Punta Gorda Snorkeling

What a day! My buddy Rocky, who works here in the restaurant, invited me to return to Punta Gorda for a swim, and we made the deal for yesterday. I arrived about 11:30, and this time, the taxi ride in daylight let me see some of the views from the hills and the beauty of the reef when the road took us past an opening in the trees. Punta Gorda is on the north east part of the island so the reef there is a different environment than here in the French Key area. For one thing, it is waaaay out there, perhaps 300 or 400 yards from the beach.
Punta Gorda is the oldest Garifuna settlement in Honduras, dating back to 1784, I think, when a boat load of slaves travelled here from St Vincent in the eastern Carib. Not sure about the details but I understand they had been set off a ship in St Vincent, and they made or stole a boat and came this way. The Garifuna still celebrate the date as we do our Independence Day, and they paint the colors of their flag in their homes, and on their buildings and even the telephone poles have the stripes - black, white, and gold, I think. Rocky demonstrates his great pride in his home town, and took as much pleasure showing me around as I remember my dad doing to visitors in Pittsburgh.
So, Rocky's mom made us a lunch after we took a walk along the road and Rocky gave me the tour of the area. Fried shrimp, pasta, and rice. Was a great lunch. And then we gathered 2 of his buddies and the 4 of us set off for a swim, out to the reef. This old fat guy did pretty well, keeping up with these kids.
What a great trip! Just after slipping into the water from the dock off a palapa owned by a bar, a big sting ray swam by me, perhaps 6 feet away. And as we made our way out, the guys were looking hard for lobster and conch, having taken some sticks with a big fishing hook on the end, used to snag lobsters from their holes in the coral.
Rocky spied 2 lion fish for me and I later found one on my own. Lion fish are the only species that the government WANTS the locals to kill, as they are so poisonous, and I heard that they eat the corals, but not sure about that. Rocky has really sharp eyes, and spotted and re-spotted a 2 1/2 foot moray eel swimming on the bottom through sea grass, obviously hunting. It was so well camouflaged that I lost it in the grass several times, but Rocky would re-find it and point it out for me.
Then we swam over a really big area of clean, white sand, and it was dotted with huge starfish - we counted at least 30 and there had to be dozens and dozens - each 18 inches. When we arrived at the reef, Rocky found a lobster in the coral and handed me the stick to try my hand at snagging it out of its hiding place, but I just don't have that skill down yet, and lost it. Amazing how fast they swim when they want to escape.
When we were finished, we took the long swim back to the dock - perhaps 20 or 30 minutes, and I ran up to the bar and bought us a few beers. Below is Rocky, enjoying his first. These are the 3 guys who, I must say, kept an eye out for my safety and to make sure I had a good time. The boy in the water is 17, and recently lost his father in a shooting, and I must say, I have Gringo misgivings buying him beers, but bought several for him. I know I cannot impose my US standards or morals on these people, but still..... buying beers for a 17 year old is way out of character for me. Neither of these 2 speak English, so there was little inter-action between us, other than slapping the water and pointing at things for me.

After that first beer, it was time to clean the conch. Some of the little guys came out to play in the water too. That is Rocky's little brother in the water. I ended up buying everyone a 'fresca' - a coke or sprite or whatever they wanted. It was fun watching the kids play, even though I didn't understand anything they said or laughed about.This is a view back from the dock, and that house on the right is Rocky's home. The yellow one is his grandmother's but she is in New York City, (yuck!) visiting Rocky's aunt and uncle, who live in Brooklyn.Rocky's little brother, who he says is very smart and in the 4th grade, but no English, yet. This is the beach in the other direction. Lots of bars in Punta Gorda, and 2 churches. I have always wondered why I see the kids here in Roatan leaving school so early in the day, thinking perhaps they go a half day for economic reasons, but found out from Rocky that they go at 630, and school starts at 7am. That way, they are in school for the cooler part of the day, and don't have to sit all afternoon in the tropical heat.

Further down this beach is a new building on stilts being built, financed by an American. It will be a trade school and the kids will be taught English, French, and Italian, so they can work in the tourism industry here. Cheers to THAT guy, for doing something really good for this community!

That kid in the water seemed to always have some joke going on, probably at this old fat Gringo's expense, but usually, Rocky wouldn't tell me what it was about. When we were first setting out, there were 2 little kids using an old refrigerator shell as a boat, and I wish I had had my camera then. They were having a ball, and were very comfortable playing in this rocking and rolling box, with no keel.

This guy is holding up the body of the conch, before they trim off what they don't eat.

