Don's New Career?

Don may have inadvertently stumbled into a whole new career. Last night we decided on the spur of the moment to go to Blue Bahia for dinner. It is just across the road from us, on the beach. The owners, ex-pats from the U.S., are hoping to create a nice place for ex-pats to gather over dinner. They're both very committed to helping out in the community and are very environmentally conscious residents. They do not buy or serve any of the over-fished species, so no conch, small lobsters or grouper on their menu.

October is a very slow tourism month, so in order to remain open, Kent has been having "specials" every night, very reasonably priced. He also has live entertainment on Wednesday nights, a woman named Deb, who has an amazing voice and plays guitar. We've enjoyed listening to her before and knowing that she would be playing last night was an added draw. So we decided to go, hear Deb sing, and enjoy the shrimp or lobster pasta special. When we walked onto the big covered deck that is the restaurant, we saw our neighbors, Colin, Kaleen and Kelly sitting by the front railing. I just started laughing because the last time we came, spur of the moment, they were also there! It was just too funny. So we joined them for dinner. Kent had changed the menu, no pasta last night, so we opted for the red snapper. Good choice.

Deb sings from 7 p.m. for as long as there are diners. She has a list of song choices ranging from the 1920s to the present time and circulates asking each table to pick a song or a medley of songs, and encouraging the audience to join in the singing. It makes for a fun evening. Deb is a retired music teacher, professional singer and theatre production manager. She moved to Roatan 3 years ago and continues to teach music and conduct a steel pan drum group, as well as perform. She gives free music and dance lessons to the island children several days a week.

She has a beautiful, theatre type singing voice. Last night Don asked her if she had ever recorded any CDs. She said no, she had never even thought about it. Don told her she should. They proceeded to have this long discussion, Deb's son Marcus said he had the equipment to record it, and Deb finally said she would be willing to record one if Don would be willing to produce it! I thought I would fall off my chair laughing! I'll keep you posted on this venture.