September 26, 2006

• It has begun

  The journey began last Saturday.  I flew into Roatan from Houston and the flight was on time.  Somehow I ended up as one of the last people through customs but I met a guy that was traveling from St. Louis to the conference.  He owns a real estate company in La Ceiba which I will refer to as Ceiba from here forward.  That is what the locals call it.  Since the trek through customs was so long, I had to wait for the next flight on Islena airlines which was in 5 hours.  Jim caught an earlier flight on another airline so he was with me for 4 hours in the terminal and we talked about the plans I have and everything else under the sun.

  About 2 hours into my wait I realized that I should have gotten a taxi and hit some of the beach spots rather than sitting in the airport but it was too late to do so.  Note to self, if you are ever going to have a 6 hour layover in Roatan, go to the beach.

  Jim offered to pick me up at the airport in Ceiba and take me to the hotel so I thought that would be better than getting a taxi.  Honduras is not on daylight savings time so everything is an hour later here than in Texas.  My flight was to leave Roatan at 6 30 pm so he said that they would be at the airport at 6 45 to pick me up.  Well the country might not be on daylight savings time but the airline decided to load the plane at 5 30 and head to Ceiba.  It is probably good that I did not take a taxi to tour Roatan because I would have missed my flight.  This gave me a good dose of the fact that there really are no schedules in Honduras.

  I arrived in Ceiba on a twin engine plane that is bigger than the small jets that continental airlines uses for many domestic flights at 6 pm.  The airport is very clean and modern and air conditioned.  Shortly after I arrived, the airport began to close and the last taxi driver left around 6 15 pm.  I was putting my Honduran side to the test by being ok with the fact that I was counting on someone to pick me up and had no way to get to the hotel on my own.  Fortunately another taxi showed up and waited until Jim showed up with Juan Martinez who is his office manager in Ceiba.

  The drive to the hotel took approximately 10 minutes.  Since it was Saturday night, the city was hopping with activity.  The hotel is magnificent and right on the beach.  Jim and Juan waited while I took my bags up to the room and we had dinner overlooking the pool with the ocean waves crashing 30 feet away.  This was a great beginning to what has been a dream trip.  I am on a long break between seminars and will continue with my awesome Sunday later.

  One thing is certain, I am supposed to be her doing what I am doing and my head should be spinning because of all that has occurred but it isn’t.

  • 12:23 pm
  • 1 Comment