Roatan Parte Uno

So far, Roatan has been treating us very well. We arrived and took the first room we found, which turned out to be our favorite place even after we looked at many more places in the town of West End. West End is curved around two little beautiful blue bays with one sand road that all the dive shops and restaurants and bars line. It's more expensive than anywhere else we've been in Guatemala or Honduras, but it's got the cheapest diving certification in the world, so here we are. Diving starts tomorrow morning at 8 AM. We took a walk our first day here, and plopped down on a dock to hang out (all the piers are public property) where who pulled up but a parasailing boat. We got to talking with the guy who was driving and he offered to take us down to West Bay Beach the next day, supposedly the best beach in Honduras, if you trust the Lonely Planet (which I only do with a grain of salt these days). We were cooking breakfast the next morning and talking with the other two girls who were also cooking, and came to find out that they too were going to meet Ken and get a ride to the beach with him. We all walked down to his pier together and met Ken himself half way there, looking for his deckhand who had apparently slept in. He gave us all one appraising look and decided the four of us would do the job. It was about then that I realized he was going to fly all of us with his equipment for free! He gave Dirk a training on how to run the parachute, from unpacking it, gathering the lines up, inflating it, and hooking the person in, then unhooking them after the ride. Our two new friends went up first while Dirk deck-handed and I watched, still not quite believing that I was actually going to fly myself. Ken lazily drove the boat, letting the wind do all the work in flying Amelia and then Hannah, occasionally shifting course to keep under them, smoking a cigarette to time each flight and chatting with us about life. And then it really was our turn! Dirk and I flew together, me hooked in front of him, the harnesses like swings under us, and suddenly, the wind catches us, and the ocean soars farther and farther away, and then we're looking out over the island from way, way high, with the wind ripping and catching at us, driving us up and down until the winch on the boat started cranking us in. Wow. I couldn't stop saying Wheeeee! until my feet hit the deck, and honestly, everything we've done since then has paled a bit in comparison. I forgot to mention that it was the most fabulously beautiful day we've had in weeks, with the ocean that incredible blue and the sky matching. We spent the rest of the day lounging on the beach until we got a ride home at four on the parasail boat. The next day we met up with four people who were going out to the old pirate hiding spots in the mangroves on the east side of the island. They invited us along because Dirk helped fix the lead guy (David's) car as it drove by us dragging a plastic wheel-well insert. We went all the way to the far end of the island and rented a low long boat (plus driver) to take us out for half an hour through the winding tunnels and bays formed by the mangroves. It was a little weird because I felt like we were intruding on a previously planned trip (which we were actually) but I'm also never one to turn down some free travel and we never would have seen that end of the island otherwise. Tomorrow we start our open water dive certification, and I'm sure that will bring new and exciting tales!
-Sarah