We Are Ready For Our Holiday Week in the Sun!
It is December and time for another Barrow family Christmas trip. This year we chose Roatan, Honduras for our adventure. We flew from Charlotte and were supposed to be non-stop but we landed on the mainland of Honduras. The airport was crowded and the officials wanted to take our passports. We had been told not to let them out of our sight but they were insistent. We fretted for a bit before they got them back to us and put us on a small plane to the island. We landed quickly and were met by the folks from Fantasy Island Resort, the all-inclusive dive resort we had chosen. Yep, this is where they filmed the TV show and sure enough as soon as we got out of the bus we all pointed to the sky and said, "de plane, de plane" making everyone around laugh. We had adjoining room with the kids and after a quick snack and a little exploring the beach we took our tired bodies to bed. After our check out dive each day was pretty much the same, eat, dive, play on the beach, rest, and get up and do it again. The resort was not fancy and the food was not very varied (they had just come through a hurricane) but the beach was fabulous and the diving could not have been better. We had wonderful dive masters and we could boat dive or shore dive whenever we wanted. During our stay we were involved in a wedding where the dive master was best man and we took a night time trip to a pizza restaurant on the islands highest peak. They picked us up in a pick up truck with benches in the back. We were windblown when we arrived but the food was fabulous. A highlight of the trip was the opportunity to swim with the dolphins. We went to Anthony's Key for this and it was so well done. We all had a great time and a new appreciation for these animals. We had a true Barrow story-funny now but not so funny then. Hugh is notorious for not listening to instruction. On Christmas we went on a night dive. A boat took us to the site and we were told to dive as a group and we would slowly make our way back to shore-no boat!! We finished our dive back at the resort and as we came up they counted heads, one missing. The kids and I said in unison we know who it is and we were correct. In the distance beyond the reef we had swam through we saw a small light waving in the night. The dive master swam out through the hole in the reef to Hugh but they could not get back through so a boat had to go out for them. The boat guys would not let them in the boat but towed them on a rope back to shore. The next morning when we went to dive they said 3 of us could go but Hugh was not allowed. They all had a good laugh then let him on. Something we will always remember! Trey and Lori did a lot of sailing on this trip and only turned the boat over every other day. They also had fun playing soccer with the staff on the beach. A great trip and we were all sad when it was time to go home.
/susan
Click here to see Our Roatan Pictures