Spending the Night in Houston

Our connecting flight from Houston to Salt Lake was canceled, so we are spending the night in Houston. See everyone tomorrow.

Love,

Mom and Dad

Our Last Night Here

Today was another beautiful day, with blue skies and tropical temperatures. As usual, we started our day out with breakfast at beach side, with orange juice, pineapple juice, fruit and french toast.

I did a shark dive after breakfast. Compared to the sharks I dove with in Belize, these were bigger sharks, but seemed tame. There were about 18 divers on this dive, which to me, was way too many. I felt like the dive shop I dove with today (Different than the dive shop I have been using on the other days) was more concerned on packing as many divers on the boat as possible, and not focused on making sure the diver has a pleasant experience. Other than that, it was exciting to dive with a fish that is top of the food chain.

Something I learned today. In the movie Pirates of the Carribbean, at the first of the movie when Captain Jack Sparrow sails into a sea port as his little boat sinks in the harbor, he was sailing into Port Royal, Roatan, the same harbor that was once occupied by the famous Captian Henry Morgan and his pirate gangs until they were run out by the British Fleet. That why in the movie the British were occuping the habor when Jack Sparrow arrives.

We ended the day with another beautiful sunset, walking hand in hand on the white sandy beach of Roatan. Tomorrow night we'll be in Houston, and will be able to call on our cell phones.

As always, we continue to miss everyone, and love you all.

Love,

Mom and Dad

PS. We haven't heard as much from you. Please let us know how your lives are going.

We awoke this morning to blue sky, with a few clouds, and a lot warmer weather. We saw the sun most of the day. We took strolls down the beach, laid out in the lounge chairs and just had a very relaxing day. We saw a lot of women in bikinis, and just took in the sites.

We learned from a few of the "regulars" here that there were 45 people arrested, 8 hospitalized and several shot with the protesting here on the island. We haven't noticed anything here, other than we can't get from one side of the island to the other and our resort is operating on a backup generator. We're hoping that we can make it to the airport on Saturday to catch our flight home. Everyone we have talked to has said that we should have no problem. We'll have to see.

We have to keep reminding ourselves that we are in Honduras, a third world country, and things are done differently. Kind of reminds me of Nepal and the riots I saw there a few years ago. Everything aside, we have always felt safe and never in danger.

Today, I did another wall dive. It was a drift dive, meaning that we dove down to a depth of around 50 feet, along side of a coral reef vertical wall and allowed the current to carry us along the wall. Dive lasted about an hour. It was a good dive.

We have talked to a lot of people here. For example, this is Evelyn, from Lousiana. She owns two condos here and had to tell us about everything she knows about everything.

We ended the day watching the sun set...the first time this week. It reminded us of how beautiful this place really is.

Until tomorrow... We love you all!

Mom and Dad

Go Fish!

Right now we are sitting on our patio playing "Go Fish" and listening to the rain.

Middle of our Trip

(Looking across the pool to our condo unit.)

Here it is Wednesday, and the weather was a little bit better today. As usually, we started off the day with breakfast, ordering french toast, the same thing we have ordered every morning since we arrived here, since the only choice we've had has been either pancakes or french toast.

Today was kind of interesting. The locals held a strike against the high price of electricity, closing all roads and shutting down the electricity, cable TV and Internet services. Things came back on just a little while ago. It really hurts the local economy when this happens, because the businesses suffer. A cruse ship was even in the harbor this morning ready to disembark their passengers, and when they found out that the strike was on, they pulled up anchors and left. The cruse traffic really brings a lot of money to the island.

Mom got a $50 massage from a local lady who approached her while Mom was laying out, and insisted that she give her one. (You know how Mom dislikes massages) This lady told Mom she had five kids to feed and lifted up her shirt to show Mom her stretch marks to prove it. Mom said no repeatedly, but the lady ignored her and and started working her body over. Finally Mom gave in and had a 30 minute massage. When the lady was done, she held out her hand and said "fifty dollars." Mom about dropped her jaw. But reluctantly paid her. The lady stopped by tonight to see if she needed another massage, or if I needed one. I think she is going to stalk us the rest of the trip.

I dove again today. Our first dive was a wreak dive. I think it was a sunken Spanish ship from the 1700's that was once loaded with gold bars. Needless to say, I got there a little late. But the dive was enjoyable. Here's a picture of me peering over the bow of the boat.

Our second dive was through a cave. It was fun.

We sat on the beach tonight and watch a partial sunset. Hopefully the weather will continue to improve. However, it beats the snowy weather at home.

Love you all. Talk to you tomorrow.

Mom and Dad

Hello, from the rainy island of Roatan, Honduras. We continued to have rain off and on today. But, there is a silver lining through all of this...we'll have to return again to Roatan sometime soon to enjoy the sun. We're already planning our next trip.

As you can see in this picture the skies are cloudy. This is pretty much what we have had so far this week.




We had dinner at this little Deli and then afterwards picked up some groceries. The Deli and the grocery store were in the same room.


There is not much to select from for groceries, so we loaded up on what goodies to eat between meals. The people here are very friendly and nice. Seems like a nice place to live.





On my dive today, the camera worked out a little better. I'm learning how to use it to take better underwater pictures.




I came swimming up to this big cone and peered into the top of it and found this fish hiding. I thought the cone was really spectacular.











Here is a lobster I found hiding under a rock.








