Hello from Roatan! We've been sitting here in West End for almost 2 weeks now and can't think of any reason to leave yet. The weather has been great and this anchorage is ideal for getting to the cute little touristy diving town and also to the reef which is only a few yards away from the free mooring we're sitting on. The sunset to the West is unobstructed, while the lush green island landscape to the East is beautiful. There's a pretty beach that lines the shore too. We've been alternating land
excursions with diving days and having our own dive compressor back in business has been fantastic- we're so independent . We just hope it keeps working! Oh, and we're eating hydroponic baby leaf lettuce. You wouldn't think that would be important, but after months of iceberg, you better bet it is!

The first day we were here, we went to a pretty botanical garden that abutted a park with trails that led through the jungle and up to a great view. We also went to a really nice little museum on Roatan's marine life and history. It cost a dollar to get in but was worth much more than that. The next day we did 2 dives. This basically takes all day since it is an hour to fill the tanks in the morning, the dive lasts about 75 minutes, then you need 2 hours out of the water which is when we have lunch
and refill the tanks, then back into the water for the second dive. Between this there is loading the dinghy and putting all the gear together and on. It's a lot of fun though. Then in the evening, we have a drink and look at the day's pictures, hoping that one or 2 of them will be good. We plan to get an attachment for our camera this summer that will put the red color that is lost underwater back in for the photos, hoping that'll improve our scuba pictures.

Since all of West End is a marine park, there is no fishing. This has meant the grouper are huge and plentiful and we also see a turtle on every dive. Today, we followed alongside a hawksbill for several minutes as he was scrounging around for food. It occurred to me that we're not supposed to bump or otherwise touch the coral, but he was all over it! Going in and out of crevices, plowing into gorgonians and munching on marine plants. There haven't been as many colorful sponges as we saw in Belize
though and I don't know why since Roatan's reefs are supposedly especially diverse and abundant in sealife.

On one of the land based days, we took an all-day walk to the other side of the island, up the steep roads with 360 degree views and down into the jungle dips. We hadn't expected to find such a pretty beach with a bright green field next to it and no houses or hotels to disturb the view, but we did! It's actually surprising how undeveloped Roatan is. It's definitely changing, but for now there are huge open spaces with just lush, green jungle.

We rented a scooter one day since it was only $15 and figured we could get to the far reaches of the island that way. We ended up covered in road dirt and dust (we both chose to wear white shirts that day) and pretty much came to the conclusion that West End has the most to offer in the way of things to do. Unlike Bermuda, there aren't little pull-offs and parks everywhere so you can spend time OFF the scooter! We couldn't wait to ditch the thing and get back to the boat to shower! Then we went
over to another cruising boat named Windfree for drinks. They're moored right next to us and have the same boat we do. It's always interesting to see a sister ship and consider someone else's ideas for their home. Now we're going to have them over tomorrow night to see our boat.

I suppose we'll stay here for a couple more days since there are lots more dives to do. We may go around the corner to another anchorage called French Cay where there is supposedly some more great diving with swim-throughs and better coral. We'll need to start heading toward the Rio within the week so we can be there at the bar for a moon tide on May 5th. We would like to avoid bumping our way across the shallow bar if possible, using the extra water from the tide. By the looks of it, we should have
plenty of other boats accompanying us! Will upload pictures when we get to an internet connection.