The Monday Lobster Special

I love lobster.  And I really love ordering lobster when the restaurant has a magical location right on the water with beautiful sunset views and a Monday night special including three tails and your choice of two sides for $18 U.S.

 

The restaurant is Beachers.  They have multiple locations on Roatan, including one on the beach in West Bay and another one on the main road in West End.

Our favorite location for a sunset dinner is Beachers on the dock in West End.  We try to arrive late afternoon and grab a table next to the water as the sun's starting to drop from the sky.

Craig usually orders a SalvaVida, his preferred beer on the island.

 

Beachers also runs a 2 for 1 all day special on other drinks, so it's a great place to hang out!  At their West Bay location, they also provide loungers on the beach if you eat and/or drink there.

 

 

Captain Brooks ties his boat up at the Beachers' dock in West End later in the day, so if you need a ride home after dinner (before dark), he can take you back to West Bay.

This year we decided to eat our Christmas dinner at Beachers in West End.  We'd forgotten it was Monday!  Instead of turkey, we celebrated Christmas with three lobster tails.

The lobster special is $18, but this ending to your day in Paradise is free!  Wish I was there right now eating a lobster dinner.  Yum!

 

We'll be back.

 

 

Yo Ho Ho and a Merry Christmas!

Everyone's gotten in the Christmas groove around here.  We're kind of wishing Santa would bring us one of those little Christmas trees made out of cut Salva Vida beer cans or the Honduran flag hat with little Christmas lights flashing on the front.  Evidently fireworks are part of the Roatan celebration because even up here in the hills, we've been hearing little blasts all night long for the last four or five days.

 

 

Love these beautiful bulbs on a tropical tree in West End.

 

This Christmas tree's dedicated to Captain Morgan and many other booze varietals.

 

This kitty's napping until Santa shows up, but I think that may be him at the table behind her!

Nothing says Peace like the blue and green lights on this palm at sunset!

This almost looks like a gingerbread house!

 

Also love these painted carvings in Santa hats!

 

These over the water luminaries are very festive.

But the Booty Bar wins the Christmas lights prize!   Aaaargh.

 

 

 

I keep seeing Santa's sleigh in West End, but he forgot to visit us last night.  If I see the guy with the beer can Christmas tree in West End when we're having our Christmas dinner this afternoon, I'll just buy it myself!

 

Merry Christmas to all!  Best wishes for a wonderful 2016!

 

 

Money doesn't grow on trees . . . .

 

Or maybe it does!

 

Let's just call this a money tree.  Most local bars on West Bay Beach seem to have one, whether the Honduran lempiras are stapled to the ceiling, a post, or stuck to a palm trunk.

 

I know it's puzzling why people would deface a $10 or a $20 bill, but when you realize the Honduran $10 is only worth around 45 cents USD, then you get it.  So that makes the Honduran $20 bill worth around 90 cents, but just round it up to a dollar.

 

I've often made fun of travelers to Isla Mujeres who just can't grasp the peso, so I'm getting my comeuppance here in Honduras.  I realize it's easy for me in Mexico because we always use pesos when we're on the island except for lodging where the price is often based on the US dollar.  Here on Roatan, it's suggested to bring a stash of US dollars because restaurant tabs and a lot of shops are priced in USD.

 

I met my nemesis in the grocery store right off the plane.  I walked around with my money conversion app on my cellphone gasping at the prices.  Almost $8 USD for cream cheese?  Skip it.  $8 USD for that lovely loaf of pumpernickel bread?  Gotta have it, so bite the bullet.  We had the same experience when we traveled to Ambergris Caye, Belize a few years ago, so I was expecting it.

 

We were in a local deli that also has some grocery items yesterday and Craig pointed out a small bag of red licorice.  (The Australian type.)  Yum!  I wanted it!  195 lempiras.  The exact conversion on that would be $8.74 USD.  Stores and restaurants here like to round the conversion to about 20 lempiras to one USD, so that small bag of licorice would be almost 10 USD.  The converter in my head said no way in hell I'm paying $10 USD for a tiny bag of licorice.

 

Hmmmmmm.  Maybe I'll tell Craig that's what I want for Christmas!

 

 

 

 

 

Roa Where?

If only I had a ten dollar bill for every person who's asked me where Roatan is, my vacation would be free!  One friend confused Roatan with Rarotonga in the South Pacific.  Another wanted to know if we were driving there.  The flight attendant giving gate connections as the plane descended into DFW was completely flummoxed when I said Roatan.  She'd never heard of it. 

All I can say is let's keep it that way!  This place is so chill and laidback!

I snapped this photo of the navigation seatback screen on the trip down to clarify the location for my confused friends.

 

A cute little taxi driver named Sonia picked us up at the airport in a tiny squeaky taxi, swung by the grocery store, and dropped us at our rental chattering all the way in pidgin style English.  We both understood about 1/10 of it, and she understood less of our English.  She took the local color route.  It killed me to drive past all those clotheslines without stopping to snap photos. 

 

After unpacking a bit, we mulled whether to go out for dinner or merely collapse since we awoke at 3:30 a.m to make our 6:00 a.m. flight.  Overwhelmed with curiosity, we decided to trudge down the steep hill and flag down a water taxi for a ride to West End.



This water taxi captain with a panga full of snorkelers waved at us, we waved back, and after a beautiful ride, we soon pulled up to a dock in West End and paid him our $6.00 fare.

We decided to eat some local fare at Creole Rotiserrie Chicken.  After gobbling our first meal on Roatan, we wandered the one street in West End before flagging down a land taxi driver for a ride up the dark steep hills to home. 

 The Creole Rotisserie Chicken joint.  Good eats!

 

 

A half chicken, two sides, and a bottle of Port Royal beer.  Craig's in heaven.

 

Busy Saturday night at last light in West End, Roatan.

 

A little tropical Christmas cheer!

 

 

The town library.

 

 

These crabs must love pollo because this guy and all his relatives were gathered right below the steps to the restaurant.

 

 

Ahhhhhhh.  Another crowded spot.  Muy tranquilo!

 

 

 

Stay tuned!  We'll be here for awhile!