The sister's last fling on Roatan

After our fabulous night swim with the glowing plankton, the afternoon at an internet cafe in La Ceiba and a taxi ride out to the dock, Robin and I found ourselves once again playing cards while waiting for a boat to the bay islands (although this time we found ourselves in the fancy waiting area with AC...). While doing so we met a single girl coming from Utila headed to Roatan for a week long course being trained how to train dolphins--a childhood dream (Zara from Finland). We made immediate friends with her when she mentioned how much she loved to play cards and offered to teach us anew game called Yannif (from Israel) on the boat ride to the island. There was no going back after that...
While waiting to claim our luggage we met two other (rare) backpacker types-two boys from North Carolina-and found that all of us were headed to the same hotel in West End, pretty much the only "budget" place on the island. We ended up arguing/bargaining for an (expensive) taxi ride to West End (two taxis, $10US for each taxi). When we first arrived in West End the driver first took us to a hotel that we didn't ask for (I believe they drivers would have received a commission) and we then spent another few minutes arguing again that we asked to be taken to a different place and that we would not pay them if they did not take us there...ugh. At this point is is almost 7 pm and we finally end up at the right place and choose to share a room with Zara because it was cheaper for us all as the place didn't have dorm rooms. When I went to pay for our share of the room 7 minutes after our arrival, I realized that my coin purse was gone. I quickly caught the taxi driver of the other car that came with our group from the dock (the one I came in had left) and asked if he could phone his co-worker who drove the other taxi because I left my coin purse in the back of the car. The other driver was very unhelpful saying he had no telephone (and what's that at your waist?--"I mean, I don't have his number...") He offered to take me around to look for the car (me paying how much?) and, knowing I only had about 100 or 150 lempira in the purse-maybe 5$-figured I'd swallow the loss. The tragicness is, if I had realized then that my USB port had also been in that wallet rather than 6 days later...that's life I guess. What a mini fiasco, really. Eating dinner that night we were all hit by extreme price shock (things were listed in $US everywhere) but were so hungry we didn't care much (but had Ramon noodles for dinner the next night...). It is a remarkably different experience to arrive somewhere after dark, it leads to a different sort of disorientation and mystery waiting for you in the morning (which is what happened here, because it gets dark at 6:15/6:30 here).
The two islands Roatan and Utila could not have been more different from one another. To start with, the simple size difference between the two makes a difference but the main difference is that Roatan is a fancy resort sort of place. Tourism is huge there, but huge with the higher class luxury resort sort of traveler-not with us backpackers, which is more Utila's style. The beaches however, were far superior to those of Utila. Our first 2 days, we walked about 1 mile along the beach to West Bay(the best beach area on the island) with Nick and Win (the NC boys) and rubbed shoulders with the high rollers for the day, hanging out in the bright blue water, snorkeling, trying no to get sunburned and enjoying our budget lunches of PBJ sandwiches on "economic mold" white bread.
We ate two nights in a row at this wonderful place on the water called The Lighthouse with Zara, Win, and Nick, playing cards every evening with one or all 3 of them. Our 3rd morning Nick, Win, Robin and I took a morning bus to a botanical garden 15 minutes from West End (Zara being at Dolphin training every day) where we walked up to a view point and enjoyed the garden/jungle. After that Robin and I headed to Coxen Hole (the main/largest town on the island and where the cruise ships dock) to go to the bank and change a traveler's check. It wasn't as run down of a town as we were expecting (I mean, with a name like Coxen Hole...) and rather enjoyed our little walk through town. Plus, we ate probably one of the best mango ever after the bank. The rest of our time included some more swimming, a beautiful sunset, more card games...what a rough life. We left Thursday on the afternoon ferry for La Ceiba and caught the last bus back to San Pedro Sula at 5, arriving there at 8:15, eating dinner at the same place we have every other time we've stayed with Luis at Los Molinos, hardly slept that night, got up at 4:15 to take Robin to the airport and say goodbye to my wonderful travel companion of the last 2 weeks...and here begins my next adventure to be given in my next entry.