Because Who Wants a Rabies Shot?

I realized today that I’ve been putting a whole lot of photos up and I know most of you have probably already seen them, but I can’t help it—I love them so much that I’ve become that annoying aunt with the slide projector and screen who invites you over to see her vacation slides. So kids, come on over and watch some more slides with Auntie Elizabeth.

We got to sleep in a bit on our second port day (by this point in the cruise I’m pretty sure the only thing that gave me any concept of what day of the week it was would be the little schedules of events that we received each evening for the next day. You thought I was going to say my Days of the Week underwear, didn’t you!), which was really nice. The sun was fully up and warm when we left the ship for Roatan. Cruise ships have only been coming to this small island for a very few years (maybe less than five), so it’s still pretty untouched. And absolutely beautiful. I’ve been using the photos from here as desktop backgrounds on my computer at work and they totally look like ones that came with the computer, the flora on the island are that vibrant. Believe me, it’s not because I’m that good of a photographer!

The port area had the usual shops (and a Ruta de Evacuacion!) but they also had history of the island, which was nice. Lots about the conflicts between British pirates and Spanish conquistadors and land owners and of course, the natives who lived on the island to start with.

From the port, we got on in a van and drove past beautiful scenery, a very crowded city, and more beautiful scenery to the Gumbalimba Nature Park, where we would catch our catamaran out to the reef to snorkel.

The boat ride was relaxing.

The water felt awesome.

I was a giant snorkeling FAIL.

Alec made his way out to the reef and I couldn’t put my face in the water without panicking. As soon as I put my face down, I couldn’t see anyone else and then that whole feeling weird about breathing underwater thing that I thought I’d kicked the day before reared its ugly head, so I bravely gave up. So, I sent Alec on and went back to the boat with one of the nice snorkeling guide dudes. I think I need some more practice before I try that again.

After the snorkeling debacle, we were going on a tour of the nature park. Like I said, beautiful flora, and we were going to get to interact with the fauna, too! I decided that since I failed at snorkeling, I would stare a different fear in the face and laugh at it—I would let a parrot sit on my shoulder. My fear of birds is legendary (yes, I realize the irony, being married to a man called Bird), so conquering this would set the universe right again. Everything was great! Parrot was wonderful! No incident!

Then we met the monkeys.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I was bitten by a monkey on Isla Roatan.

We both got our photos taken with the monkeys, no problem.


But after the photos, I went to take photos of these little rat-like things called island rabbits. As you can see by the blurriness of this photo, the monkeys got jealous.

One came up to me on the rail I was leaning over to play with my camera, but I did not see him. He tried to grab my camera. I moved my hands back. He bit me. I apparently made some loud-ish noise and jumped back. He called for reinforcements. The next thing I know, there are two monkeys baring their teeth at me. Needless to say, I was done with the monkeys. They get their shots every six months, so I haven’t had any strange tropical illnesses pop up, but really? Who gets bitten by a monkey on their honeymoon?! By dinnertime I had decided it was a pretty good story.

We drove back to the port through the gorgeous scenery and went back to the boat so I could recover from my horrendous injury. I mean, it’s a wonder I could even lift my arm for that photo.

After dinner, we had a debate over what animal we got on our pillow that evening. Our thought was a gremlin at first, until we purchased the towel animal book later in the cruise. Not the Gizmo type of gremlin, but the kind on the airplane wings in that William Shatner episode of The Twilight Zone. So, now I’ll have a guessing game for you—name that towel animal!