January 31 - “Roatan, Honduras”

So ... Roatan.  An Island off the coast of Honduras.  Sounds kind of like Galveston.  An island off the coast of Texas.

The captain of our ship kind of showed off his skills when we arrived.  Parallel parking skills, that is. Yep.  He backed the ship into the slip this time.  Pretty impressive driving ...

Our tour of the island was directed by Carmen.  She said we would be visiting some of the “touristical” parts of the island.  That’s when I knew this tour was gonna be good.  We drove past the First Baptist Church of Roatan.  Carmen told us the Methodists were the largest religious group on the island, but “we have all kinds.”  She is Methodist.  Quotes scripture and knows her Bible stories.  Along those lines I noticed that quite a few taxis had stickers on their windshields indicating things like “Jesus es Amor” (Jesus is love).

We went first to another glass bottom boat ride.  The quarters were a lot more cramped this time.  Chris managed like a champ, though.  Focused on taking pictures.  The ride was to look at another reef.  Apparently it’s the second largest barrier reef in the world after Australia.  It was not nearly as beautiful as the last one, but we did see some colorful fish.

Next we went down the street for a stop for some complimentary drinks and to check out the Chocolate Factory.  All the chocolate is made by hand in a little shack, and they just won the contract to provide chocolate for the New York City zoo.

Off to a different part of the island, our stop was at the Roatan Rum Company.  This is the spot “where you have to eat enough rum and drink enough cake.”  Maybe that’s their motto.  Carmen must have said it ten times.  There were no tours or anything.  Just free samples and an incredible view of the water.

As we drove Carmen pulled out different photos for us to inspect.  We saw examples of the nation’s currency, and a mystery photo of some odd-looking fruit.  We were supposed to guess what it was.  During this exercise, all of a sudden she had the driver stop the bus.  She jumped out and ran into the yard of a random house, talked briefly to the resident, and returned.  She had seen a tree with one of the things in the picture growing, so she got permission and picked one.  As it turned out the object was a cashew.  She then passed around a bag of cashews for us to try.  Yum.

On the way back to the ship we drove through the town of Coxen’s Hole.  Captain Coxen was the last pirate to operate out of Roatan.  In Carmen’s words, “They caught him and put him in a hole in the oldest cemetery on the island so he couldn’t leave again.”  It was his idea to name the island after himself.  See, he fancied himself a fox.  He would loot vessels, then return to his fox hole on the island to enjoy the spoils.

Our final stop was at the Stone Castle Cameo Institute.  “Stone Castle” because the building is built out of big rocks.  “Institute” because it is the only place in the world that teaches people how to carve cameos.  We saw a lady actually in the process of carving one.  She was amazing.  Oh, and outside the building were policemen patrolling on foot ... carrying machine guns.  Apparently they contribute to keeping the only jail on the island empty.  Good thing, too.  That jail only has an eighteen person capacity.

Of course we looked for souvenirs.  One place that interested me identified itself as “Tribal Gifts and Art.”  Intrigued, we entered.  Imagine my surprise when I recognized the first tribe’s totem ... a bull’s head with a star ...  Houston Texans.  Yep.  They had totems implanted on items like bags and t-shirts for all the tribes - Bulls, Dolphins, Buccaneers, etc., etc., etc.

Oh, and we did manage to rescue Tippy Toucan.  She flew all the way from Curaçao, so we had to grant her a spot among our menagerie.

2 Timothy 1:7 says, “For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.”

Father, would you please be with Janet today.  Help her to to get stronger so she can enjoy the last few days of the cruise.  Amen.