Friday, April 4, 2008

Wrapping up

Friday – Another good day. Sterlin picked me up at 7:30am and we headed to the stable. I’ll be working with Hector (doesn’t speak English) and Ron who is an owner. Sterlin has to deliver water all day. There is a huge well on the property that Ron owns and a large supplier of water on the island. It doesn’t need to be purified I guess either. Ron is a character, as are lots of the folks on this island. Anyway, we (Hector and I) trimmed up some more of the horses. I had two that I treated for “rain rot” on their backs and rumps. I happened to bring some Tea Tree Oil and Tea Tree soap with me and it seemed to do the trick. One horse cleaned up well, while the other one will most likely need a couple more shampoos. Hector is doing very well with his trimming. I’d sure like to see Pete Ramey have his DVD series dubbed into Spanish for distribution in Central and South America. The owners of these horses down here all have Spanish speaking workers taking care of them. I worked a bit on the yearly colt too. I wasn’t able to work with him this week like I wanted to. I really stayed busy trimming and training.

Around 11:00 Marina came to get me as her neighbor Shelby McNabb was ready for me to come work with his horses and workers. You should really see the looks I get from the Spanish guys as a female trimming and training. Women just don’t do this :>) Once they get past that, they do learn and have fun doing it. Shelby’s stallion hadn’t been messed with much either. He wasn’t nearly as good for me as he was Walter, the local that takes care of him. The horse was pretty pushy and disrespectful of our human space. He just needs some work . The hooves again were in fairly decent shape. He gets a lot of movement and the ground here is actually very abrasive. Everyone really appreciated the tools I brought down. It worked out well as there were three horses owners. I had 3 pair of nippers and 6 new rasps and two sets of knives. Juan Antonio’s knives were pretty good and Shelby had none, so I opted to leave the F.Dick knives with Shelby. It turns out I didn’t need to use any EasyBoots other than the two XL soakers I brought and will be leaving. I used them quite a bit.

I was done around 1 o’clock and Shelby gave me a lift in his golf cart back to Marina’s. I got a shower, again, and Marina had a nice BLT waiting for me, actually make that two plus a bowl of fresh papaya. I was really hungry. I had my first opportunity to ride if I wanted to, but I was so hot and tired I opted to head for the beach, take a dip and relax in the sand. This is only the second time I got to do that too. Got back to the Eco Lodge around 5:15, jumped in ANOTHER shower and got ready to go the bar-b-q a the Laguna Beach Resort that Troy Bodden had invited us too. Before we boarded the boat to take us there, Troy gave Marina and me a tour of the Utila Aggressor, a very large, powerful dive boat. There are staterooms in the lower level that we didn’t get to see since there were quests on board. There’s a nice galley, though Troy called it something else that I can’t remember. There was a lovely deck up top with a hot tub and lounge chairs. On the main level was the hub of the diving. Tanks, wetsuits, etc. This boat is used for week long charters that you live on and just travel around diving, to the tune of 5 dives per day. This is some serious diving folks. So after the tour, we all loaded up on another of Troy’s boats and headed to dinner. The lights of Utila were beautiful looking back from the boat to the shore on a dark night. You couldn’t see as much of the resort in the dark but we had a VERY nice meal of bar-b-q'd chicken, shrimp and chorizo, salad, beans and dessert. It was fun talking to the divers and hearing the things they got to see underwater, like the Seahorse breeding ground. I’d forgotten that the male sea horses actually carry the pregnancy! I really do want to come back down here with my husband. I’ve met so many nice people and got to know them, unlike when you just visit somewhere on vacation.

After a nice meal, we headed back to town and back to the Eco Lodge. It’s Friday night at Bar in the Bush and futile to try to sleep until the music quits at 3AM! I got everything packed and now just sitting here in the bed writing this blog. The music is SO load you just as well be there. At least on Friday nights it’s more of a reggae flavor; unlike Wednesday night Techno night.

I just haven’t been able to find time to spend in an internet café to update the blog. As soon as I land in Houston tomorrow, I’ll be uploading for sure. I know there is a hotspot there. I would think DFW has wireless access too. I’ll be stuck in that airport for about 9 hours overnight. I have my CampRest pad with me though and plan to just crash behind the podium at the gate. It’s a long trip back but I’ll welcome the cool weather. It’s hot and humid here, ergo the 2-3 showers per day I’m taking :>)

This is an easy place to like once you get to see the island, meet the people and not just the main streets. I’d sure like to come back in a year or so and see how the horses are doing and maybe even get Scuba certified and do some diving. It’s supposed to be some of the best diving around.
OK – its 1AM now. Only 2 more hours of loud music to endure. Think I’ll try my headphones and some nice relaxing acoustic guitar music and see if it drowns out that reggae/reggae rap.
Oh yeah, I get to fly back to Roatan to catch my international flight home on one of Troy Bodden's private business planes, a Cessna 206 6 seater. It will be bringing new guests from Roatan to Utila so I’ll be able to catch a ride back to Roatan with the pilot on an empty plane. How cool is that! Thank you so much Troy!