Roatan October 2002

This is Roatan, as presented by Naomi. The island was mostly undeveloped, having just added the majority of tourist stores and restaurants in the last ten years. The water was about 80 degrees.

The jungle was beautiful (no howler monkeys, though), and we hiked to the top of the island for the view (with our good friend Deet).

It rained while we were there, but mostly at night. We only had one day of rain during the day, but with jungle this green, you know it's going to rain a lot.

It's against the law to cut down trees, so you'd see them building around them. It's a bit different attitude than here in the US, and it's trippy. You'd see holes in the floor all over the place.

The people there are very friendly. We were worried about petty theft because the country is so poor, but we didn't have any problems. Here a girl is hand weaving, thread by thread, a big bolt of cloth. The skirt she is wearing is also hand-made, and man does it look tedious to do that weaving.

Here's what Naomi would like like as a native.

This is Tony. He's an Italian from Bologna. There were a lot of Italians on the island, and there was even a resort in West Bay that specialized in Italian tourist. We walked down the beach in front of the hotel, and there were all these topless Italian women sunbathing. I have to say, it was pretty cool. The desk clerk at our hotel was telling us about Tony's food: "I've eaten everything, like cow tongue, pig hooves, and bugs, but I can't eat Tony's pizza".

The animals there are just as friendly as the people. Here the monkey begins to groom Naomi. The monkey would actually open your backpack or pick your pockets if you weren't careful.

We were in Roatan to scuba, and we had Tanya at the internet cafe recommend Ocean Connections. They were a great place to dive with.

This is us with dive master Wendy in the middle, and a couple from the UK, Emily and Ross.

The dive shop had this dog that would wade through the water staring at the fish. He was a really relaxed dog, just wandering around the water checking out the fish. I don't think he was trying to catch the fish, though. He has yellow paint on him because he was brushed up against a boat they were painting.

This is the dive shop's dock at dusk.