We are alive and well

Hi to everyone, We just wanted to let you know we are having a great time. We are currently in a small town of Creel but we´re not able to use our laptop...wireless is not available. We have however, found an internet cafe but we´ve been too pooped to blog or post pictures. We´re on our way to another tour and just wanted to say to everyone. We´ll be in touch very soon I promise. Take care and much love. B&B

Our next journey

Hi everyone, How is everyone doing? To my family & friends in Houston, hope you guys are recovering from Hurricane Ike. Most of you know we've start travelling again. We flew to El Paso TX on Sunday, Sept 21st and caught a bus to Chihuahua, Chihuahua Mexico. No, there were no chickens on the ride with us. The journey was a lot longer than we were told. Our travel time increased from 3 1/2 hours to 5 hours...thank God we had A/C, movies (in Spanish) and plenty of leg room. When we finally made it to Chihuahua we had a 20 min cab ride to our Hostel. Normally, I'm not a big fan of Hostels but I agreed to stay in one since we were only staying 2 nights and it's literally across the street from the train station. I've got to say this place is very cool. It's extremely clean, plenty of room, and in the heart of the Historical District. If you are ever in Chihuahua I would definitely recommend "Casa Chihuahua". It is run by a Frenchman called Phillipe and his Mexican wife, Lori who previously lived in Switzerland. From Chihuahua we will board The Chepe train and make our way down to Mazatlan. I say make our way because the train makes 5 -6 stops and we plan to explore each city. The train runs daily one way so we'll spend at least one night at each stop. If we find that we like the city we'll stay a little longer. Once we make our way down to Mazatlan we'll try to find an apartment or condo and hang there for a few months. If anyone wants to join us; we'd love to have you. I am traveling with a laptop this go but I can already tell Bob & I will be fighting over it. Missing everyone very much - Bonnie

Freddie

Freddy was our Porch Pet. I have to say I was a little intimidated by him at first. And we'd startled one another in the mornings. But then he became used to us and we were used to him so he hung around more and more. Bob and I would read on the porch deck and Freddy would sunbathe on the ledge near us. On occasion he was fed lettuce and Cheetos. He loved Cheetos. His little mouth would turn orange. One afternoon, I was hanging our laundry to air dry and he slowly climbed up the tree near to where I was standing. He used the branch as a hammock and watched as I hung the clothes. He is so cool! We'll miss our little friend.

Another Cheetos, Please!

Pictures of our Friends in Utila

Chris & Jodi

Rusty & Helen

Danny & Bob

Bonnie & Monica

Luis (Monica's Husband)

John (I love Shots) Souza

OK & Jeff

Judy

Bruce & Sharon

Judy & Chris

Barbara, Sharon, Cathy

Yes, Life is Good!

Ann & Paul (Cuda)

Bruce & Bob

Bonnie & Sharon

Bruce & Laura

Special Thanks Jeff, Sharon & Bruce

Hey everyone...It has been awhile. But I wanted to touch base with everyone and say "hi". Bob and I are back in the states. I can't believe our journey in Utila Honduras has come to an end. We were in Utila for 3 months. A wonderful island located off the Mainland of Honduras. We stayed with a very good friend of ours Jeff Thekan. He's one of kind to take in guests for 3 solid months. Jeff, Thank you very much! We really enjoyed our time there with you. You've been a huge part of our Island Life. You've introduced us to some amazing people and you have helped us more than you can imagine. You are family and if you ever need anything don't hesitate to call. As most of you know, Bob and I plan to move to Guanaja Honduras. Another little island off the Mainland of Honduras. With Jeff's connections (he's been living on the islands for quite awhile has a company called The Utila Real Estate Company) he has answered all the questions we had about living in Honduras, starting a business on an island, and like I said introduced us to some solid contacts. Sharon and Bruce being one of them. We met Sharon & Bruce a year & 1/2 ago thru Jeff when we visited him. If you've been reading my blog you know they own Driftwood Restaurant & Bar. We owe a huge Thank You to them as well. They took us under their wing to help us learn and understand what it takes to run and operate this type of business. When we head to Guanaja we plan to build a mini resort with a few cabanas and a beach bar. With this being said, Sharon took me in and led the way. I had no idea what it took to run a restaurant. I've never worked in that environment in my life. No, I've never been a waitress. I've always wanted to be a bartender. But anyway, I got a good dose at Driftwood. Sharon let me work in the kitchen, work the bar and waitress. (By the way, I'm a pretty good waitress.) I never knew that about myself. After 2 weeks of being there she threw me the keys to the business while she went to Texas to visit family. Sharon was a Blessing. She shared the difficulties, the knowledge of the Honduran Laws, payroll, distributorships and management. WOW! I had no idea. Sharon you opened my eyes and taught me valuable insight to running this type of business. I can never repay you for that. We had the best time with you and Bruce (AKA Pookie). Bob is very appreciative of you letting him work behind the bar. He really enjoyed that and we found out he's a great bartender. I didn't know that side of him. I never knew he could be that social and fun. Bruce had his hands full with managing a construction site but when he was off the site he spent all his hours at the bar. He's the man that came up with the recipes, trained the kitchen crew and jumps in when they need help. What can I say...the man knows what he is doing! Thank you both for everything. You two are a rare treasure! We miss you guys very much and we hope to see you real soon. Always wishing you the best and much love - Bob & Bonnie.

