HEY guys :)
Okay apologies, this will be a long one, but believe me, it’s worth it ;) go get a cuppa ready before you sit down...might wanna run to the bathroom in advanced too haha...
So, when I last left off, it was midway through the week before our Christmas holiday, and we were in the middle of rehearsals for the Christmas show. For the show, I had to draw 2 full length princesses, and my goodness I was well proud of them (got no thanks for them, but that’s the way it rolls in Honduras). They were beauuuutiful and they were decorations for the hall where we were holding the show. We also did a massive poster saying ‘NEW LAND BILINGUAL SCHOOL AND COLLEGE’ with lots of moons and stars and it took me about 3 days to do... looked good at the back of the hall though!
We arrived the day of the show, and I was feeling pretty unwell...we thought I had like acid something happening in my stomach which turned out to be more accurate than Stephen’s suggestion of “you’ve got squids in your tummy by the sounds of it, Jen, a friend of mine DIED of that...” so I started taking some drugs for that and it has cleared up now! Reminds me of this woman we work with, Max-Lauren who is Mercedes’ friend’s daughter – she was helping out at the school for a fair while, and she barely spoke any English...for some reason she ended up asking for the translation of ‘SPRAY ANTI-UGLIES’ as a form of punishment for the kids... basically she would air spray their faces and say ‘spray anti-uglies’. She also used to crack an air whip, and make the equivalent hand gesture of ‘dishing out’ – punishment I presume. Strange girl...
So moving swiftly on, we ended up at the town hall, to find it flooded. Swept up water using a brush (efficient, believe it or not) and we ran through rehearsals with the kids for all their songs and dances... and then evening came! And another problem popped up...the light in the hall was ridiculous. I could barely see my hand in front of my face, it was so dark. So we had to do some last minute candle gathering, and I had to wax melt them onto the floor of the stage, around the walls, so that people could ‘partially’ see what they were there for... and I swear it was the most dangerous idea in the world. We had open flames on the stage where any of the children could so easily have caught fire. I was extremely concerned for the health and safety of everyone involved, but THIS IS HONDURAS (that’s my new saying, it means ‘deal with it’).The families started flooding into the hall, sitting down in the chairs, and, as per Honduran time, Sergio was late, and he was carrying the sound system. Yes. We were waiting around for about 45 minutes til he got there with the stuff haha! No one seemed particularly bothered, but by UK comparison, everything is inefficient, almost to the point of destruction... if we behaved that way at a school concert at home, so many people would have walked out! But no, they all sat chatting away, stray dogs wandering into the hall between our feet, the children’s nerves building, so nervous to say their English introductions...but somehow they pulled it off brilliantly :) all the children said their piece and got ready in their beautiful dresses and shirts and trousers to do my dance! They did the Scottish dance so brilliantly...i am really really proud of them, it was fantastic! Brought a tear to my eye, so it did! (Though I’ve got to admit I was very scared for the girls’ floaty skirts in case they caught fire on the stray candles...but luck was still on our side)
The performed some other dances and songs, and then Edson’s mum (who owns the Comedor San Juan where we had our lunch and dinner every day) brought a huge amount of delicious food to the hall, and after the show finished (we had to do a little on the spot speech, which Mercedes translated to the parents) everyone got food! The nicest chicken with a spicey sauce, rice, vegetables, roast potatoes, bread, and a fruit salad (which I couldn’t eat because of my acidic tummy – so raging, and I may have had a little teeny bit cos I have no self restraint and I miss my fruit out here) for desert! They even had a pineapple and cinnamon tea type thing and a little bit of cake at the start for people, it was kinda like mulled wine, yummy!
So the night ended with everyone very full and happy, and Emma and I headed home, in our beautiful dresses (we got all dressed up and even put MAKE UP on for the show) for a good night’s sleep, finally.
