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Blog Worthy?

Had a plane crash this week off of French Harbor. Details and Rumors are rampant so not sure what to believe but it happened during the day and I have heard everything from Drug Running (doubtful to me) to ran out of gas (probably). Either way I also heard the guy was ok and as you can see he put it down pretty soft on the reef.

Always something in Roatan

Roatan Life Iguana?

One of our contractors Jose found this nice Iguana full of eggs on the road so he picked it up to save it from cars and hunters (yea we eat iguanas here, tastes like duck but more bones). She was a super tranquillo animal and he brought it into the office where we checked it out and put a little Roatan Life sticker on her (tagged if you will). We released her into a safe brush area near my house so she could carry on with her life and hopefully make some babies. What a pretty animal. Always something in Roatan.

Roatan Restaurant review - The Deck Cafe and a recent trip to Rendezvous Susshi

I have had two great foodie experiences lately. One is a new place in the French Harbor / Mt Pleasant area called the DECK cafe. Great curry, stir fry and other dishes. I have tried it twice for lunch and really been impressed with the food and service. My first meal was the chicken curry. They did it right with nice chutney sauce, bananas sliced to take away the heat and it was just the right consistency. My 2nd meal I had a chicken stir fry and was in love with the fresh veggies, perfectly cooked noodles and a good quantity of chicken. Both meals I had a spring roll for an appetizer which was also very nice. Check it out. As you can see from my buddy Marks picture on this blog he enjoyed it as well!

The 2nd place in this double header of eatery critiques is Rendezvous Sushi in West Bay. I frequent this place about once every 2 months or so and am never disappointed. Great seaweed salad, imported Japanese beers ice cold and plenty of quality fish. Eric is the man running the sushi bar and he never disappoints with some neat takes on classic sushi fare. He recently started serving a sushi pizza with rice cake consistency crust its really neat. The topper on this last trip was lionfish sushi however. Lionfish for the un-initiated are a Pacific fish with spikes that are poisonous. Now they are an invasive species and quite a menace in the Caribbean. They have very few to no natural predators in these waters and are voracious eaters on small reef fish. The local dive communities across the Caribbean and S. Florida are trying to counteract this issue with spearing them etc. Eric at Rendezvous is helping raise awareness and get rid of the bi-product to this spearing by serving Lionfish sushi and Sashimi. The taste is not bad very mild white fish with a micro bone consistency that is similar to anchovies or sardines only in feel not in taste. It was real treat to try something so different and I give kudos to Eric for putting it on the menu. Check it out next time your in town or ask for your local sushi place to consider it to help raise awareness to this problem.

Lake Yojoa trip for Cindys 41st BDAY

What a great time we had visiting the largest lake in Honduras. Cindy, myself, Marcia and Leandro from Tegus and Aggie and Daz from Roatan made up our little team of adventurers and we had a very relaxing time sucking in all the nature and good times around the area.

We started out on Friday making our way from San Pedro to D&D Brewery on Lake Yojoa . This little micro brew run by expat Bob Dale is a must stop if your in the area. Great beer and food and reasonable accommodations made this a nice option and we stayed two nights. Bob has a nice selection of hand crafted brews and I really liked them all but loved the porter. The food was great as well with highlights being the fresh blueberry pancakes. Bob has his own farm and they have there own coffee, blueberries and it was all made with love and you can tell it in the taste. The blueberry soda was out of this world too and we were worried Aggie might overdose on blueberries at one time.

On Saturday morning we got together for a quick breakfast and then out to the lake for a row boat bird tour. The main ornithologist Malcom was not available so we got his understudy Rafael a local young man who really has keen eyes and a great ear. We surely saw over 40 species in this 3 hour tour with my favorite being a new bird to me called the Tiger Heron. We saw a family of 4 (2 male and 2 females) great tall bird with striking markings. Additional birds included Toucans, Purple Gallineu, Green Herons, Egrets galore, Orioles and many others. The lilly ponds on the lake and the reeds and rock formations really made for an interesting time and the weather was perfect almost spring like.

That afternoon we took a drive to the impressive Puhlanpanzak Falls. A national park of sorts it was a great location and we took the adventure one step further and hiked to the bottom of the falls and had a local guide help us make our way through and behind the falls to a small cave and some other areas. That was an exhilarating experience with the 10 story plus waterfall pouinding away on you as you made your way through. You had to push your chin into your chest to create an air pocket to breathe in some parts. In one part you were in a small area where the water seemed to fall mostly around you and you could sneek a peak skyward to see the wall of white thundering around you.

