Archives August 2022

After finishing up the blog yesterday morning I got the rest of my stuff packed which as predicted, did not take long.  Gladys had a lot more to pack considering she is doing so with a trip to Holland and Montana back to back.  When it came time to leave I paused and took one more glance out over the water, appreciating the view that I had the chance to enjoy for the last week.  If I said it didn’t stir up some sort of emotion inside me, I’d be lying.

Dustin and Kat again were gracious, just like they have been during my entire visit, and agreed to drop us off at the airport.  I said my goodbyes to them and thanked them for everything.  I pulled Dustin in for an awkward hug which made me laugh afterwards.  Having Gladys along as a travel buddy made getting processed at the Roatan airport stupid easy since she has done it so often.  Gladys was also nice to sit next to in the plane.  We split her travel pillow and split her airpods to watch a free movie on the plane.

I knew Miami was going to be far more aggravating than Roatan but again Gladys is a pro in how everything goes there so it made it once again easier.  When we approached the immigration area where you check back into the country it was a pretty daunting site.  There was this tremendous snaking line of human beings that doubled back on itself at least a dozen times.  The line did keep moving but it’s pure length was amazing.  However, if I utilize some of G’s (what I call Gladys most of the time), positive thinking, 15 minutes after we entered the line it had backed up far worse and was spilling into the entrance.  So we were lucky we got there when we did, there is your positive spin.  The funny thing is the reason you stand in line was for a security guard to look at your passport, look at you and move on.  I think my interaction with the guy was less than 10 seconds.

So next up was grabbing our bags which we did NOT have to wait for thankfully.  By the time we exited the building it was somewhere around 90 minutes after we got off the plane.  The next mission was to find the truck.  Luckily I took a picture of the nearby sign when I parked so we knew where to go.  On the way there we saw signage that indicated you should use a pay station before exiting the garage.  Hmm weird but ok.  The way we took it, this was the main way to get out of there.

So I did a quick survey of the top floor where we were parked, no pay stations were there.  So we started driving downward, thinking perhaps they are only on lower floors for weather protection.  When I saw no indication of a pay station on the 5th or 4th floor I was confused.  Why was there a sign instructing to use a pay station if pay stations are not spread around everywhere??

So we continued downward, finally I saw a pay station sign on the 3rd floor.  I put on my 4 way flashers and jumped out.  I was behind a guy that was getting frustrated because the machine would not take his credit card.  Instead he had to feed it cash to cover the $60+ fee.  So once he cleared out I put my ticket in and saw the charge to park for a week, $136, sheesh.  I was really hoping the credit card failure was a fluke because I wasn’t sure if I had that amount of money in smaller bills.  So I start feeding in my cash, not counting it ahead of time, brilliant, I know.  So my wallet keeps getting thinner and thinner.  By the time I paid the bill I had $1 left, insane.  So at least we were finally good to go, I headed down to the exit and literally blurt out WTF??! What I see is 10 spots or more where you could pay with your credit card and 3 or 4 where you used your pay station ticket.  I guess I know for next time as I never parked at Miami International before.

The ride across Alligator Alley went well.  I got us out of Miami and to the rest station halfway across.  I let Gladys take over because she likes driving and because I was feeling really wiped out from whatever illness had overtaken me. I had the chills, a runny nose, and all of that fun stuff.  We got back to my house around nine where we shared a cauliflower crust pizza and watched the ending of the movie we started on the plane.  Gladys was really sweet to me, knowing I didn’t feel well. It was appreciated.

Elsa was of course very excited to see me and after a short while remembered who Gladys was, hanging by her side more than once. I slept pretty well although when I did wake up in the middle of the night it was with a t-shirt that was sweat drenched.  I woke up this morning not feeling significantly better or worse.  The guy arrived to do the final service on the new windows on time which was appreciated.  He was a friendly and funny guy named Pedro.  I thought this service would take less time so once he was done inside Gladys and I took off so she could get home to see her family.  When we pulled up to her driveway her niece and sister Margaret were already outside.  Because I am sick I steered clear of any close interactions with them which is a bummer as I would have liked to say hi to everyone.  Watching Gladys embrace her family was touching to bear witness to.  Gladys gave me a big hug, thanked me for everything, and I was off.

I had one pit stop to make, picking up another EUC, yes you read that right.  There is a backstory about it that I plan to talk about on a live stream tomorrow night. When I got home despite feeling pretty shitty I felt like I had to get out and mow the grass. The standing water was gone for now so I figured I needed to take advantage of the circumstance.  I expect my weekend to be pretty packed as you can imagine.  Yea it would be nice to be able to just rest but ever since I have become a lone wolf, there is no option B when it comes to getting stuff done.  What I am going to have to juggle after my upcoming hernia surgery is going to be a challenge, for sure.