Next day, we travelled to Gracias on yet another fully packed bus, I was jammed against the sliding door and had to be door operator for several stops, fun. There were 2 other white people on the bus, a woman from Newcastle in Australia, and some guy, both of whom were volunteering in an orphanage in Guatemala. We led them to Guancascos in Gracias for a place to stay, and I sat on the internet for way too long haha...grabbed some malaria tablets from Holly’s place and dropped off the laptop, had yet more Chinese at the restaurant (where the Chinese chef woman came out and started screaming at the waitress in Spanish for ages, embarrassing) and then hopped in a rickety motor taxi to Nena’s house ( Max-Lauren’s mother). We sat in the room chatting and fighting over prunes hahaha, we were just so excited about our holiday starting the next day!
Got up super early, and was at the bus stop in one of Nena’s hats (attractive) by 5am, in the dark and reached San Pedro about 10am, only to find the ATM not working! We took a cab to the nearest machine and were overjoyed to find that my card is working again (minted – went overboard and took out like 12,000L between us for the holiday ahahaha). Then we raced back to the bus terminal, got ripped off by the taxi driver (they all do that, and they then get all shocked when you point it out in Spanish that they’re bullshitting...i love not being a real tourist!) and bolted to the ticket terminal for the bus to La Ceiba. We bought our tickets and the woman said something about the bus leaving even if you’re not on it...or so we thought. We got some pizza at pizza hut in the station, then headed back to the terminal half an hour before the bus was due to leave...for it to already be gone. Turns out she said it will leave when it’s full (admittedly my Spanish is still not that awesome...) so we were stranded, and clearly going to miss our ferry to Roatan from Ceiba
Ended up getting a later bus, got to Ceiba and had to stay overnight in the big city! On the Ceiba bus there were more gringos, so we borred their ‘lonely planet’ book and looked up places to stay in Ceiba, and decided to go for Banana Republic, it looked good enough. We arrived at it, to find hammocks and free internet access on the computers! I signed in on the sheet, to see someone with the name KYLE WALLACE. I was just like, ‘MATE HE MUST BE SCOTTISH WITH A NAME LIKE THAT!’
Headed upstairs to our room, and met this Kyle guy, who it turned out, lived on Copeland Road, Ibrox ahah! Small world eh? He was a major character, I’ll tell you that much...
There was also some poor guy from California at the hostel, a teacher. He came to Honduras over the Christmas/New Year we think, cos he’s lonely :( he was kinda following us around...when we went to the nearby SUPER BALEADA (baleada restaurant, which, judging by the name serves them super...) to see him come in the door about 3 minutes later. Oh well. Emma ordered 2 baleadas, not realising that they were about 40cm in length, each, and I only got 1 (who knows why, lets be honest, I can’t have been well) and when they showed up it was like OH MY GOODNESS I’ve never seen such a plateful of baleada. It was amazing, I had mine with extremenos (like spicy sausage) and avocado, scrambled egg and all the normal stuff, beans, cheese, mantequilla... was heavenly!
Next day, got the ferry early in the morning to Roatan! And now the holiday begins!
(Possibly time for another tea break/pee break – this part is not for the faint hearted, and fill in the cliff hangers with your own ending if you wish...)
We watched the Simpson’s movie on the ferry over, and neither of us was sick, I was having a party to myself again cos the ferry is like a rollercoaster! We hopped in an unmarked taxi (Emma was a little worried but it was totally cool) and went the 45 minutes to Punta Gorda, where Ian and Sean stay.
Punta Gorda is a Garifuna village, a village with deep black Caribbean people, rather than Latinos. They have an almost entirely different culture there to anything I’d seen before!
Sean was not on the island, he was stuck in England after his holiday home, because of the bad weather, so we just turned up on Ian’s doorstep (which was actually a cliff edge, and homemade wooden steps...) and marched on in! Renske and Laura were there already, other volunteers from La Union (the ones who went to Tegucigalpa during the elections for thanksgiving), Ian was there too.
