The Octopus’ Garden

I’m often amazed at the array of sea life we can see from our “front porch.” Kevin and I stroll the docks several times each day just to peer into the water and see what’s there.

There are always the usual suspects: grouper, barracuda, parrotfish, conch, needlefish, fry, and boxfish, to name just a few. Some of them actually live there full-time. Of these, my favorite is a large barracuda that I’ve named Barry. He’s almost always around the boats in the early mornings, and I make it a point to stroll by to check on him before I head to the office for work.

Here’s a photo our friend Jeff took of Barry while he was here.

And then there are times when we see something new. I’ve already posted about the glowing fish we saw a few months ago. While Jeff was here, we saw a sea horse, and we saw moray eels cruise by the restaurant almost every night. Here’s a photo Jeff took of the back half of one. I call all of them Murray.

Last night, Kevin spotted an octopus. Here’s a short video of him as he wanders around right in front of the restaurant dock. Big thanks to Kevin, who deftly handled the flashlight to serve as lighting technician, to make this one possible.

We were pretty entranced by this guy. The way he contracts and expands the web of his legs was beautiful, graceful, and, well, just pretty dang cool. If you look closely, you can also see a jellyfish cruise by in the lower-right corner.

Just a Quick Update

The good news is that the storm has veered south and is dissipating quickly, so we shouldn't see much wind. Only some more rains.

The bad news is that, although many businesses have reopened and most of the roads are now passable, we still can't get down island. At least, not to anywhere we actually need to go. The islanders have allowed most of the main road to reopen but are still blocking it in front of the power company. And the power company is between us and all the major banks, the big grocery stores, the hardware stores, and the airport. Things may get better soon, though. There is a Honduran futbol match tonight, and the rumor is that the protesters want to find a solution soon so they can go home and watch the game.

Go figure ...

Hold on to Your Hats ...

And now, we’re in the thick of it.

For the past few days, we’ve been keeping our eye on a weather disturbance (Invest 99) just south of us near the Nicaraguan coast. It has been intensifying and moving slowly our way. Today, it was upgraded to Tropical Depression 16, and it’s predicted to become a tropical storm over the next day or so. At this point, four of the six computer models on the tracking map project a path directly over the island. It won’t be a hurricane, but it’s raining cats and dogs already. We’ll likely see the worst late Wednesday into Thursday.

We have spent the day preparing as best we can for such short notice. Kevin took a boat to town to try to restock on food supplies and propane. He also arranged for a diesel delivery this afternoon. I pumped water to fill our reserves. We also got the lodge’s big boat out on a mooring to protect her from damage. We likely won’t need any of these extra precautions, but we want to be prepared just in case.

Complicating matters, we wanted to go down island to take care of some banking and procurement before the storm sets in, but we can’t get there. The islanders have been protesting the power company (which has doubled its rates in the past month) since Monday morning and have blocked the main (meaning only) road on the island. No one can travel anywhere unless it’s via boat or foot. That cuts us off from all of the island but our own port and Oak Ridge. However, most businesses are closed anyway.

At this point, the banks are closed, the grocery store is closed, and the roads are impassable. Oak Ridge is receiving no food or supply deliveries. A cruise ship turned away from port this morning fearing for passenger safety. A TACA flight did the same. The electric company employees are holed up inside and worried about their own safety. They say that if the crowd outside continues to press, they’ll evacuate to protect themselves and turn off all the power. This doesn’t affect us, as we produce all our own power anyway, but it certainly won’t help matters if/when the storm hits.

Are we having fun yet?

Keep your fingers crossed that the storm dissipates quickly. And don’t worry if we don’t respond to e-mail. We lose our satellite connection in heavy rains.

The Parrot Says …

I haven’t yet written about the menagerie here, but I’m going to sneak this post in anyway.

The lodge family includes one dog, a cat, and five parrots. Three are red-naped green parrrots, and two are yellow-naped ones. The yellows can talk. Patience, who is the oldest and best trained yellow, is the most vocal. She’s also the most particular. She likes men. She has a nasty habit of attacking women’s faces with a bloodlust, so we don’t handle her when the owners are gone. Pita, our younger yellow, is from this year’s brood. We handle her every day to socialize her and keep her sweet. So far, she does not attack. This is good.

Patience has a huge vocabulary of human words, phrases, whistles, and miscellaneous sounds. She says a lot of common phrases such as “How you doin?” and “pretty bird.” She also has some funny ones, such as “Wanna get the bird out?” Usually, she says these in the voice of the person who taught them to her. However, sometimes, she picks up phrases that we can’t figure out.

This is a short video that Jeff took of Patience last week. You can also see a short snippet of me trying to get Pita out of her cage at the end.

The question here is: What is Patience saying? My closest approximation is “I think Iraq is really a 12-year deal.” This seems pretty advanced (not to mention political) for a parrot, and we don’t know where she would have learned it. Kevin thinks she's saying something else.

What do you think she’s saying? I’d love to hear your interpretation. Leave a comment!

Pringles, Anyone?

Jeff has been impressed by many things during his visit to Roatan, but he was completely blown away by our Pringles!

For some reason, Pringles seem to be extremely popular overseas—much more so than in the United States. When Kevin and I were on safari in Africa five years ago, we came across a giant two-story Pringle can on the side of the road in the bush. It was a Pringles store—in the middle of nowhere.

Hondurans love their Pringles, too, apparently. We often can’t find American products when we want them at the local grocery stores, but they always have Pringles. Here’s a shot Jeff took at Plaza Mar of the Pringles section.

Unbelievable! And they have many flavors we have never even seen in the States. Yum! (And weird!)

Hey, Neighbor!

Last week, we were graced with the arrival of Jeff Kinsel, our friend and neighbor from Denver, Colorado. Jeff has taken a personal sabbatical of sorts from the drudgery of work and decided to visit us before he heads back into the real world.

Jeff was scheduled to leave on Saturday, but he is enjoying his time here so much, he has extended his stay until next Saturday. Between our work obligations here at the resort and the now increasingly more-common rains, we haven’t been able to do as much as we had hoped to entertain him, but we have had some fun. His first night, we managed to steal away for our first overnight away from the lodge. We spent an evening in West End, the tourist part of the island, where we enjoyed a good meal and a night out. We also experienced a small earthquake! It was a first for Jeff and me, but Kevin endured a much larger one a few months ago on the island. We have also snuck in a mangrove tour, a couple of snorkeling excursions, and a few hours of fishing. When we’re busy, Jeff keeps himself occupied by fishing off the dock, sailing our Hobie cat, taking photos and video (look for some upcoming guest shots), and bugging the cooks.


It’s been wonderful seeing a familiar face from home. If you need a vacation, keep us in mind!