So here I am on the other side of two big trips in a very short duration, something I have never done in my entire life.  The trip to Roatan exposed me to such a different way of living where you rarely look at a clock, eat when your hungry, enjoy other people and experiences without the shackles of a modern American life, at least my version of it.  My time there had some ups and downs but I learned from all of it.  Gladys and I will always be dear friends, even as our paths diverge.

Yesterday morning Gladys and I once again tried doing the snorkel journey around the point, the same path we abandoned yesterday due to bad conditions.  This time we had much better visibility for 2/3 of the swim and saw some beautiful fish along the way.  Once again I exited the water feeling like my nose was encased in sea water which has had some consequences I’ll talk about later.

Since it was the second to last day here I wanted to make sure I gave Gladys a hand with the things I said I would.  One of those things was hooking up an old TV with a built in DVD player to external speakers.  The internal speakers appeared to be bad so we hoped this was a way around it, using the audio out RCA jack on the TV to feed the speakers.  Well the plan failed, even with the speakers attached there was no external sound output.  I was bummed out.  It seems like the sound driver board in the TV is toast so unfortunately a new TV will likely be the solution, especially with as inexpensive as they are.

I also hung three curtain rods for Gladys.  She has a decent collection of tools so it wasn’t much of a challenge.  I tried to be a hero and help Gladys drill a hole in a 4 gang outlet cover so she could feed some coax through it.  She was going very slow (intentionally) but I asked her to let me try.  So I crank the speed to max, pop through the other side and plate instantly cracks in half, it was a pretty hard/brittle type of plastic.  I felt like an idiot.  I’ll get her a replacement cover that doesn’t require drilling back in the states.

The final thing was to navigate Gladys’s tiny DJI drone to do a fly away shot that she will use as part of other content.  It was my first time flying that model.  Despite it’s small size it delivers high quality and stable video.  I think the shots turned out well.

I joined Gladys for her to run more errands connected to her property management position.  Seeing her daily routine makes me feel assured I would not be a great property manager.  The job requires countless phone calls/messages while running around as required to take care of the needs of the properties and the clients who rent them.

On the way back we stopped at the same coffee shop as the prior day, the one with the outdoor dock seating area.  We enjoyed our coffee inside this time but did it front of the back glass wall that had a big section slid open.  I really like the vibe of that place.

So I was feeling increasingly shitty as the day progressed.  At first I wrote it off to a side effect of Taco Tuesday.  I also have been doing a poor job of hydrating down here.  With how much you sweat in the intense heat and humidity you have to keep drinking.  However by the afternoon I was feeling something else that was unwelcomed but familiar, discomfort in my head.  My assumption is it is related to all of sea water that has gone into my head the past week, awesome.

Last night we went out to dinner again with Kat and Dustin, doing yet another thing I have not done in years, eat sushi.  The food was good although the service was a little on the slow side.  It was an interesting night for me where I found out a little more background about Gladys, Dustin and Kat.  I am extremely appreciative of the kindness and inclusion they have shown me during my week here.  I understand more clearly why Gladys speaks so positively of both of them.

When we got back Gladys did some significant packing while laid there on the bed hanging out, it was nice, for some reason.  I still have to finish packing but I am pretty sure I can do the entire process in 15 minutes.

Unfortunately I had a pretty rough night of sleep.  My head was filling up.  When I got out of bed this morning I dumped peroxide in both ears to hopefully give me enough relief to at least get through the day.

It has certainly been a magical week here on the island and of course I owe that to Gladys.  Her willingness to share her home with me and show me why this place is so special to her is something I will carry with me from this point forward.  That being said, being back in my own stomping grounds this evening will be good as well.  One thing I have always liked about living in Florida is instead of feeling all depressed about vacations completing, I get to look forward to coming back to a place many people dream of.

Thank you Gladys…..

Tuesday was again a mixed bag of weather with some rain and clouds.  I decided to start the morning with a solo snorkel.  I also decided to do this without fins, just wearing my water shoes instead.  I felt somewhat clunky and uncomfortable in the fins the other day and I appeared to be able to get around the water just using a modified breast stroke where I just used my upper body.

I had a very peaceful journey around the bay and was out there for quite a while.  Being inches away from all of these beautiful fish feels surreal, like I am swimming in the biggest salt water aquarium of all time.  The constant change in water temperature was interesting depending on the depth of water and currents around me.  At one moment it would feel bathtub warm and then a blast of wake you up cooler water would wash over me.  It was a serene way to start my day.

