We rented a car with Elina & Greg (s/v Sapphire) on Friday. We all take the collectivo into the Coxen Hole area and while Elina & Greg head to the Port Captain’s office to get their check-in paperwork and hopefully check-out, Jerry & I walk to the airport to pick up the car.

Even though they’re at the Port Captain’s office before noon, Customs is closed and that is where the required form must be acquired. Greg is incensed. There’s a beautiful weather window for their passage towards Panama this weekend & early next week but they now cannot start the check-out process (which can take one, two or three days) until Monday (tomorrow).

We make the most of the rental car time, touring Roatan & purchasing needed items at the various stores. Today we visit Punta Gorda to visit the much-talked-about Garifuna community on the island. On Sundays the local band(s) play their traditional music and the local dish machuca - a savory broth with a small whole fried fish, small lobster tail or large shrimp(s), conch, and a large dumpling made of mashed plantain, yucca & corn - is available. Jerry & I split an order; smart choice as it’s a very large bowl. We’d expected to see Sunday be a community day with locals gathered beach-side enjoying the day, perhaps selling wares in stalls, music in various places on the beach, etc. but it turned out to be a tourist-trap experience with just one restaurant offering the dish at an exorbitant price (you can bet the locals’ don’t pay that price for their bowl of traditional Sunday soup!!) and one band playing in an open covered area that looked ready for cruise-ship tourists. We listened to a song or two then headed back to the West End. Good to see once. At least the meal was tasty and the beers cold.