Vacation Journal: Day 4

Vacation Journal: Day 4 – Honduras

After 3 days at sea we have arrived at our first of 3 ports of call. Mahogany Bay, Roatan, Honduras. A tropical paradise, so perfect it is impossible not to see how artificial it is. We woke up in port, our port side room providing the perfect vantage point for the port village. I know nothing of the island, its population or history. I do know that the port area looks more like a six flags set than an indigenous location.

We rode the cable car to the beach, got set up with 2 sun loungers under a low palm tree with a clam shell shade, a very nice situation. Despite the numbers on the beach it was eminently relaxing and peaceful. The weather was perfect, hot enough to sit shirtless, but not stifling. The water was cool, but not frigid. Floating on the provided mats, endlessly enjoyable.

My desire to people watch is waning. Either folks are boring, or disgusting and loud, in the way (it seems) Americans specialize in. Take the guy today searching for a mate, presumable a casual mate as he didn’t appear to be looking for a soul mate. So full of his own worth, trying to determine which lucky maiden would be today’s winner of his arrogant, over weight egotistical company. More of a booby prize if you ask me. Generally speaking, while I have not seen or observed all there is to see, I have seen & especially heard enough. How I long to overhear a conversation of depth & meaning. How I miss my daily poetry delivered by friends I will never meet. Never mind, I am relaxing, I am recharging & I am starting to appreciate how really quite good my lie at home is!

Relaxing in the sun, floating on the ocean, utter bliss. Ecstatic squeals of joy permeate the air, overpowering any annoyance or distraction. The happiness of one’s child really does transcend general existence.

Back on board, my thoughts once again drift to the size of the ship, I am still overwhelmed by it. The size of the ship, the quantity of passengers, it gives everything on board a more hurried and crowded feel. The staff have less time to talk and as a result they seem less friendly. Initially I thought this could be a cultural thing as there are significantly less Europeans working onboard than previous cruises. However I am convinced now that it is much more to do with capitalism gone wild overwork, the kind that I am so very familiar with. More work less people makes more profit, yet leaves the workers burned out and needing a cruise to recharge.

The set from Six Flags also reminds me of a user made multi player map from Far cry 2, for you gamers out there. I could torch this place with a flame thrower, destroy the van on the hill with my grenade launcher & run amuck with my A/R, ahh the good old days, TGIFC2F.  I think I am having PS3 withdrawals, planning how I would approach the port if it were an FPS video game.

The ridiculously plastic man made beauty of this place masks some true beauty. Out of or opulence and self indulgence, we help to provide a sustainable existence to others.  You could argue that we are gate crashing & ruining their once peaceful way of life. You would of course be right, however the 21^st century & all of its seductive technology & toys has already beaten us to it. So I will choose to embrace by role as British / American tourist secure in the comfort that my reward it not only the vacation, but in a small way helping others, which as you know, is very important to me.

After another overly decadent dinner of smoked duck, some rich (too rich) creamy turkey pasta and chocolate melting cake. Accompanied by a Mai Tie (first & last time) which was too sweet for my tastes & a Jamaican Hot Coffee (rum & liquor) which was almost too perfect for words. We ventured into the evening show.

It was an illusionist show, not a magic show. Magic apparently has been retired as it implies what is happening is real. As we all know it is not real, magic must now be called illusion, for the sake of accuracy, or maybe just to irritate me. Despite being fully aware of being actively duped & concentrating fully on how they are doing it. Magic remains a wonderfully excellent form of entertainment. This show, magic mixed with show tunes & Vegasesque sickly sweet cover songs, was excellent, enthralling and compelling viewing. If only I could figure out how they do it. At times I thought I was close (probably was), then something would blow that though. Very impressive stuff, a very impressive day, the kind of day that you cling to the memory of when you are sat at work wondering why you do it.