Unusual Sightings

I knew I should have grabbed my camera as we left to go to French Harbor Saturday morning. Here are some of the sightings from that day:
 First thing we encountered was a police checkpoint at the bottom of our hill in front of Bella Napoli pizza. Fortunately we were turning right, not left, so we avoided it. That wasn't really worthy of a photo, but the next one was.
As we neared Coxen Hole, we saw another roadblock of sorts: a mattress standing on end, blocking the westbound lane of the road. As we passed it, we saw that it was being held up by a man on the opposite side AND there was another man lying on the pavement. Just then, a police car pulled up with a brief "whrrrr" of it's siren, and the man lying on the road sat up with a big grin on his face. We didn't stay to see how that turned out.
Third: another police checkpoint outside the airport, but we weren't stopped. Actually, this is a fairly common occurance, especially outside the airport.
Fourth: In Las Fuertes, kids standing in the middle of the road at both ends of the "business district"  collecting money in large plastic jars bearing a picture of someone. This is not an uncommon way of collecting money for someone in need of surgery or some other type of help. This stretch of road is typically congested with cars and people and this collection just made it more so.
Fifth: (this was a good one) we came up behind a pickup truck whose bed was loaded with police carrying automatic weapons and sitting in the midst of them were two young women who didn't look at all happy. Very curious.

We returned home just ahead of the big storm that was rolling in and thankfully had enough time to unload the car before the rain began. It rained so hard that it actually plugged up our electronic rain gauge, forcing water into the battery compartment, so we're really not sure how much rain fell on Saturday, but since Monday we're showing 6.48 inches recorded rainfall. The storm is blowing out of the NNW at 35+ mph with seas up to 11 feet. We haven't spent much time out on our deck, which faces NW for obvious reasons. The lowest temperature we've seen thus far is 63 degrees and yesterday's high only around 71 or 72 degrees. We're all wearing socks, long sleeves, sweaters. Sounds funny, I know, to all of you in the States battling below zero temps, but that's chilly for the tropics.

We're also experiencing power surges, outages and high voltage readings. Our APC unit was acting up yesterday and when Don checked the voltage, it was running at 138 volts, so we unplugged his PC and the router to avoid damaging the computers.  When the voltage is that high, the pump from the well will not run. Fortunately, with all this rain, there is plenty of water in the rain collection tanks to supply the houses up on our hill.

Rainy day activities: Kris and I spent the afternoon loading some of my music onto her iPod and looking at her pictures from Italy. We now have a film library of over 400 movies and t.v. series seasons on an external hard drive that Rachel and Lance gave us for Christmas, so Don watched Blade Runner. I don't usually like futuristic/sci-fi movies, which is why I opted to help Kris instead. It's also a good time to be running the oven, so Kris made a big batch of granola and I baked muffins.

Someone asked me about Kris and I guess I haven't made it clear who that is. Kris is Kristin, our friend from Montana, whom we met here on Roatan early last year and then visited in Montana in July. She returned to Roatan the same day we did. She didn't yet have a place rented, so we invited her to stay with us while she looks for a suitable place to live.  She's a good cook, so we've been sharing the meal preparations.

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Catching Up

We're still settling in and catching up. Yesterday we did some laundry and gave the tile floors a serious scrubbing with the Floormate (love that machine!). Our house guest, Kristin, has begun looking for a place to rent, so she's been in contact with old friends, using the island grapevine for leads on available places.

We've also been pretty social this week, visiting friends around the island. We dropped Kris off in West End to visit with friends and then drove out to West Bay to visit  former neighbors and friends, Colin and Kellie, before they leave for a 10 day visit to Florida. They've moved again, now staying in the fabulous condos at Keyhole Bay. Kellie still has Moe, the crazy cat we've often cat-sat, who seems to have settled down. He did not attack our feet or nip either one of us. Kellie has also acquired a dog, a chihuahua named Cosita who is smaller than the cat...a lot smaller. Kellie greeted us at the door with Cosita in her arms, dressed in a sparkly little outfit (Cosita, not Kellie) and immediately led us to her room to show off the rest of Cosita's wardrobe. Cosita is such a tiny little thing, she probably enjoys the warmth of being dressed in little outfits. She is very sweet and lovable and apparently gets along pretty well with Moe, now that he's reconciled himself to the idea that she's not leaving anytime soon. He's probably thankful that Kellie doesn't try to dress him as much, although she did try to stuff him into a little black tuxedo-looking vest outift; he wasn't thrilled.