The 3 heroes, relaxing. Because one guy had no fins, and the other had only one to wear, I volunteered to carry the net bag with the conch back in, and it was heavy, and a long swim back.

Star fish, lion fish, and my first moray eel. What a great day. Thanks buddy!

Daily Life

**UPDATE** - When I wrote this the other day, I had not posted anything for quite a while here, mostly because life has been pretty un-eventful. I rec'd an email from a Pittsburgh friend asking about me and reminding me of no posting lately. I had just written what you find below, but had saved it as a draft until I had time to edit a couple pictures. Since then, I attended Rocky's party, the previous post. Although not full of exotic adventure stories, my life is just fine and I am content. Contentment, more than happiness, is what I find my soul seeking daily, and achieving with great regularity. Happiness comes and goes, but contentment - with my current life as well as day to day living, with the choices I have made, with acceptance of my mistakes, with my plans or lack of them - I find living in my heart almost all the time now. Anyway, here is the updated post, saved to drafts the other day, awaiting the pics:

My daily routine has been pretty boring lately, but since I have not written anything here lately, it occurred to me to just post how my life goes lately.

One day, after they left their jobs to go home, several of the guys from the wait staff stopped by to see AF and have a beer with me. They are Garafuna - descended from original slaves who settled here, after bringing themselves from some eastern Carib island. They speak their own language, as well as Spanish and some English.

My cold has lingered now for weeks and weeks, and it is beginning to concern me a bit - no, not enough to visit a local physician or to consider trying to quit smoking again, but the fact that a simple cold has left behind, for such a long time now, congestion and coughing, and even some days, other 'cold symptoms' makes me wonder what is going on. Right after the first cold hit me, I installed the window air conditioner, so have turned it off - it is not necessary quite often now anyway - thinking that sleeping in the cool air might be affecting me.

Weather here is a real surprise to me. It is the rainy season, and yes, winter approaches; hence the cool days and nights. But the rains have really surprised me. Almost every day now for 2 weeks or so we have had grey skies, and then high winds preceeding powerful downpours of rain lasting for 5 minutes to 30 minutes. Inches and inches of rain. In a 2 day period, the dink filled full, and one day, after bailing it out almost dry in the morning, that evening I found it again, almost full. Not an accurate measurement, but after each major downpouring, I see a bucket on deck or the dock has 2-3 inches of water in it. We have had several days of straight heavy rain showers. Yesterday it was blue skies until about 11 last night. The first in several weeks or really nice weather.

Several times I have been startled by people just outside the boat on the dock, and one morning, clunky footsteps woke me. It seems that a lot of the tourists will walk over here and have chosen to have their pics taken in front of Annah Foster. Several have even come up on the boat, to stand at the mast for a pic or 2, and who knows what they do when I am not here! I have chastised several for coming aboard. They look at me like I am crazy and they are certainly entitled to come aboard. It is always funny to me, AFTER it is over. One morning 2 cute girls came over and were posing at the bow. One was really cute, friendly, and very flirty and outgoing, with excellent English. And I mean REALLY flirty and outgoing. AFTER this picture was taken, I found out she is 15. Oops! I encouraged her and her friend to move along pretty quickly.

My new neighbor, Skip, is trying to find a way to live on $25 a day here and is failing. He knows the prices of things here pretty well, and quotes which cans of beans are cheap vs the expensive ones. But after some careful calculations, we laughingly decided that if he drinks 12 beers each day at the bar in the resort, which he does, at $2 each, he has spent his daily money limit. So, the trick for him now is to buy beer at the stores and drink on the boat! Simple adaptation to the situation. He is a musician - plays guitar and the saxaphone, and last night the local band who come to Fantasy to entertain weekly, let him come up and jam with them a bit. I was very impressed with his ability to play either solo or as back up. We are going to try to get together with my keyboard and his sax and see if I can loosen up enough to play together.

On the subject of money, I have a routine, more or less now, and this last month was able to fairly calculate my spending, which seems to be about $1400. Not low enough yet, and there have been an inordinate number of taxi rides which I did not use practicallyby bundling several errands into each trip, so that alone will bring it down some more. I am eating more canned goods for meals on the boat and less in the restaurant and actually decided to install the 12volt freezer system soon, so I can refridgerate again and live a more normal life. The power at the dock is not good enough to start my 120 volt system.

