Guatemala, Belize and Honduras 2018

Well 2018 has been a busy year of travel and the best news, we are grandparents. Evan James Langel was born on August 29th and is healthy, happy boy! 💙 

We left Guatemala at the end of December and arrived in Placencia, Belize on New Year's Day. We stayed in Belize until we had a weather window to get to Roatan and in April we made the passage to West End, Roatan. We did some diving in West End, then came up the Fantasy Island Marina in French Harbor. We then went to Hawaii for the birth of our grandson. Here are a few highlights.

Guatemala

A side road in the town of San Felipe.  

A friend of ours, Josha and his mom.  We gave him the hat 😀

Our friend Patric, s/v Southern Mist, before he left for Switzerland.  

Mike finally got his quadcopter drone.  Check the link at the end of the post to see his footage.

The beautiful bridge path at Tortugal Marina that leads to the road.

Another bridge at Tortugal.

One of our favorite restaurants, Kangaroo's, beautiful place.

Before we left Guatemala we took Ka'imi out on Lake Izabel to test all her systems.

Castille de San Felipe is a fort that sits at the top of the Rio Dulce and the mouth of Lake Izabel.

Hanging out on the pulpit.

Another favorite restaurant, Casa Perico.  Enjoying with good friends Susan, Patric, Gaby, Charlie and Jerry.

Belize

We enjoyed the January blood moon in Placencia Harbor.

Fishermen coming home.

The waters in Belize can be so clear.  This picture was taken from the deck of our boat.

The island of Ranguana, the last we see of Belize as we head out the cut on our passage to Roatan.

Zoey on passage, not too excited about it. 😟

West End, Roatan

West End, Roatan harbor.

West End beach.

Mike making new friends. 😂

Zoey loving being at anchor. 💕

Another beautiful sunset.

The USCG Eagle is a 295 ft. training cutter that is the only active sailing ship in US military service. She dates back seven generations of ships to 1792 when US coast guard used its first ship – ‘Revenue Cutter Eagle.’ The Eagle was originally christened Horst Wessel in Hamburg in 1936, after a Nazi hero, in the presence of Adolf Hitler. She trained German sailors until WWII broke out and in 1942 she was armed and patrolled Baltic Sea. After the defeat of Germany, Horst Wessel was won by the United States in a drawing of lots with the Soviet and British navies and given to the US Coast Guard. Since 1946 every single new US cadet undergoing officer training has begun his or her career by learning to traverse the seas the old way, by trimming sails and scrubbing the decks.

We visited the ship with our friends Deborah and Chris.  We found out about the free event while we were having beers at the Booty Bar in West End.  We were sitting next to some of the the cadet crew and they told us about it.  Very nice ship and crew!

Of course we must end the day with beers. 🍻

French Harbor, Roatan

Deborah crewed with us on our passage to French Harbor.

The water is so clear and the beaches beautiful.

Zoey chillaxin' again. 😎

Fantasy Island has three monkeys left a baby and two adults.  The baby played with us a bit, but the mother bit Kim in the ankle. 😖

The Garífuna people trace their ancestry back to a slave ship that wrecked on the reefs off the island of St. Vincent (Lesser Antilles) in the early 18th Century. As a result of intermarriage, the Garínagu (this is what the Garifunas call themselves in their own language) are a mixture of African, Arawak, and Carib genes. When the British took over Saint Vincent after the Treaty of Paris in 1763, they were opposed by French settlers and their Carib allies. The Carib eventually surrendered to the British in 1796. The British separated the more African-looking Caribs from the more indigenous looking ones. Five thousand Black Caribs were exiled to Roatan, but only about 2,500 of them survived the voyage. The village of Punta Gorda in Roatan was the first Garífuna village and remains today. 

Once a week on Sunday they perform a show of African drums and their own unique dance, the Punta. It was very exciting.

CLICK HERE for some of Mike's drone footage.

It has been a fun and exciting year, next post will share some pictures of our grandson Evan 👶💕

Cheers Kim, Mike and Zoey.