Ian’s home was really authentic, and had been a PT volunteer home for 30 years! That leaves someone with a lot of books (about 30 dive manuals...), some cool wall decorations and little photographs, and a little block painted behind the broken sofa, with the names of the volunteers written on it...it made me feel pretty homely! It has inspired me to make my room in the new house (yeah we dropped our stuff off at Mercedes’ new home before we left, and I shoved mine in one room and Emma put hers in another... we’re having separate rooms, end of) as beautiful and warm and new volunteer friendly. This is the first year a volunteer has been on our particular placement, so I’m going to hopefully start a trend for them, just like the 30 volunteers before Ian and Sean have done for them :)
Laura and Renske had been there a day before us and had a whale of a time, considering the evidence hahah! The existence of ‘glass towel’ which was used to clean up an accidentally broken glass could give you an idea... and the ‘freshly washed hammock’ which still had a faint smell of vomit might also give a hint hahaha... not pointing any fingers of course...
Laura and Renske had some pretty amazing stories, like hanging out in a VIP club with models and Honduran and Brazilian footballers. I was very jealous, they even stayed in the HILTON hotel free of charge. Doesn’t get much better than that eh?
so we played poker with the beans I sorted into piles (and I couldn’t play it to save my life...) and we tried to make hot chocolate on the tiny portable stove, but managed to spill it all over the floor from the frying pan we had to cook it in hahaha... I slept on one of the 2 hammocks in the living room, which was strange, but very fun. Felt like being a baby again, and strange to wake up and have no blood in one’s legs...
Next day we woke up bright and early (not) and started making baleadas from scratch. Holly had stayed in Banana Republic too, the night before, because her ferry wasn’t running due to bad weather, and she arrived...happy enough, let’s say that haha... she had just gone travelling to Belize the previous week to renew her visa and it sounded like she had a pretty awesome time (we’re going there in the next couple of weeks probably to renew our visas as well...or I might head back to Cancun in Mexico instead!)
we started toasting the HAND MADE tortillas on the pan on the stove for it to break. Yeah, it broke, after we had made so many beautiful flat tortillas (it’s an excercise and a half believe me. Roll the dough into a ball, flatten it and then clap your hands in a round movement until they are thin and flat. It’s really difficult!) and were ready to toast them. So we headed over to some woman called Karen’s house and used her cooker and utensils to make some pretty good baleadas I’LL SAY!
So after munching away, we took a half hour trek to a nearby private beach, in the gringo are of Punta Blanca, just near Punta Gorda. We swam there for ages and watched the little fish and crabs floating around in the perfectly clear water :)
We then went over to a friend of Ian’s home, Mike and Julie. They’re in their mid 60s and Michael is English, Julie is Chinese. Mike was a sailor for about 30 years, and doesn’t stop talking, and Julie dotes on her dogs NO END, but they are both the most hospitable people to the extreme, it felt like a dream! They poured us the strongest gin & tonics, and rum & cokes, and offered to have us over for Christmas dinner...ALL of us! The view from their home is absolutely phenomenal...it’s on top of a cliff overlooking the atlantic, it’s absolutely stunning, and took my breath away repeatedly! We returned to Ian’s on the back of Mike’s truck (which he was driving slightly under the influence...) and they donated us an air mattress for the number of people who were going to be crammed in the one tiny house!
That night we tried to start a campfire but it was too damp from the previous bad weather, and I slept on the hammock again.
Next day, we went to Mike and Julie’s again, and spent Christmas there. Adam and Casey showed up at their house after we arrived and so it was great to see them – they’d travelled to Cancun to renew their visas, and met a lot of strange and exciting people, and they went to a bar that you pay $40 to get into and then you get free drinks all night haha... there was a derelict bar, but it still had some stuff in it, including a corona bottle shaped wall light, which they carried all the way from Mexico back to Roatan ahahha... looks great in their house, seriously!
So we were plied with yet more alcohol and excessive amounts of food... they gave us a bottle of tequila and we spent Christmas eve in their guest house (separate from the main house) playing kings and card games... was a really good evening. We also played ‘have you ever’ but I was past the point of no return and simply did not understand the rules...i didn’t understand them the next day either!
