Will the real Honduras please stand up?

01/12/17 Today woke to the Dream shuddering up to a pier. It never ceases to amaze me how well the crew handles this huge vessel. They snugged her up gently to her berth in Mahogany Bay. Here's the view that greeted me when I stepped out onto the balcony.

Welcome to the lush rain forest of Roatan. It's a small island just off the coast of Honduras.

We ate a quick breakfast and then disembarked.

As it turns out, Mahogany Bay is a corporate resort area owned by Carnival. While it's incredibly beautiful, it has a Disney-esque feeling of unreality. Canned steel drum ditties float from speakers hidden behind every shrub and bush. It struck me as too well manicured, too scrubbed, too full of shops and touristy trinkets.

But we still had some exploring to do. I'd hoped to be able to take the Flying Beach Chairs, a tram ride over to a stretch of beach that was waiting for us, but when we reached the place to board I found an insurmountable obstacle.

Mist.

A cool mist coats you while you wait to board your Flying Beach Chair. I think it's a lovely idea and I'm always looking for ways to beat the heat in the tropics, but Herkimer (my Portable Oxygen Concentrator) does not do well with wet. He's likely to short out and then I'd be in a pickle. I toyed with leaving my POC behind in a locker if we could find one (an idea my DH quickly squashed. He didn't want me to become O2 depleted and anyway, there were no lockers to be had.)

So my DH and I took a leisurely stroll through a well-tended garden.

As you can see, my DH is wearing a backpack that holds my "walk-about" Herkimer. Usually, it rides in a little wheeled cart, but when we think we may be on uneven ground, my DH volunteers to be my Sherpa! My 7 foot cannula keeps us close together.

He jokes that I keep him on a tight leash!

You can see the many decks of the Carnival Dream behind my sweetie.

The garden was lovely, but I still felt as if I was missing something. We should have booked a tour that took us out of Mahogany Bay and into the parts of the island where people actually live. I know I was technically in Honduras, but I'm not sure this artificial version counts. Someday,  I'd like to visit the mainland and see what the country is really like. 

Well, there's another travel goal for me. And it's always good to have a goal.