I entertained a really nice Canadian couple the other night. They are here for 2 weeks of diving and had asked our little group of cruisers if they could see one of our boats. Michelle and Michel are a really nice couple, and down to earth and lots of fun. They sneak us some of their free beers from the resort, and Michel and I enjoy tellling jokes back and forth, although I have forgotten a large portion of my repetoire, from lack of use. He is from Quebec City, Quebec and she is from Ottawa, where they live now. She works for the RCMP and he is a fireman. I included Skip and another cruiser who sits near the bar using the internet a lot and has become a 'drinking buddy' as well, Will. I am not much of an entertainer or host, but kept the glasses full. I had bought some popcorn the other day and popped a bag and then opened some salsa which we dipped with plain saltines, which I learned to like at friend Bart's in NC, for snacks. Michelle likes beer, on ice, so Skip brought a couple cans from his boat for her, while Michel helped finish my last Bombay Saphire while the rest of us drank rum and Cokes. Michelle and Michel got a taste of what one person's life is like living aboard a boat, and we had a really fun time. That is Skip in the straw hat, and Michelle and Michel, and below is Michel and fellow cruiser, Will.

Skip rode with me on Monday down to Coxen Hole to ask Immigracion for another 90 days here. Friend Edgar took us in his taxi, and probably saved me a lot of money. 2 other have told me they have paid $100 and $110 for the extension, but the man only charged me $60. Not sure what Edgar said, but surely he was the reason. I think they tack on something that is not a bribe so much as just taking some $$ for some local - either you pay a local to act as agent, or the taxi driver gets some of your $$. The harbor master extended my cruising permit also, but there is no charge for that. I did have to pay 2 Limpera (10 Cents) for a back and front copy of my cruising permit at the local office supply place. The result of the trip though, was clearance until January 4th, with assurance that another extension will not be a problem. I like it here.

During this rainy season, and before the cool weather dealing with this cold, I have been grateful for the air conditioner and the borrowed DVD's from Skip, and many days do nothing more that lay around and watch TV all day. Supplemented by reading some loaner books as well. Skip has an incredible collection of murder mystery books set in the Keys and south Florida. I am envious that I never started to collect something like that, and was not aware there were so many out there - Florida writers setting their stories in the places they know. Recently, I pulled a jigsaw puzzle from a games bin I loaded before I left and have ignored until know - up to now mostly playing hearts and spider solitaire on the laptop. But I have yet to take it out of the container. But TV watching is something I have not done for almost a year. When it rains, I can only leave my companionway open and the boat quickly becomes hot and stuffy. So the AC really helps a lot. I got my first electric bill from the marina - one month - $8.38, for a month of normal use plus almost full time AC. Not bad!

I am fast approaching my first anniversary of my departure from the US. And for some reason have set a weird milestone in my mind - one year of sleeping on the boat and not in a bed on land. I cannot figure out why it is important to me, but have pondered a couple trips away from AF and Fantasy Island, but want to wait until that year has passed. Thought about flying over to Belize, or Teguchagulpa, the capital of Honduras, but will wait. For some reason, it has become important to me to have spent every night on the boat for a year. Kinda a queer - perhaps odd is a better adjective - goal, but fast approaching anyway. Not sure of my departure date and will have to go back and look it up. Perhaps a party will be in order.

Yesterday, Skip came by with a message from Jerry, the dock master, that another solo cruiser, Lou, a retired surgeon from the States, whom I had met at the bar the other night, had trouble with either his propane system or his fridge - never did get that story straight - and so had meat going bad. We were all invited to an impromptu cruisers' pot luck. Skinned chicken breasts and hamburgers with all the fixin's and a great pasta from Jamie the dive guy, 'coon ass' dirty rice from Skip - he was an oil rig supply ship captain for many years out of Lousiana - and I took the rest of the jar of salsa from the night before, extended it with a can of black beans, and with my trusty saltine crackers, my contribution was dip and crackers. The rice and pasta were great, as was the grilled meats, but my dip was kinda the poor cousin on the food table. We still had fun and everyone got along real well.

Michelle and Michel introduced me to a really nice guy here diving as well - George is a cardiologist, and one of the most down to earth physicians I have ever met - he asked me if I was interested in taking out a group for a sail on Friday. Would be glad to do it but getting AF ready would have been a hassle, and I declined. I did profit though last night when I asked him if the discoloration on my lower legs was evidence of a circulation trouble and, after a careful look in the lobby by the bar, George told me that it was nothing to worry about. Yes, is circulatory, but veinous and not arterial, so not to worry one bit. Truth is, I wouldn't anyway, but was nice to hear.

