In the trees
Last night there was some strong storms that shook Gladys’s house. The intensity of the rain was next level however when daybreak hit the rain had stopped. When I checked my DarkSky app it indicated that the day should be mostly cloudy with no significant precipitation. This app is incredibly accurate in the US but it seems that accuracy is not as good here because there appears to not be the same level of weather radar coverage as in the US.
During the morning Gladys had a number of work related errands to take care of. She has to be somewhat of a fireman, handling whatever issues come up with clients and the rentals she manages. I just rode shotgun and brought along the book I started reading, The Travelers Gift. It’s a relatively short read with a lot of important simple truths spun in a way that keeps your interest. I should finish it soon.
After the errands were done we stopped at a place Gladys knows well where we had a very traditional Honduran breakfast which was tasty. As I mentioned the weather forecast was not very accurate as we were experiencing off and on sessions of rain for most of the day. During a break in the rain we decided to go to the nearby zip line/ATV/animal park. Originally we were thinking about doing all three but decided to drop the ATVs because Gladys says you get incredibly dirty on a normal day, doing it after a day of off/on rain would have been a pretty big mess.
I had one other reason I was not thrilled with the idea of driving an ATV, my right wrist. During the morning I was down in the driveway. There is a bed filled with agave plants. Agave plants are very cool but they also have spears on their ends that are incredibly sharp. As I was near one of them I spun around to look for something. As I did, I inadvertently stabbed myself, hard on my right wrist joint.
The pain was instant but what I couldn’t believe that in the time I looked at my wrist there was a ton of blood which also rolled into my palm. I must have really went deep. Luckily because it was a small puncture it stopped bleeding pretty quickly but the pain was significant. As the day has advanced there has been swelling in the area that has greatly reduced range of motion in the joint. A quick web search revealed some scary outcomes for agave stabbings but most of the scenarios talked about seeing how things are in 24 hours before reevaluating the need for more attention. So anyway by the time we got to the venue, twisting the throttle with my right hand would have been a joke.
So we opted to just do the zip lines and the animal display which includes monkeys, tropical birds, sloths and more. We got harnessed up as well as having helmets attached to your cranium. The way they do this normally is with two guides. One guide goes down the line ahead of you and then operates the brake at the landing zone, the other guide is responsible for making sure each rider is securely latched in.
In total there are 10 zip line segments. Reaching some of them requires climbing some pretty substantial sets of stairs. The only zip lining I had done that I could recall was doing it superman style over old Vegas.
There was one other couple that was with us. The four of us took turns in order. Gladys and I switched back and forth a lot so we could alternate taking pictures/videos of us coming and going. Because my legs are so long I tried to pay careful attention to make sure they were pulled as high as possible when coming to a stop, there isn’t a lot of clearance at some spots on the landing deck.
As we did more segments the guide had us be a bit more daring. First he encouraged us to do running starts where you take a few steps and dive off the platform, which was fun. He then surprised me by saying on one particular line we could go upside down. You basically lower yourself totally upside down and let your arms hang. Three of the four of use decided to give inverted a try. It was fun and different watching the vista fly by while upside down. The only real important detail is to make sure you pull yourself back up normal position before hitting the landing deck, obviously.
I found the construction of the park interesting. I found myself imagining the challenges of building these structures in the middle of a jungle. There were also some suspension bridges that looked pretty beat but they got the job done. By the time we finished up the last segment I felt like a zip line veteran.
After getting de-geared we headed into the animal section of the park. The most interactive part of the experience was right up front when we went into an area with two monkeys. They immediately knew the drill and hopped onto Gladys and my head/back/shoulders.
The guide started giving the monkeys sunflower seeds. They would make funny noises as they would eat them. It was very cute. The guide then started giving Gladys and I seeds. As soon as you pinched a seed between your fingers the monkey would instantly snatch it away and chow down. It was fun.
The tropical birds were beautiful with several parrot variations and a toucan. We went into the sloth area which had something like 9 sloths in it. The guide had to use a long ladder to get one of the sloths down. I held it briefly but it seemed he wanted to get back in the trees so we quickly returned him to the guide. That pretty much wrapped up the animal section of the venue.
Afterwards we went to a very zen-like coffee shop to grab an afternoon latte. It was raining hard when we first sat down inside but after the rain stopped we relocated to another seating area at the end of a dock. While sitting there we started up a conversation with a woman that also was a diver, Roatan is well known for being a great place to dive. Her and Gladys were talking a lot about their shared love of diving. The woman lives in Tulsa but had been down diving in Roatan for close to two weeks, doing 2-3 dives per day. Many of Gladys’s friends down here are active divers so I have gotten a good sense of just how much passion they have for it.
Our Monday evening has been chill which has been fine with me. I rarely read, except when on vacation, since I am not chained by my never ending to do’s that follow me around in my normal life. I think I may try to do some more snorkeling tomorrow, I do really enjoy getting a window into everything that is under the surface. This trip has been eye opening for me, exposing me to sights, sounds and experiences I would have never had an inkling to do without Gladys’s encouragement. I plan to take some of the lessons I have learned here forward into whatever comes next.