Amapala continued....

Our first view of the hotel from the dock was a positive one, quickly altered as we entered the open air patio where one would eat one's meals and near the pool which had appeared welcoming online. In fact, the pool was filthy, cloudy and had severl urchins swimming in the pool with diapers on.

We were greeted nicely and taken to our room, supposedly with a view. The dark closet with two twin beds and a small bath would have had a view out to the sea except the builder failed to put in a window. One had a view if one exited, went around the balcony and then looked out. Not convenient and the room was horrid. We took a room on a lower level...also with no view. It would also have had one because there was a window, except someone decided to build a new building in front of our room. Now buildings here take time to construct. This one had been in the works for awhile and probably will take another five or six years to finish.

The room? Well, let's just say that we had creature in our room which Gladys did not appreciate. Now, we Floridians don't mind a few lizards, but the ants and creepy crawlies were upsetting her as soon as she figured out that they would continue their march through the night and most likely on our bed. We had running ter...unfortunately none of the hot water advertised. And of course, the internet we anticipated...not there either. Not to worry.

We had a nice lunch on the patio and then Gladys began painting. Did I mention it was 90+degrees and humid? We started slowly melting, which I might add, I could afford to do. However, we escaped finally to our room, enjoying some air conditioning, made a nice dinner of cheese, crackers and fruit and imbibed some nice wine and hit the bed rather early.

I was up and at 'em around 5 a.m. and glanced out of our window to see about 50 cormorants swimming in the pool...doing what birds do in water. No way we were entering the pool. At 7:15 a.m. I went out in search of coffee...remember the restaurant?? The man working indicated coffee would happen but not until 9 or 9:30!! By that time, Gladys was up and the power on the whole island was off. NO food. NO air. NO coffee and the best chance of power being reconnected might be 4 p.m. that afternoon.

We decided to walk into town, after taking a tuk-tuk to the beach. There were a number of people standing around...mostly seedy, dirty men holding guns and machetes and muttering. We told the driver to take us back and we walked into town to see the church and the town plaza as well as the pier. We relaxed and after hearing that we would need to wait til the power people in Tegucigalpa decided to turn the power on to the island...we checked out and reversed the process to Tegus.

The trip back was rather eventful...pouring rain so we couldn't see the craters in the road OR they were filled with water, looking black and solid. Fell in a couple of times but didn't cut our tires...almost fell off the mountain and almost hit another rooster, one child and a burro. Otherwise, a typical Sunday 3 hour drive home.

When we got back we asked friends about their stay in Amapala and everyone said, "well we didn't say it was a resort." OK, now I know what to listen for when asking for a Honduran reference.