Roatan - Day 23

Big morning today… we wore ourselves out snorkeling.  We went out in Sandy Bay (where we’ve already been a few times) with Peggy, L, and D.  Our typical snorkeling adventures last 1 – 1.5 hours so we were planning on the same today.  Only 2.5 hours and bright red sunburns later did we realize we should have planned more carefully.  I DID put on sunscreen, but not enough apparently.  It was a GREAT snorkel though.  We went out farther than we had before… until we came to 20 foot high coral reefs and the steep drop off into the dark abyss.  We even saw a barracuda and a couple of turtles.  We swam around a small island, Anthony’s Key Resort, and got close enough to touch the dolphins (you can pay bucko bucks for the dolphin encounter).  Well J did anyway… she put her hand through the fence and one swam right up to her.

After such a long snorkel we were all famished.  Nothing that a Coca-Cola and giant chicken quesadilla with fresh pico de gallo couldn’t fix.  Thank goodness for Marco’s, the joint at the bottom of the hill from the clinic.  We are regular customers there.  He might even have to close down after we leave for lack of business.

L took us to the grocery store were we stocked up on the usual – makings for a salad, juice, yogurt, Oreos, plantain chips, bread, and peanut butter.  On the way back we made a stop at the Rusty Fish, a tourist shop filled with cute brightly colored décor handmade out of recycled metal.  You are guaranteed a typical locally made souvenir here, not one shipped in from Guatemala or China. 

I passed out on my bed when we got back until I got a call from the hondureño doc at the clinic, asking if I wanted to come help him coach his basketball teams.  Heck yes!  The basketball court was literally my dream come true.  I wish I had taken my camera with.  Imagine this… a super nice outdoor court literally built OVER the ocean with bleachers on the water side.  I could play there all day every day.  I thought the doc’s teams were high school age, but turned out to be junior high.  They are some talented kids, but have some distractions and learning the basics to work through.  They did some warm up drills, then I worked with the post players (guys & girls) on inside moves to the basket.  Then we played some 5 on 5 ball.  Yes, I got to play with the girls.  I have never sweat so much in such a short amount of time.  Playing in this humidity is a killer.  Also, I was the ONLY white girl on the whole court (most were Black)… on the other end, there were 15-20 dudes balling it up.  Yes, I got a few looks. 

It was super fun and made me miss coaching my girls back in the States.  I hope I get the opportunity again to coach in the future.  J stayed behind to rest from her 2.5 hour upper body snorkel this morning (AMAZINGLY, she didn’t fall asleep while I was gone).

Tip: Have you ever tried a spoonful of peanut butter on the top of an Oreo?  Try it!  It’s our new favorite sugar appeaser.