Trip to Roatan was much fun!  We stayed the first 3 nights in West End at the Arco Iris (Rainbow) hotel. on Half Moon Bay.  A pretty area and many good places to eat.  Too many good places to eat, in fact.  And I took full advantage of them all, to the point of developing a distinct waddle to my walk. There is a great place to snorkel  on the east end of the bay.  You can go in right off the rocks (nice stairs going into the water) and enjoy a small reef there with very little effort.  My kind of snorkeling these days.
We had a lucky encounter with a local man named Edgar who offered to take us on a day long island tour.  We decided to abandon our original plan to rent a car and let Edgar be our driver and guide.  An excellent decision as Edgar took us to places we would never have found on our own.  Among them were the monkey park where we got up close and personal with the wildlife, a Garifuna showplace where we listened to the drumming for which this culture is well known and watched them dance, even stomping out a few steps ourselves, and taking a canoe trip along the coast and through the mangroves.  On the way back we stopped at Cal's Cantina, an eatery we enjoyed last year with Carol and Frank.  This restaurant sits on a hill overlooking the water and, among other tasty dishes, has the best hamburger in the western hemisphere.  I want to go back to Roatan next year, if only for the food there!
WE spent the last three nights over in West Bay, the neighboring vacation area to West End.  It is slightly more upscale with a long beautiful curving stretch of beach.  Nice but West End has a more cozy and friendly feel.  There is a water taxi system between the two places (only $3) so you can stay in West End and go over to West Bsy for a day whenever you want.
Rob and Linda left for their trip back home (Goodby!!!) and Les and I spent one more night back in West End before an early morning flight on Tropic Air back to Belize City.

Belize 2014/15

We have been here for 2 and 1/2 months and, other than the few pictures of our new place, I am yet to  post anything about our  2014/15 winter trip to Belize. I have grown so lazy.  I am content to sit on this balcony and watch the world go by.  My view from here is so perfect.  Palm trees, turquoise water, water taxi boats, paddle boarders, wind surfers, kayaks, etc. all pass by (wind surfers and kayakers seldom share the same days. And if they do, it's not pretty.)
The sailboat has suffered a series of mishaps, mistakes and mis-whatevers.  It took a long time to get the engine working and then, after finding a nearby dock where we could keep it, when Les went to take friends, Rob and Dennis, for a sail he discovered that it was too shallow for the 4 foot keel to get away from the dock except at the highest tide.  We got it out one time before they came and had a beautiful sail that afternoon until the return leg during which the weather and wind turned wild and we came back heeled over on our side with me clutching  desperately onto the boat in a total panic. I believe there may also have been some crying and cursing!
I have compensated for the lack of activities by eating and the combination of abundant and outstanding food and lack of exercise has resulted in a middle so thick I soon will not have any clothes that fit.  Buttons and buttonholes are straining to remain serviceable as I speak.
We have really enjoyed our time here with Linda and Rob and new friends, Dennis and Barbara. Probably our best adventure was renting golf carts and traveling the no man's land of northern Ambergris Island.  We will be going to Roatan for a week in a few days with Rob and Linda.  Dennis and Barbara left for Gridley this morning.

PIctures of new Caye Caulker beach house.

It is an overcast, slightly rainy, kind of a grey day.  Not so much like a Panama rainy day, which  usually affords a  more vigorous downpour and a display of lightening with accompanying thunder.  It's more like an Oregon coast rainy day, just drizzly and dreary

Thought I might like to look back some day and remember how we passed a stay-at-home day here in Tierra Oscura.  So here goes:  We get up early and put on the pot to heat water for coffee.  It is still dark so we go out on the deck to watch the sky lighten and listen to the morning sounds.  Lots of birds.  Howler monkeys behind the house, lately coming closer.  Two troops of them.  I suppose they are calling back and forth to establish their territories
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We both check our computers to see if we have any interesting news from home.  (Not often enough!) and I feed Turbo who is most appreciative and affectionate!  Soon after that I feed Lester who is also appreciative and affectionate but indicates his pleasure verbally rather than by  touching my hand with a cold wet nose.

