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Today is Friday and this is Margaret — and I’m going to write today’s blog! We got an early start this morning with breakfast in our room (I am being good — just yogurt, fresh fruit and coffee for the most part) — Dale enjoys scrambled eggs AND oatmeal every morning so far (Post-Cruise Note: That switched to muesli in Coffee Connection shortly after). So we are at the Roatan Island which is approx. 38 miles off mainland Honduras. It is surrounded by the world’s 2nd largest barrier reef.
We checked off another of my “bucket” list items at the Dolphin Encounter! We docked early and were off by 9 am. Took a bus over to the park where they keep the dolphins. My expectations were low…we’ve seen other people swim with dolphins and while it looks fun, it’s usually in an environment that feels like a prison (at least to me…not sure how the dolphins feel about it!). The place we went today was absolutely beautiful! We were very impressed with the landscape, the cleanliness of the island and the friendliness of the people.
After about a 30 minute ride in a small-ish but nice bus/van on somewhat steep and windy road through lush terrain we arrived at a retail store that was also the staging area for the dophin encounter. After a short wait we boarded a motorboat that held about 16 people and motored over to a small island. The dolphin area was quite nice with a covered area that had changing rooms and restrooms as well as small beach areas from which the groups would go into a beautiful lagoon where the interaction with the dolphins took place. We had an orientation session with a good looking orientation guy and headed for the water.
The dophin “cage” was a wide open part of the ocean that was hard to tell was enclosed as they use nets that aren’t visible above water. Certainly seemed more dolphin friendly than a concrete and metal tank that reflect their sonar signals. We went into the water from a beach and up to about waist high in groups of eight. Our new friends Barbara and Fred were standing next to us and our dolphin “Alita” would float past us so we could touch her back and her fins and even her belly! The trainer also explained how dolphins are trained and cared for and he showed us how she did some basic maneuvers with hand signals and a whistle. She loved to get the fish treats! While we were in this phase a photographer took pictures for the packages that would be sold later.
After the “training” session and dolphin petting we got to see Alita do her stuff! We got to get our cameras to take pictures of Alita doing a range of spectacular Sea World-type dolphin tricks and we got some great pictures. He was a bit upset that he didn’t bring his big Nikon because he thought that this “encounter” like the others we’ve been to would not allow you to bring your own camera. Another plus for those that might try this on a later cruise.
After the brief boat ride back to the “mainland” we took a 20 minute ride to a touristy beach resort where we were to stay for a couple hours, lounging on the beach and drinking mai-tais. Sitting on the beach in the sun isn’t my thing these days so we had barely stepped foot off the bus, took a look at the beautiful beach when we decided to take an offer to catch an early bus back to the ship. Forty minutes later we were shopping in a nice modern shopping center dockside. Dale got a $10 watch to wear off the ship in “riskier” places like in the water and Forteleza.
Back on the ship I worked on some work stuff — had a conference call and caught up on the day while Dale relaxed in the hot tub! Not sure what he does up there on the pool deck other than drink Pina Coladas, enjoy the beautiful sunsets and meet interesting people. Hey, that actually sounds better than working!
We are getting ready to go to dinner — don’t have any plans but it seems we figure something out each night! You get spoiled pretty quickly with so many great choices and the always available backup of eating a great meal right in your room. The last few nights we’ve had dinner with new friends and neighbors. Hard to believe it’s Friday — we’ve been on the ship for 5 full days already — only 60 to go!
Honduras Picture Gallery: http://gallery.me.com/travelwithdmcontent/100132