See Roatan

 Sorry, no new posts for a couple of days, 5 hours on a snorkel/sailing tour and parts of me did not get info suntan lotion.  Burnt, burnt burnt!  Staying inside for a few days.  Debbie

 Well we finally got to snorkel in the 2nd best snorkeling spot in the world!  It was awesome!!!  I did some research in snorkel tours and came across Roger.  He owns a Catamaran and does tours.  We went on a 5 hour tour.  (Not the 3 hour tour like Gilligan. lol)  We started out in Gibson Bight and sailed NE through Anthony Key Resort and out to a reef.  We snorkeled out to the reef, over the reef and back.  It was incredible, I only wish my underwater camera had been working.  Before we got to the reef Roger said the ocean floor drops down to over 100 ft deep.  We couldn't even see the bottom, it was eerie.  There were so many different varieties of coral and fish it was incredible.  We got back on the catamaran and then sailed SW past West End where we stopped for another snorkel round, here it was shallower and you could see different fish.  Then we sailed to Sandy Bay and dropped off the other couple (they must have had the 3 hour tour.) had Roger's famous Italian lunch - p

 Today my Realtor took me around to show me some condos for sale (to look at for friends).  We stopped at West Bay for lunch.  This restaurant was inside a boutique hotel and is called Skai - the owner is Dutch, but the food definitely was not.  We had the guacamole and chips, followed by Tacos al pastor and something else that I can't remember the name, it was laid out on a bed of tortillas with cheese and meat all cooked together, it tasted like a little egg was in there too, but hard to tell.  It came with guacamole, refried beans and different salsa's on the side.  Both the tacos and this other thing were very good.  Sorry I should have written the name down.  The desserts in the glass covers looked delicious, but after all that food (we couldn't even finish our plates), the dessert was out of the question, I might have to go back just to try them on their own.

 There is a shopping center in French Harbor called Mega Plaza.  It has a few different shops including something equivalent to the Dollar store - called DeTodo, a Payless Shoe store - yes a USA store, a couple of banks, some food places, a furniture/appliance/household store called Lady Lee - according to my realtor the best place to buy furniture.  We bought a new fridge and a new reclining couch, and a couple of other things.  The prices were very good, but I'm digressing from the Title. lol Queen Restaurant is in this Mega Plaza, the reviews on Trip Advisor was a 4.3 out of 5 so we decided to try it.  The prices are good, the hamburgers with french fries start at $5.  Greg ordered the chicken strips and french fries, I decided to be brave and try the Fajita plate.  Never have I ever had Fajitas on plantains.  Plantains look like bananas, but have less sugar and less flavor so they fry them like french fries.  When they are fried they don't have much flavor.  The fajitas cam

 What do you ask, is a Pizza Inn?  No it's not a new B&B.  The Pizza Inn is actually a chain and is in the same location as Bojangle's Chicken (see yesterday's post).  We figured that the Chicken meal yesterday was so big that today's pizza we were going to split.  The Pizza Inn, is similar to a Little Caesars.  We like Little Caesars.  We ordered one of the 4 lunch combos and split it.  For $8 it came with an individual pepperoni pizza ( you could pick different toppings) 2 pieces of garlic cheese bread and 1 one soda.  We added another soda.  The pizza was very delicious!!!  Similar to Little Caesar's, they must bake the pizza in butter, the crust was a little crunchy and the top was puffy and a little Italian seasoning in the crust.  The sauce was good too.  The garlic cheese bread was two slices of french bread cut on an angle with garlic butter and lots of cheese on top, it melted in your mouth!  I noticed on their board that they have a stuffed crust pizza

 Bojangles for lunch.  So cashier didn't speak English, but another employee at the front counter did.  The menu was a little hard to decipher.  It had boxes, but it didn't say if they came with any sides, also there was an area where you could add sides for $1 each.  We ordered the 4 piece box.  The worker that spoke English asked if we wanted both sides as french fries and we said yes.  Mistake!!!  Should have tried the coleslaw.  We got our meal ($16) and it came with 2 large chicken breasts and 2 drumsticks, 2 cokes, the two sides of french fries were HUGE!!!  Plus it came with two large fluffy biscuits.  We ate the chicken and half of one of the french fries and were totally stuffed.  The chicken was hot, moist and tender.  The coating had a little spice to it.  The french fries were good and also had some type of seasoning on them, the biscuits were fluffy, but they didn't provide any butter to go with them, so I took them home.   In the same building is Pizza Inn (Im

 Lunch at Gilei's.  This is a popular coffee shop on the second floor of an office building.  Thankfully they have a large sign out front or you would miss it.  Greg ordered the BLT with potato salad and I had the Pesto Chicken sandwich with a salad.  On the receipt it said Coconut Bread, so I had to ask which sandwich had the Coconut bread, it was the BLT - it was very good.  The scary part of this whole episode is when you see the menu on the wall, there are NO PRICES attached. lol  They also offer several cakes for sale and we tried the chocolate/caramel cake.  It was good, but not the best cake I've eaten.  Over all we probably won't go back.  Had to try it, it was highly rated on Tripadvisor.

