Bruce's Christmas Vacation, Part 2 (The 2012 version)

I arrived in Roatan on December 19, 9 kilos overweight (luggage not myself, I wish I was 9 kilos overweight) and had to pay $180!!! for it. I was informed that the rain had just stopped and it was mostly dry for the duration of my stay.

This was unusual as it is usually the other way around!!!

I did a number of snorkels and I cannot imagine ever becoming bored with it. The best is coming to a rock/coral and just wait a little. Gradually the fish ignore you and come out and go about their business: cleaning parasites, chasing other fish off, etc. Then I look up and it seems there is a roadway around me, just like in “Finding Nemo”. I find it hard to believe there is a problem with lionfish as I didn't see any this year, ate quite a bit, but didn't see any. The only trouble with snorkeling is people yelling at me to hurry up because they are freezing (and they were) and then attempting to get back into the dinghy.

On my last snorkel an octopus was pointed out to me but I did not see it at first (I think/hope due to camouflage).

But as you can see from the pictures he came out of his shell so to speak. He must have wondered about these weird misshaped octopi following him (only four arms).

I kept on bumping in to Bruce.

There are pictures of one driving Interlude and another as an anchor.

There were also a number in the food store. Bruce's yams, okra.etc.

We started out at West End for a few nights and provisioning (mostly wine -- cases and cases of it) and in the morning gassing up, when I was abandoned, at Slippery Sue's, to turn in the car. The first night's dinner was rotisserie chicken, in West End, a treat.
On to Cayos Cochinos for Christmas. At one time there were 8-10 boats going to join us (just a slight exaggeration) at Judy and Greg’s, more boats than there were mooring balls. On Christmas Eve Rudolph the red-nosed dingy appeared (not sure if that was Cheryl's red nose or Trouble's).

A good time was had by all and three days of leftovers after Christmas. The smoked turkey was a good as I remembered it from last year. We walked/plodded/slogged our way up to the lighthouse on Boxing Day. Luckily for me Judy brought water but even so I didn't have the energy to go up the lighthouse when we got there and then on the way back we missed a turn and almost ended up on the wrong side of the island. Our hour and a half hike became a 4 hour one!!
New Years was at Mango Creek and was celebrated with a pot luck. The New Year was rung in at the much more reasonable hour of 8:30 (p.m. that is).