Every day I check on my octopus friend, but some days, due to the run off from the heavy rains, the water is so silty that I cannot even see the rocks she lives under, even in the 18 inches of water. But, the pile of rocks and shells she pulls in front of her cave's entrance for protection seems to change daily, and I guess she is OK. I found her one night with a flashlight, and not needing to camoflage herself, she was in her natural glory - an incredible lapis lazuli blue, and yellow that shimmered like gold - she looked like a piece of large exotic jewelry, or perhaps a melted Faberge egg. She did not like my flashlight on her and walked away into the dock's shadow pretty quickly. Unfortunately, this pic below is just a plain daylight photo.

So, that is about all for now. Pretty plain living, but in a great place surrounded by some nice people and occasionally, exception people. Making new friends. Bush beans, Campbell's Tomato Soup, rice, corned beef hash, canned corn and never any really good bread. There are a couple things that I miss - pizza from the place we used to order from where I worked in Pgh - Oreo's and ice cold milk - cheddar cheese - jumbo shrimp. The list is not long, and most could be satisfied here, if I look hard enough. Life is good.

Birthday Party in Punta Gorda

About 10 days ago, my buddy Rocky (Roque) who works in the restaurant here at Fantasy Island, invited me to his home for his 23rd birthday party. This is the 2nd time in 3 months that I have been invited into a local home and I consider it such an honor. There were some communication problems over the last week, and this morning, I was certain that I would not attend, since Rocky had failed in his email to give me DIRECTIONS to his home, and did not reply to my answer that I needed them. He basically said that I was invited at 8pm, Saturday and bring rum. Just no address, which might be a little bit sophisticated here anyway, or directions which also, since the roads don't seem to be marked, would have been difficult. So tonight at dinner, I asked some of the other guys working in the restaurant if they were going and they hooked me up with Rocky via cell phone and he sent a taxi for me, and another waiter - a really nice kid, always smiling and giving me a thumbs up, but he has no English, and well, you know, I have 3 words of Espanol. The taxi ride there, fast and all over the road with the radio blasting away Latina music, was otherwise very quiet with NO conversation between us.

Rocky and his mom cut the cake.

Below is Rocky all decked out for the party.

I was hesitant to go, as that end of the island has had some drug murders recently, and even the taxi drivers have someone ride 'shotgun' with them, never driving alone. I carried very little money and questioned myself as to whether to even take my camera, but was glad that I did and that I went.

That's Rocky with Jandra on the left and I don't know who, on the right. Jandra later asked me to join her group when she saw that I was sitting alone.

Oscar, one of the bartenders here, and his girlfriend-

Rocky's mom in the kitchen. Note the lack of ceiling - a very cool construction -

This is a shot looking up from the living room, showing the open attic area, hand made trusses, and there are no soffits on the house at all.
Punta Gorda is a wonderful small community on the north east end of the island, and I had only ridden past that area with a Gringo ex-pat that I met here who was kind enough to give me a tour one day. The residents are all Garafuna, who were originally slaves who came here after being dropped off at some island in the Eastern Carib, and settled here. They speak their own language, but most also speak decent to very good English as well as Spanish.

Old, fat but happy Gringo -

I had a good time, and most everyone treated me with welcome smiles, especially Rocky's family. The party was in full swing when I arrived and found Oscar there with his girlfriend and he hooked me up with a pineapple, coconut, apple and rum drink. Soon Rocky's mom, Rosaria, was sending him and his sister out in the crowd with plates of birthday cake and later, fried conch treats, plantain chips, and some unidentified red meat - presumably beef. I tried everything and enjoyed watching all these kids dancing and singing and really having a good time. Rocky, or someone else always seemed to be at my side so I was not alone, but eventually was sitting alone for a bit and a very nice girl invited me to join her group's conversation.

I am ashamed that I cannot tell you this guy's name, as we shared a ride to the party and he has been smiling at me and giving me a thumbs up for 3 months now, but we just cannot TALK to each other.

Later, Rocky and his girlfriend for the night - a cute, tiny little 19 year old and I took a walk down to a bar and dance club and then walked the other way up the road to his aunt's bar. The music was way too loud for me, so I sat on a bench outside and watched all the dancing. His aunt makes the local's drink called geffity, which is peanuts and roots from the jungle soaked for a month in rum. Is like rocket fuel, but has medicinal qualities they claim. He had brought me a pint of it a few weeks back, and everyone here has advised me to take a small amount for this ongoing chest cold.

And, I must add that just before I departed again, Rocky leaned over to me and said that his gf had asked him to ask me if I wanted her to be my girlfriend. Not bad, for a 57 year old guy, huh? I am invited back on Wednesday, weather permitting, for lunch and a swim.