The Islands

Utila
"So when you say the ferry leaves at one pm and will take an hour to the islands, what you're saying is the ferry will leave around 3:30p and bob in the middle of the ocean for three hours before making port"...
Well Utila was nuts. It was so incredible and fun, but imagine a small Central American city pushed onto a rocky island and there is Utila! Definitley catering to the backpacker crowd at $7 for a private room and shared bathroom. It had a "pirate" feel, which is what we were looking for. We took Captain Morgan's jet boat out to the cays and then kayaked to Water Cay - famous for having no inhabitants and crystal clear waters. (Our digi cam also decided to kayak, and no longer works! DOH!) Watch out for the rays and the garbage, though! We also had a favorite breakfast place - Thompson's which was a green conrete building that served buscuits and never any cinnoman rolls until our last day! They were worth the wait. We also loved dinner at the Jade Seahorse. The lady from Priates with the carribean cool voice was basically the owner and we had fantastic fish dinners and tacos. We spent most of the time looking at all the eclectic things she's found in the sea and used as art. We did enjoy a long hike to Pumpkin Hill, saw rural farmers with machetes and saw a lot of Italian men with tatoos and speedos.
Roatan
"Shoo, I do it for $150 dollars at six in tha murnin', s'long as da East winds not a blowin'" ~Captain Austin
We busted out of Utila like bandits before sunrise. Enough of that place, we were ready for our real tropical island! We talked a local fisherman into heading to Rotan, and we left before 6am. We saw the sunrise on the Carribean, we saw the pink outline of the jagged mountains Pico Bonito and Nombre de Dios on the mainland, we saw dolphins and jumping tuna, but mainly we got tossed and slammed in a tiny fishing boat in the open seas! (Nothing floatable on the boat of course). Docking in Half Moon Bay an hour and a half later was like a dream. Turquoise waters, a bright yellow breakfast restaurant, palm trees, and the feeling like we finally made it! We are currently still here! We have an incredible jungle garden cabin all to ourselves. Nick & Autumn have a room, we have the other and have a kitchen and bathroom, as well as a parch with hammocks. There are ferns and flowers completely secluding our cabin and it's paradise! We spent the day at the beach of Half Moon Bay yesterday and then had incredible brick oven pizza last night! Today we hiked a few miles to West Bay where the tourists and cruise boats stop. We know why! Sting rays, coral reefs, lots of sun and snorkling! We loved that too, but got too hoity toity, so we headed back to our more humble town of West End.
Tio Cookie is back to being 100%, and we are going to stay a few more months....
Much Love, us