From this part we headed back to D&D and explored a few small villages up the mountain. Then more good food and a few extra beers to be polite.

Sunday included a nice hike in the AM through a local archeological and nature park for a few hours. Mayan era ruins that are mostly still covered and many birds made for a great time. We then headed back to San Pedro and on home to Roatan a great weekend had by all.

Map for Adventure

Rum Runners Run
1st Annual
Calling all Buccaneer Bastards and Bow Bitches
The Gang - Looks like we have 3 boats -
Bill Fish, AT LAST, LiL TiP SEA
and 12 to 15 people going on the trip so I would say it’s probably full.
Logistics -
Roatan is straight East of Ranguana and Ranguana is straight East of Placencia so it makes sense to enter the outer banks of Belize at Ranguana Pass. Utila would be out of the way on the way over but if we stay at Hunters Cay on the way back we would go right by Utila on the way to Roatan so stopping for a night would work on the way back to Roatan.
Leaving - I think we should have a window so we can utilize the best possible weather for the crossing. If everyone has the weekend off we could head over between Saturday May 22nd to Monday May 24th. If we get there early will just have more time for fishing, diving and island exploring. Sounds like they will have room for us. If we go over on Saturday or Monday we can try to check in on that day. If on Sunday then will check in on Monday. The crossing to the outer banks is 99 miles and aprox 3.5 hrs then another 1 hour to Placencia.
Option - For those who don’t want to make the big blue crossing or need to shorten up the trip they can fly into Belize City and take a plane down to Placencia from there. They have daily flights from the States.
Belize -
We will be staying here May 24th - 27th for sure and maybe 22nd or 23rd if we go early. We will be staying at the Paradise Resort in Placencia -
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Paradise-Resort/206785867247
They will be in charge of our Whale Shark excursions, fishing, diving and guides as we so desire. They have great dive gear at their on site dive center and even have fishing gear. After reading about someone who was threatened with a $500 fine for not raising their Yellow quarantine flag I think we should try to do the check in correctly. Wow this could be a new trend ------ not!
Paradise will be taking us out to the Whale Sharks on their boat. Gladden Spit is where they will take us and it is about 25 to 30 miles away from our hotel. We could also take our boats and leave them with security on an island close by. Then when were done we can head off to fish or dive or picnic on an deserted island. And if anyone wants to get back to the resort they can take the Paradise boat.
Guatemala -
We will be staying May 28th, 29th, 30th at the Catamaran Hotel.-
http://catamaranisland.com/
Will be exploring and staying right on the infamous Rio Dulce River, one of the top rivers in the world for cruising. This is where the original Tarzan movie was filmed and has a 6 mile stretch where 300 to 500 ft banks tower over the river
Home Bound -
This part is not in stone yet and we have options. When we leave Guatemala will be heading back into the Belize outer banks. We might be able to stay at Hunters Cay, I think they could hold our hole group. Seal Cay said they have room for about 10 of us and they are about 8 miles away. We only need to buy a park permit at Hunters Cay for all of the outer banks so we don’t need to check in with customs. We can also have my friend Alfred meet us there and he can haul any people back to Placencia if we have anyone wanting to fly from there.
Whale Shark Excursions -
We have permits for our encounter on May 26th and 27th.
Sounds like you can still dive with the whale sharks at Gladden Spit. This is one of the last places on earth that I know of where you can still dive with them. Not saying it’s the best option but at least an option. Usually its snorkel only.
Schedule -
May 22nd to 24th - Leave for Belize
?? To 25th - Snorkel/Diving, fishing, Exploring, Bar hop on golf carts.
26th and 27th - Whale Shark excursion.
28th To Guatemala
29th Marina/Bar hop.
30th Cave and Hot Springs.
31st To Belize outer banks Hunters Cay/Seal Cay or go into Placencia.
1st To Utila.
2nd To Roatan.

Rest of the Story on the Honduran situation

Saw this great article in the Wall Street Journal and wanted to put it up for everyone to read.

The image of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wielding what resembled an oversized mallet while leading a mob of congressmen across Capitol Hill on the day of the health-care vote is the stuff of nightmares. It is also instructive. As a metaphor for how the Democrats view their power, the Pelosi hammer-pose could not be more perfect.

