Sunsets

One of the most incredible parts about staying in Chillies Dive Lodge here in West Bay is the sunsets, they are picture perfect and every night at 1700 just by taking 5 steps over the road your on an amazing beach with the sunset in front of you.

It's bright, fiery, orange, moody and very moving, tomorrow we head to Cayos Cochinos in the Bay Islands, its supposed to be even more sensational there....

Walking Roatan

We went for a big walk one day around the beach and across to another bay called West Bay. The wildlife was amazing, we saw tonnes of fruit plants and even a wild Vulture!

Plus some seriously massive houses and swathes of land for sale. Looks like Roatan is becoming more a part of the USA / Canada every day...

Riding around Roatan

For Christmas Maudie decided to take herself back to her youth with a few horse riding trips, having found a wonderful local guide called Sherky. Turns out, Sherky's family own half of the bay and a ranch of 12 horses, he is very knowledgeable about island life (the stories!) and its flora and fauna.

Maudie's horse was called Snowflake, there is a picture of her next to her horse sister, here they are snuggling up next to each other before the ride began. Maudie loved her $40 two hour ride so much she went back a couple of days later, and Sherky enjoyed himself so much he only charged her $10. Most of his clientele are heavy weight cruisers, so sprightly Maudie on a galloping horse made it fun for him. Nice hey.

Christmas Wine from 1978

Thanks to James Rutter for getting me this historic bottle of Rioja for my birthday back in October. It travelled very well, in fact it's done 6500 miles and it tasted very special on Christmas eve.

Having been drinking Salva Vida beers and thick rum punch, this rarefied and gallant tipple was thoroughly palatable and enjoyed by us both. Thanks James and Hollie.

Island Engagement

We came to Roatan, Honduras on the 22nd of December as boyfriend and girlfriend - damp and pale from the jungle. On the 25th, looking and feeling much better, we sat on the beach in West End Bay and Maudie said yes to my suprise proposal.

Maudie has made me a very happy man, and I think she is pretty made up too. It was very romantic, sat there on the beach with the waves lapping against our toes. I'll never forget it.

We didn't get many pictures that day, lots of SKPYE and calls to family kept us busy, but here are a selection of shots of us.

La Union - Cuero y Salado Wildlife Refuge

Catching the bus out of La Ceiba, we headed towards La Union, a small rural community 40km up the coast. Our first ride on the 'chicken bus' (the old American school buses) was slow but fun, we tried some local pan de coco and chatted with the locals who were keen to teach us about pineapple harvesting.

From La Union, we had heard the best way to get into the reserve was to take the old "banana" train left over from the days when the only transport in the north coast was the train. The train track still seemed to be pretty handy for the local people who had farms and shacks along the track - good for transporting people, squealing pigs and pineapples! Cutting straight through wetlands, farms and cattle ranches, it was a fun ride.

The Cuero y Salado refugee encompasses the Cuero y Salado rivers and meets the Caribbean coast. Protected by the WWF and a local NGO due to poaching, the river has a unique mangrove system where salt water meets fresh water from 15 different river basins.

As you can see from the snaps, the refuge is really beautiful. The park protects animals like jaguars, manatees, crocodiles and monkeys as well as 200 types of birds. We took a boat up river with a guide and did some serious 'twitching', binoculars and picture book in hand we saw beautiful kingfishers and lots of different types of herons and stalks. We also saw clusters of really cool little bats that were stuck to the trees and sprung to life when the boat got too close!

Jungle Living

Here's some pics of us at the Omega Eco Lodge. An oasis in the middle of Pico Bonito National Park there was no better place to ride out the rain for a few days. We loved walking in the jungle, their big fruit orchards, sweet natural spring water and delicious home cooked food. The people were lovely, it was so nice, we didn't want to leave!

Hiking in Pico Bonito National Park

Here's some snaps of us taking a hike up the Pico Bonito mountain trail to a beautiful waterfall. We decided to tackle the trail just the two of us and it was a brilliant hike despite the rain and we did it in a speedy 3 hours. En route to the waterfall was pretty steep but with lots of pretty streams and swim holes on the way. We didn't see too much wildlife though - only a few stalks and herons, big butterflies and a massive spider that landed on my leg.

