Our first full day in Roatan dawns bright and sunny. And thank goodness – it’s our only day with no plans! We have a lot of diving in the days ahead, a wedding and a sailing trip, so it’s good to have one day where we can just relax and do nothing.
After breakfast, we grab our beach gear and head out to find the perfect spot on the beach to chill for awhile.
Eventually, we find a nice spot in front of Sundowners Beach Bar. Emma had checked it out the night before while I stayed back in the room. Since it’s right on the beach, it’s the perfect place to relax, read and have drinks close at hand.
Looks like they’re all ready for a bonfire later tonight.
Puppy! This little guy belongs to the owners of Sundowners and hangs out with us all morning.
At least until his owners come back. Then it’s “Kelsey and Emma who?”
The life of a dog is ruff (sorry not sorry for the bad pun).
Since it’s our first day in the sun, we try to limit our exposure. Well, at least I do. I go for a few swims to keep cool. But there isn’t a ton of available shade and despite copious amounts of sunscreen, both Emma and I get burned. The sun here is intense! Good thing the rest of the week we’ll be under water most of the day, so hopefully it won’t get worse.
While swimming, I check out my new toy, the GoPro Dome
To prevent further frying, we leave the beach after a couple hours to find lunch. Just up the street from Sundowners, above Coconut Tree Divers is a nice little sports bar with excellent views of the beach.
Love seeing my Seahawks represented in random places.
The food is good, but overshadowed by the hummingbird feeder in front of us. So many hummingbirds flying in and out!
While we’re on the topic of food, Emma’s friend also recommended Thai Place, so after a cooling nap in our air conditioned room, we head down the street to check it out.
The setting is fantastic. Still full from lunch, we stick to drinks for now. Emma has a Monkey La-La – a drink Honduras is known for. It has coconut, sweetened condensed milk and rum, and is blended like a Pina Colada. It’s waaaaay too sweet for me.
Emma studies for her deep dive tomorrow while I catch up on some long overdue reading. I really need to make more time for reading in my day-to-day life.
Funny story (now – at the time I was unamused). Just after taking the picture below of the crab, my sunglasses fall off my head and into the water. Crap! That’s my only pair! I run back to the hotel for my snorkel mask, jump in the water and spend the next 5-10 minutes splashing around, searching for a needle in a haystack. Thankfully, I eventually spot them. One of the waiters at the restaurant helps me out and offers to wash them off. Relieved I head back to the table where Emma is laughing her head off and the rest of the diners are staring. At least I got my sunglasses back!
After my rescue mission, it’s time for dinner. Well, mostly we feel bad for taking up a table for so long without ordering food, but we should eat. Neither Emma nor I are very hungry (thanks humidity) so we decide to split a plate of Phad Thai. Unbelievably, it’s $16.25. That’s twice what Phad Thai costs at home. It’s not even a particularly large plate. So far, Roatan hasn’t been as cheap as expected, but this is kind of incredible. I guess they’re charging for the sunsets as well.
Tomorrow we start our dives and I’m excited to see what it’s in store for us.
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