So CHRISTMAS DAY!!! I thought I wouldn’t be getting any presents (Emma and I agreed not to get each other anything) but Holly had made little goodie bags for us all consisting of some pretty good sweets, and shampoo! The previous day down at the beach some of the group had gathered up shells, and on them they wrote ‘Feliz Navidad *name*’ and on the back, ‘HONDURAS 09/10’ which was a really nice gift which I’ll keep forever :)
[Note: The Honduran volunteers consist of Ian & Sean in Punta Gorda on Roatan, Adam & Casey on Sandy Bay on Roatan, Laura & Renske in La Union, Emma & I in San Juan, and Holly in Gracias. Holly’s partner is due to arrive on the 7th of January or something like that, Lena, and unfortunately Gemma & Tory are no longer in Honduras because their project kinda fell through...]
For Christmas dinner we had turkey, pork and beef, loads of trimmings for each one, and Christmas pudding and ice-cream for desert! We had crackers and cheese, and we also had prepared some rum truffles earlier in the day which were so strong....at least a shot in strength each!
We stayed at their house that night too, and went for a midnight swim down at the dock that night, it was beautiful bliss.
Boxing day, Adam and Casey left early to go clean their house before we arrived. Before they left for Cancun, they were burgled and their land lord said he would get a proper lock on the door...but he didn’t, and they knew they were going to get their stuff stolen over their holiday. So they went home before us to clean up and figure out what was lost.
We remained at Mike and Julie’s for a good few hours, at a full English breakfast with a lot of amazing homemade break of many flavours, and then we had bread and butter pudding which was to DIE for. Then Mike drove us out to French Harbour (half an hour away) where we were then picked up by Krissy (friend of Adam and Casey’s whose husband was murdered before our first visit to Roatan) whose flatbed unfortunately did not have a back to it...so there we were, all strewn over the flat bit of the car, suitcases and rucksacks included, clinging to each other in a webbed mass to avoid going flying out the back!
We made it to Sandy Bay in one piece, and met Albert, a 35 year old guy from the island, who had spent a LONG time in Miami and America. He is Adam and Casey’s neighbour (its two wooden shacks joined together, A&C on the left, and Albert’s on the right) and his home ended up being a joint home for us all, as we left all our valuables in his house because it was secure, unlike Casey and Adam’s (who had not only had money, and iPod + dock and broken camera stolen, but their 2 hammocks, and a raincoat...).
That evening, we went out to a bar called Fuertes, where another friend (Brian) of the boys’ DJs from time to time. Adam, Casey, Ian and I walked up to the road (Roatan has one long road which runs down the centre, and the little towns branch off it, if you can imagine that) to get a taxi. In order to get to the road, we passed through some homes, and there was a maternal PITBULL tied to one of the houses, and it was clearly instructing some other dog who came out of nowhere growling and gnashing away. Quick thinking Casey picked up something and the dog scarpered. Wasn’t fun, but we got to the road in the end haha! We bartered with some guy who went down to a pretty cheap fare, but it was still more than we could afford. We remained stubborn and stood by the side of the road for about 10 minutes, and a bus driver stopped at one point and we looked at him pointedly, but he wanted to charge us the total fare of the taxi, EACH. So we quickly got back into the cab (who for some reason waited there. Obviously knew we were at it) and headed to Fuertes. The girls were all going in Albert’s car, which unfortunately broke down right before they left the house, so they arrived a little later than us (so we, understandably, had drunk a little more than them by the time of their arrival...)
That night was eventful...Brian wanted to introduce us to his boss, who, in turn, gave us free bottles of Salva Vida and tequila shots all night haha! Some guy turned up in an orange woman beater (the tank top you know?) and a pair of shorts. He had a strange shaped mouth and a very bristly black moustache, and danced like a woman. He was holding a silver thermal flask filled with TATASCAN (the cheapest, most disgusting excuse for white rum ever known to man, all around the world. It comes in a plastic bottle for crying out loud...it’s worse than the equivalent white lightening excuse we have for white cider back home...). Anyway, he placed this in front of us, and nodded expectantly. From the side of his mouth, Adam’s like ‘don’t drink it’ as if any of us ever would haha. Ian lifted it to his mouth and took a pretend sip, I did the same (it smelt like nail polish remover), and Adam followed suit. The man smiled crookedly at us, and held his knuckles out, nodding his head in appreciation! We all punched knuckles with the man, and away he danced! That was just bizarre, yet so hilarious...he kept knuckle punching us as we walked by him, with a marked look of respect on his face. Bless. If only he knew we didn’t drink the poison...
