Roatan

Last month Jason and I went on a week long trip to Roatan, Honduras with Underwater Works. We went with about 20 people from the dive shop and stayed at Fantasy Island, an all inclusive resort on a private island off the island of Roatan. On Saturday morning we had to be at the Mobile airport at 5:00am and we flew to Houston where we ate lunch and caught our connecting flight to Roatan airport. When we got to Roatan we had to wait in the customs line forever and a few people's bags didn't make it until later that night but other than that the flight was uneventful(which is always the best kind). The island of Roatan is only about 30 miles long so nothing is fall away. We took a bus to our resort and I knew it was going to be a good trip because before we even got checked in we had already seen iguanas, agouti and monkeys. The resort is on a 12 acre island and there was a ton of wildlife. They have a troop of monkeys, huge iguana, agouti, peacocks, ducks, bats and geese running wild and a zoo with miniature deer, sheep and a raccoon looking thing that are loose and parrots, toucans and a ocelot in pens. Forget the diving we liked playing with the monkeys. This is the Ruatan Island Agouti. It looks like a cross between a squirrel and a rabbit.

This is a monkey peeing on Karen. Ha HaDid I mention that the monkeys were really bad and would steal anything not nailed down.Ok, next everyone always wants to know about the food when you go somewhere. On the resort we had buffets for every meal. They had a special which was usually seafood or a local dish then pasta, hamburgers etc. The special was usually pretty good and the rest was fair to good. For dessert they had the usual stuff but the chef made homemade ice cream and at lunch and dinner we had our choice of three flavors. I ate a lot of ice cream. It was excellent!. One night they had a seafood buffet with lobster, king crab, shrimp etc. It was awesome. One day we decided to get out and try some local fare so Alec and Karen and Jason and I rented a taxi and went to Coxen Hole(which is where the cruise ships come is) and ate at a local seafood restaurant then went to the Gumba Limba park. The food was good but the park was a disappointment. Karen actually grew up in Honduras and speaks Spanish quite well so she was a great asset on the trip. Here is the dining room.

Our room was nice. We had a king sized bed and large bathroom with a large walk in shower. The only problem with the room was they didn't give you any blankets and the air conditioners worked real well. The first few nights we froze and then we started managing the AC better. I like a cold room and lots of blankets but hey, I managed. The view from our room:

At night they had activities planned for us. These are Garifunas dancers that performed for us. We also had karaoke night(yes I sang and no it was not pretty), fire dancers and bar hopping night.

Excursions: We did a couple of excursions. Karen and I did the dolphin excursion. We went to marine research center and hand a dolphin encounter where you get to pet and take pictures with the dolphins then we got to snorkel in the dolphin pen with about 2 dozen dolphins. It was pretty awesome and if i get the opportunity I will definitely do it again. We also did the rain forest canopy zip line tour. 13 zip lines crisscross a valley. It was beautiful and tons of fun.

Ok, finally the diving. We had three dives a day and all the dives were minutes from the dock. There was a locker room at the dock so we just grabbed our gear and jumped on the boat. Our group dove together and we had the same boat with the same dive master and captain every day so that was nice. We dove at 9, 11:30 and 2:30 then after the last dive you could get dropped off at the dive gazebo and do some wrecks plus one night dive off the boat plus unlimited diving from the dive gazebo. We did the night dive and one drop off dive then one night snorkel just the 2 of us.

We also did a shark dive. That's me in the pink:

Finally it was time to go home and they had to drag me kicking and screaming back to reality.

Puerto Rico

The last time Jason went out west on fire detail there were some guys in his crew from Puerto Rico. He and Taylor have been wanting to take a trip so they decided to go down there. They flew into San Juan the day that a category two hurricane was bearing down on the island. They drove to Old San Juan and when they got there the place was deserted and everyone was holed up waiting for the storm. They did find one bar that was open. The storm ended up skirting the edge of the island that night and they didn't get any weather out of it. The next day they drove along the coast to Isabela and hooked up with Gabriel. He owns a bar so they hung out there that night. The next morning they went surfing at Jobos beach and that afternoon Jason went diving and Taylor went snorkeling. Jason took the underwater camera so he could play with it and get good at taking pictures before our Honduras trip. After the fist dive the camera flooded. I couldn't believe it. When he got back Jason sent of the camera and housing and when they pressure tested the case it failed so we they replaced the whole thing. Luckily we got it back before Honduras. Saturday they drove through the jungle to get back to San Juan. Taylor flew out and Jason explored San Juan which is both a town and a fort. Sunday Jason flew home.

