Can You Say Spanglish?

Well it has been almost two weeks since we arrived at our new home on the island of Roatan, Honduras. It has been a whirlwind to say the least.

First off, let me apologize for not writing anything sooner, but after our trek across, North America and a major chunk of Central America, Mic, the dogs and I were pooped. And I mean pooped with a capital P.  We have now had a little bit of rest and recharged to start the next chapter in our lives.

Most of you would have probably thought that we were going to take it easy when we arrived. Well, so did we. Ha - fooled you! When we arrived we immediately started doing some work on the house. I think we were prompted for a number of reasons; a) it was not in the truck and b) it was good to be doing something aside from sitting. We replaced boards on the deck, replaced most of the front entrance stairs, hired a crew to prep the site for the arrival of the container and had them string fishing line in the eaves to keep the pesky bats at bey. More about the bats and some of our other local wildlife later though.

With the weather here on Roatan, we were advised by our local handyman to make sure the container was elevated off the ground for a number of reasons including flooding during the rainy season and pest - no big ones, but mostly the insects. The pilings are ready and we await the arrival of our container.

When we left Canada we were requested by our logistics company to prepare a fully detailed inventory of our belongings. We wound up with 143 boxes from the house and 145 from the shop - that doesn't seem fair that the shop had more boxes than our house - must be a guy thing, right Mic? 

Oh well, everything was carefully packed and loaded. We were told that our container would be arriving March 15, tomorrow. Can't wait! No, don't get too excited as we learned just last Friday that 

we needed to have a value added to every line item on both the household and the shop inventories. 

Well, that pretty much ruined our plans for the weekend.

However, when we received the copies of our inventories from the Honduran customs authority, it had been translated into Spanish and we had to input our values on each line. Thank goodness we did not have to convert every item into Lempiras, the Honduran currency. The funniest thing however, they asked us to check their Spanish translations?!? Thank goodness for English-Spanish-Spanish-English dictionaries. On a side note, my Spanglish is definitely improving and I actually ordered my desk and office chair last week mostly in Spanish. I have a long way to go though, but it is fun learning our new language. Mic is reading the subtitles on Netflix, so he is improving too.  

The dogs are loving their new home and enjoy running throughout the yard and chasing any passerbys in our neighbourhood. They already have a few fans and a few neighbours that laugh. It is pretty funny, as we have quite the menagerie right now with Paige and Willie our Jack Russells; Molly our huge and growing Doberman puppy (the flatulance has improved thank goodness), and our tenants two island dogs; Diego and Annabelle. They are quite the motley crew.

The dogs have discovered some of the new wildlife we have including bats, geckos and iguanas. In fact, Willy who has decided he is my office dog, keeps looking for the gecko that chirps to us every morning. Yes, it is common to have geckos in your house in the islands - they too eat pesky little insects. Our gecko, Juan, as Willy and I have dubbed him, is our new mascot for our home, Casa Tropical.

Bats are also very common in the Caribbean and they are good to have around as they eat lots of insects and are pretty harmless; just ugly as sin. Since we bought our house a year and a half ago, we have been trying to figure out how to keep the bats around, but out of the eaves; especially over the pool where the inconsiderate little things would leave pits from fruit in the pool, and of course make a huge mess. 

Well, this week, we learned how to deal with bats. Yes, you were right Ed! Today's tip is about how to deal with bats; fishing line. You can put it in rows, on diagonals or any other pattern which keeps them from getting their little claws into the corners and crevices of the delves of your roof or anywhere they should not be. Since we had it installed, no more messes around the deck. Once Mic is set up with his workshop, we are planning on building some bat houses, which will give them a place to hang out away from the house, but they will stay around to deal with the mosquitos and other bugs. Now we just need to do the carport - the truck is kind of a mess now if you know what I mean.

I too had a funny instance yesterday as I prepared to vacuum the pool. The pool had not been used in the last few weeks and we thought that now that we had the bat problem under control, we would clean out the pool, fill it up and give it a good vacuum. As I went to fill the vacuum hose with water, out jumps a ting black gecko onto my arm and he looks up at me as if to say...lady, you are disturbing my siesta...he then proceeds to jump off my arm swim around the pool, got out and scurried away in the sunlight.

