My anti rain dance was a complete failure. In fact I must have really upset the gods last night as they retaliated with a vengeance. Hour after hour of torrential rain cascaded from the sky, smashing onto the roof (it’s metal so it was noisy, believe me). And just when it was getting light
this happened
followed instantaneously by the biggest clap of thunder I’ve ever heard in my life. Scary or what?
The deluge finally stopped at around 7.00 am leaving a trail of devastation. Branches and trees down, overflowing gullies, roads turned to rivers, everywhere sodden. The locals, though, seem to be going about their business as usual (albeit wearing wellies). This must be a regular occurrence, then. Wow!
Taking a positive view that, from now on until I leave, it’s going to be swimming and sunbathing weather (??), off I went again. This time to explore the capital of Roatan island.
Coxen Hole is aptly named. . John Coxen was a pirate who made this place his HQ along with 5,000 of me hearties. The population of Coxen Hole today is still around 5,000 but I saw no pieces of eight although I did see a parrot. The ‘Hole’ bit? Well…. To be fair, Roatan is a very poor part of Honduras
There is no industry to speak of. Mass tourism is still in its infancy and the few cruise ships that do come here stop for only a few hours. So most of the locals just have to eke out a living as best they can. But, as this country is a mixture of white Spanish, dark Spanish and descendents of slaves, unlike other parts of the Caribbean, I have seen no apparent resentment towards foreigners. In fact, quite the opposite. Maybe, religion helps these people because, for sure, there are churches everywhere.
French Harbour is the next ‘town’ east of Coxen Hole. It’s a small place so I was surprised when I passedthis large and relatively modern church
But was even more surprised when I came across two more next to each other just a few hundred meters down the road.
In all I counted 5 churches in this small town-let of probably 2-3000 people and there were probably more!
Finally, the sun made a brief appearance so I took the opportunity to catch up on some reading by the sea. Actually, my totally disturbed night caught up with me and I was very soon lulled by the gentle lapping of the waves and fell asleep for a while.
Hoping the sun will shine tomorrow
Richard
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