Just ask Honduras.

Last year, the U.S. tried to force the reinstatement of deposed president Manuel Zelaya. When that failed and Team Obama was looking like the Keystone Cops, it sent a delegation to Tegucigalpa to negotiate a compromise.

Participants in those talks say Dan Restrepo, senior director for Western Hemisphere affairs at the National Security Council, let slip that the U.S. interest had to do with American politics. The Republicans, he said, were using the administration's support for Mr. Zelaya, an ally of Venezuelan Hugo Chávez, against the Democrats. It's not going to work, Mr. Restrepo is said to have informed the other negotiators, because "we have the power" and would be keeping it for a long time.

It can't have been comforting for Hondurans to learn that while their country was living a monumental crisis, fueled by U.S. policy, Mr. Restrepo's concern was his party's power. For the record, an NSC spokesman says "Mr. Restrepo didn't say that." But my sources are more plausible considering what has transpired since.

Four months after a presidential election, reports from Honduras suggest the Obama administration remains obsessed with repairing its foreign-policy image by regaining the upper hand. The display of raw colonialist hubris is so pronounced that locals now refer to U.S. ambassador Hugo Llorens as "the proconsul."

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Associated Press
U.S. Ambassador Hugo Llorens (left) and former Honduran President Manuel Zelaya in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, November 2009.

Washington's bullying is two-pronged. First is a maniacal determination to punish those involved in removing Mr. Zelaya. Second is an attempt to force Honduras to allow Mr. Zelaya, who now lives in the Dominican Republic, to return without facing any repercussions for the illegal actions that provoked his removal. Both goals are damaging the bilateral relationship, polarizing the nation and raising the risk of a resurgence of political violence.

The U.S., as represented by Mr. Llorens, has been at the center of the Zelaya crisis all along. People familiar with events leading up to Mr. Zelaya's arrest on June 28 say that had the U.S. ambassador not worked behind the scenes to block a congressional vote to remove the president a few days earlier, the dramatic deportation would never have happened.

The State Department denies this allegation. But numerous sources maintain that Mr. Llorens' interference allowed Mr. Zelaya to push ahead with an unconstitutional referendum. Fearing he would use violence—as he had before—to trample the rule of law, the Supreme Court took action. Mr. Zelaya was arrested, shipped off to San José, and removed from power by a vote of Congress the same day.

The Americas in the News

Get the latest information in Spanish from The Wall Street Journal's Americas page.

Honduras had defied Uncle Sam and the U.S., led by Mr. Llorens, decided that it had to be taught a lesson. It took out the brass knuckles and tried hard to unseat interim president Roberto Micheletti in the interest of restoring Mr. Zelaya to the office.

Honduras wouldn't budge. That's when Mr. Restrepo traveled to the capital with a U.S. delegation. The agreement reached included U.S. recognition of the November election. For a time it seemed things might return to normal.

But the Americans had scores to settle. The U.S had already yanked dozens of visas from officials and the business community as punishment for noncompliance with its pro-Zelaya policy. Then, just days before President Porfirio Lobo's inauguration in January, Hondurans estimate it pulled at least 50 more from Micheletti supporters. The visas have not been returned, and locals say Mr. Llorens continues to foster a climate of intimidation with his visa-pulling power.

He hasn't stopped there. In early March he organized a meeting of Liberal Party Zelaya supporters and the party's former presidential candidate, Elvin Santos, at the U.S. Embassy. Some 48 hours later the party's zelayistas and its Santos faction voted to remove Mr. Micheletti as party head. Rigoberto Espinal Irías, a legal adviser to the independent public prosecutor's office, complained that the "meeting generated much bad feeling in Honduran civil society" because it was "perceived to have the purpose of intervening in Honduran national politics."

Now more trouble is brewing: Salvadoran President Mauricio Funes, according to press reports, has said that Mr. Lobo made a promise, in front of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Mr. Funes, that Mr. Zelaya could return "without fear of political persecution." Mr. Lobo subsequently announced that Mr. Zelaya is free to enter the country. In exchange, it is expected that foreign aid flows to Honduras will resume. But the minister of security maintains that if Mr. Zelaya returns he will be arrested.

It's hard to imagine what the U.S. thinks it achieves with a policy that divides Hondurans while strengthening the hand of a chavista. Revenge and power come to mind. Whatever it is, it can't be good for U.S. national security interests.

Write to O'Grady@wsj.com