This is Juergin, a German friend I met. He owns a dive shop here. He and I got talking about the lost gold of Captain Henry Morgan on Roatan and I told him that I had an underwater metal detector and he got all excited about exploring for gold. He told me that he would show me some areas to explore and that we could split 50/50. Nice fellow. On our next trip down, I look him up and do some serious exploration.

Speaking of exploring, I did a little metal detecting today in front of our hotel. I found something...but I can't say what... it is a secret until I make it back to the States. :)

Well, Penny and I are off to the Bananarama Bar and Grill for some chocolate something.

Love,

Mom and Dad

Monday...Some Sunlight!

To all of our children, "Mi casa es su casa." If you don't know what that means, ask Adam to translate.

We had a nice breakfast this morning of french toast, as we sat overlooking the beach and blue waters of Roatan.

First day of diving was okay... not spectacular, but okay. I did a wall dive and saw some stuff. I was the only diver signed up with Mayan Princess Divers, so I had personal, first-rate attention. I dove with Vera, the divemaster, a cute girl from The Czech Republic. We dove along a wall just off the south shore. It was interesting, while we were diving, it started raining so hard that we could hear the rain on the surface from 65 feet below.

Mom, competed with the rain today, trying to read her book in outside. She would go out to read and then it would start raining, so she would go back in again. This happened several times through out the day. She finally got a little sunshine.

Penny and I went for a walk tonight on the beach. It started to drizzle, and before we made it back to our room it was pouring and we got drenched.

We ended up eating a nice dinner in our room brought to us from room service.

Mom sends her love, her kisses and her hugs. She misses you all, especially her grandkids.

Well, not much else to report. Talk to you tomorrow.

Well, tonight I'm sitting on a lounge chair on the beach working on my blog. It is kind of difficult to concentrate as I listen to the sound of the gentle breaking of the waves against the white sands of Roatan Island, Honduras.

Let's see, now where was I? Oh yeah, working on my blog...

We started the day with church. All the meetings were in Spanish, so we didn't understand much, but we certainly felt the Spirit. As the members of the Branch stood to bear their testimonies, the Spirit was strong and bore witness to us of the truthfulness of this Gospel. It is the same in Roatan, Honduras as it is in Sandy, Utah. During the Gospel Doctrine class, we had the benefit of a translator from a sweet sister in the Branch. The lesson was on the 12th chapter of 3rd Nephi, with the Savior's sermon on the beattiudes. She struggled looking for the right meaning in English for some of the Spanish phrases like "the pure in heart," and "meek." She would start to say the phrase and then Penny and I would help her complete it.

After church we drove around the island, taking in the sites and the beauty of a tropical paradise. It has been cloudy most of the day, but much better than yesterday, and tomorrow is suppose to be better than today. So we are looking forward to the coming week.

I have my first dive scheduled for 8:00 AM in the morning. So I'm looking forward to that. While I'm diving, Penny will do her walking, laying out by the pool and reading one of her three books she brought on the trip.

We miss you all already. As we drove around today, we would see little children that would remind us of our grandchildren. Because of the color of their skin on the island, we were reminded more of Caleb, Ammon and Kenya, than the other grandkids. :)

Talk you again tomorrow.

PS.

PS. Can someone call Jennica and let her know that we do not have cell phone service and for her to email me at bstone81@comcast.net.

Thanks

We awoke to Sunlight!

We awoke this morning to sunlight and tropical birds singing. The skies are still cloudy, but the sun is making a good effort of poking through occasionally. We've rented a car and are going to try and find the church.

It is still pretty windy, which causes the seas to be choppy. The forecast for the rest of the week is improved, so let's hope.

Talk to you later!

Our First Day - We Arrived

We arrived safe and sound in Roatan, Honduras. The skies were cloudy, with rain off and on, but we are here in paradise enjoying each other. Our ride from the airport took about 25 minutes to arrive at our resort. The Mayan Princess. You can visit their website here: The Mayan Princess

Honduras is definitely a third world country with pothole roads, impoverished homes and the lack of conveniences we have at home.

After unpacking we decided to walk to the local grocery store. It, along with all the other businesses closed at 5:00 PM. We also noticed that there are not many people here. The locals tell us that it is because of the weather and the season. This is the rainy season. The month of November typically gets 20 inches of rain. Oh well, we'll make do.

Tomorrow we will be attending Church. It is a 20 minute taxi ride to Church. The front desk of our resort told us that taxis are kind of expensive. Our taxi ride to and from Church will cost $40 US dollars. The sacrifice one must make to attend one's meetings.

I'm outside on the patio preparing the posting for this blog because inside our room I can't get enough wifi signal to upload it.

I've checked in with the Dive Shop and am signed up for dives everyday, starting Monday and going through Friday. I've scheduled a shark dive on Thursday. That should be fun.

Well, I'll sign off for tonight, but will post some new and exciting photos tomorrow night. So, stay tuned.

Looking Forward

With just under a month away, Penny and I are getting excited about a new destination we've not explored before. I'm getting my scuba gear ready and Penny is stocking up on a couple of books to read on a beach lounge chair. Everyday we check the weather in Roatan and pull up the live webcam that is located on the dive boat dock of the CoCo Resort.

We'll be staying at the Mayan Princess Resort. The reviews that I have read on it have been positive. It looks like it has some really nice rooms, along with an awesome pool.