Island Paradise Day 23

Today I was invited to go to lunch with a group of women who meet up every month. We ate at a lovely restaurant on the water in Utila Town called Mango Tango. Mango Tango is owned by a woman named Monica from Guatemala (who joined us for lunch). Monica is a foodie, and has a delightful menu which she has designed herself. Her food is good, and she uses a variety of ingredients, so I decided I should pick her brain about where she gets all her good stuff. She said in the beginning it was very rough because “back then, Utila did not have lettuces, it made me want to cry.” But now she has a variety of methods for obtaining things including having Serrano ham mailed to her from Spain. Anyway, seeing what she has on the menu gave me hope that with some good planning and creativity one can eat well here. I even found out that there is a good wine store in Roatan – they bring in decent wine from all over the world, and for 17 Limpiras they will ship a case over on the ferry. That information alone was worth the price of lunch!

People here have been very welcoming and friendly, always wanting to help out. If only they knew how to give directions! It happened again today. We asked someone where Johnny's water was, and some young fellow went to great pains to explain that it was up the road to the left, then on the right hand side. Well, we walked and walked, and as we started up the hill and got into what looked very residential, we finally realized we had once again been duped. We asked a woman coming down the road if we were headed in the right direction to go to Johnny's water and she literally started laughing at us! "ooooooooooo, lawdy, es way ovah deh by da pok!" So back the other way we went, three large empty water jugs in tow to find "da pok." We eventually did find Johnny's where we met by far the funniest looking man I have ever seen. He was at least three hundred years old, and weighed about 14 pounds! He moved and talked like this.

The best part of my day happened when walking to the Mango Tango. I looked out over the water and saw the most amazing water spout between Utila and mainland Honduras. A water spout is basically a tornado that forms over the water. This one was larger than any of the others I have seen, and came out of the base of a very large thunderstorm. It was really beautiful. I had Stephane’s blackberry with me, and unfortunately it takes about 3 minutes to turn on, so by the time it was on so I could take a picture, the water spout had already begun to dissipate up into the cloud,. The picture I have posted here I did not take, however, I looked long and hard to find one that resembled the one I saw!

Tomorrow the exterminator is coming – wahahahahaha – be gone roaches from hell!!