Colin's latest housekeeper/cook prepared a wonderful lunch for us: curried chicken breasts, rice cooked with curry and spicy black beans. Delish! Colin now has his boat club up and running and was taking a client out on one of the boats. He invited us to go, but we declined this time - I'm fighting a bit of a sore throat.

After we picked Kris up, we drove her back to Sandy Bay to look at a house that will soon be available. It didn't seem to be a good choice for her though. Not sure she would be safe enough in that spot. So, she'll stay with us and keep looking. She'll be housesitting for other friends the last half of this month which will give her more time to find something suitable.

Don had a men's dinner/fellowship event at church last night. Kris and I went to Bob and Debi's for their Friday night pizza and fun. Great pizzas, homemade crusts - so good. Debi had purchased Blindside from the movie pirate, so we settled in to watch. Excellent movie. If you haven't yet seen it, you should.

A Break In The Clouds

We were quite excited to see the sun pop out - first time since our arrival 6 days ago. This certainly called for a walk on the beach, so we ate a quick lunch, grabbed our cameras, sunglasses and hats and took off down the hill to the beach. This was the first time our friend, Kristin, had walked on the Sandy Bay beach, so it was fun to show it to her. Don found a lovely, unbroken conch shell that had washed ashore at the last high tide.

We had not walked long when Don noticed these very dark rain clouds moving our way. We were just about to turn back when the rain began to fall, luckily just a gentle sprinkle.

The clouds looked ominous so we decided to get a move on it.

It was a short walk, but we enjoyed every second of it.

An Unplanned Day

Some days just take an interesting path, like today. We had no set plans for today. A cool, rainy morning greeted us and we were quite content, sitting on the covered deck with cups of hot coffee. I had just read Tia's e-mail about a bilingual women's brunch at church today when her car pulled up in front of our house. She was stopping to cut some heliconia from our yard and asked if we were coming today. Kris and I quickly decided that we would go.

The brunch was wonderful and well attended with upwards of 50 women, most of whom were from the nearby colonia and who spoke only Spanish. The brunch was the work of the two mission teams who are staying at the church. Pictures were taken and small gifts were given to each woman. Esmerelda (our former Spanish teacher and a wonderful singer) led the singing in a time of worship. It was beautiful to hear all those voices lifted in song! One of the women from the team delivered an encouraging message to the women, telling them how much God loved them and how they could have joy even during the most difficult times in their lives. Several of the women wiped away tears as she spoke. They need hope. She encouraged them to be supportive of one another, to pray for each other. It was interesting to watch their reactions when the brunch was served - quiche, a banana nut muffin and fruit. They had no idea what quiche was and seemed afraid to try it. Some nibbled at the fruit, other bravely tasted the quiche and saw that it was good. Most took at least some of their food home. Some also wanted to take the plastic utensils home. They did love the coffee that was served and drank lots of it. After the brunch, bags of food containing (raw) rice and beans and other things were passed out to the women from the colonia. Quite a lovely morning.

I took Kris back to the house, and Don said let's drive up to our lawyer's office in French Harbor. I called to make sure she would be there and learned that she was in Coxen Hole. She suggested that we meet her there at the bank, so off we went. We sat in the (oddly quiet) bank lobby and visited with her, catching up on news and giving her another document needed for acquiring residency here. We popped into Warren's to get some rosemary (no luck) and salt...and they had bread! Lots of it! But I had just bought a freshly baked loaf of still warm wheat bread at the church coffee shop.

We decided to walk down the street toward the cruise ship pier and check out the new souvenier shop our friends Bob and Debi built to sell locally made artwork and jewelry. We bought a small painting by Luma who also attends our church. While there, we met a group of people from the cruise ship who asked directions to Yaba Ding Ding, another gift shop. We decided to walk them there since it was back just past where we had left our car. We had a nice visit with them; they were very curious about living on the island.

