DAY 56
Week 8
ROATÁN (Islas de la Bahía, HND)
Thursday May 9th, 2019
TODAYS MILEAGE – 3 miles / 5 kilometres
TRIP MILEAGE – 20,718 miles / 33,338 kilometres
I headed out of the hotel around 4:30 AM this morning to catch another sunrise, only to park my carcass ½ way down on West End Road, the main strip through town. From my vantage point I could witness the town waking up, the ant-like actions of those early morning workers ensuring the streets are clean, the overflowing bins and rubbish is cleared, the stocks are replenished – all in preparation for the new day.
It struck me that I’ve enjoyed this same activity of taking in a city/town/village waking up and greeting the new sunrise, in several hundred cities around the world and aside from architecture and languages, it the same underlying scene – people just working hard to earn a living. If you sit there long enough, the suspicion you are first met with as a non-local, slowly changes with a simple G’day or Marhaba, Hola, Nǐ hǎo, Guten tag, Namaste, Salve, Salam or Konnichiwa – depending on the locale, and you see people relax a little. Some will come over and ask if you are needing anything, some will take time out to have a chat, others have offered me a simple cup of coffee, some have even been curious about me. For me, it’s a quiet moment of reflection that I actually enjoy.
While parked up, I sent an text message to the Sundowners Beach Bar regarding last night’s effort. To my surprise and appreciation, within an hour I received a response from them stating that “So sorry this happened to you and yes, it was a mistake! Thank you for bringing it to our attention and we’ll make sure we can address this issue with our bartenders.” They went on say that I have a $25 USD positive bar tab available upon my return.
Kudos to them for responding quickly and communicating their message clearly and effectively. Whilst I was not looking for a complete refund or comping of the bill, it’s great to see the they care about their business and their clients by taking ownership of the incident, which we all at times could learn a lesson from.
Breakfast was the popular Honduran street food of Baleada from the Calelu's Grocery. The meal consists of a large flour tortilla filled with mashed fried red beans, crumbled cheese and in my case, one with fish and the other with chorizos. It was an honest, rib sticking breakfast of $3.25 USD and a far better proposition than what the Seagrape Plantation Resort served up yesterday, but ake it from me, the fish Baleada was by far the better choice.
The rest of the day was occupied with backing up photos, sorting out my freshly laundered clothing, reading a book or having a nap, but not necessarily in that order.
Not sure what the “Avocados” were up to, but around 4PM I headed down to Sundowners to work off my bar credit and thanks to Lesley & Will - I had a great time in doing so. 
• ROATÁN ~ West End Village (Islas de la Bahía, HND)