There's Something About an Island...

We checked out Rio Dulce in Guatemala, didn't love it, and headed on to the Bay Islands of Honduras where we do love it. It was a heck of a journey to get here, and most say that you can't do it all in a day - but we did.

It's not as impressive when you look at a map and figure it's about 110 miles if you flew straight here from Rio Dulce. It's another story entirely when you sleep through the 5am ferry, catch the 6:30am boat to Puerto Barrios, take a shuttle to the Honduran border, get ripped off by the shuttle driver when he lies to you about the exchange rate and shortchanges you while you're running to catch the yellow-tin-can-grade-school-bus to Puerto Cortes, then another bus to San Pedro Sula, miss the hourly bus to La Ceiba by ...let's just say you don't want to know what we said to the bus as it drove away... load up on snacks from the street market and catch the next "luxury bus" to La Ceiba, then negotiate a cab from the bus station in La Ceiba to the ferry terminal, and take the 4:30pm last and final ferry to Roatan. Of course there's the taxi to the West End of Roatan, which ended up being the most pleasant leg of the journey. We were plotting on shortchanging the cab driver just to make up for the abuse we suffered at the Honduran border, but he was just too nice. He took us to four different places to stay, to an ATM, told us all about the island and helped us learn Spanish. What goes around comes around.

So now we're in Roatan, Honduras. We're staying at a cool little jungalow complete with monkeys, kayaks and free internet. Emily is in dive school right now, I'm going to meet her in a little bit for lunch. We like this place, it's like a UN summit. We've met people from tons of different countries, most living here for the last few years. And OH the diving! We haven't been yet, so I won't gush, but it promises to be good and the prices are ridiculous. $20 a dunk.

Emily and I were talking and wanted to pose a thought to you, while it's on our minds. We were talking about different views on careers and work, and how in the US and some other places, what you do is who you are. We've bumped into a lot of people who don't see it quite that way, and it's a relief. The thought came up because we've gotten such different reactions when we explain what we're doing. A lot of Americans are really surprised we're on the road for four months and say something about how they would love to do that if they could find the time. Some have done it and have a knowing look on their faces. We've bumped into some Brits, Aussies, Israelies, and other Euros who say things like "I guess you could see a lot in only four months. That's a nice trip." One Australian girl we met moved to England on her last backpacking trip, stayed for a while and hit the road once more before completing her round trip journey back to Australia - 5 1/2 years after she left. Granted, we've got a biased opinion, but it's nice to get outside what you know and see how other people live. We are learning that "what you do" is certainly not "who you are." What do you think?

I'm off to pick Emily up for lunch, see how class went, and then we'll dive together this afternoon for the first time. I'm really not handling being apart from her well, I've been by the dive shop a few times in the last couple hours.

This is a nice place for you to come and visit when we're here in the spring! We are here to scope it out for you...