Next left the Hole, stopping by Walter's car wash and auto repair to get replacement brake light bulbs. He didn't have any but directed us to a shop near our bank back in the Hole. We drove by there but didn't find it. We'll go back and walk along there, maybe we'll find it. We made a quick stop at Plaza Mar, searching for some rosemary, which we didn't find, and ran into friends Lynn and Bob and spent some time catching up with them.

On the way home, we drove on up to Dennis and Merlin's to see the new house which we call the Starship Enterprise because of it's dramatic rounded design. It is pretty impressive. They had other guests and were watching a George Jones concert video and when that ended, a Tina Turner concert. They invited us to stay and watch, so we did. It was a fun afternoon in an interesting, unplanned day.

Restocking

After a delightful meal last night at the home of Bob and Debi and awaking to a short list of food options, I resolved to drive up to Eldon's in French Harbor for some major restocking of cupboards and fridge. Our breakfast choices were limited to eggs or pancakes. I opted for the cakes and as I was preparing them, Dennis and Merlin dropped by to welcome us back. Yup, the pancakes got cold, but were easily reheated. As I was cleaning up, I noticed that the little sugar ants are back and had discovered the box of pancake mix. I added gallon-sized ziplock bags to the grocery list.

My other goals: get additional minutes for my Honduran phone, find bread, and avoid getting rear-ended as two of the three tail lights on the Rav4 are burned out.

Don's goal for today was to get the rest of the hurricane shutters down. He got three of them removed from the steepest side of the house before the rain drove him back inside. At least Kris can see out her bedroom window now. We left him to his chores and set off for French Harbor.

Top of my list was bread. Plaza Mar had none yesterday. Eldon's didn't have any either. And no tortillas in either store. Hard to make a sandwich without bread of some kind. We settled on crackers and they had my beloved Triscuits! And they had the good yogurt and soft margarine with olive oil. Their produce wasn't too good though, except for a lovely yellow bell pepper.

Kris's goal for the day was to get some cash from an ATM, get more minutes for her phone and take a walk. Eldon's has an ATM but as she walked up to it, she realized that she had not brought her card with her. When we finished our shopping, we stopped at a bank to see if she could exchange her Euros for Lempira. Nope.

Next stop: the new Mega Mall grocery store where we just ran in and asked if they had any bread. Yes! They had a half dozen loaves of white bread, nothing else, so we grabbed it and headed home. It was already after twelve and I knew Don would be wanting some lunch. We'll have to go back and explore this store and the other shops in the new mall (with an Applebee's and Wendy's) another time.

After a quick lunch, Kris and I headed to West End. The first ATM was out of order and the first three shops had no Claro phone cards. We walked way down the beach road to Kris' old apartment to see if her pal Olman was still around. He still works there but was off today. She visited with several other people before we headed back to complete our mission. I found the veggie truck and made a few purchases. Kris found a working ATM at Coconut Tree and got some cash. We finally found phone cards at Woody's. Whew! Oh yeah, I forgot to mention how much fun it is walking down the beach road which is pitted with potholes of all sizes (some large enough to swallow a small dog) and all full of water. We did avoid getting splashed somehow. We also mostly avoided getting rained on, but as soon as we got back home, there was a torrential downpour. And we avoided getting rear-ended. Most of the shutters are off and Don fixed the dishwasher. So, all-in-all, a good day.

The Return

We rose early yesterday, up by 3 a.m. Don had loaded all our bags in the car the night before so we essentially just dressed, tossed a few toiletries into our carry-on, hugged the sad-looking dogs and bundled up for the ride to the airport. We were glad to be leaving the 8 degree St. Louis weather behind. Rachel and Lance braved the cold and the early hour to drive us to the airport, collect our coats and send us off with big hugs.

We were not prepared for the chaos at the terminal. Despite the recent episode and the heightened security, we just didn't imagine that it would be packed at 4 a.m. on the first Saturday in January. It took awhile to find the end of the Continental line as it curled around, interweaving with the Delta and American lines, and once in place, we noticed that no one was working at the Continental counter. Not good. The other lines began to move, slowly at first, then more quickly, giving us a bit more space. Finally a couple of agents came out, looked around, disappeared and repeated this performance a couple of times. At 4:30 one of them motioned those at the head of the line to step up to the kiosks. I had hope that we would start to move, but no. Either every kiosk was not working properly or every person in line had issues that needed to be resolved by one of the two agents because we were still stagnant. Don muttered "we're never going to make that 6 a.m. flight". We slowly moved up and took our turn.

