Feeling a little better

I decided to walk to West Bay over road for a change of scenery. The walk is only 5.3 km; round trip doesn't get my days quota in. So I hooked a right at the end of town and walked up a hill and kept on walking up a hill. Not a lot going on in the center of this island, there is just lush vegetation and the occasional entrance to a resort. Two kilometers into this hike in the direct sun, temperature in the mid eighties, high humidity. At the 3k mark I stopped to catch my breath. Man I am one sorry son of a bitch. The view from the summit was pretty amazing, miles of jungle ending at the azure waters of the Caribbean.

West Bay is long expanses of white sand and luxury resorts. A few lucky sods have houses right on the beach, maybe forty feet from the water. Is that Charlie Parker? Where da hoes? I sat down at the ??? bar. This place did not sell bottled water, you bought water in paper cups or buy a $6 nalgene bottle or $8 aluminum bottle and get free refills for life. That was a good price for the aluminum bottle alone and it says "Roatan, Honduras" on it. I took one. The bartender said, "Did you just walk in from the West End?" "Yup." "Man, that is tough." The guy sitting next to me looked over at the bartender, I didn't see his expression but the bartender said, "He walked the road." The guy said "Wow!" and the girl said "You know you can come by beach." "Yahh, I did that a couple of days ago, but I needed a change of scenery all I have seen for the last five days is endless stretches of white beach and deep blue water." I don't think they knew what to make of that. In any event I was feeling a little better.

I walked to the dive center and inquired about the shark dive. Apparently for $100 you can you put yourself on the edge of a feeding frenzy of eight foot reef sharks. There is a big cage of dead bloody fish and when it is opened the sharks go nuts. Seems like a must do to me. Probably not everybody's cup of tea. "They don't answer their phone, they haven't answered it four days." "They must have caller ID I talked with a guy who went on the dive the other day. I'll check through my dive shop." I did notice that they have a package of 15 dives for $375. I'll have to talk with the guys back at Reef Runners and tell them we need to work out a better deal. I wouldn't go to West Bay, I can't go more than 100 feet here (West End) without a "Hey, Jim" from one of the local proprietors or diving buddies. West Bay is upscale, the staff at the resorts are just doing a job, not living the dream. The guys running their own businesses in the West End living the dream, in Paradise, loving life.

It looked like rain, great excuse to take a taxi back. I paid for my bottle with a twenty dollar US bill and was given my change in Limpare. With a quick calculation I realized that he actually had given me a damn good exchange rate, but still I asked for my change in dollars.

We had to wait for ten minutes some other passengers wanted to come along. The boat was moored offshore, I would have to take off my boots and wade over to the boat. When we got to the West End the step off the boat onto the dock dedicated for water taxi use was over 30 inches. There is next to no tide here. Get a clue.