Gladys made homemade pancakes for breakfast among other things.  I watched the process and pitched in where I could.  The food was really good. We got ready and then headed out for another day of zipping around the island.  There were a number of fun moments.

We stopped and went to the top of a mini-lighthouse looking structure that held beautiful views of the surrounding  area.  I thought I had lost the mic cover on my GoPro while I was up top but it turned out it fell off in the car, thankfully.

We stopped at a shopping area that was very cool, it was made primarily out of shipping containers.  The really cool thing was the face of the structure had two of them that were stacked on end vertically.  There were some interesting gift shops where we grabbed a couple things.  We also stopped at a coffee house that also sold chocolate made in Honduras.  The mocha coffee I got was good.  We tasted a bunch of the chocolate samples and liked them so much we bought a few bars to bring back to Gladys’s family.

We eventually made our way to the West Bay area , the same place we wound up when we took the boat ride with Dustin and Kat.  Gladys wanted us to get massages on the beach from a woman she knows and has used before.  I had not received a real massage in at least a decade and of course never on a beach so I was down to do it.

Originally I said I would be ok just doing a 30 minute session but Gladys soon convinced me to do a full hour.  Immediately the woman recognized what a knot filled mess my back was.  As she was applying pressure down the length of my back it felt like she was running over countless speed bumps.  She told Gladys in spanish that I must have a lot of stress.  Spoiler, I do.  She spent the most time on my back which was good.  Gladys also told her I like I having my head rubbed so she did a lot of work there too, which was fantastic.  By the end of the session she had gotten a lot of the knots pushed out, which was a painful process for me at times.  There was a lot of wincing going on but overall I really enjoyed it.

After we got back we decided to go back out for another snorkel session.  Gladys suggested going around the point and exiting on Kat and Dustins deck.  I was up for the challenge.  Once again I went finless while Gladys had on her set, unlike me she is very adept with her fins.

So the water looked rough from afar but we thought it would still be ok.  It didn’t take long to see that this was going to be challenging.  There were some decent waves smacking us around.  A few times the end result was me getting pushed into some sharp coral which left a few bloody marks on me.  The other issue was visibility was poor due to the multiple episodes of hard rain we have been having.  A couple times Gladys asked me if I was good to keep going, which I was.  Even though I was a bit tired this had now become a challenge in my head and I was willing to push till the end.  Eventually Gladys made the call that we should turn around.  The rough water combined with very poor visibility where you couldn’t really see much around you made up her mind it wasn’t worth the effort.  Of course I trusted her judgement in this environment that has been foreign to me up until a couple days ago.

I have had a weird thing going on as a result of snorkeling, random episodes of water pouring from my nose hours afterward.  When I have the mask on the separate compartment where your nose goes fills up with water for me.  I thought it was normal but evidently it isn’t.  Because of this I guess I wind up with water in my sinuses that does not appear to come out easily.  What happens later is I will be bending over and suddenly a stream of water comes pouring out of my nose, it’s ridiculous and probably not a good thing to have sea water sloshing around inside your head.

So Gladys, Kat and Dustin have had this tradition called Taco Tuesday.  They go out and get food and then head to a place that offers live music and dancing.  This was going to be my chance to experience it.

We first went to a place that sells poopoosas, a food that Gladys and I saw on the Food channel a day or two prior.  Kat, Dustin, Gladys and I slid into the seats along the bar rail that faces the street.  Not once but twice I managed to bang my head into a box that housed a tv.  I have skills.

We then walked down to the party bar.  I immediately saw a lot of familiar faces from our trip to Papa Bones.  I started buying more Salvas to keep the fun flowing, Dustin and I already had a couple at dinner.  This bar is two stories, I could hear the party going on up top but had no idea how crazy it was until we ventured up there.  The band featured Lesandro, the same guy I talked about previously that has amazing guitar skills.  Unlike the other night he was singing as well.

The space was packed with people, all bouncing to the beat of the music.  I kept downing Salvas to the point where I started moving as well.  Seeing me dance is almost as rare as me getting a massage.  It was impossible to not be swept up by the energy in the room.  At one point a woman hopped on a table and was going nuts.  Gladys is an incredible dancer, it was something to see.  We hung there for a decent amount of time.  Just like most of this trip, even though this was an environment I have never found myself in, I embraced the moment and enjoyed it.

When we got back we went out on the dock to see if we could spot the octopus.  The search was intensive and long but without success. Everyone was very happy and drunk.  Again, despite being affected by the alcohol I did not lose out on appreciating the moment as the moments from this trip are winding down.

