My Year in Honduras: Vacation in Roatan!

This past Monday was Independence Day in Honduras, so we had the day off. The Honduran President also gave us Tuesday and Wednesday off as well, making it a 5 day weekend :) Of course all of the American teachers were ecstatic and planned a 4 day vacation in Roatan (right off the Northern coast of Honduras) in about 40 minutes. We found and AMAZING all inclusive deal on Group On for our stay of 4 days and 3 nights! All of the La Union teachers decided to go as well as about 7 of our American friends teaching in Gracias. This would be the first time we would be hanging out as a whole group since orientation, so we were all excited to see everyone again! We waited in anticipation for the week to end so we could start our journey to Roatan! FINALLY Saturday morning came and we were on our way :) We took buses from La Union to Santa Barbara to San Pedro Sula, to La Ceiba, and finally the ferry to Roatan. Let me tell you something about this ferry...the locals call it the vomit comet. It became very true to its name. That is all I will say about that....

We arrived to our resort, Palmetto Bay Plantation, around 6:30 Saturday evening, had dinner, and enjoyed a late night swim out by the dock. There were about 6 of us staying in one villa...and let me just say it was the nicest house I have ever seen. It was two stories, marble counter tops, very high ceilings, an all-around porch, surround sound speakers and microphone throughout the whole house, and air-conditioning!! (picture below) I do not know how we got this villa for such a cheap price; we definitely lucked out!!

On Sunday we hung out at the resort; laid out at the beach and pool, enjoyed reading for pleasure, and catching up with all the American teachers! In the afternoon we had the opportunity to go snorkeling, which was included in our package. It was incredible!! We went out on a boat and went to two locations: a shipwreck and a drop off. It was only about 4-6ft deep out where we were. We got our gear on (goggles, flippers, and the snorkel) and headed out! We saw so many beautifully colored fish, lots of cool looking coral, and I even saw a stingray! We went to the drop off next....now this was so so so so cool. You swam around in a circle around the drop off which suddenly shot down very steep...and you couldn't see the bottom. The drop off was very very blue and you couldn't see much, which honestly was kind of freaky. On my way back to the boat I saw the BIGGEST sting ray! It was seriously huge....and honestly all I could think about how was the crocodile hunter, Steve Irwin from Animal Planet, died from one...so I glanced at it for a couple of seconds and quickly swam away!

That night the resort staff made us dinner on the beach :) It was so special and sweet of them to do that for us! After an amazing dinner we all hung out and played games. Monday we spent the day relaxing. Seriously all we did was lay on the beach, go on the dock, read a book, and eat. It was awesome and well deserved.

We headed back on Tuesday afternoon, heading to another beach town, Tela, for the night before catching the bus back to La Union early Wednesday morning. Tuesday night and the journey back Wednesday was probably the most interesting 24 hours I've ever experienced. We hung out at the beach at night and had some fun swimming in the warm ocean. We then fit 6 of us in one hotel room...Then we had the journey back to La Union....the 6 of us traveling together missed the bus back to La Union by a couple seconds so we ended up hopping in this one taxi and having the driver chase down the bus...which we caught about 10 minutes later! We were so lucky!

This vacation was much needed and so relaxing! It was a lot of fun to hang out with everyone, catch up with the teachers from Gracias, as well as enjoy some amazing beaches Roatan had to offer :)