From there, we headed to another club but it wasn’t very good, so we just moved onto a HUGE club called Illusions, which had a VIP room (with free alcohol?!) and we got free entry to the whole place for some reason. We danced the night away and I chatted to Albert for a bit...interesting guy. He’s a very sound person though, we spent the entire time with him pretty much, for the whole holiday! Albert’s cousin was out that night and she was fun, looked after us all a fair bit which was good.
That night, all the transport was on someone’s flatbed, which I just stood on, overlooking the road, and everyone else jammed on the edges, and Holly took Brian’s motorbike!! I really wanted a shot, but I was slightly under the influence and it would thus have been a bad idea...but I was promised my shot on the bike the following day :)
In the morning, we went for a swim on Sandy Bay, just outside the house – the ease of life was just incredible. Bored? Go get in the sea, its RIGHT THERE!!
Then we decided to go to Punta Gorda (PG) again, via French Harbour (FH) again. Tonight, we were being driven around in a blue people carrier by CAMILO who was one of Albert’s close friends, and he looked just like Mario (the singer ‘you should let me love you...’) – identical. Anyway, he took us to FH and dropped us as the gas station while he got ready. The journey was hilarious, there were about 12 people in this one car, and half of us were on each other’s laps, not to mention that the right wheel suspension wasn’t working so all the big people had to go on the left. It was a BUMPY RIDE!
We bought some liquor (which you do just drink outdoors, most casually, believe me. Took some getting used to, but I think I’ve got the hang of it now haha....), some cookies and we planted ourselves at the side of the road. Brian then arrived on his scooter, plus 2 of his mates, one of whom owned a proper big motorbike. I knew I was gonna go for it then, hells yeah. I got on the motorbike, Holly got on Brian’s bike, and Renske got on the other guys bike, and the rest got in the car with. We all headed the other half hour up the road to PG! That was exhilarating, my bike was the first bike for most of it, I felt like I was flying!
So we arrived in PG and stopped outside a little food place but it was crap and no one was hungry (pointless visit) so we moved on to a Garifuna club – Flamingo’s - a little further up the road, which was much cooler. We were let in for half fare, and it was a bit boring to begin with, but suddenly 6 big guys came out the crowd of people on the dancefloor and gathered in the middle. They all had caps on and they looked like they had a purpose. Everyone gave them space, and they moved out a little bit, for some new music to start, with gun shots in the start, which one man mimicked shooting another of his dance crew til he fell to the ground. Then they started doing this amazing Garifuna and Punta dancing, it was so entertaining! [Renske has all the photos so I’m waiting to get a hold of them.]
There was extreme skateboarding on the TV in Flamingo’s and that just reminded me completely of Kelvingrove back home, all the skaters. Made me miss them! But it was really nice to watch and be reminded of them, in such an odd environment... then the BMXing came on too which was brilliant. We all got pretty drunk by the car listening to some BRILLIANT music (seriously this stuff was actually good) and met some very interesting people (that’s all I’m going to say).
Later on, Me and Adam and the 3 bikers headed up to Oakridge, a nearby town to see if a club called Black and White was open, but it wasn’t unfortunately. On our way there we’d passed the police but they never said anything. On the way back we all put on helmets and slowed the speed down a bit, but they decided to stop us anyway...pfftt. I had no ID on me whatsoever, but I got away with it, and Adam had his English travel card which was fine for them (the policeman was holding it very tightly so I wasn’t sure If he was going to keep it or not, but he gave it back). The Brian and the other driver had their papers, but WAYYYYY my driver didn’t have his papers for his bike, so the police took it away and paid some guy to look after it for them. We offered to pay him more to return it but obviously he wasn’t gonna do that so all of a sudden we were stranded in a little dark town at night with 2 bikes, and 5 people... you do the math haha... eventually we came to the conclusion that the pillock without his papers should just wait there til someone drove to Flamingo’s and back to get his ass. That was an event and a half, Adam found it pretty uncomfortable but I didn’t understand what the police were saying (they were talking in Spanish) so I didn’t get most of it, but Adam thought they were gonna take us away or something. Well they didn’t haha, so we went back to the club, and then headed home for the night, the hour’s drive from Punta Gorda back to Sandy Bay in the car was madness....lots of loud music and dancing in the people carrier took place.
