Rocking the Radical Catamaran

02/20/2015 What an epic week this has been! Last Thursday Jeanie and Roger brought their BBQ grill to our house and cooked dinner here. (yes we have a grill but Roger is a BBQ Nazi and must use his own) I made a big salad and we had roasted baby potatoes and RED MEAT. Now I haven’t eaten RED MEAT in years, don’t like to chew the stuff but this was good RED MEAT brought from the states and covered in pink peppercorns before grilling. The smell was wafting past my nostrils and when Roger sliced it and I saw how perfectly done it was all thoughts of my chicken breast that he cooked for me went out the window. I wanted RED MEAT. OMG, it was delicious. This does not mean I am a carnivore by any means. I don’t think eating red meat once in 3 years makes me a meat eater. We finished dinner with rum cake and some Mango Rum. Yummy meal but even better was the company, it was fabulous. It was so much fun to hang out with Roger and Jeanie!!

I picked Nancy and Chuck up on Saturday at the airport, we stopped and got Nancy some snorkel gear @ Barefoot Key in preparation for our Sunday excursion on the Radical Catamaran. I dropped them off at their house Saturday afternoon only to pick them up again at 8:30 Sunday morning to go to Oak Ridge to get on the boat. We set sail soon after 9 AM and were off to the eastern end of the island. It was a gorgeous sunny day, made even better by warm pineapple muffins served by the crew.

I know I’ve said it before but this is a first class operation, Ed and Julie provide an exceptional day onboard their gorgeous boat! After sailing for awhile we stopped to snorkel again at the Cow and the Calf. I told myself prior to getting there I was going to snorkel the calf but I went right to the cow again.

After snorkeling the Pina Coladas came out in full force. Sun, boat, gorgeous water, crazy people and booze…

We stopped for another snorkel at the Horse shoe. It was a swim over there but worth it.

After snorkel stop number two we broke out the wine and lunch was served. People were perching all over to eat their yummy lunch consisting of salad, rice and beans, chicken and shrimp skewers, home made rolls and dessert. All washed down with some chardonnay. After lunch we stopped at a wreck for snorkeling but I lacked the energy required to get my gear on again so I stayed on the boat and had some more wine. That took way less energy. The day was drawing to a close and nobody wanted it to end. Seriously, this is the most fabulous way to spend a day on the water with a group of friends. I would do it weekly if I could.

We all drug our weary butts off the boats and back on to shore for the drive home. I dropped Nancy and Chuck off and headed home to pass out from all of the excitement.

Monday morning once again and we were off to Mondays don’t suck at Barbon beach in Camp Bay. Today I picked Nancy and Chuck up at 11:30 and we started the 30 minute drive east. We were there before most everyone else but they all began arriving soon after we did. There was some Sargassum weed in the water so we moved further down the beach to avoid it.

I still have sand in my suit after washing it twice. I think I still have sand in various parts of my body also. I pulled my camera out the other day and sand fell out of it too. It was rough and crazy and so worth it. We hung out on the beach until around 3:30 and then made the difficult drive home. Anytime you are driving west in the afternoon prepare to be blinded. Between the sun and the shadows you can see nothing. Luckily there isn’t much traffic! Another fun day, another day I went home and crashed.

Tuesday morning I had my teeth cleaned, the first since I’ve been here. I know, that’s way too long to go without doing it but I hate going to the dentist. They said my teeth were in good shape, not much plaque at all. I didn’t tell them I use the sonic care twice each time, sometimes maybe 3 times because I FORGET WHERE I HAVE BRUSHED so I do it again. and again. Lack of focus on my part.

Bill got his truck back but something weird happened. I know, weird and on Roatan, how unusual. Prior to the head gasket blowing the alarm never worked. Never. Now it does, WHEN YOU ARE DRIVING OR STARTING IT OR JUST ANYTIME. Nice feature to have. Needless to say it is back at the mechanics, something about the glow plugs and the alarm issue? Well, they are disconnecting it. When in doubt, disconnect.