That is about all for now, but please check back every few days for more installations of All Paths Lead to Roatan!

We Have Arrived!

Well, first off my apologies for not updating yesterday but it was a little overwhelming to say the least as we finally arrived at our home on Roatan.  Let me take you back to how the day started.

We left off last night on our arrival at Casa Espana where we were treated like family by the owner Carlos and his wife. We had a wonderful evening and a very good night's sleep then up early at 6 a.m. Mic and I are not really breakfast people, but Carlos would not let us leave without making us a full breakfast of bacon and eggs, and fresh baked bread. They also served us the most divine coffee; the best we had on the trip.

At 7:30 a.m., we followed Carlos to the freight company who would ship our vehicle to Roatan. Unfortunately they do not have ferries as they do in BC or Washington state that carry cars. After we dropped off the truck, we headed over to the ferry terminal where we checked the dogs with cargo and bought tickets for ourselves. After our long trip, Mic thought we should splurge and buy first class tickets. It was nice, and they served us coffee, but not really worth the $10 extra, but at least the section was nice and quiet.

Upon arrival at the ferry terminal on Roatan, our good friend Edward Du Monceaux picked us up and kindly drove us to our home. Our tenant, Keith Miller of Blue Wave Radio Roatan gave us a wonderful greeting and our dogs were greeted by Keith and Greta's dogs Diego and Annabelle with wagging tails and lots of play. There were a couple of disagreements, but they are all getting along splendidly.

I had no idea how tiring the trip had been until we finally sat down in the dining room of our home. It was all we could do to keep our eyes open.

We went to a new restaurant for dinner with Edward and his partner Sergia, and had a wonderful Italian feast and shared some wine. It is so good to see our friends on the island. Thank goodness we had an early evening, and we retired fairly early last night. It is so good to be home!!!

From here on forward, I will be blogging every few days about our day to day life on the island and our adjusting to Carnibbean life. Until later my friends.

A River Runs Through It

The morning came early in Puerto Barrios and we were quickly packed and ready to roll. It was not long before we were finally on the road to our destination; Roatan, Honduras.

In many Latin American countries, it is common for the immigration process to be spread over a couple of buildings, but usually within the same vicinity. However, this is not the case when entering Honduras; the border crossing is spread over a total of 14 kilometres and if you miss one, you will need to turn back and pick up at the one you missed. You may be asking how we know this. Well, we learned this today through our own experience. Thank goodness for good natured Guatemalans and Hondurans who just laughed at "those crazy Canadians with the dogs". We definitely should have stopped for some coffee to wake up this morning!

Once we reached the border crossing and after exchanging our Guatemalan currency with a friendly entrepreneur at the border who once again gave us the daily bank exchange rate, we headed back to the starting line. First off, cancel the temporary import permit for the truck. Okay, that went well, now onto passport exit stamps, no problem there either. Finally, we were back at the border after travelling an extra 28 kilometres.

This time at the border we were asked to fill out the tourist card which we have done on many occasions before. We were also asked to do our finger prints, no problem there either. On to the next checkpoint.

This stop was manned by the Federal police who asked to see our paperwork for both ourselves and for the dogs after his reaction of "Oh...My...God" after seeing that we had not one, but three dogs
including a large Doberman puppy. He asked if we had any further paperwork, which we said no.
We are still not sure if we were missing something or not, but as he did not speak English and a Doberman barking in his face, he kindly asked us to move along; and by the way, "welcome to Honduras! Afterall, who are we to argue with the Federal police - not this chicken.

Again, we discovered the beauty of Central America. Rich green fields, crops a
waiting to be harvested and cattle and horses galore. It is always such a culture shock when you are in
a large city such as San Pedro Sula and you are passed at a stop light by a horse pulling an old farmer and the fruits of his labour in the right hand lane. Love it!

Once we arrived in San Pedro Sula, which has quite the reputation of being a rough city, we inadvertently zigged when we should have zagged and wound up driving through the heart of San Pedro in some of the craziest traffic we have ever seen.

We drove around and asked for some directions from a lovely gas station employee who although she did not speak English, and with my limited Spanish, we actually figured each other out. Thank you kind lady, you certainly are an angel.