 This is one of the activities I was looking forward to the most, ever since I saw it on a TV Show.  We went to a Sloth Reserve.  It was $12 including taxes.  They actually have a shuttle service that will pick you up at your hotel for $30. When we arrived and paid the admission we were taken on a tour by a guide.  They have an open air area where the sloths are nearby in the mangrove trees, someone takes it out of the tree and then they let you hold them.  Sloths sleep 20 hours a day, so they are pretty mellow and just cling to you like a tree.  Unfortunately you're not allowed to pet them.  All around they have Capuchin monkeys in cages and you are allowed to go into one and stand in the middle and let the jump on you feeding on sunflower seeds the guide provides.  Next to these cages are the parrots, same thing here, you walk into the cage and hold out your hand with sunflower seeds, the birds come to the guide and then he puts them on your arms and head!  It was a lot of fun an

 Today we rented a car and drove around the west side of the island, wandering through West end shops and ended up driving a little farther to West Bay.  Walking along the sand we stumbled into Argentinian Grill.  The reviews were high for this restaurant and we weren't disappointed.  We weren't very hungry, more tired and thirsty.  We split the hamburger plate and ordered a milkshake.   They serve you a litre of water with glasses of ice.  The water was a little over $1.  The whole meal including the hamburger, milkshake and water was $17.  Not bad.  They offer steak from their grill, so we will have to go back and try that when we are hungry. Here is the view from the restaurant

 Having just moved into the condo and there is not a single piece of food in the condo we definitely needed to go to the grocery store.  According to what I've read there are two Eldon Grocery stores and another grocery store on the island.  Thankfully one of the Eldon's is only 2 blocks from our condo.  We walked there and took a taxi back with all our food.   We spent a total of $175.  The prices aren't too bad if you stick to their generic brands.  The most expensive thing we bought was a 12 pack of Diet Coke for a little over $6.  Included in the $175 was milk, cheese, bacon, sausages, bagels, cream cheese, flour, sugar, brown sugar, salt and pepper, ketchup, mustard, bbq sauce, snacks, some chips, bread, peanutbutter, jam, and a few other things.  It's interesting and I should have taken some pictures - but their flour and sugars come in clear bags.  The bread is square! I also bought a 1 liter of Coca Cola in a glass bottle for a little over $1.  

 Breakfast - my favorite meal of the day.  The Pineapple Grill is in the same building as Herby's.  They are open for breakfast every day and dinners Wednesday - Saturday.  We went for breakfast this morning.  Tried the Honduran breakfast.  It was different from what we usually eat for breakfast.  3 eggs any way (we chose scrambled) refried beans, tortillas, cheese, sour cream, fresh fruit and plantains.  Very filling.  

 Here it is!  My first restaurant review on Roatan.  We moved into Pineapple Villas Resort today and there are two restaurants on the property, Herbie's and Pineapple Grill.  The latter is not open for dinner on Sundays.   Herby's Bar & Grill had a wide menu, so we chose something that appeals to most of us - we ordered a cheeseburger platter with an upgrade to onion rings instead of french fries and a fish and chips plate.  The hamburger came with tomato, lettuce, cheese and onions, they bring mayo, mustard and ketchup to the table.  The  hamburger was good, the meat had a lot of flavor, the onion rings were well done and not greasy.  The fish and chips plate was delicious!  The fish was Red Snapper and almost melted in your mouth.  The french fries were the steak variety (my favorite kind.)  They also have pizzas which looked really good and big enough for 2, so next time!  Well, adding on to this post, we ended up eating at Herbie's for lunch today too.   Tried the p

 We made it!  So did our all of our luggage! For any of you wanting to fly to Roatan.  We flew American Airlines.  At least a day before you leave, you will want a Covid test.  We took the Rapid PCR test on Friday, got the results back that afternoon.  Then went to check in online with American Airlines.  They wanted us to download an app called Verifly.  We had to sign up - you can do one per family and in the app you had a page for each person.  They want your information on your travel, along with your passport information and your Covid response information.  Once you input all this information and take a selfie, it takes several hours to confirm.  There is also a link to the immigration forms to fill out - one per party.  The immigration form will send you a confirmation page with a QR code on it.  The Verifly app wants a picture of this code.  I found it easier to use the Verily app on my phone and then open the immigration results on my laptop so I could easily take a picture of

 Aloha: Just a quick update.  We have one week left before we fly to Roatan.  Getting excited.  We just closed on our condo and here is a picture the Realtor - Ana Flores took from our new patio.