Following day, (Monday 28th) we got up and decided to go to Punta Gorda AGAIN so that Renske could collect the clothes she forgot to pick up from Ian and Sean’s (way back when we first arrived on Roatan, remember that?). Casey decided he would rather stay at home and try to ‘catch the burglar’ hahaha.
We hopped in Gish’s car (another friend of Albert’s) and headed first to French Harbour, where we got 5l of wine and a massive bottle of Flor de Caña which is a decent rum to be found here, from Nicaragua. Not to scare anyone, but we had 3 following pit stops for the driver and passengers to refill their cups... got to Punta Gorda so that Renske could grab her stuff, and WOW, Sean was home!! He’d obviously got back from England, but nobody had been in touch with him cos he lost his phone, it was just luck that we decided to go there at that time.
So we ran into his house and made our greetings, and remembered that Mike and Julie had given us generous portions of extra meat from Christmas, and bread and butter pudding, so Adam went a little crazy with the B+B pudding, seriously wolfing that stuff down (he left before it came out on boxing day you see). We grabbed what food and drink was in the house and we all piled into the car!
We ended up in Twisted Toucan, a cool club in West End, and I had some great chats with Sean, and Renske managed to get a long thin cup from FatTuesdays so we were all drinking wine from it haha...she also managed to get a bunch of free drinks from some Americans at the bar, lucky girl!
We met a Rasta guy there who was soooo funny, all about the sharing and stuff (ironic cos he didn’t actually share, he hogged) but he was a laugh, but for some reason he ended up back at Adam and Casey’s....when the next morning Holly could no longer find her purse. It could have been him, it might not have been him, I’ll never know...
Tuesday, we decided to go to West End for a while (where all the shops, clubs, restaurants and bars are) and we took a stroll around the touristy shops, I popped into a dive shop at one point to check up on whether I could actually dive without my PADI card, but they looked me up on the system and I was certified in 2004 can you believe that!? That’s ages ago jeezo
We then decided to walk from West End to West Bay (the long white turquoise beautiful beach...) which would have taken about 40 minutes or so. We got about 20 minutes of the way there and then spotted a water taxi where the driver was going to allow 6 of us to travel for just 100L in total! Mega cheap (Casey went for a walk earlier and just meandered his way to West Bay without us, hence 6 people in the boat, not 7). We got to West bay in about 10 minutes, got a few photos of us on the boat, and we climbed out onto the beautiful pier! Then it was just sitting back and sunbathing and swimming in the clear sea... so much fun :) we decided to head back to West End to get a dinner in our group so we started walking back the way, and stubbornly refused to get a water taxi, we’d rather walk it...
We started walking and it began getting dark. The tide had come in and I could barely see cos I didn’t even have my contacts in. Everyone slopped their way along the beach til we came to a rocky patch, which Casey walked on, and I followed, when the others all trekked through the water to the bridge... I ended up falling all over the rocks in the dark and just kinda lunged into the sea cos I was getting mega stressed. I started slopping through the water and just hit a mental block in the dark and had a proper panic attack :( it was really disturbing, but Laura waited for me and calmed me down. We reached this bridge, with about 20 silver metal steps leading up, a straight wooden middle, and more steep steps down. I regained some composure and shook my way up the stairs, hobbled across the bridge, and went to take the first step down when (if my eyesight had been any worse I would not have seen this) I spotted the metal mesh of the stair was just non existent! It was simpy a metal bar, missing the step itself. I stepped down with wet feet and attempted not to fall off, clinging to the thing for dear life and I thought I was gonna die. I took gradual steps down, at the side of the steps, and eventually jumped the last 4... I’m a little shaken just repeating it now!