We were back on our way and drove through more beautiful countryside. There are more rivers and waterways than you can shake a stick at, and they are all stunning in their own right. This must be the place they named the movie "A River Runs Through It".

Back to the horses though. Around every bend you will see a horse grassing in the ditch on the CA13 Highway which is a main route for vehicles and transport trucks. These horses, even though inches from the roadway, do not even flinch as a car goes by. Being someone with a  background in the hunter/jumper world in Canada and the US, it is amazing how lucky the show jumpers have it. They truly are pampered animals. On the same token, I have seen some beautiful stabling and facilities for performance horses on our journey including the National Guatemala Equestrian Centre in Guatemala City. They have an amazing facility with a permanent three-day event course complete with stadium, in the heart of the city. Today in Honduras, we drove by a couple of private stables which were absolutely stunning. One for Andulusians and another a private stable. Horse are highly revered in this country I am happy to say.

After a nice day of travel, we descended upon our resting stop for the night - our last one before we reach our home on Roatan tomorrow. Thanks to the advice of our friend and real estate agent Edward Du Monceaux on Roatan, we contacted a lovely couple who own Casa Espana Boutique Hotel in downtown La Ceiba.

Given the size of La Ceiba, Carlos offered to meet us so that we could follow home to the hotel. We arrived and walked inside to a beautiful little gem in the city and immediately felt as if we were staying with family. We spent the evening on a gorgeous rooftop terrace and enjoyed a home cooked dinner which we really appreciated after being on the road for just over two weeks. We thank Carlos and his wife for looking after us and making us feel as if we were at home. If anyone is coming through the La Ceiba area, you will have to look them up and enjoy their wonderful hospitality. We highly recommend Casa Espana!

Tomorrow morning we will be heading out on the final leg of our journey which will take us to our home on Roatan, Honduras. It will be including a ferry ride across the bay and delivering our truck to a freight company who will be shipping it to the island. It should be a full day with many new experiences!

Connected in the Third World!

Today we took it a little easy and drove from Guatemala City to Puerto Barrios after a good nights sleep in our hotel in Zone 10 of one of the largest and most confusing cities I have ever had the pleasure of visiting.

We were on the road at 8 a.m. and negotiated our way through the morning rush traffic, narrowly avoiding a number of motorcyclists who felt they were immortal weaving in and out of traffic to the sound of honking horns, and the odd finger gesture from frustrated motorists. Thank goodness we quickly found our route out of the city and were once again winding through the hills and mountain tops of rural Guatemala.

In both Mexico and Guatemala, Mic and I have both been astounded by the number of people from all walks of life who if not doing something, are glued to their phones, either chatting, texting or playing games. It was amazing today as we drove by a very large ranch and about 20' off the road, with no one else around for miles, there was a an older farm worker taking a break from tending the fields; texting on his smart phone. It is amazing the connectivity that has been achieved in these third world countries, yet in Canada there are many areas that still have yet to be connected. Just how does that happen?!? Get on it Canada.

After covering approximately 283 kilometres, we finally arrived at our destination in Puerto Barrios; the MarBrissa Hotel. It is an older resort type hotel which has a wonderful rustic charm, yet you can tell at one point the resort had been a rather posh and exclusive place to be.

Today's tip is about currency. Make sure that before you enter a country and get into its heartland, away from the borders where American or Canadian currency may be accepted, be sure to exchange your money so you are not left in a pinch. Although we did exchange our Mexican pesos at the border in Guatemala, we ended up being able to exchange a little more American money this morning at our hotel in the Guatemala City, but from what I understand, this is not common and the banks seem to be few and far between in Guatemala.

Tomorrow we will be heading into the final day of our journey as we head into Honduras. Last border crossing. Until tomorrow!

PS. Sorry, my internet connection is too slow to upload photos today. :)

Now for Something Completely Different - Guatemala

We left Camitan De Dominguez by 7:30 a.m. in anticipation of crossing the Guatemalan border which lay 85 kilometres from our starting point. We arrived at the small border town in Mexico and were ready with paperwork to return our temporary vehicle permit slips and our Tourista cards. Check! Mexican paperwork done and we were again on our way to the Guatemalan border.

