Last Day was a memorable one!

For my last day in Honduras, I stayed in Roatan and had some pretty amazing experiences!  I started the morning with a delicious breakfast of banana pancakes, Honduran coffee, and freshly-squeezed passion fruit juice at a local restaurant called Rudy's.  Rudy (the owner and cook) had a few pet birds out back that were fun to watch.  After breakfast, I grabbed my snorkeling gear and took the 30 minute walk along the beach to West Bay (a more expensive town with amazing beaches).  The coral reef there was very close to the shore, and there were "lifeguards" making sure people stayed away from the shallow areas.  Coral is very sensitive to human touch and can be destroyed easily.  I swam over some pretty amazing fish and coral and even encountered in entire school of fish that quickly scattered when they saw me.  I had accidentally wandered into the shallow area, and although I didn't touch any coral, was asked to leave that area by one of the guards.  I had left my bag with everything in it at a tourism guide stand, so I didn't want to be out in the water for long.  After snorkeling, I headed to Gumbalimba Park and got a personal tour through the park.  I learned some history about the island and got to see and hold some pretty amazing animals!


Roatan is the only place in the world where the black "spiny-tailed" iguana lives.  

This male macaw left his mate to be with two red macaws (the national bird of Honduras).  Unfortunately, military macaws (like this green one) mate for life, so his mate sits perched all alone not too far from where he flies around.

 The white-faced capuchins at the park love to swing from branch to branch and jump from shoulder to shoulder.  They are very friendly with visitors.  This one actually had her baby on her back and was climbing all over me.

 This spider monkey is not as friendly with visitors.  He can get frisky with the ladies, so they keep him tied up when visitors are around.

When I left the park, I headed back to West End to return my snorkeling gear, and I grabbed lunch at a great little place called "Monkey Island."  The restaurant/bar is owned by a former Texan who took the time to chat with all of his customers.  After lunch, it was off to Anthony's Key Resort for my dolphin encounter.  Although a bit expensive, this was one of the highlights of my trip.  I got to spend 30 minutes with a 2-year old dolphin named Tilly.  She was so eager to please and enjoyed the attention.

This was Tilly's mom doing some tricks for us.






I ended my evening with some souvenir shopping, dinner back at "Monkey Island," and packing everything up for the long day of travel that was ahead of me.  I was sad to be leaving Honduras and all of the wonderful experiences I had there, but I am already beginning to plan my next trip back next summer.

Wednesday was a long day of traveling.  I left my hotel room at 6am to get the 7am ferry ride back to the mainland.  From there, I was picked up by Rafael and brought to the airport.  My flight to Tegucigalpa was late, which made me nervous as my flight out of Tegucigalpa was less than an hour after my scheduled arrival time.  When I got off the plane in Tegucigalpa, I saw people boarding the Delta plane that I figured was my way back home.  Rather than get my luggage (as this was a separate ticket, not a connecting flight), I ran up to the plane and told them I still needed to get my luggage, check-in, and pay my airfare tax.  They told me they would wait but they I would have to hurry.  While inside, I was trying to talk to a security guard who didn't know how to speak English.  I nice woman with her little boy was trying to get to the same flight I was but stopped to help translate for me.  Somehow, after I got my luggage, I ended up in front of her at the check-in, and wished her luck while I went to pay my tax.  I was running through the airport with my luggage and made it up through security (which luckily was a short line).  I made it to the plane with minutes to spare, but I never saw the lady and her son board.  He had been crying at one point because he needed to use the bathroom, so I worried that they were still in the airport.  I mentioned it to the flight attendant, and he said he would check.  I never saw them get on, but I hope that all worked out well with them.  I watched a movie on the flight to Atlanta, grabbed my first real meal of the day at the airport in Atlanta during my layover, and saw an HF-L family getting on the plane with me to head back to Rochester... such a small world!  I opted to take a seat in the emergency exit row and was rewarded with no seat in front of me!  That's right - my long legs had a nice spacious flight back to Rochester.  I landed just before midnight and was greeted at the airport by my mom and sister.  All of my luggage made it back safe (with the exception of the stone Mayan calendar I bought, which ended up in three pieces).  I didn't pack that well enough!  Stay tuned for posts about my reflections of this experience and my plans for the future, as my work in Honduras has definitely not come to an end!