About 7:30 the short wave radio fires up announcing that Bocas Net will begin its morning announcements in 15 minutes.  When it does begin, various home owners and cruisers in the area call in to indicate they are listening.  Lester does that for us as I am radio shy!  "Ben 64", he says. (That is the call signal for this address.) I guess I could say that.  But I'd rather not.  Anyway, what follows are announcements about items for sale, trade, or wanted to buy, community events, and the weather report, etc.  So far as I can tell the weather report is pretty much the same every day.  40-50% chance of rain and thunder showers.  Apparently the usual for this time of year and so the report is accurate and probably could be delivered by recording. But this Bocas Net event is a highlight of our day and makes us feel a part of the community even though we are all pretty isolated.

Lester is a three meals per day kind of guy so it isn't too long after breakfast and breakfast cleanup that it is time to do lunch and lunch cleanup.  I usually read in the afternoon, check the computer again for any messages and then get started on dinner and dinner cleanup. (I usually cook with wine, and by that I mean, with a glass of wine in my hand while cooking.It is my reward for being a good girl all day)    Lester will spend the afternoon on computer games.  Occasionally we play a game of  Cribbage. Today I vacuumed and cleaned the humming bird feeder and refilled it.  I keep a wary eye on the solar power indicator on the wall here.  If there is plenty of power I will plug in the heater in the linen closet to prevent mildew there.  If not, I will skip that day.  Decisions, decisions!

I put together a jigsaw puzzle on the coffee table.  Spent some time on it each day for about a week
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After dinner we may play another card game, spend some time relaxing on the deck enjoying the evening sounds (Like the whoop, whoop of the frogs) before Lester goes back to his computer as do I.  But he plays games while I look for something on NetFlix before going to bed.  And that is a typical day at home. ( I am really looking forward to going to town tomorrow!!!)

Apologies due to the floating restaurant in Bocas!  In previous post I said that the food was not that great.  I should have said that breakfast was not that great.  But lunch!  Now there is a real winner.  We arrived in town later yesterday so ordered the beer batter fish and chips and, I want to tell you,  that was awesome.  Can't wait to go back!

Lester came down with some kind of flu bug about a week ago and was sick for most of 4 days.  Fever, aches and pains, he slept through most of it and finally came out on the other side about Tuesday.  Wednesday turned out to be a really gorgeous day.  Hardly a cloud in the sky and the water was as smooth as glass all the way into Bocas town and almost that smooth on the way back.  Finding a dock that is open and the business is willing to let you tie up is a bit of a problem.  But at the far end of town is a big boat that is a floating restaurant and has a dock we can use while in town.  Of course, they expect you to eat there as well, which is too bad as the food was not that great. Probably the quality of food offered there  is the reason for the abundance of docking space.  That's my guess anyway.We spent several hours in town.  Had lunch, shopped for groceries.  It was good to get out after so many days at home.

Yesterday we hit the water again, this time making a trip to visit our former neighbors from when we house sat here 2 years ago.  Carl and Mary live on the next bay, Dolphin Bay.  This house is on Almirante Bay.  There are small islands and mangrove mazes everywhere you go.  Easy to get lost here although we remembered some of the routes from the last time we were here (and were often lost back then!) While we were sitting out on their wrap around deck the howler monkeys arrived in the tree tops at the back.  So entertaining to watch them.  Such nice people! Carl and Mary, that is.  I suppose the monkeys are nice too though.

One note of interest, before I forget to mention it, is the short wave radio(single side band, Les calls it) that we have in the house.  Many of the people in the area have one and it is the major means of communication here.  Every morning about 8:00 they make announcements and share  bits of news and  advice.  Throughout the day people contact each other on this radio.  Jan and Brent (home owners here) are Ben 64.

We saw a dolphin out in front of the house this morning. Loved that.  Am watching for a sloth!