Gliding through an area of no man's land, we finally reached the official border crossing. Usually you expect to be greeted with row upon row of kiosks with officials in sharply pressed uniforms, gleaming with authority. Well, that is not exactly how it was crossing into Guatemala. We were asked to drive under a lift gate; a manually lifted one I might add, then asked to drive up to  pylon. A nice gentleman asked us if we needed to exchange pesos into Guatemalan money, and we had received information from others that these people are legit and will help you through the extremely quirky immigration process. By the way, we checked on the exchange tonight and he was bang on the bank rates for the day. Wow, there are some good people out there still.

We were first escorted to a small office, the size of a closet with a young man in an official golf shirt, jeans and running shoes who gave the dogs their official inspection. I might add from the window, which was probably a good thing as the three amigos were readily protecting their truck from any passerby.

While we were paying for the canine's paperwork, another young man in coveralls and a white surgical mask and galoshes asked to spray the bottom of our truck with a disinfectant. I would imagine this was probably against the spread of invasive plants. Check! Dogs' paperwork done and vehicle will not share Mexican invasive species with Guatemala.

Next we were asked to report to the customs office. This second office was much larger than the first, and resembled more of a retiree's  volunteer job. Three very nice gentlemen had a television on and were watching the old spaghetti western, Catbalou - in Spanish.

They finished our paperwork as the plot of the movie unfolded and we were passed on to the next office which was for our temporary vehicle import permit. Here, this gentlemen, dressed in a casual golf shirt and jeans completed our paperwork while Mic went to the bank to pay for the import fees. With three barking dogs in the truck, this brave soul also insisted on placing the sticker on the inside of the window of our vehicle. He placed the sticker and gave the dogs a friendly, "Adios, my friends". Personal customs and vehicle importation; check! Our entire immigration process took about 30 minutes.

Finally we crept our way through the bustling village were textile store after textile stores were readying their shelves for the day, despite it being Sunday. Finally we left the bustling little village and made our way into the most beautiful mountains and terrain we have ever seen. Like their textiles, the surroundings were vibrant. The spectacular drive took us through winding and twisting turns almost the entire way to Guatemala City where we stopped for the night.

We were surprised to see how so many people get around in Guatemala. First off, there are a series of pickup trucks which load as many people and belongings onto the truck that the bumper is almost dragging on the ground. Secondly, there are these crazy busses which are all tweaked out with chrome, special paint jobs and lots of "loco" horns. These buses stop wherever on the road, but when they are going, watch out, or they may run you over. I don't think anyone could pay me enough to ride one of those buses.

Something that really stood out to Mic and I today, was how nice it was to see so many of the residents of Guatemala still wear traditional clothing and the beautiful vibrant fabrics which we had seen on our way through the border. It wasn't just the older Guatemalans, but even the toddlers, children and young adults wearing the traditional garb. They have kept so much of their culture while embracing the changing world.

The Guatemalan's we met today were such helpful people too. We stopped a couple of times to ask some directions and although there was a language barrier, we still had a laugh and I was able to figure out what they were saying. I think you would have been proud of me today Sergia!

We have enjoyed our travels through this beautiful country so far and look ahead to tomorrow as we make our way east across the country towards Honduras.

The Green Tunnel to The Path of 10,000 Topes

Our adventures into southern Mexico continued after a wonderful stay at the Hilton in Villahermosa. Thank you to the staff for their wonderful hospitality as it was truly appreciated after the previous day's experiences. Molly even has her own fan club at the hotel too. None of them believed us that she was still just a pup.

Once again we were travelling through another agricultural area filled with many farms and sugar cane operations. We were astounded by the multitude of colours are trees along the route as well. There were beautiful vibrant yellow blossoms on some while others were  purple and some pink.

The meadows and farmlands gave way to an interesting area which was like driving through a green tunnel of trees before rising to some unbelievable mountain passes. Well, the secondary highways I was talking about in a previous post, I can truly say with first hand experience, that their reputation lives on. Although the scenery is unbelievable, it took both of our sets of eyes to make sure we did not drive into some of the potholes which could have swallowed a small European country.

