 5^th of Patron tequila for $34.00 – can’t pass up THAT deal!), then headed toward the tender.

It’s about 6 p.m. now.  We’ve showered to wash off the monkey spit and the sweat, and in a few minutes, we’re going down to dinner.

          What a  fun day we’ve had!