Happy New Year!

Happy New Year Followers and Friends,

We have been on the road, on the sea, and in the air for the past two weeks, so we have not been able to keep up with our blog... So here is a bit of a catch up.  My dad and I flew to Roatan and spent three days diving as much as we could.  The diving was great but the weather was cold and rainy with very rough seas.  Here are a few pictures I took on our dive.

You can see sponge coral, a picture of my dad, an octopus that we saw hunting fish on a night dive, a crab, turtle and lobster.  Roatan is truly on of the best places to scuba dive.

(I didn't take the below picture of my dad and I diving through the wreck of the Aguila at 100 feet. I'm the one with the camera.)

Meanwhile, Jim and Nancy tried to land in Tegucigalpa, but due to the bad weather they had to land in San Pedro Sula.  This was not exactly what we had planned but in Central America it is best to be flexible with your travel plans (or any other plans for that matter).  Jennie and the kids hopped into the trusty Hyundai and drove the five or so hours to meet them and they all spent the night in Tela.  By this time the weather had started to improve and by the time they arrived on Roatan, sunny island life was returning to normal.  By luck, the shuttle they were all on was also the one that had picked up Sally at the airport and soon we were all drinking Pina Coladas at Gloria's.  We all spent some valuable time in the sun, played games on the beach and then went to a marine research and educational center where we got to swim with a dolphin named Bailey.

Here we are with Bailey.  The dolphins have it pretty good here.  No that is not a pool, we are in the ocean!











We found a sirena (mermaid)!

D and Grandfather swimming in the Caribbean.

Dad and Sally in the sun.

Notice the bottle of Racer 5.

Kids playing in the sunset.

The whole group.

Final Sunset on Roatan.












After Roatan it was time to travel to see the Mayan ruins in Las Ruinas de Copan.  We had a guide who taught us all about the Mayan civilization and got to meander through the two thousand year old city.

Resting.

Our guide was named Tony.  He is in the Guiness Book of World Records... he told us this several times, but he never told us why he was in it...

Copan was called the "City of Bats".   Here is a very old bat statue.  Each Mayan city had its own animal or symbol.

Of course the long tour ended with ICE CREAM!














We also had a chance to visit a place called Macaw Mountain.  It is a refuge for birds who have been taken from the wild and are not able to live on their own.  As you can see they are very beautiful (except for the mean Tucan that chased us down).

Well there you have it, the past couple of weeks have been full of fun and adventure, just the sort of thing that we moved down here to experience.  Now we prepare to return to "normal" life.  School starts in three days.  We hope you have enjoy our pictures, we certainly enjoyed taking them!

Happy New Year!  May this year be a sweet year, a year full of love and peace!