Greetings, Gracie!

Rockapella Cruise

Day 6 -- Isla Roatan

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Liz, still the trooper, went to Sunrise Stretch without me again, because I became a very lazy person somewhere along the way.  I met up with Jenn at the Platinum Dining Room, and we had breakfast with MJ, Ross, some guy named Tom, and three women from Nova Scotia -- Sherry, Silvy and Lisa.  Liz caught up to us after not being as lazy as me.

Sunken Ship

We arrived at Isla Roatan, Honduras.  There were some interesting things to see near the port, like a pirate ship, and some kind of sunken ship thing.  We had a little bit of time before meeting for our excursion, so we went to Effy for this stop's stone:  tanzanite. I got earrings.  They said that they would send the pendant to me for free, but I don't recall ever receiving that.  Well, it was free anyway.  We also went to Del Sol, where I bought stuff that changes color in the sun.  We also took some pictures while waiting, and I had this one taken, since we weren't going to Belize, and I wasn't going to go horseback riding.  :(

Yee-Haaa!

Happy Jenn, about to meet a dolphin

Jenn and I took the bus to Anthony Keys for the Dolphin Encounter.  I saw two boats at the dock, and wanted to take the bigger one, because it would be less choppy.  That boat wasn't available for our group, though, because it would be used for a scuba group.  We arrived at the island and placed our valuables in lockers, and read the signs about where it was and wasn't OK to touch the dolphins on their bodies.  

Gracie & Sher

Our trainer was Dante, and our dolphin was Gracie.  Each trainer had about 8-10 people per group, and there were about 3 groups present.  We waded into the water, about up to our waists.  Gracie passed by, and we were instructed to rub her back.  Dante taught us about dolphins, and cautioned us about where to touch Gracie as she passed by us a few more times for her back and tummy massages.  Gracie has an underbite.  We had to leave our cameras on the rocks, so a professional photographer took our pictures as we had a little personal time with Gracie.  Jenn and I took a couple of pictures with Gracie, one of which is us holding her up.  She's heavy!  We also were instructed to clasp our hands behind our backs so that Gracie would feel safe, and she kissed us on our cheeks for our individual pictures.  She even made a little kiss sound!  After Gracie met with everybody for their individual time, she and the other dolphins showed off for us, which is when we were allowed to use our cameras.  

Jenn, Gracie & Sher

After saying goodbye to Gracie, we took the boat back to shore, and met people from Germany, whom later took a picture of us at the Mahogany Bay sign at the port.  The gift shop at the Keys resort was lame.  They hardly had any dolphin stuff!  Isn't this a *dolphin* encounter?!  Stupid.  They had plenty of merchandise, but it wasn't dolphin-related.  I was disappointed about that, can you tell?  Jenn ordered a CD of our pictures, which was cheaper than buying individual ones, plus we got some professional shots of different dolphins doing their tricks.  

Bananaman chilling with Sher

Back at the port, Jenn bought silver.  I didn't find any good deals, so I didn't, although I really like silver jewelry.  The weather was very warm, so we returned to the ship.  We ate outside at Red Sail and watched "Toy Story 3", near John and Christina.  I then returned to the cabin to rest and take a shower before dinner.

John and Christina sat with us this time, and it was such a delight to get to know John a little better, and Christina was absolutely lovely.  They talked to Jenn about a future Mayan Ruins trip that they'll be taking.  Jeff and Wendy had some beach time with their cabana waiter.  Their cabana was named "Banana Cabana"!  And it was Cabana #5!  Whoa.  Fred was back at our table, which made Karla happy.  He asked her, "What are smooshed pennies?"  and I explained to him.  He thinks that's got to be illegal because it's defacing U.S. currency.  It's possible that Fred is going to lead a shakedown at the Disney resorts for this someday.  ;)

John said that he can't watch the Carnival shows because of the angry dancing (there must be some crumping going on in there), because "when you dance, it should be a celebration."  He's so genuinely spiritual.  Speaking of spiritual, Christina had some wine that was portioned out of a carafe, and Karla felt like we were at Church Communion.  I gave my extra PellaPosse shirt to Christina, since she's the most deserving of being in the Pella Posse, and she IS a Pella wife, and almost stole John's shirt.  :)

Christina and John

Jenn and I talked about our Dolphin Encounter.  Liz informed us that she went cameo shopping and the cab ride around the whole island was $5.00.  She ended up in downtown, where it "didn't feel quite safe."  I'm glad she made it back!  Her cameo, BTW, is very pretty.  She also got her passport stamped while she was at it.

We looked for our pictures and ordered more.  We just look so great!  Jenn brought her CD to the picture place and printed out one of them for me, and gave me electronic copies later on.  Thanks, Jenn!  I was exhausted and didn't feel like doing anything.  I wish that we didn't have to wait to see our pics from our underwater cameras.  Hmmm...I need to get those developed soon.

I started to cough a lot that day, so I paid attention to my body and went to bed, after staring at the weird-looking towel animal that was in our room.

Next up:  Costa Maya