It had been earlier this month when Sea Fox and I flew over to Roatan, Honduras for some R&R and to scout a marina for possibly sailing his Gemini 105 Cat back, the "TWICE AS NICE" in the coming weeks ahead. We found Barefoot Caye Marina near French Harbor.It didn't matter to us that the World News were all about the hot new topic, the "coup d 'etat" where President Mel Zelaya was woken up at gun point & taken in pajamas from the Presidential Palace by the Honduran Military and exiled to Costa Rica only about three days prior to our first visit.
Thomas from the Bay Islands Voice said that "Honduras wrote the book on coup d 'etat and if anyone should know one or how to do one, it should be Honduras. Honduras has had nine coup in its 169 year history". Honduran politicians claim it was not a coup but simply the military defending the constitution and that President Zelaya put himself in that position by assuming he was above the law. Whatever the case, we saw little evidence of any uprising on our first trip a few days after the coup d 'etat as most of the protests were happening in the capital. The Bay Islands seemed immune to any political uprising.On our second visit, there were much less people on the beach and most hotels look deserted mostly due to the sensationalism on foreign news media which resulted in warning for Americans travelling to Honduras and the result of most flights being cancelled to the Bay Islands, still beautiful and unfazed by the revolution. The regular local beach bar hang outs remained lively and with live music and full of local expats, unfazed by all the fuss going on in the capital of Tegucigalpa, far away on the mainland.
We were at sea for 27 straight hours & my entire stomac felt like a towel bouncing around in a dryer and my guts like a towel being wrung out to dry. There it was, I saw the vast open ocean with big gentle waves and the moon beam glittering in a sloppy triangle with the tip falling just beneath the moon in the distance, and the wider part of the triangle batheing the boat with its gleam, as we sailed around 5.3 knots on the glassy looking sea.
Although I had not eaten any food, drank barely one cup of water and remained in a horizontal position most of the time from hence we left San Pedro, Ambergris Caye, Belize, I came alive only briefly when asked to keep watch or assist in some endevour like handing the captain and co-captain a bottle of water or coke. Each time, I would find myself crawling outside & cradling the metal railing at the back of the boat praying all the while not to fall over-board at night, & expelling every dry caked piece of liquid still remaining inside the stomac tumbler, until I felt I would pass out with dehydration and fatigue.
Needless to say, I was ecstatic to finally reach dry land and quickly recovered after a couple Barena Beers with lime at Sundowner beach bar in West End but had to make it back to the marina by 6:30 PM which was the countrywide curfew or risk being thrown in jail.
After running into my old dear friend Romeo at Infinity Bay the following day, we were invited to his gorgeous condo on the beach for a party the following night and curfew had been extended to 10:00 pm so party began at sundown. As usual, Romeo had invited an eccentric bunch and I got a chance to socialize with friends I had not seen in over a year.
My friend Victoria a.k.a "LA Girl" greeted me with a warm hug and we sauntered out to the warm air outside on the balcony overlooking the iron shore at the tip of the long white Sandy Beach at West Bay. LA Girl has been living in Roatan for close to a decade and most everyone know her for her fun loving quirks and zaniness and love her for it.LA GIRL: "It's good to see you, great of you to come back to the revolution again. OH MY GOD! WHO DOESN'T LIKE A REVOLUTION RIGHT???
These Honduran people are smart, they knew when shit was about to happen and they took action in a peaceful manner, took control of their democracy and nobody got killed. The world should look at that and respect them, not give them grief......right??? RIGHT???
I mean, we are still in Paradise, just look around. HELL, we even have the most gentle earthquakes!! It happened only 27 miles away from here, but instead of rolling up and down, it rolled gently along sideways. I didn't even think it was an earthquake, I am from California, I know earthquakes!
I thought I was in the middle of Poltergeist.
I couldn't believe they were actually evacuating people hours later up into the hills in case of a Tsunami. "
HELL, you and I know that if there was going to be a Tsunami, it would have reached here in a NANO SECOND.......RIGHT? RIGHT?"
Tommy Tomato was priming us up that there was going to be entertainment in the house. The guitarist and his girlfriend walked through the door and Sea Fox says "Hey, they were playing at Pedros a few weeks ago". Suddenly the girl says to her boyfriend: "Hey, there is Tina over there" turns out they stayed at my hostel the week before, so the world can be small.
The recovery day after the party, we took David to Anthony's Key to interact with dolphins.
That night we ended up having a wonderful meal at the new Vintage Pearl restaurant on West Bay Beach. By the end of that night, I had made up my mind that I did not want to continue with the sail to Livingston and Rio Dulce. By Friday, the Captain was barking a lot of commands and I got tired of listening so I jumped ship and wrongly assumed that I would be able to easily get a flight out on Maya to Belize that day forgetting once again there is a revolution going on.
After finding out that all Maya flights to Honduras had been suspended since the coup d 'etat, I lazily started looking at other options to get back to Belize. One option was making my way down to Puerto Barrios where I hoped a ferry would be heading to Punta Gorda and to do so, I had to make my way to San Pedro Sula on the mainland. 
With this route in mind, I hopped the one hour ferry from Roatan to La Ceiba and spent the night. I intended to take the three and a half hour bus ride to San Pedro Sula the following day, so spent the day shopping in the big Mall in La Ceiba and eating Burger King and Wendys giving me a taste of the good old USA.
After another good nights rest, I chickened on the bus deal and headed to La Ceiba airport and caught a small commuter plane on Aerolinea Sosa to San Pedro Sula. Cost was about $65 usd. I spent another night there still thinking that I will take the hour bus ride to Puerto Barrios the following day. I was beginning to enjoy waking late and taking my leisure time back to home. There was a revolution and I wanted to taste the flavor of it. Apart from the few military with machine guns at road blocks here or there and a few posted at the airports, everything else seemed peaceful and calm and business as usual.After waking in San Pedro Sula to gorgeous misty Mountain views, I opted to double check the airport to find out when Maya flights would resume (mid-week perhaps) before heading to the bus station. I ready to travel and packing my small suitcase. At the airport, I was informed that Maya was not running scheduled flights, but that a Maya flight was on a special charter and had picked up two clients who had headed to Belize for a few hours. I was told that if I waited long enough at the airport, I could possibly get a ride back with the pilot.
After several hours of waiting, I saw the little four seat er Maya plane touch down and was elated to know I had the choice of skipping the bus and four hour boat ride from Puerto Barrios to PG. I'm starting to like adventure on the more comfortable side.
As I approached the small aircraft, I was excited to see that is was my first cousin William Whelan as pilot. I sat in the co-pilot seat on the way back as we flew at low altitude to escape approaching thunderstorms. I felt like I had charted my own private plane.
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