We did spot this beautiful Macaw though in the park a few days before, he was totally unphased. I've been reading a book on the fate of the Macaws in Central America, so I was pretty excited to see him!

Wet & Wild - White Water Rafting on the Cangrejal River

Ready for some action, we headed up into the mountains in the Pico Bonito Cloud Forest. We spent the night at Jungle River Lodge, right on the river side, ready to get rafting early in the morning. It was pretty special with the roar of the river and sounds of the forest. In the morning we went out with a great group - Shaun & Britney from California, Lisa from Peru, Luis the global nomad and Ninana based in Nicaragua - and three local guides.

Starting off with an old fashioned prayer for our safe return (always reassuring!) our guides then set about our 'training' for the rapids. Swimming through currents and white water rapids, climbing up rock faces, jumping off 20 ft boulders and 'floating' down rapids. Pete and the guys climbed up a sheer rock face - sans climbing equipment - before leaping into a rapid from 30 ft. Totally loco!

Needless to say, by the time it got to the actual rafting, we were ready for anything. We had an awesome time heading down river with our guide tackling the rapids and we didn't flip out the raft once, result. Now we can't wait for the next time!

Flying Mayan Air - From Belize to Honduras

You'll be glad to know it's been non-stop rain over on the Caribbean coast - very homely! We were due to be sailing down the coast towards Honduras but the trip was called off because of some serious incoming storms.

So we found some alternative transport - this cool little 8 seater plane! After spending a night in Belize City (interesting if not a little scary) we got the plane out of town towards San Pedro Sulu, northern Honduras, thinking that it would be better to be wet in the jungle than on a beach. Though we're pros at getting the bus now, the flight cut 15 hours off our journey. Quite a treat!

The view from the plane was awesome as we flew quite low below the cloud line. The pictures show the barrier reef that runs all the way down the coast from Mexico to Honduras. We also flew over lots of beautiful tiny Cayes (like Caye Caulker) and had great views of the rivers and jungle.

As we flew into Honduras, you couldn't miss the lush green mountains and endless fruit fields. It is really beautiful. From San Pedro Sulu (second biggest city), we caught the bus to a little town called La Ceiba. Founded by and home to the Standard Fruit Company - known as Dole on our supermarket shelves - pineapples, bananas and oranges are serious business here.

We've spent a couple of nights in La Ceiba town, it's not a holiday destination to say the least but you've got to keep it real! We've met some colourful characters and got down with the local cuisine. Here banana's ('platano') are not only a popular snack but come fried, mashed and curried!

Dzibilchaltun Mayan City

The Mayan people built this city in northern Mexico some 15km outside of Merida.

The doorway of the temple aligns perfectly with the position of the sun once every three months, and when it aligns the light shines straight through the middle onto the main square.

A beautiful 44m deep cenote is on this site too, it gave the people fresh water in this dry part of the peninsula. The cenote is surrounded by trees covered in wild orchid plants.

At its peak some 44,000 people lived across a 10kmsq area. Impressive stuff.

Hol Chan Carribean Reef, Belize

The second biggest reef in the world, this day trip was just beyond special. We went out for the day with a very spiritual guy called Juni on his beautiful sail boat.

This guy was about 65, spent everyday on the reef (customers or no customers), built his boat with his own hands and 'talked' to the fish. They love him and followed him faithfully around the reef as he guided us through, including a sting ray he'd known for 20 years. If you ever come to Caye Caulker, Juni is your man for a trip out.

We sailed out to Hol Chan reef in the morning and swam through it for a good couple of hours. Highlights were seeing lots of nurse sharks (some up to 6ft) and holding and playing with the sting rays with Juni's guidance. The schools of jack fish, groupers, parrot fish, trigger fish, barracuda, snappers and 'disco' fish were huge. The size of the fish was also crazy, some as big as me!

After a sail to another spot (& some cookies n coffee for energy), the underwater garden was even more beautiful, with the most amazing corals. We've never seen coral so untouched and it went on for miles. We got to see eagle rays here, as well as eels, lobsters and even more tropical fish.