I knew we had not been assigned seats on the flight to Houston and right away got a message that the flight was oversold, did we want to opt out and get a voucher? Are you kidding? No. Continuing on, we were fortunate to get seats, not together, but so what, and proceeded with weighing our 4 bags to be checked: 50 lbs, 50 lbs, 50 lbs, oops - a smidge over 50 lbs. but ok (Don stuck his glass cases in that bag). The clock said 5:05.

We had already paid for the 2 extra bags online, so we hauled them over to the drop point and raced downstairs to terminal A and came to a screeching halt - security was backed up clear down the hallway to concourse A. (I know...that should not have been a surprise given the huge crowd upstairs.) Don and I both muttered "we're never going to make it". A TSA agent heard similar mutterings and assured all of us that we would be through the check-point in 15-20 minutes and actually, the lines did move pretty well. I heard them announce that our flight was boarding before we got up to the stripping point.

Finally, our turn came and we were ready tossing jackets, shoes, laptops, carry-ons, purse, pocket contents into the bins, doing fine....until a TSA agent held up my carry-on and asked if it was mine. He needed to search it. Great. It's 5:45 and they're boarding my plane and he wants to pull everything out of my carefully packed bag...and he did. I had packed two small external hard drives, the PC to tv connector, i-Pod, chargers, camera, etc. very neatly in the bottom of the bag. He pulled it all out, put it flat in a bin and re-scanned everything. "Ok, you're good to go." I hastly shoved everything not-so-neatly back in the bag and took off running. It was 5:50 a.m. We hurried down the concourse - fortunately only halfway down, to our gate and boarded the plane. The crew kindly waited for 2 other passengers who were still wading through security. Then we waited while our wings were de-iced before taxiing out. The tarmac had some ice and a light dusting of snow.

Once in the air, I finally exhaled and gave thanks that we were onboard and on our way. I then realized that it was still very cold inside the plane. I was thankful that I was wearing socks and real shoes, long pants, light sweatshirt and t-shirt, but I was still cold. People around me began rummaging in their bags, pulling out whatever clothing they had. I assumed the entire plane was cold but, no, I later learned that Don was nice and warm in the back of the plane.

Two hours later, we landed in Houston where it was 34 degrees but warm inside the terminal. I was so cold; it took awhile to really warm up. We had a great breakfast and lots of hot coffee at Ruby's just outside the international terminal. The flight to Roatan was only half-full, a sign I suppose, that tourism has not completely revived despite the travel restrictions being lifted.

We landed on Roatan 20 minutes early and were lucky enough to deboard the plane and get inside before the rain began. We were the only passengers waiting to clear customs and with only half as many passengers and three customs agents working, it didn't take long. Our bags all arrived safely (a blessing), and there was our pal, Debi, waiting at the door! Also her hubby, Bob, our Honduran lawyer and her husband (not to greet us, waiting on someone else, but still nice to see them). It was pouring outside, so we stayed under the roof talking. When the rain let up, Bob ran out and moved his car up to the curb to load our bags. Debi stayed behind with our car to await Kristin's arrival on the Delta flight.

It is still rainy season, so it's cooler (mid-70's) and very lush and green everywhere. Our hillside looks like a jungle. We'll have to get a gardener in here to trim back trees and bushes.

But our house was in good shape. Debi and her housekeeper had come over this week and uncovered furniture, swept up all the gecko poop, made ice, cleaned bathrooms (amazing how nasty toilets get when unused for 6 months!) and put clean sheets on the bed. So nice. We are so greatful for the dear friends we have made here.

Debi and Kris arrived a short time later bearing a few bags of groceries and Debi invited us to supper. I took a raincheck on dinner. We had not had lunch and decided to just combine a late lunch and early dinner at Oasis, unpack a bit, and get to bed early. After all, we're here for 6 months; we have lots of time for fun!!