Thanksgiving on Roatan

Photo credit: Debi Cowen

This is our first Thanksgiving on the island, but not the first without family. Our family is so far-flung across the U.S. that it is difficult to get together for many holidays. There are so many Americans and Canadians living on Roatan that we now have many people to celebrate with. (Canadians have their own Thanksgiving, but also love to share in ours.)

Our friends, Jeremy and Melissa, who pastor the rChurch in West Bay organized the 3rd annual community Thanksgiving Potluck attended by at least 150 people!! This year the dinner was held at the Beach Club at San Simeon, next to the Mayan Princess in West Bay. Beautiful place, open and airy, and plenty of room for everyone.

I volunteered to cook one of the 7 turkeys served and also made mashed potatoes and, of course, gravy. (By the way, the 12.3 pound Butterball turkey cost $25.00!! How does that compare to the U.S.?)  It was a fairly warm day, too, 86 ˚ in the kitchen, but the gable fans pulled in a good breeze all day.

The dinner started at 5:30. We were a bit late as the turkey wasn't quite done when I began to carve it. The tables were loaded with food, and the people were already lined up in a long line when we arrived. Our friend, Courtney, who takes several young island teenagers under her protective wing, brought 5 or 6 of them to the dinner and boy, did they feast!!

Amazingly, the bar was already out of wine when we arrived leaving many people disappointed. (There had been two cruise ships in that day, but I wouldn't think that they would have drunk much wine.) One of the employees ran out to the grocery store and grabbed several boxes of Almanden wine which they then served.

Photo by Don

It was a lovely evening. Met several "new" people and chatted with many acquaintances. The children had a grand time running around, chasing one another. They could run outside onto the beach and right back inside. The above photo shows the beach with the inside of the club lit up in the rear. Those strange looking beds on the beach, some with curtains, are for the guests to lounge upon. One of the beds with the curtains also sways, as the kids quickly discovered and took full advantage of.

We had two Thanksgiving dinners this year, the one above on Wednesday night, and a restaurant meal on Thursday. We really enjoyed the brined, smoked and roasted turkey with all the usual trimmings at Kent's Blue Bahia. And I finally got a piece of pumpkin pie. Delicious!!
Thursday was a challenging day is some ways. The power went out twice for 60-90 minutes at a time. Fortunately, most people cook with gas here. I was thankful that I wasn't cooking though as none of my electric appliances would have worked.

We'll be finishing up the leftovers today with turkey noodle soup made from the carcass. Hope your Thanksgiving was also wonderful.