The Priebes: April 2006

Roatan - Maryruth's 30th

Ah, there is nothing like spending some quality time with warm ocean water and sand. It is the best way to forget that you're getting older.

Jeffrey planned a surprise trip for us to celebrate my (Maryruth) 30th birthday. He took us to Roatan, a tiny island of about 50,000 people in Honduras. It was perfect.

The beaches were really the best part - warm weather and clear skys, tourquoise water that was just warm enough to get in, but also cool enough to refresh, lots of lounging chairs and friendly servers who brought us tasty, iced beverages... perfect.

Our 'home' on Roatan

Our accomodations for the week were at a place called Fantasy Island Beach Resort. This resort was actually on its own little island just off of Roatan Island - only a small, creaky bridge connected us to Roatan.

We were lucky enough to be given what I called the 'Love Hut' since it was the only free standing suite in the place. Inside it had hanging hearts, etc which suggested that it was the honeymoon suite, but we didn't complain!

Here is the view from our little front porch.

The 'Lobby Bar' was where we often went to get yummy refreshments to cool us while we sat on the beach. They also supplied us with lots of drinking water.

Lunch was served here (the La Palapa Restaurant) every day - what a view!

The 'pool' was really just a small thing that would fit only a few people, so we didn't really spend much time here. And who would want to when the beach was SO nice? Besides, there were speakers mounted to the railings here that blasted loud reggae must all day long which we preferred to get as far away from as possible. :)

These next two pictures show our view from our usual spot on the beach - the the left and to the right.

Wildlife on Fantasy Island

There were many lovely creatures to entertain us during our stay.

These first two pictures show you what I have affectionately name 'Sqrabbits' since they look a lot like a mix between squirrles and rabbits. They have long hind quarters and hop around much like rabbits, but their colouring and facial features resemble squirrles. They were fun to watch in the evenings (see little creatures in the first picture below) when they came out to forage for scraps left by the sun bathers.

There were also several kinds of iguanas the went slinking here and there when it was quiet and safe.

The monkeys were more friendly and tame - as you can see, they have a taste for sugar (pop in particular), even though the tourists were not supposed to feed them. They would often play in the trees just behind our lounging chairs on the beach.

Snorkel Adventures on Fantasy Island

Our little island was surrounded by reefs, which meant we could take advantage of the free snorkel gear provided by our resort to explore the reefs a short jump off of the 'Gazebo' on Fantasy Island. Although we did not see as much as we would have seen had we been scuba diving, we did see some lovely fish and interesting coral.