Ahhh, Roatan. If we had to pick one place in the world as a favorite, this would probably be it. We were so happy when we found out this cruise would be in Mahogany Bay for the day, and we knew right away where we wanted to spend that day - at Sandra & Al's! You may remember Sandra and Al as the owners of the VRBO that we rented back in February of 2104. If not, go read about those amazing two weeks here. I reached out to Sandra via email in the fall, asking her if we could pay them a day-fee to use their beautiful beach. She graciously agreed and, even more graciously, refused any kind of payment for the use of their property. We then officially started the countdown!
We sailed in to Roatan just as the sun was coming up. Breathtaking! As we watched the arrival from the balcony and we both said at the same time, "we have to come back here next year!"
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| The Odyssey - a planned wreck that they use for diving |
Once we disembarked, we walked out of the port area and called the rental car company to come and pick us up. "Five minutes!" we were told. I know that, in many places, five minutes is a very precise measure of time that lasts 300 seconds. In places like Roatan, however, they tend to run on what they refer to as "Island time". This means that five minutes could be anywhere from 20 minutes (never less in my experience) up to an hour or even more (than less). We settled in to wait at the side of the road. While we waited a woman introducing herself as "Big Mama" took it upon herself to shoo all the local guides pedaling their tours away from us with a loud and curt "They got a car!"
About 30 minutes later (not bad!) the rental car company arrived. We tipped Big Mama and were on our way with surprisingly little (in other words, none) paperwork. The only instruction from the rental car employee was to "bring it back with the same amount of gas". Before heading to Sandra & Al's, we drove up to West End to have a quick look around, and then stopped for a coffee at Freshly Baked, a little bakery/coffee shop that we like. We rolled in to Sandra & Al's driveway about 9:30 am - ahhh! There are three cruise ships docked in Roatan today, which means as many as 10,000 tourists are here. I cannot emphasize enough how happy we are to be at a private beach!
We spent some time chatting with Al & Sandra, said hi to Mia & Zoe who were here on our last trip (and passed out the treats we brought, of course), and met their new puppy - Happy Jack. Happy Jack is a 9 month old Rottweiler who is already gigantic but completely gangly and silly in the way that puppies are. He would run up to us at full, floppy speed and grab our hand/shirt/bag/whatever in his big mouth. After a quick tug/slurp he'd look up at you with a full grin. Sandra & Al were so hospitable - they gave us a key to their dock, locked up our money & passports inside their house, and truly just made us feel so welcome. By 10 am we were in the water and swimming out to the reef. Heaven!
We spent a glorious 4 hours out on the dock and the reef. There was a big storm this past Sunday, and some of the dock had been damaged so Al and several of the neighbors who share the dock rights were out repairing the damage. They were all lovely and we enjoyed visiting with them. We also got to meet the couple who are renting the VRBO from Sandra & Al right now - they have had the good fortune of being there a month. We're jealous!
Too soon, it was 2 pm and time for us to head back to the ship. We returned the rental car (again, with shockingly little formality) and were dropped off back at the port. We were back on the ship by 3 pm, and already talking about dates to return next winter.
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Al & Sandra's pier. The lattice area has a door in it that they keep locked to ensure it stays private.
It's only about 25 yards to the reef from the end of the pier - you can see the water breaks where the reef is. |
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| Looking back at Al & Sandra's from the dock. Their house is on the right, the rental is the blue roof on the left. |
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| Two of their three dogs: Zoe & Happy Jack |
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| Jack giving Zoe a chomp. |
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| Starfish in the turtle grass |
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| Coral |
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| Tube coral |
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| Fish |
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| Isn't that water the most beautiful thing you've ever seen? |
That is really cool you got to spend the day there! So pretty.
ReplyDeleteThat is really cool you got to spend the day there! So pretty.
ReplyDeleteWhat a way to come almost at the end of your trip, cooling off in a cool place, with cool people, dogs and cool sea life. What could be more COOL!!! Thanks for sharing!
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