13 17 926 N, 87 38 941 W
Isla del Tigre, Honduras
It was good to sleep last night at anchor. This morning we are feeling refreshed and more alert.
After make several copies of our paperwork, such as our boat document, crew list, passports and our Mexican zarpe, we inflated the dingy and went into Amapala, the little town here on Isla del Tigre. The port captain's office and immigration are in a small building at the end of the pier. We arrived at some stone steps where the pangas drop off tourists from the mainland and a young boy offered to watch the dingy. We gave a copy of our paperwork to the port captain and explained that we would like to check in and to also check out as we want to leave early on Monday morning. No problem he says but first you need to go to immigration. The gentleman at immigration was very nice and helpful and now our passports are stamped. We again explain that we would like to leave early Monday morning and could we check out now? No, we could not check out now but we agreed that we would return on Sunday morning at 9:00 am to check out with immigration and get stamped again and that the port captain would be there also to give us our zarpe. So far so good. No request for money either.
After our check in, the gentleman from immigration introduced us to someone who could exchange US dollars into Honduran lempira (USD 1 = HNL 20). So we followed him into town. At the same time I met an ex-pat from Miami who is now living in Costa Rica. He was here visiting a friend who lives in mainland Honduras, as Isla del Tigre is a favorite place for tourists to visit. We had a brief conversation as we walked into town. You never know who you might run into.
A walk through town stretched our legs a bit. We came to a hotel where we thought we would get a drink and a snack. Well, the hotel does not have a restaurant but there were some nice places on the beach and they could get someone to take us. Ok. A fellow with a motorized, three wheeled affair with a bench seat in the back arrived. We climbed in and off we went. Our thought was that the beach was something we passed or near town. Nope, it was on the other side of the island that we had passed on arriving on Friday. No problem, we got a tour of Amapala complete with the photo stop of the hotel with the gargoyles on top that looked like naked, old women with wings. The next stop was to pick up the driver's brother, who joined on the seat next to the driver. We roared over cobble stone roads to the beach. We stopped at the first restaurant where I think they have an arrangement with the hotel, and the driver called out to the cook. She was very nice and gave us menus and helped Rich select a cervasa from the local brands. We had roast chicken with garlic, deep fried banana crisps, similar to potato chips and cole slaw for $110 HNL a piece. The food was good and plentiful. We had arranged with our driver to pick us up after an hour but he was a little anxious maybe and returned after 1/2 hour and gave us a ride back to the pier. Our dingy was safe and Rich gave the young boy a dollar for watching it. Back on Windarra we hoisted the dingy up on the halyard so it is hanging by the side of the boat with a cable lock on it.
I was in error by thinking that the fires and smoke that we saw on the hillside was caused by lava. It is true that the island is certainly volcanic and the large boulders of lava and the black sand beaches reiterate this but no eruptions, no lava, just brush fires following the ravines created by long ago eruptions. So some of the romance is gone. But, to take it's place is something else. No this is not the island of Dr. Moreau or some other evil genius. It was a picture perfect base of operations for the CIA during the 1980s to watch the anti-Sandinista contras fighting the Marxist Nicaraguan government. The CIA base on the top of the island has a direct view of Nicaraqua over the water to the south of this island. It also has a direct view of El Salvador to the west. The Honduran main land is north and east.
So tomorrow we will check out and then Monday morning continue our trek south, staying close to shore and avoiding the choppy seas of the Papagayos.
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