Our arrival in Honduras was pretty chaotic, first we had to don surgical masks and report to a medic to prevent the spread of swine flu and then our passports were taken from us with no explanation. It was only thanks to a friendly taxi driver that we found out they had been taken to the immigration office some 5 miles away from the ferry port and we were expected to report there to register and pick them up. After the initial panic we managed to get the necessary paperwork sorted and set off in a taxi to La Ceiba, the port of entry to the Bay Islands where we had decided to spend some time diving and Sam hoped to do his divemaster qualification.
We had been told by the taxi driver that the road to La Ceiba was not safe at night and that that cars were often held up at gun point so our journey was pretty rushed and we booked into the first hotel we found in order to get the first ferry out to Roatan (the larger of the islands) first thing in the morning.
All went well and the ferry ride over was pretty pleasant. We arrived on Roatan to find glorious sunshine, beautiful white sand beaches and lush green vegetation. It seemed a pretty nice place to spend some time and Sam quickly set himself up with an internship at Reef Gliders dive shop to earn his divemaster qualification. We were going to be staying quite some time!
We planned to find an apartment to rent for the 2 months we would be on Roatan but in the meantime set ourselves up in a lovely hotel on the beach called Posado Arco Iris (Rainbow Lodge). Our stay here turned out to be quite eventful.
Robbery
A few days after arriving, we both left the hotel for a few hours, Sam to work at the diveshop and me to spend some time on the beach. We had left all of our belongings safely locked in the room.....or so we thought. When I returned a few hours later I noticed that the laptop was not where we had left it. Thinking that Sam may have returned and taken it I didn’t worry too much until I noticed that all my cash had gone as well.....and my iphone, both ipods and my rucksack. Someone had broken into the room, rummaged through our belongings and taken what they fancied...including my rucksack to carry it all in....Agggghhhhh! We told the hotel immediately who were very helpful and contacted the police who wrote a report but did very little else. We were both furious and so frustrated since there was nothing we could do to get our stuff back. Luckily our insurance covered the cost of most of what we lost but it didn’t make up for losing our photos, music and documents. Being in Central America it wasn’t easy to replace the laptop and so we were out of touch for quit some time. That wasn’t the worst of it however.....
Earthquake
A few nights after the robbery we were sleeping soundly in bed when at 3am I woke suddenly to find the whole room shaking violently. I had no idea what was going on and shouted at Sam to wake up. There was a thunderous roaring sound and the entire building was vibrating like nothing I had ever felt before. Sam and I just clung together (not the best reaction I admit in retrospect) for what felt like ages. When the shaking subsided we ran outside to find others from the hotel gathering in the garden (including one woman who had run outside in just a thong!). Everyone was pretty scared and there was a general consensus that it had been an Earthquake. We hung around for a while but there didn’t seem to be any official response in the town and people seemed to be aimlessly milling around so we went back to bed.
Twenty minutes later we were woken by a frantic knocking at our door as the hotel staff ran from room to room waking everyone saying there had been a Tsunami warning and we were all to evacuate to higher ground. We ran into the street but had no idea where to go or how to get there. Luckily we managed to grab a ride in the back of the hotel manager’s truck and spent the next 3 hours sat at the roadside at the highest point of the island watching for any sign of a Tsunami....it never came. Eventually everyone began to disperse and we made our way back to bed. It was the most bizarre experience I had ever had.
That morning we found out that it had been a 7.2 earthquake, pretty big in seismic terms. Luckily most of the buildings on the island were built of wood which is pretty flexible and there was minimum damage. Still pretty scary though!
We continued to experience smaller aftershocks and smaller earthquakes for weeks after. So frequently in fact that it almost became normal.
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