Hi all,

It's been a bit over a week since my last post and we've had all kinds of activity. We received our second wave of visitors (after the Bourochers) last week Friday and Saturday with the arrival of Emanuelle, Isabelle, and Franck. We spent four awesome days on Roatan's West End and snorkeled and swam to our heart's content. There are several observations on that corner of Honduras that merrit special attention and to which I'd like to turn to next.

The last time Steph and I were in Honduras was in 2000. By then, cruise ships were already making frequent trip to Roatan and you could start to see the signs of things to come. Today´s West End is still a small village, but you defenitely notice the additional hotels, restaurants, and bars that weren't there. There´s is now a road to get to West Bay Beach which was previously accessible only by water. This road has spurred the development of that beach with new hotels and more on the way. While all the current hotels are discretely tucked away behind the beach´s first few rows of palm trees, their presence is nonetheless betrayed by the hordes of tourists that spill out onto the so coveted strip of silica. Most conspicuous of all these - excluding of course the cruise ship day trippers to whom I'll be turning my attention shortly - is the Italian resort that flies in a full 767 each week straight from the Appenine peninsula.

To be fair, I should clarify that the place has not yet been overrun, but you defenitely get the sense that things are moving quickly. There is lots of money going in, and right back out of the island. Lots of construction. Lots of money changing hands. What is going on right now is nothing short of a not-so-subtle land/money grab. Everyone is rushing to catch up with the tourism boom and doing whatever they can to make sure they don't get left behind when their ship comes in (and eventually leaves to the next hot spot). When I say everyone, it should be clear that this does not include the vast majority of the people of the Bay Islands. The poverty is now all the more jarring in light of the oppulence that is being created in their back yards.

As for the aformentioned ships that everyone is waiting to come in, there are currently two per week during what is the low season. By late September this number is expected to baloon anywhere from 12 to 14 per week! The big winners will be the taxi drivers, souvenir shops, and any businesses that can manage to stike a deal with the cruise companies.

Paradoxically, the big loosers in the tourism industry will be the non-alligned hotel owners, restaurants and bars, tour operators, and dive shops. The day trippers (DTs) tend represent everything that the traditional Bay Islands visitors come here to avoid. We've been told that often the DTs haven't a clue of where they are, or what they're doing here. There is no cultural, geographic, or historical context to their trip which, as far as they're concerned, could easily be anywhere in the world with a nice beach and reef.

Roatan markets itself to these folks as an entity sepparate from Honduras that someone named "Port Roatan" (something that does not exist). For all they know, the DTs are somewhere in Mexico and often react with perplexion when there are no burritos or tacos about. The worst part is that the DT's go out smorkeling to the reef and step on the coral, break off pieces to take home, and remove any prety shiny thing they can see. Fortunately they don't go too far onto the reef but stay at its fringes. Nonetheless, the damage is apparent and irreversible.

Last Tuesday, we walked down the Beach from West End to West Bay only to find it choked with wrist band clad, sunburnt, and shopping frenzied DT's. The scene was complete with vendors of all kinds of tacky trinquets and bogus services at shopping mall prices. They came, they took pictures, they pissed all over the reef, and then they left. I thought they'd never leave.

When they did, things went back to normal with surprising ease giving one the impression of having survived a stampede To their credit, they cleaned up the beach after sending the DT's to the buffet on board the ship.

After Roatan, we took the ferry to La Ceiba and spent the last couple of days exploring some of the areas gems. We hiked up the mountains along the Cangrejal River in the Pico Bonito NationalPark guided by local students from the village of Las Mangas. They're part of a project to increase awarenes of the importance of conserving the environment and the rain forest as an improtant resource. The students in the project actually engage the local villagers in demontrations, lectures, and talks aimed at teaching them the value of the ecosystem as a resource that can be used for their bennefit without destroying it. The highlight of the hike was a dip in a natural pool in one of the Cangrejal tributaries.

That night we stayed in the mountains along the river at a lodge run by a German couple that operate tours in the area icluding white water rafting, hiking, biking, horseback riding, and all kinds of other adventure/ecotourism trips. The following day we went kayaking and canoeing in a mangrove lagoon along the shore. We saw some howler monkeys and when we got to the sea shore even tried our hand at kayaking in the surf. I wiped out after my second attempt at riding a wave back in, but Franck did great.

Its been good to be back in La Ceiba and check out the natural and man-made charms it has to offer. Today is a take it easy day to catch up with chores, take care of business, and rest before heading back to the islands again. Tomorrow we take the morning ferry to Utila where Steph and I will be getting our open water diving certificates! I'll try to post once or twice while there before coming back to LCE on Thursday.