Going Away Parties...

Hi to everyone! As you guys know our journey here on the Bay Islands is coming to an end. We'll be heading back to Houston this coming Thursday, July 24th. Yesterday, Bruce and Sharon threw us a going away party at Driftwood. We had such a great time and so many people turned out. It was awesome. Lots of food, drinking, dancing and great conversation with our friends. We have no doubt that the friends we made down here will be friends for life. We've really enjoyed working with Sharon & Bruce. They taught us so much about the restaurant/bar business. I can tell you our plans have changed from our original thinking. We will definitely have to revamp our goals. Sharon & Bruce work their butts off and have very little time to play but their business is very successful. They shared with us what they would do different and we plan to follow their advice. After we left Driftwood several of us ended up at Tranquila's Bar. Monika owns and runs this place. She had to work and couldn't join us at Driftwood so we met up with her. We had so much fun. She was in charge of the music and don't you know we danced til the wee hours. 80's music all night long. Luis, Monika, Chris, Jodi, John, Steve, Sarah, Judy, Bob & I all were in rare form. We are going to miss all of them! Tonight is another "going away" dinner at John's Place. John is a fantastic cook and we can't wait to see what he has prepared for us. So stay tuned. We'll see you guys soon.

Fire!

There's been lots going on here the last few weeks so I'll be playing catch up. Last week there was a fire that broke out in one of the homes. Very sad but happy to say no one was hurt. The fire started by a lady cooking and a grease fire started. She panicked and didn't know what to do so she decided to vacate the property. We witness the town in action. We happen to be driving by the fire station when all this was occurring. Turned out 3 of the 4 guys could not fit into their fire garb. After trying several outfits they decided to jump on the small fire truck w/their flip flops, shorts and t-shirts. Another delay; they couldn't get the fire truck started. Who knows how long the truck had been sitting there without being started. In the meantime, the fire is blazing and now another house has caught fire. Finally the fire truck is in gear and en route. I'd say it took them 15 minutes before they got it together. There's always a breeze on the island especially at night. It took no time for the homes to burn. Embers were flying, the fire was blazing and as you got closer to the scene the ashes were thick and falling everywhere but that didn't keep the locals from trying to get up in the area. Some took pails of water to help out while others watched. The fire was finally put out but 3 homes were lost. One was vacant and the other 2 lost everything. Lots of improvement needs to take place. Hopefully they learned and will be better prepared in the future.

Our Venture to Guanaja

Hello! As you guys know we've been in route to Guanaja from LaCeiba (the mainland). We had such a great time with Ginger and her family. As I posted last we parted our ways in LaCeiba. They went on to Roatan and Bob & I made our journey to Guanaja. Things don't always go as smoothly as we want. Ginger can vouch for that since she has been on several of our travels. The 1st leg in getting to Guanaja is by bus to Trujillo. We made several phone calls the night before to learn of the bus schedule. They run every hour on the hour to Trujillo. For some reason our taxi driver thought differently. While en route to the bus terminal; our taxi driver sees the bus we need to take. He claims the next bus isn't for another few hours. He makes this turn on a busy road to try to catch up to the bus. He is hauling ass, blowing his horn, flashing his lights and passing all kinds of vehicles to catch up. He caught the bus and had them pull over to the side of the road for us to hop in. GEEZ! There's always an added excitement to our trips. We boarded the bus. It wasn't too bad especially since we had a 3 hour bus ride ahead of us. This part of the leg only cost us $17/pp. The bus ride was great. We saw parts of Honduras we had never been to. Honduras is a very mountainous country and the views were nice. Once we arrived in Trujillo we had 3 hours to walk the small town and have lunch. Our next journey was catching a ferry from Trujillo to Guanaja at 2:00 p.m. We enjoyed a nice lunch on the beach near the ferry dock. Trujillo is a great little town with lots of beaches and hilltop views. They had a town square to do some shopping and banking. Since we had some time to kill we decided to pop into the bank to cash some dollars to Limperias (Honduran Currency) What an ordeal that turned out to be. We were trying to exchange $400 and the process took damn near 30 mins. They had to inspect every single bill and handed back a $20 because it has small tear on the top corner. Then they had to write down our passport number and identify every bill we were exchanging by writing down the serial numbers of each dollar. Good grief.... Thank God we had time to spare. Now to the ferry. I had no idea we had a 4 hour ferry ride ahead of us. No worries though...they showed movies the entire time. 1st of all our departed was delayed by 2 hours with no explanations other than we'll be leaving soon. So, we didn't leave until 4:00 p.m. Yes, we were on the boat the entire time waiting. They did show movies but 2 hours into it I was starting to feel sick. While looking outside....I saw the sky one moment and then the sea the next. I never get sea sick but I was pretty close. They passed out barf bags to everyone and the girl sitting in front of me was using it. Nasty. Since the boat from far from being full. I was able to take up the whole row and lay down. I eventually went to sleep and enjoyed the rest of the ride but it was way too long. Bob had no problems and enjoyed all the movies being shown. Once we got to Guanaja; the Municipal Dock was full. We circled around for nearly an hour before they were able to pull up to the dock. We didn't get off the ferry boat for a full 7 hours. We will never do that again. By this time it now 9:30 and we are hungry. We checked into our hotel and grabbed a bite to eat. Guanaja is beautiful. It's the most mountainous of the 3 Bay Islands. I fell in love all over again. We met some awesome folks that we had been trying to hook up with over the past 2 years. What a gem they turned out to be. Jim & Cindy Jones. They had been living on the island for years and just built a home not too far from our property. We spent a good 3 hours with them picking their brain about construction, the development on the island, and the future growth. These guys are amazing and have great hearts. They can't wait for us to come down and start building. One day we told them. One day. Our future travel to Guanaja will be by plane or personal boat. We both had been wanting to see Trujillo and now that we have no need to do the ferry again. Well it's late here...Bob is ready to head home especially since he has an early dive in the morning. I'll be back soon. Love ya. B&B