Kayaks are in

I ordered some new kayaks a few months ago and they are finally here!! A Necky Eliza(blue) and Manitou 14(fire).

Ahhh pretty

Ohhh, sparkly

We ate lunch at Big Daddy's and used their boat launch. We paddled up Fish river and found a little place to practice our paddling skills.

TAG Fall Cave In

Last weekend we went to the TAG fall caving festival. We drove up on Thursday morning and got to camp in that afternoon. We set up the camper and hit vendor's row. John Law was already there and joey and Aimee arrived that evening. We didn't get as much gear as we did at SERA but we tried. Friday John Hickman led a trip to Ellison's cave. There was a 1,000 foot borehole leading the entrance pit. Oh, wait I forgot the mile hike carrying our gear up the mountain. They told us it was a mile but I'm not sure I believe them. That was some hike. So anyway, the fist pit is a 135 foot drop. Joey got some good pics:

Next we went across a natural bridge and up a short climb with a hand line. Then we had to do a 20 foot ascend up a fixed rope. This was the only tricky ledge in the cave and I am glad it was on the short climb. The ledge was undercut so you had to take one foot out of your foot loops and push away from the ledge and at the same time push your ascender over the ledge then go over. Next was a 500 foot pit. It was not rigged and we did not have enough rope to do it. To skirt this pit you had to belly crawl on a 18" wide ledge. Past this pit was a muddy crawl to an 80' pit.Then the whole thing in reverse. Up the 80' pit, through the mud, down the 20' drop, and hand line, and up 135'. And of course the hike back down the mountain with our gear which killed my back. So in other words...Good Times. We went back to camp and had a big cookout with sausage dogs, chips, potato salad...

The next day we didn't want to put on muddy vertical gear so we went to steward's spring. It was a wet cave so Jason and I decided to break in our new caving suits. It was a stream passage up to a room full of great formations. These are my pics so they're not that great.

What's funny is that on the way in we were all skirting the creek to keep our feet dry but then we got so wet and muddy in the cave that we were practically swimming on the way out to clean some of the mud off our gear. So then it was back to the campgrounds for steak, spaghetti, hot dogs, chicken, sweet potatoes, beans, corn and a stomach ache. Then the lighting of the giant bon fire, more shopping and the SCCI raffle. They must have sold hundreds of tickets and one of the first names drawn was Joey and mine was the very next name then Aimee 2 draws later. It was pretty crazy. The next day we packed up and went out for lunch then Jason and I headed south while everyone else decided to bounce a pit on the way home.

Things to Come

Happy Birthday Jason! My gift to Jason is a trip to Washington to summit Mt Rainier. Hopefully I'll be posting summit pics in June.

Pike's Peak

Our last Colorado adventure was The Pike's Peak Railroad. We rode up to the top of Pikes Peak at 14,000 feet. We saw big horn sheep, deer and yellow bellied marmot. There are some more pics on my Flikr http://www.flickr.com/photos/gillikin

Girls Gone Wild part4

The next day we had a different giude for clombing. We decided not to get our hopes up. The day before was so great and our guides did such a good job we figured there was no way that today could be as good and we didn't want to be disapointed. Let's just say we were not disapointed. We went to Garden of the Gods and did a 145 foot multi-pitch ascent. This was outside the realm of anything we expected to do. It is called Montezuma's Tower. We cliked this picture on the way out to the park. We had no idea that the rock I was standing in front of was the rock we were going to climb.

Here I am following Tod up the first pitch. The very bottom of the climb is the crux so we practiced a short repel and the crux a couple of times then Tod climbed and I came behind and ran Michele's rope. Next Michele climbed and cleaned the rock.Here we are at the top of the first pitch. This pic is to show how narrow the rock is. It was a lot of exposure.

Here i am climbing the second pitch.

Next we dorove around the park. The tall spire in the middle of the picture in Montezuma's Tower.