West End, Roatan - Road Trip, Jungle Walk and Town

West End, Roatan, anchorage

Still hanging out in West End Harbor, Roatan.  We're still looking for a weather window to sail to Guanja.  We are not complaining the scuba diving is great and there are lots of sites for diving. Luckily the dive shop Roatan Divers held on to the BC (buoyancy compensator) they were selling, and we were able to purchase it.  They are a great dive shop and the owners, Karl and Saaya, are very knowledgeable and helpful!

We decided to skip a day of diving and do a land tour of the Island. We rented a van with our friends Patric and Nicole on s/v Southern Mist, John and Donna on s/v Tried and True, and Alan on s/v Kristiana.  The picture below is a restaurant at the east end of the island, La Sirena.  We drove there and then worked our way back to the West End.  We had some appetizer's and drinks and enjoyed the beautiful coastline.

 La Sirena Restaurant and Bar

The East End beaches were beautiful!

East End Beach

They do not insure rental vehicles here on the island...LOL..so if you break it you buy it.  Mike was a little concerned after seeing some of the roads we had to travel and how the locals drive.  He was a bit worried.

What!!! No insurance!

Some of the roads at the East End of the island were very bumpy dirt roads, which was one of the concerns for travelling with no insurance.

East End Road

Mike relaxed a bit when we got back onto paved roads.

Mike a bit more relaxed.

The road trip gang, Alan, Patric, Nicole, Kim, Donna and John at East end.  Mike was taking the picture.

The gang.

Two more  beautiful pictures of the East End beaches.

East End beach.

East End beach.

Marble Hill Farms is an eco-lodge on the East End and they also make their own jellies, jams and sauces so we stopped by to have a taste.  They were all fantastic pretty yummy.  We settled on the Mutton Pepper Jelly which is very spicy and delicious.

Marble Hill Farms

We had a great lunch at Temporary Cal's Cantina.  The food and atmosphere were awesome! Mike and I had the Mahi-Mahi tacos and were not disappointed.

Temporary Cal's Cantina

Our next land trip was a visit to the Mayan Jungle Canopy.  I had thought it was a jungle walk with birds and monkeys, that were not caged, but when we got there we found that all the animals were in cages and it was a very small place.  We do not usually patronize zoos, but took an exception to see these beautiful animals.  They were very well taken care of, but we would prefer them free!  Below is one of the beautiful Macaws.

Macaw

Donna feeding a banana to a Spider monkey.

Spider Monkey

Nicole being drooled on while this Spider monkey ate watermelon on here head.

Spider Monkey

Mike with a beautiful parrot.

Parrot

John with one of the Macaws.

Macaw

Macaw

Kim with a Spider Monkey and watermelon.  They loved the watermelon.

Spider Monkey

Spider Monkey

Spider Monkey

Spider Monkey

What the heck lady, you got spit ends and they are bad!

Spider Monkey giving Kim hair tips.

Below is a Kinkajou which are usually nocturnal.

Kinkajou

We also ran into our friends Tom and Colleen from s/v Unplugged!

Tom and Colleen s/v Unplugged

This is Woody's Groceries in West End.  It is a not as big as the Eldon's in Coxen Hole, but it is much closer.

Woody's Groceries

Main Street in West End, this was a very slow day there must not have been cruise ships in dock. Usually the streets are packed.

Main Street, West End

West End Divers is a great dive shop.  This is where we get our tanks filled after each dive.  The manager Andy and all the staff are very nice and helpful!  We would highly recommend them if you ever visit the island.

West End Divers

Below is the West End Divers dock where we bring our dinghy to have our tanks filled.  It is super convenient.

West End Divers

One of many street food vendors along Main Street.  You can find very affordable and good food along the street.

Street Food Vendor

You know I had to throw some animal pictures in the post.  The animals here are much healthier than other places.  There are cats in about every shop along the street and dogs ramble freely making friends.

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Lastly a view from Temporary Cal's Cantina, pretty amazing!

Temporary Cal's Cantina

Cheers Kim and Mike