"Where the hell is Roatan?"

If we hadn't had the chance to go to Roatan on this trip, it is very likely that none of us would have ever heard of the damn place. Roatan is an island off the coast of Honduras, and it is a part of "The Bay Islands" of the country, being the largest one. It is primarily a resort destination for cruise ships and scuba divers. It is home to the second largest coral reef on the planet.


Game plan for Roatan: Relax. And I succeeded greatly. I checked into my hotel with Jimmy, Farrah, and Alex: The Bananarama Dive Resort located on West Bay. Our room was located on the beach, about a hop skip and a jump away from the water front, and only a hop away from the restaurant. We started the day off with drinks, falling in love with the "Monkeylala", a blended drink of kahlua, coconut cream, and other delicious things. There were a bunch of other SAS people there, students and faculty alike. We enjoyed bacon cheese fries (!!!) and the rest of our drinks before heading into the water, which was warm and inviting. We chicken fought the field office team and photographer, splashed around, and enjoyed the weather. Until it got cold and started raining. At that point, I walked around with Alden, Boulder, and Bryan, jumping off of piers and running into drunk SAS kids. It was a blast, actually. We got more food and more drinks and just basically spent the entire day doing that. At night we hopped around a few bars, played kings cup, and I walked 2.5 (ish) miles to the West End with Alden and Bryan, climbing over rock walls and really strange bridges. I danced the night away in my bathing suit and met this really cool Irish dude who's working on becoming a dive master. We made it back around 1 AM and passed out.

The next day was more of the same, except the weather was worse so we did less. We tried to shop along the beach, but most vendors were closed because of the weather. I desperately tried to go on a tour that involved seeing whale sharks, but the weather prevented it :'(. We left our resort around 11 and headed back to the ship, then shopped around there and ate a small lunch before calling it a day and getting on the ship. It was kind of a bummer that the weather was so cruddy, but worse things can happen in life.

I for sure want to come back to Roatan when the weather is nicer, it's a beautiful island that was SO relaxing and just straight up awesome.

Now, with only two days left on the voyage... things are getting pretty nutty and kind of hilarious. Details to follow.

Costa Ricaaaa

Getting off the ship after the Pacific Crossing was fucking great. Costa Rica was awesome, it sort of reminded me of Malaysia in the sense that it was a tropical paradise. I went zip lining through the forest and spent the night drinking at this awesome bar and spending time with friends. The next day I hopped on a tour bus with a bunch of carnival cruise people with my friend Matt, and we had a fucking blast hanging out with them.


I know it's not a whole lot of information, and it's kind of funny seeing the difference between my first blog entries and my most recent ones. It seems like everywhere is kind of the same, I do similar things and see similar things and hang out with similar people... yet every day is amazing and unique in some way or another. Leaving this ship is going to be fucking hard.

GO WATCH THE LIPDUB. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pA_I2GrwpQ

Hawaiian Hospitality

Aloha! So it's actually been a little while since we were in Hilo, Hawaii, but I kind of forgot to write about it, because we were only there for one day and it's been busy busy since then! I'll write about it super briefly because I'm doing a bunch of other stuff right now.


So I spent my day in Hawaii with Sam, Williama, Kyla, and Lizzie. We were with Williama and Kylas families, because they're both from Hawaii. It was amazing! Thanksgiving on an island is pretty awesome. We hung out in a guest home at a church all day, eating tortilla chips with dip and all sorts of island specialties and laughing at Williama's brother, who is one of my favorite children ever. When the full meal was ready, we loaded our plates up with pig, turkey, potatoes, fruit salad, regular salad, and lots of other amazing food. I had NO room in my stomach after ward, I was completely stuffed. We hung out for a while more and heard some stories about Hilo and The Big Island, which was great. We all loaded into the car and went to this chocolate store that was highly recommended. It was lovely! I didn't buy anything, but I did eat quite a few samples. Then we headed to Wal Mart, which doesn't sound that exciting, but when you've been without chain stores in America for a while, you appreciate then 1000% more. I walked in and there was a McDonalds and an American flag... I felt very much at home. We loaded up on snacks (and I loaded up on Martinellis sparkling apple cider) and headed back to the ship. We got there JUST in time to avoid dock time, and I spent the rest of the night making last phone calls home and to friends.

Being in America was super refreshing. Trust me when I say, being away for so long makes you miss little things, like being able to call home and send a text message, and not having to pull out a calculator every time you buy something so you can figure out how much you're actually spending. Spending the day with a family that welcomed us as if we were there own made the day even more amazing, because I didn't feel like I was away from home. I felt perfectly at home.