Riding the Rollers

Leaving the Cayos Cochinos proved trickier than getting there. The kids didn't turn up to take us back and no one seemed to want to give us a ride. Once we got one, we wished we hadn't!

The stormy weather from the night before started up again and the rollers coming at us were huge. Here's some pics of our convoy landing back in Sambo Creek in calmer waters - we celebrated being back on dry land with a few swigs of rum from the bottle!

Happy New Year - Cayos Cochinos, Honduras

We saw in 2010 in Sambo Creek, a small Garifuna community along the coast of Hondruras. We stayed in a small hotel with a fab ocean view balcony. There weren't any celebrations going on, so we enjoyed a few yummy pina coladas and got an early night.

We ended up in Sambo on our way to Cayos Cochinos - a picture perfect group of 13 islands. We caught a ride there first thing on New Years Day with some local kids. It was a beautiful way to start the year. We stayed on Chacuatte, a small Garifuna island village of about 65 people. We stayed in a wooden shack on the sand! There was quite a spectacular storm at night, luckily our shack held up and kept us dry.

The islanders have always been fisherman and now supplement their income with tourism. We loved the kids who just came and chilled out with us on the sand.

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.