We docked at Roatan – An island off the coast of Honduras. I love it here already because the tropical air is heavy with humidity and that special feeling you get when you are in a place for the first time. Anyway, that is how I was feeling.

The skies were threatening a storm and I felt great. The rain would be warm if it came along. Rain would not keep this girl from the beach and sweet & warm, blue Caribbean sea. The bus had to take us all the way to the other side of the island, where Tabyana Beach was located. Probably an hour bus ride, both to and from. In fact, all of our excursions involved a long bus ride, now that I think of it. The cruise line loaned us beach towels that could cover the uncomfortable plastic loungers along the shoreline. There were many loungers & people. It was a private beach, but 2 cruise ships worth of people crowded things a bit.

I was so jazzed about being in the Caribbean sea again. My excitement dimmed as soon as my toes hit the water. It Was Cold! COLD! I pouted and whined. I’m not proud of this, but I was a huge baby that things were not perfect. So, I sunned myself and stayed out of the water. Sue did the same. The men braved the cold and got in up to their shoulders, staying there and yakking.

As tropical islands tend to do, it became VERY HOT, changing my resolve. Sue and I asked our hubbies to join us into the water. It was agonizing to wade in, and I decided that once I got up to my waist in the water, I would drop the rest of me under. Yikes! It was still a shock, but I made it. Sue did not get her hair wet, so she looked great on the bus ride home. Mine was completely trashed, of course. Did I care?

Absolutely not.

These photos do not show how brilliant the sun was shinning. Or how the background island music sometimes would play waaay too loud.

I toyed with the idea of adding audio to these posts, but that would be so awkward to drag my laptop with me on our adventures, especially when it was tough enough to keep track of my hat, sunglasses, and water bottle.

Let me explain how these “Shore Excursions” work. A couple months before your sailing date, you login to your online account with Viking. And you can look through every tour offered for each stop. Unfortunately, some of the descriptions of these tours are lacking some important details. For example, lengthy bus rides were the way to get to the tour sites. Often a 3 or 4 hour adventure is really only 45 minutes to an hour, and the rest of the time is on a bus.

TTFN – stay tuned