February 2, 2015: Roatan, Honduras

Our first stop was in Roatan, Honduras.  Dive shops about Roatan. Home to the world's second-largest coral reef, this diver's paradise is teeming with colorful marine life.  Though just as colorful are all the characters that have passed through the sandy shores of this beautiful Bay Island. Roatan has a long and tangled history of Paya Indians, Spanish conquistadors, British pirates, rebel slaves and more recently, European and North American expats. But it's not just the underwater wonders that have lured foreigners to lay down their roots here.  Roatan has a very unique cultural identity unlike anywhere else on the mainland of Honduras.  Everything here has been perfectly seasoned with Caribbean flavor---from the music and local cuisine to the laid back island lifestyle.

At 31 miles long and no more than five miles wide, Roatan is the largest of the Honduras' Bay Islands.

Mom and I signed up for the zip line tour.    I have wanted to go zip lining so convinced her to go along.     We had to put on a bunch of equipment in order to zip line.      They had to give me extra because of my weight, which was so embarrassing, yet brought us a bunch of laughs.        

I was scared the first time I went, but it ended up being lots of fun and I did pretty well at it.    Mom went by herself on the first couple of traverses, but then went with the guide for the rest, as it made her nervous. I thought it was a blast.         Of course, I got a bunch of photos of us.   There were 12 traverses all through the jungles of Roatan.       If you are afraid of heights, I probably wouldn't recommend this tour.

After zip lining, we got to hang out with some monkeys. I had one on my shoulder, who tried to climb over my head. It was quite funny.      

After the tour, we ran into Marianne, who said they had gone swimming and were now shopping. I went into the store where Joy and Kim where shopping.       Then, Mom and I walked over to this indoor flea market. She got a beautiful piece of pottery.      Then, we were going to walk around the town.  This little boy followed us around.    He was quite interesting.  Mom got scared so we turned around.  At the end of the walk, the little boy asked for money.  Mom gave him $5 but it was partly torn.  He said he couldn't accept torn money, so she gave him $1.  I guess he learned his lesson that ripped money is still just as valuable.