And then the Topes (speed bumps)! At most of the Topes on this route there were young children and women trying to stop the cars to sell various fruits, tortillas, and other baked goods which are traditional Mayan foods. It was a little daunting when some of the children held vines across the road to force you to stop. It was very sad to see as it was obvious the area was extremely poor. I just hope those little ones are not hurt as a result of their aggressive behaviour. This is truly one of the saddest moments we have experienced so far on our travels.

We proceeded on the secondary highway and passed through a number of other small villages without any more incidents, yet the farther we went, the more Topes we passed over. Some of the Topes are legitimate ones, placed by the state to control speed, but others have been placed by residents who set up their stands of food and other items for sale beside them so there is a better chance you might buy something when slowing down for the speed bump.

After a long day of travel and what seemed to be 10,000 Topes according to Mic who did all the driving, we arrived at our next stopping point which was Camitan De Dominguez. We had booked a hotel which was advertised to be dog friendly. However, upon our arrival, we discovered it was on a central square in the town with no access from the road, or areas to walk the dogs. Which brings me to today's tip.

When travelling with dogs throughout Mexico and Central America, book your pet friendly hotels in advance, even if it is just the night before. There are not as many pet friendly facilities in Mexico and Central America as are available in North America, so it can be a bit of a challenge to find a suitable hotel as they book up quickly. We have been trying to find hotels on the outskirts of the bigger centres, and sometimes that works, but then other times there is nothing outside of the city centre.

After discovering the challenges with our hotel we had reserved, we immediately messaged them to cancel with no problem at all. With a little bit of searching we found a nice small hotel with a secured parking area and a beautiful little garden to walk Paige, Willy and Molly.  Our host at Laurelis Hotel was Mario who was more than happy to see to our needs and even ordered some dinner for us since my Spanish is not quite good enough to order yet. He was also extremely excited as he had heard Canadians were nice and he had never met one before - two in one meeting.

We were settled in for the evening and Mario was back first thing in the morning to see us on our way. Anyone who says Mexicans are not hard working people, have not met the ones we have.  Adios Mexico, it has been a slice!  

Pretty Flowers and Honking Horns

After the eventful ending to yesterday's travels, we arose early and were on the road by 7:30 a.m. We wanted to relax a little after yesterday's long day and decided to set our course for Villahermosa through Vera Cruz.

The journey today was through much a more moist area with more rolling hills and  beautiful views. We spent most of the day again on the "Cuota" highways (toll routes), which allow for much faster travel. Along these routes we saw more Colin than we have in other areas with trees in bloom in yellows, oranges, pinks and purples. The colours are so vivid and bring the green countryside to life with character.

We also drove by many fields of sugar cane which is a popular agricultural activity in this area. Many trucks were on the road taking their harvest to market while the farmers burned off the field which covered the area in a light smoke and haze.

Our drive today should have been approximately 5.5 hours, but as we reached Villahermosa city limits, we realised we were arriving during the paving festival. Parts of this highway are now seeing their age and rather than doing one section at a time so as to minimize the effect on the traffic flow, they have tackled it all at one time which has lead to serious traffic jams. So on our estimation of 5.5 hours, we ended up being closer to 6.5 hours. Oh well, at least they are dealing with the bumps in the road so to speak.

When travelling throughout Mexico, I highly recommend using the Cuota highways as they are the best maintained routes throughout  the country. The Autopistas are also a fairly well maintained highway and are usually more of a scenic option.

While travelling on the Cuotas, be sure to have lots of pesos with you as they are not the cheapest way to travel the country, but are good thoroughfares. These routes usually bypass the small towns so you are not up and down the speedometer and we have felt extremely safe on them, even at dusk last night as we wrapped up our crazy day.

When not on the Cuota highways, we have been sticking to the Autopistas. They are not quite as well maintained as the Cuotas, but are still better than the secondary highways which frequently have no markings, major potholes and have some rather sketchy areas for tourists. These routes often travel through small towns which is great to see more of the true Mexican life and countryside, but makes for much slower travel as a result of the fluctuating speeds and the poorer level of road maintenance.

We checked in this evening at the Hilton Villahermosa as we felt we deserved a little treat for ourselves after yesterday's challenges. Tomorrow will be our last full day in Mexico as we move on to Guatemala on Sunday. Until tomorrow from All Paths Lead to Roatan.