Ginger's Visit

Woohoo! I got a nice Texas hug from my friend Ginger and her family. They came in town to visit for a few days. It was so nice to see her and spend a little time with them. I had set them up with a sail from Roatan to Utila which they loved. They said it was an awesome way to start there vacation from the plane ride. Traveling with Ginger is her boyfriend Richard, her Mom Regina and Step Dad Mark. They came in on a Sunday July 6th. We had a golf cart ready for them to use while on Utila so we took them all around the island. We snorkeled, found some Fresh Water Caves, partied with some of our friends and hung out on the beach. They learned to play Fris-Knock and I have to say they beat us at our own game. Richard & Mark beat Bob & I. Very sad but lots of fun. We all left Utila Wednesday early morning (6:20) on a ferry to the Mainland. We took a taxi up to the Pico Bonito National Forest where we had reservations at Jungle River Lodge. All of them went White Water Rafting while I hung back and laid in the hammock reading or playing pool with one of the local kids. As much as I wanted to participate in the rafting I held back. Most of you know that I have ruptured discs in my neck and just didn't want to risk having one of those horrible spasms. But anyway, we all had a great time. One of my friends from Utila had joined us too, Judy. The lodge is very rustic w/a small restaurant and bar. It sits just above the river and we could hear the water flowing all night long. The river was cold and very clear which we enjoyed swimming in cause it was hot and very little wind. The view was spectacular with the National Forest just across the river. At night, we watch the clouds come in and hover in the valley. Then the rain came in. Loved it; although it didn't rain for long. Helped cool things off and enjoyed a nice dinner and libations. Judy and I were the last ones to call it a night. Poor Judy had a few too many and while helping her to the room she busted her butt. Bob said he could hear me laughing loud. Nothing has changed! On Thursday we departed our ways. Ginger and her family took an early cab ride back to the Ferry to head to the island of Roatan. They were going to finish out there vacation on West Bay Beach @ Los Rocas Resort. I know they are going to have a blast and enjoy that area. Judy, Bob & I took a cab back to town. Judy was going to shop in LaCeiba and possibly spend the night before heading back to Utila. Bob and I are catching a bus to Trujillo and another ferry to the island of Guanaja. I'll write about that journey soon. Take care. We'll see you soon. This part of our journey is coming to an end. We'll be heading home July 24th. Love to all. B&B

Life's a Beach

Hello all, How is everyone doing? Things are quite well here. Yesterday, we spent most of our time at the beach with Chris, Jody, John and ourselves. We introduced Bob to FrisKnock and we played Bocce Ball on the beach. The weather was very nice slight over cast perfect for beach games. Bob had a great time learning the game. Unfortunately, he was never on a winning team. He had me as a partner most of the day and guy watching took my place while I went and swam. They couldn't pull of the win either from John & Chris. But it was a blast. We also caught a movie last night. They actually have a movie theater here on the island. Very comfortable seating and A/C. Best of all you can bring in your own booze and popcorn. We saw Fools Gold. I have to say I was very disappointed in the movie. I actually wanted to walk out half way thru but hung in there. Today, I'll be tending the grill making pizzas for lunch. I have lots of fun with that. 4th of July is upon us. They supposedly have an awesome fireworks display and good eats on the beach. Bundo Beach is sponsoring the event. Several volleyball tourneys will be taking place. I thought for a moment to enter but I heard folks from other islands and the mainland come to participate in this tourney. Makes me think this will be competitive and hard core. I'm too old and just don't have it in me anymore. I'll watch from the sidelines. Gotta go for now. Take care. Lots of love to all. B&B