The Family Goes to Guanaja

We finally got Nicholas and Maria to the resort. Maria is in college so it was a bit challenging to find a time to go. We had hoped to go during spring break, but it didn’t work out so we had to wait until summer.

It turned out to be one of those trips!

If you travel much they’re bound to happen. The flight was scheduled to leave Kansas City around 6:00 am. That means we needed to arrive at the airport by 5:00 am, and that means we had to leave the house around 4:00 am, and that means…you get the picture.

After much ado, we got ourselves and our copious amount of luggage onto the airplane just so we could sit on the tarmac for 3 hours. We had a connecting flight in Denver—yes, Denver. Denver has one direct flight a week to Roatan and one direct return flight a week—both on Saturday. I don’t particularly like this Denver connection, but it was all I could get.

We missed our Denver connection, and we were informed that the only way to get to Roatan was through Houston (the hub I usually go through) on Sunday, the next day. So, we spent the whole day—that started around 3:30 am—on airplanes and in airports just to end up in a very mediocre hotel in Houston for the night.

It was Father’s Day weekend, and the day was salvaged by my family treating me to a father’s day dinner at one of my favorite restaurants, the Waffle House. Yes siree! There’s nothing like having the All-Star Breakfast for dinner.

Then, to top it off, there was a Jack in the Box in between the hotel and the Waffle House so I got a large chocolate shake on the way back (we had United Airlines meal vouchers to use up). I was bloated for 2 days!

We arrived in Roatan Sunday. Unfortunately, the ferry does not go to Guanaja on Sunday, or Monday, or Tuesday, or…. As I’ve said in earlier blogs, Saturday is the only day one can make the trip in one day. Our choice was spend the night in Roatan and take a hopper flight the next morning or find someone with a boat. The problem with spending the night in Roatan was that we had already lost one day of vacation in Guanaja and this would make it two days.

Elizabeth was already on the island. She’d been there about a month by then, so I asked her to try to find a boat to pick us up. With the help of Chino, George’s number one man, she found us a ride from Derek. I knew him, and I knew his boat. It was about the same size as George’s panga and I knew it would be an uncomfortable ride.

A serious issue I have with Guanaja is that seat cushions are totally non-existent on the boats (just hard fiberglass seats) and almost non-existent everywhere else. And, poor me, I got no cush on my tush. I will be able to address this cushion-less issue at the resort, but everywhere else—not so much. If or when you come to Guanaja, you will easily recognize me. I will be the guy wandering around with a boat cushion strapped to his ass.

So, we arrived one day late instead of two thanks to Derek’s boat. And, it was hot. I still have so much to learn about this place and understanding the seasons here is one of them. In Kansas City, the seasonal temperatures can range from 0 to 100 degrees. We have a very definite and distinctive winter, spring, summer, and fall. The seasons in Central America are subtle to the point that someone from my neck of the woods would think they’re non-existent.

Wintertime highs are around 82 degrees, lows around mid 70’s. Summertime highs are around 87, lows around 80. That’s nothing–so I thought. The place is very humid—always—and the summertime heat index will push over 100 very easily. There is a rainy season. George says it is in November through January (I thought it was during hurricane season). The seasons here are subtle, but they do exist.

So, it was hot. When the locals start complaining about the heat you know it’s hot. We wanted Nicholas and Maria to have a great week because we want them to love the place but in between the travel problems and the heat it was a bit challenging.

All-in-all, I think they had a good experience. They went snorkeling at Michael’s Rock and Nicholas took to snorkeling like a fish and is even considering trying diving. Paizley and Jerome took them fishing and to some of the smaller waterfalls (thank you Paizley). Nicholas is open to living and working part of the year at the resort. I think Maria liked it more than expected. She doesn’t have any interest in living there for any length of time, but I’m hoping she might be open to doing some marketing for the resort—from home.

*It had been really dry and thi*s waterfall had less water than normal

We have three great kids and it ceases to amaze me how different they are. There is a fine line between letting them know we’d love to have them be part of this and not making them feel guilty if they don’t. All Laurie and I want for our kids is for each of them to follow their passion and live a life they love. If that includes them being part of the resort, great. If not, that’s great too.