Guanaja

. The town of French Harbor is quaint and has many shops with a good supermarket that is well stocked. The island has a lot of condominiums and higher end vacation homes. The locals have a wide variety of people with different backgrounds. English and Spanish is spoken extensively through out the island. If you go west from French Harbor you will come to the large town of Coxen Hole, there is a very large supermarket and plenty of shops that have all kinds of things if you need them. One Saturday night Gil and I went into Coxen Hole to a nightclub with a local taxi. The fellow brought us through a very seedy part of town on very narrow streets and we almost decided to go back. Until we saw the place, it was a large establishment with lots of security guards (armed at the door with shotguns). They frisked Gil and made him pay to go in and I was allowed in free with no search, pretty cool. Just like in Cuba, the people here never get off the dance floor. Many of the people came over and introduced themselves to us wanting to know where we came from and shared a drink with us. Before we left I ordered a meal to go from the bars’ restaurant to go         (standard thing we do when we are inebriated). We hailed a taxi, which already had three other people in it. One of our fellow travelers was a young man who upon smelling our chicken dinners told us he had not eaten in a couple of days.  Gil and I proceeded to share our meal with him, the other couple, and the cab driver. I think we are officially on a diet. The next day was a little rough on us and we hung around the boat all day. During the afternoon a small motor boat with some young people where knee boarding around us. Herbert Woods and his cousin Joshua Woods came over and spoke to us. Herbert offered to come the next day so Gil could try out the sport. Gil is not so good at it but he did have fun trying. A couple of days later Herbert took Gil out deep seas fishing for the day. All he caught was a small barracuda and the day I went with them we ended up at a small key near the East end of Roatan that was so idyllic, postcard perfect, with one palm tree hanging over the water. There is one other person I need to mention, Mr. Sherman Arch, he runs a small wildlife habitat at French Harbor. For a few dollars, you can tour his establishment and see iguanas, parrots, rabbits, monkeys, turtles, sharks and other fish. He lets the yachters tie up there dinghies to his dock and like almost everyone on the island will offer you a ride somewhere if he is driving by.    Herbert WoodsGil after he was dumped off the kneeboard.  Joshua Woods.  Day trip with Herbert going through a mangrove canal on Roatan.   

  Gil in the stream on the north side of Guanaja.Gil, Kylie, Mike at Christmas party at Manatee in Guanaja   a small Key we visited on the east end of Roatan.  Our favorite Person HO HO HO.Me and Gil still hung over from Christmas Eve. Manatee Restaurant.                               

 Sunday December 13 2008. We hosted anchor at 7am and headed to Guanaja. The wind was from the northeast a light 5-8 knots; we motored with our sails up. We at least tried to look like we were sailing, good old fake-o-sail it will fool a lot of people but not real sailors. We dropped our anchor at 2pm behind Dunbar rock. Meeting everyone in the harbor was our first priority. Kylie and Mike on Meggie, Joe and Helen on Déjà Vu, Eric an Carol on Driftwood, Benita and Bill on Elinringre. Then all of the wonderful people who live on the Island itself. One couple who live there are Kathy and Jim, they have a nice place on the south side of Guanaja in front of Dunbar Rock. They moved there about 15 years ago when Jim retired from a demolition company he ran. Their property has many tropical fruit trees and numerous flowering shrubs and plants, a horticultural dream. Near the top of their property is a swimming pond that used to be a fresh water source. The Island has approximately 25 natural springs fed from the mountains and the municipality uses them as their water source. Some of these streams from the mountains have waterfalls on them. The island has a man made canal cut through it so you can easily get from the south side to the north side in a small boat. As you go through it, you notice the devastation hurricane Mitch did to the island. Some of the mountains are starting to get a good growth of trees on them. Gil and I were shown pictures of after the hurricane, every leaf was gone and many old growth trees were destroyed. The island has recovered but it needs more time, the animal life needs to repopulate. We spent Christmas Day at the Manatee Restaurant with fellow sailors, locals and expatriates from Germany and the US. You can celebrate the holidays without snow and it still feels like Christmas. The meal was lovely, everyone brought a dish and Kathy and Jim provided the Turkey. Graham at his Island resort at Joshes Key will host New Year. Graham has decorated his island with 60,000 lights.