To make things even more memorable the power went out for an hour or two.  At one point Gladys and I went back out on the deck, taking the complete darkness as an opportunity to take in the stars, it was beautiful.  We were up late, very late just talking about life like we often do.  Gladys has been and always will be a dear friend in my life.  The time I have spent here has been good for me in many, many ways.

With this being our last full day here (Gladys flies back to Miami with me), we will be getting all of our ducks lined up for the return trip but I am sure there will still be many gems of happy moments to collect during the day.

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.

As I am sitting here typing this out on the deck overlooking the water I see a cruise ship coming into port, it’s surreal.

Sunday Gladys wanted to take me all the way to the top of the island which is a pretty lengthy drive, somewhere around an hour one way.  Along the way we made a few stops, including another visit to the hardware store.

There was also an amazing coincidence along the way.  Gladys got a text telling her that some friends of hers were unexpectedly in town and that we would be hanging out with them last night.  She was very surprised and excited by the news.  We stopped for coffee at some surprisingly modern looking “mall”.  As we walk in the door of the coffee shop, her friends are sitting there….. Wow, I could hardly believe the timing.  We sat and talked to them for a bit before we all headed out, knowing we would see them again in a few hours.

The drive was memorable for sure.  The last third of it or so is on a dirt road with many challenges.  One was unexpected, getting stuck in a cattle traffic jam.  Some man was walking at least 25 cattle up this dirt road.  He tried to get them to move out of the way for the car but some of the animals were not very interested in yielding the right of way.

Gladys was trying to get to a lookout area up a steep hill.  The recent rains had created massive gulleys in the road where water had washed out the surface.  She carefully zig zagged back and forth to avoid getting the SUV stuck, it was impressive.

We stopped at two places in the east end.  The first was this ragged looking bar out on a dock.  As soon as I stepped inside I loved it.  The inside bar area was small with a hummingbird feeder on one of the tables.  There were at least a half dozen hummingbirds feeding on and off while we were there.  Sitting there enjoying a beer was one of those moments I will look back fondly on for years to come.

The second stop was in a place called Punta Gorda.  There was a place that served fish that Gladys was very excited for me to try, two dishes in particular.  The first was a fish soup that has a cooked fish in the middle of a creamy broth.  The second was an entire fish that was fried.  Neither of these entrees are anything I would seek out myself but in the spirit of the trip where I have been trying to open myself up to pretty much anything, I dug in.

Gladys and I shared both dishes.  The soup came with some mashed plantain biscuit that is used in conjunction with the soup.  The fried whole fish was best eaten with your hands mostly.  The visual was not great but it tasted good as well.  In addition Gladys ordered a shot of some local liquor that I can’t recall the name of.  It’s contains the root of some tree.  We split that as well.

After the meal we needed to get back to meet up with Gladys’s friends.  On the way out we got stuck in some sort of parade that is part of a night time celebration in Punta Gorda.  It was pretty hilarious.  We had a wall of cars coming at us.  Somehow Gladys managed to get us through it.  The long drive back was pretty hilarious.  Both Gladys and I were being pretty silly, cracking each other up over random things.  I also had my GoPro along so I have some funny footage to throw together at some point.

We got back just in time to clean up and meet up with Glady’s friends as well as Dustin and Kat.  The couple we met earlier were celebrating their one year wedding anniversary.  Kat had kept the top of their wedding cake for them per tradition which I thought was really sweet. We drank champagne and each shared a piece of cake as well.

The celebration was not over, we headed over to one of the main hang outs of the group called Popa Bones.  Along the way we picked up another friend of Gladys named Maxine.  I was already mildly drunk from the few beers during the day followed by the champagne.  I chased it with another three beers there.  I didn’t really need/want any food.  The alcohol helped me flow from conversation to conversation with a ton of other friends of Gladys that were hanging there as well.

At one point the skies opened up, dumping buckets of rain onto the partially open seating area.  Being drunk I stayed out in the rain a bit and walked through a temporary waterfall of rain pouring down off the roof.  They had live music there as well.  I had met one of the guys playing the day before.  He played a mean harmonica as well as sung a bit.  The lead guitarist however was amazing, his riffs were so clean.  It was a real pleasure to see him play.  We stayed there till damn close to closing.

I woke up today feeling less than fantastic which isn’t surprising based on the amount and diversity of alcohol I consumed.  That doesn’t take away from yesterday being great.  I really appreciated Gladys going out of her way to show me things that I would never see/do otherwise in my normal existence.  I’ll always be grateful for that.