There have been lots of police stops lately and I seem to be quite lucky. I pull up with a big HOLA!! The other day I saw my buddy Ronald. I pulled up alongside him and he came over to shake (hold) my hand. He said he needed to come to my house. I said REALLY? He smiled and said yes. I slapped his hand and told him he was bad. He just smiled. I saw another road block this morning on my way to French Harbor and I pulled up and said Hola and the one cop said Hola Sweetie!!I don’t even have a license plate, there aren’t any in Honduras. Rumor has it that there will be some available this year. HAH!! No license plate and the papers for my car are still in someone elses name, hopefully I’ll get a proper registration for my car soon. Speaking of cars, I still LOVE mine!!

I’ve been having a pain in my upper left arm for over 8 months now. It hurts to get dressed, dry my hair, roll over in bed, just hurts all the time. I finally decided to do something about it and went to a physiotherapist here on the island. He is very good and for the first time I am able to lift my arm up without it hurting. He has an office in Coxen Hole. For a 60 minute treatment it was $60.00. He taped my shoulder like the therapists used to do in Everson for my knee.

 

My arm feels so much better. He said not to use it, no lifting, no swimming,  just let it relax so the tendonitis settles down.

I was supposed to go to Cattleya school yesterday to help with an art project but the one lady who was doing it is sick and it’s been postponed until next week.

We have banked with Banco Lafise since 2011. I’ve wired money to them from BoA since 2012 with no issues, until a few months ago when they returned my wire TWICE because my name wasn’t first. It’s been coming with Bill’s name first for 2 years but they decided this one time they didn’t like it. I had to change the way the wire was being sent. Aside from the fact that they are the slowest tellers on the face of the earth, things usually go smoothly. Last week I went in and a new teller asked for my passport. I don’t carry my passport, I am a resident. She then took my residence card and my passbook (yes, they use them still AND carbon paper) and turned {with her back to me} to the supervisor who began doing stuff online. I said is there a problem? The teller shook her head YES. Well, WTF is the problem? This infuriates me to no end because you never take someones ID without telling them what the issue is and what you are doing. I left the teller window and went over to a girl I knew at the bank and asked WTH? She said there was a new system and they had to update. I went back over to the window and finished my transaction but then had to go fill out a form.  Once the form was filled out I asked the girl “will my husband have to do this too?” Yes, when he comes in. Bill ran to the bank to get some cash and they told him HIS NAME WASN’T ON THE ACCOUNT. F’ing idiots. He just took $$ out last week so they must have screwed something up. He came home and got me and we went down to the bank. I told the girl I knew what happened and she looked on the computer and said he wasn’t an “owner” of the account. Then why the F did they give him $$ last week? Yes, he is an owner, always was. So she was fixing that and I went to withdraw money. The teller told me it didn’t show we had an account. By that time I was going to murder the next person I looked at. They finally got a manager out there who was LOOKING IN TO IT. All this time there was another gringo couple in there having the same issues. Only idiots are allowed to work at Lafise. They got things straightened out, I got my money and paid my light bill. We left there and went to Davivienda Bank and opened an account there. The young man, Noe, who helped us was polite, professional and knowledgeable. We now have a Lempira checking account and got a debit card and checks in 20 minutes. The next day we ran some errands and went in to Banco Lafise to close the account. I went up to the idiot teller and said I want to take all the $$ out of my account and close it. There was several thousand dollars in it. She got the deer in the headlights look on her idiot face and I almost punched her. She once again turned her back to me and she and 2 other women and 1 guy started talking. That really pissed me off. I told her that the least she could do was tell me what she was doing. The guy next to her said to me, “she needs to know why you are closing your account.” I said, “BECAUSE YOUR SERVICE SUCKS.” LOUD and with a big smile on my face.. He smiled and I heard someone giggle. It took them awhile but finally I walked out of there, cash in hand and happy because I never have to deal with those f’ing idiots again.

I am one of 4 women on this island who write for Women Who Live on Rocks. Another is Amanda Walkins. Amanda has her own blog, Awalkontherun which I follow regularly. Amanda also writes for International Living and The Huffington Post. She recently did an article for The Huffington Post and used some photos from people who live on the island, me included. Check out the article @ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/amanda-walkins.

My friend Nancy brought me some Chai Green Tea that I sent to her in NY. I am addicted to STASH green and regular chai tea. I wanted a cup the other night but it was after dinner so I looked on Amazon to see if there was caffeine in it. This is what it said:

Enjoy this calming and stimulating tea with milk and sugar

Kof-K Kosher certified, contains caffeine, ships in Frustration Free Packaging

Calming and stimulating at the same time? No wonder I’m a whack job!