Silly Antics in West End, Roatan - Part 3

I think this will probably be the last installment... we had a lot of pictures of our trip to Roatan this time between our camera and Jessie's.  Many photo credits go to her and most don't need captions...

enjoy!

Super nice fishing gear on a super nice fishing boat...

Jessie followed this turtle for a while...

The Green Flash Bar at Land's End...

Silly Antics in West End, Roatan - Part 2

We didn't realize that there would be a fishing festival in West End last weekend.  There was food, drinks, light up toys, music, sack races and more!  We enjoyed the food off the street every night.  

Island version of pin the tail on the donkey - I think.  He uses the stick to feel around for the metal bowl... when he finds it, he is rewarded by the sound of the bowl and the cheers from the crowd.

Tastiest gringas in town made here...

And his delicious SPICY salsa.

The Jager trailer.

Party in the street.

No comment.

The sack race!  The kid in the white shirt  has a great look on his face, the kid in the blue shirt

 is showing his sack racing prowess by jumping about 2 feet off the ground, but the boy in the

 yellow shirt won the race.

The evening ended with a nice kiss... 

and...

a tarantula.

Silly Antics in West End, Roatan - Part 1

Jennie and Jessie enjoying a float.

Too much vigorous play means the yellow floaty went over the edge of the pool.

Recovery mission to retrieve yellow floaty.

Big reach.

Looks like the floaty has lost some air.

No worries... still provides entertainment.

Honduran Independence Day

We are preparing for our 5 day Independence Day holiday and days off for Day of the Teacher...

Today Linnea marched in the pre-school parade.  She marched so proudly.

Jessie arrived yesterday.  She got artsy today and took a panoramic photo...

We are heading out into the city tonight to show her the town.  We have every intention of 

leaving tomorrow morning at 5a.m.  First destination... Sambo Creek.  Then off to Roatan

 for the remainder of the weekend.

Extension Cord

We needed an extension cord, and this is what we were able to borrow.  It worked fine and did the job.

But, does any part of this look sketchy to you?

  

(to be fair, there are real extension cords available here)

Garden Booty

Eric was fortunate enough to be in the right place at the right time to score some corn from Manuel tonight. Here's the first look at the corn that's been growing across the street.

We'll let you know tomorrow how it tastes in our tortilla soup.

Gardening in the Capital

When we first saw our apartment, we were giddy over the gigantic back yard.  Despite the steep slope because we are on a hill, we thought of the playing possibilities for the kids.  You also have to use your imagination here and picture this field with a lot of tall grass... the kind you could flatten to make paths from one kid-lair to another.  The kind of tall grass that made the field seem 10 times larger than it really was because when you would lay on your belly, you would only see grass, not the unsightly cinder-block wall.  

Well, as it turned out, this was not our back yard, but simply an empty lot next door.  Over the year, we watched the grass grow taller, a tree would take root here or there, and throughout the dry "rainy" season that we had last year, it changed from green to yellow to brown.

Until last spring, just before the rains came back.  Manuel, a man who is the care-taker for a home across the street,  spent several days cutting the grass and preparing the slope for his garden.  Then he planted the empty lot full of corn.  He also planted the empty lot next to his house.  He planted every vacant dirt patch near the house that he could find with corn, beans and squash.

These are the guards helping out by weeding the corn one morning before work.

Now the vegetables of his labors are coming to fruit.  This is not just happening around us in our colonia, but all over the city.   Squash plants are sending out their little, yellow trumpets which are playing second fiddle only to the Paul Bunyan sized corn plants.  Hundreds of thousands of capitolinos are getting by, nutritionally, with their jigsaw gardens strategically placed around their homes and places of work.  It makes me miss my garden boxes in our old sweet, little yard in town.  I'll just have to make do these days with the rosemary, basil and some other mystery herb growing on our balcony.

Saturday 6:15 am

...and a couple of hours later...