Anyway, I arrived on solid ground and we walked the rest of way over the sandy beach...thank goodness for sand. We got to West End, and Camilo turned up with Albert in the minivan and they drove us to a little restaurant in a place next to West End called Half Moon Bay. Renske and I didn’t like the restaurant cos it was completely empty, and they also didn’t serve fish soup, so we headed along the road to a busier one and it was reeeeeeeally nice. The woman working there was a sight for sore eyes though, seriously blonde touristy American with ratty dyed blonde hair and an over-friendly smile. She ranted and raved about her keylime pie: “4 people walked out of here today without food because they couldn’t get the pie, that’s how good this is!” she boasted... I’m sorry, how does that work out to your advantage that you have great keylime pie and that’s the only reason people wanna eat here? mmmmm okay.
Gotta admit though, it was good pie.
We were pretty exhausted after that and just headed home for a boring night at the house.
Wednesday, we headed to another friend of Gish’s homes, an American guy called Zack who’s house was just incredible....so gorgeous! And we got a load of Chinese food to munch on, wandered the huge house for a while, and danced with some girls who were at the house. They came out with us to Crooked Palm afterwards... another club in West End. We got in for free with Zack, and Holly and I sat in the VIP room, getting more free drinks, and looking through the one way mirror at all the plebs (joking) hahaha. We went back out to the bar area....to see Renske DANCING ON THE BAR. Ahhahaa, was hilarious, at least we got a few photographs! We all came home on Gish’s big silver car and I was supporting Renske the entire way back on the flatbed as she had a fair amount to consume (I would have needed a fair amount to get on that bar haha)!
We returned home, Albert was sitting on the porch and we were just hanging out there for a while, chatting, when a man came round the side of the house and told us that a man had been shot just up the street from the house. I walked down the porch steps and looked up the road, and indeed...a man was lying on the ground in very bad condition. There were only 2 people standing with him, though more arrived later as the news spread. Albert had heard 2 gunshots, then a third, around 15 minutes before we got home.
The man was someone that Casey and Adam had seen around a lot. I even saw him the days we were on Sandy bay, he fished on the rocks by the bar, and I think the fact that I had looked into his eyes, and then seen his figure crumpled on the road was pretty incomprehensible.
Casey and Adam’s host, Miriam, had been robbed a few days previously. Her house was one of the most secure in Sandy bay. They stole a knife, which was then used to stab the owner of Gemelas (the shop that we stood outside on boxing day, to go to Fuertes) while it was robbed. The girls had previously met an older couple in the street one day, who invited them to their home (Bob and Debbie...or Bobby and Deb as we kept mixing up) to watch a movie and eat and take warm showers. The girls did this and later on they received a call to ask had anyone opened the bathroom window...and none of them had. Perhaps another attempted burglary... the men who shot the man and robbed the pulperia were described as 2 young Hispanic guys, and the chain of crime on Sandy Bay, including Casey and Adam’s burglaries, implies that they may all be linked...
So honestly, that was a pretty shocking thing to come home to...and we just spent the evening talking and joking, to try and lift the mood a little. There is not much to say, honestly. What can you say?
So the following day was Hogmanay and a few days earlier, Casey and Adam were offered the job of doing doors for the pool bar (Oasis) that we were at the first time we went to Roatan. They originally declined, but we decided to go there for the bells so they accepted the job. We all went to the pool bar early in the afternoon, swam for a little while, I got some peanut chile chicken pasta which was sooooo good, and the boys talked business. It looked pretty dead to be honest, and it was proper gringo territory...hardly any natives, which I was kinda miffed about. If I wanted to go to a pool bar in America, I wouldn’t have chosen Honduras now would i!?
