Roatan

If you’ve never heard of Roatan, don’t feel bad. I never had either and being Mrs. Geography didn’t help…but we all know that doesn’t mean anything! Come to find out, Roatan is an island part of Honduras and it was our third port of call.

Our day in Roatan started bright and early. Well, let me rephrase that, it started dark and early.

On the cruise, we were traveling in and out of time zones. To make sure all the cruisers had synchronized watches and made sure to be back to the ship in time before it set sail, everyone was asked to be on “Ship Time”, which was Florida Time. Even if the country we were in was an hour behind, we still stayed on “ship time” as we adventured around. Sounds confusing? It was! If you don’t wear a watch and needed to know the time, if you asked a local, you would need to remember to add an hour or subtract an hour, sometimes two, to get the “ship time.” The cruise instructed us not to ask any locals what time it was for fear that passengers would think they still had an hour at the port when in reality the ship was ready to leave and passengers would be missing. This happened at our first port of call in Cozumel when fours boys were late and lucky for them, the captain was nice enough to wait...over an hour. We so didn't want to be those people.

Our arrival time in Roatan was 7am. Not too early. I can live with 7am. I work every day at 6 so that’s doable. Wrong. 7am was ship time. It was 5am in Roatan. It was pitch black when we left the ship. I still haven’t figured out why the cruise line would let us port in an unfamiliar country at 5 in the morning, but that’s ok. Luckily we had a nice man by the name of Lionel set up to meet us and give us a private tour of his island.

My mom had booked this tour for us before we left and we were all looking forward to it. Lionel drove us around the entire island and we got to tell him all that we wanted to do. On the agenda:

1. Sight-seeing:
With it being so early when we arrived, we did a lot sightseeing the first part of the morning. The island is beautiful and tourism is their major resource. Right now the island only has one port for cruise liners, with 3-4 ships a week. They are building a second port where they can have 3-4 ships a day. The people are really excited about that. Lionel said that everyone on the island has work if they want. If they aren’t working it’s because they are lazy. I was happy to hear that with all the economic struggles so many are facing. We saw some amazing shipwrecks, the governor's mansion and beautiful beaches as we drove around.

2. Visit an Orphanage & School
The day started to pick up a little before 7 because that is when schools start. Lionel says there are about 18 “neighborhoods” on the island and each one has a school, a lot like it is here in Arizona where we live. In addition to that there are private schools that you can send your children for $45/per month. Not bad. The private schools are where the children can learn English. Before we went to a school, we stopped at a grocery store and bought groceries for an orphanage. A man who runs one of the orphanages on the island met us and helped us shop for the things that they needed. It was fun to shop with him because he grabbed lots of mac n cheese, hot dogs, fruit, rice, and juice…all the same sorts of things that my kids eat. When we got to the orphanage, most the kids were in school but we got a tour of the house. Austin and I were really impressed because it was almost identical to the group home that he worked at in Utah for about three years. Menu boards in the kitchen, cleaning charts, big open rooms for the kids to play, a classroom, bedrooms, a huge table to eat at.

From there we went to a school. When I went to Africa my senior year in high school the kids loved getting school supplies because they couldn’t afford them. Who knew that a ballpoint pen would make a child’s day? It was one of my highlights from my Africa trip, and it was one of our highlights on this trip. Before we left we bought pens, markers, glue sticks, and scissors and Lionel took us to the school where he went as a kid. There were two classrooms and all the kids were in their cute blue and white uniforms. They were so excited to see us and have visitors. I got choked up seeing their smiling faces. They had racecar backpacks and cute braids in their hair. They were playing duck duck goose in the grass. They gave us hugs and asked to take pictures. Oh, I loved them. I could have stayed with them all day. And get this; their school was in a building literally on the sand about 20 feet from the ocean. They said on Friday’s they get to play in the water at recess. So cool!
3. Snorkeling:
Finally, our first chance to go snorkeling. We had all bought some snorkel gear before we left and had been aching to use it. Lionel dropped us off at a little scheduled beach with a little pier and a reef. We ate an awesome shrimp and lobster lunch over looking the water (seriously the best view imaginable) then dove right into the water afterwards. We swam and swam and saw amazing fish and sea life. The colors were beautiful. Turquoise, blue, purple, green, yellow, you name it. I’d only been snorkeling once and I thought I might be a little nervous, but I wasn’t in the slightest. It was incredible. What a day! Our favorite by a mile. It was so amazing to witness the everyday life of another country, associate with the people (who by the way are so humble, friendly and kind), and see another beautiful place. No dancing to post about tonight, just fun with the family. Tomorrow's adventure, the Grand Cayman.