Travelling Tuesday: Honduran Boats and Spider Monkeys

Sep 22, 2009 | Stories, Travel..ling Tuesdays

Mark and I had a really lovely honeymoon in Roatan, an island off the coast of Honduras. It seems like it was a million years ago, not because our marriage is tiresome, but because so much has happened since June 23, 2007! He chose the spot because my only three preferences were somewhere beachy, somewhere where I can speak Spanish, and not Mexico because I’d been there before and was hoping to go somewhere new. It ended up being an excellent choice. We stayed at Barefoot Cay, a tiny resort on a little island off the main island. I highly recommend it if you’re looking for a getwaway!

This week’s Travelling Tuesday picture is one Mark took as we drove around Roatan. It’s a small island and you can see most of it in a day or two. He particularly liked this cute little boat along the way and got several nice shots of it.

Perhaps the most memorable shot of the week, however, is not a scenic one. On one of our days at Roatan, we went to a park where you could zip line through the jungle canopy. It was lots of fun!  You could also walk around their bird and monkey park, and some of the monkeys could come and sit on your shoulder. One of the monkeys actually stole some pesos right out of my pocket, went up the tree to count and taste them, and then put them in the tip box. Cheeky monkey! Talladega Nights, the Ballad of Ricky Bobby, had come out not too long before that. I could never stop laughing at the line one of his kids said, (I can’t remember if it was Walker or Texas Ranger), “I’m all jacked up on Mountain Dew, and I’mon come at you like a spider monkey!”

Thanks to my cousin Ace and his son Blake perfectly reciting this line in a hilarious conversation the night before the wedding, I was excited to actually have a spider monkey sitting on my shoulder and send them a picture. He was a delightful creature at first, and let me feel his soft little hands, and proceeded to try to pull the hair pins out of my hair. One of the trainers began giving him sunflower seeds. A few moments later, he mistook one of my freshly-french-manicured-for-the-wedding-nails for a sunflower seed, and begin biting and pulling to try to remove it. In shock, I totally stood there with this deer in the headlights look on my face. Before Mark could put away the camera and come at him like a spider monkey, the trainers had pulled his leash and he was back at the monkey house. Their simple comments regarding our concern that I might need a rabies shot? “Oh no, you be fine. He get a shot ev’ry time he bite sunbody.”

Fortunately the wounds weren’t too bad, although I did bleed for a quite a while. It wasn’t much of a hindrance to the enjoyment of the honeymoon, and hey, we knew it would make for a great story someday!  So, the most memorable shot from this travel adventure, just before he came at me like a spider monkey:

xCC