Anyway, we hung out there for a while, and the boys left early to go get their clothes washed at a laundrette (we were like NAW use the peeler! But they couldn’t be bothered handwashing their clothes like real volunteers...) and we headed home shortly after, Albert was going to make a BBQ for us! The boys came back, and Casey and Albert got real haircuts and beard shaves...and therefore Casey made them late for work hahaha... we had a BBQ and another of Albert’s cousins turned up at the house with Camilo, a guy called Lep (for Leprechaun, but we nicknamed him leper for some reason) who was built like a brick shithouse (but in a steroid kinda way, not the flabby way). Anyway, we headed out to Oasis to be with the boys on the bells, and I JUST arrived in time to see them and shout as the bells went off :D it was really amazing.
We got loads of free drink from oasis, 2 bottles of champers and a bottle of flor... I bought myself a daiquiri but some drunk gringa knocked it over and gave me an excessive 200L for a new one...
Then we moved onto Crooked Palm again, in West End, and we danced the night away. We got in for free, and that allowed us into the (free bar) VIP room again, and into the backstage arena where some live guy was singing. I got more free tequila at the back ahah...just danced for a long time! Man I’m going to come back a good dancer, believe me (huge amount of thigh exercise, punta)...
New years day, I went for a ride on Brian’s motorbike up to his best mate’s house, where his mother fed me the most amazing lunch EVER, I even got CHOCOLATE CAKE. The best stuff in existence :) we came scooting back, and decided to get a crate of beer and all of us go to the dock, where I spotted 3 footlong jellyfish! We just slept on the dock drinking beer with a massive group of friends, and Albert’s girl cousin was there for some reason, and some of Brian’s mates. Then we decided to head back to the same area where Brian’s friend stayed, and we went to Albert’s OTHER cousin’s house and sat there drinking more, and eating seafood soup mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, the king crab claws were delicious, but a nightmare to get open!
The following day, we did basically nothing all day. We sat in the house dancing around to music on Camilo’s speakers, and we drank Jamaican tea and had a good laugh (wink).
Following day we intended to come home on the early ferry, but didn’t bother....hahaaaa. we hung out at the house for a while, then took a drive out in Gish’s big massive white pimp mobile to French Harbour where a friend of his was making a massive amount of really good marine soup, with lobster and everything! We were driving along and Holly was sitting in the front seat when Gish just went, Holly, wanna drive?! And she was like heeeeelllll okay then? So Holly got in the car, and started driving (automatic only, and she’d passed her test back in England anyway) all the way to French Harbour! It was brilliant hahah, kudos to her i’ve got a photo of her standing with her ride hahaha...
So we had the delicious soup and met the guy who was making it (another Brian) He was a native guy from Roatan...but one of the generations of British descendents who came first to the island. He had ginger hair, and blue eyes, white skin, and he spoke with a very strong Caribbean accent. He was a very interesting type of person! He was on about having this Scottish/Irish heritage, but being born and bred from Roatan’s lifestyle... crazy.
The following day we got up early and did actually get the ferry...we travelled all the way back, and stayed overnight in Gracias, in Holly’s house (though she’s still on the island, after her purse got stolen she has no money and no way of coming back...we offered to bring her with us, but I would have declined if I was in her position too, staying on the island?! hells yeah!) and then got up very early this morning to return to San Juan. Turns out no pupils came to the school today, we stood waiting. Maybe they’ll come tomorrow? Hope not, I don’t want reality to return.
I’m sitting in Mercedes new house, in the dining room area and I am kinda happy to be here, though its frigging freezing :(
I miss Roatan, and I miss everyone there too, but roll on the next month... WE’RE GOING TRAVELLINGGGGG to renew our visas :D Belize? Cancun? Any thoughts of a destination we should go to, let me know ;)
Happy new year everyone, hope it is all you want it to be!
I hope you made it through this blog without either falling asleep or struggling from hunger desperation. Took me even longer to write, he he he...
Love, Jen xxx
holly's ride ;)
holly flying through the AIR
camilo, holly and THE PARTY CAR
emma, on our water taxi ride to west bay
casey, adam, guish (that's how you spell it actually), albert and holly
albert, holly sean, adam, casey and meeeeee
sean carter and myself having megaaa chats.
laura, renske's face through a gap, and casey russel-cantyyyy
renske strutting her stuff on the bar
holly's ride
