When we studied Honduras in Global Studies, we basically learned that it was a country full of crime, drugs, and violence, with a struggling economy. This raised the question in all of us, “Uh, so why exactly are we going there again?” We were especially skeptical after our course had been diverted from Cuba because the US government is still afraid of communism for some reason, and then again from Guatemala because it was deemed too dangerous. Instead of going to REAL Honduras, however, we went to Roatan Island off the coast of Honduras and were forbidden to go to the mainland. After learning about the mainland, I don’t think any of us were exactly fighting to break that rule and get ourselves killed. Roatan Island is a site for eco-tourism and a great place to spend the last couple of days in port with friends. On our first day, we took a bus across the island and went on a walk through a nature reserve where we got to see giant rodents, or as Wesley and I call them, ROUS (Rodents Of Unusual Size), iguanas, birds, and a spider monkey that was probably one of the most adorable creatures I’ve ever seen. He started off all the way across the beach and, as I was taking pictures of him, he began running directly at me with his teeth bared. I stopped thinking he was so cute until I ran to the safety of hiding behind my friends. Instead of biting any of us, he jumped up on one of the showers they have at the beach and motioned for us to turn on the water. We turned the faucet and he began drinking the water out of his cupped hands. He instantly became cute again. Monkeys are so entirely humanoid that I don’t know how anyone ever found it hard to believe that we evolved from them. 
Our nature walk was followed by snorkeling. We were given extremely fashionable belly life vests because apparently American tourists can’t swim for more than an hour in buoyant salt water. They then boated us out to a ship wreck full of marine life and we arrived there right when it started raining. The rain detracted from the visibility but we were able to dive down a little to get a better view of the ship wreck. I don’t think I will ever get a hang of that pressure thing where you hold your nose and exhale in order to equalize the feeling in your ears, but none of us were good at it except the guides so all of us shook out our ears in uncomfortable missery together. We spent the rest of our time snorkeling through the reef, which, unbeknownst to me, was the second largest reef in the world only behind the Great Barrier Reef of Australia. We saw tons of coral and beautiful blue fish. It’s moments like this where I’m envious of anyone who ever lived in Atlantis because the ocean floor is such an extravagant and peaceful place. Yes, I am implying that Atlantis is real. I also enjoy making fun of how goofy everyone looks in snorkeling gear. 
I made up for my zip line abandonment in Costa Rica and went in Honduras instead. We were driving to the zip lining site and our guide had just finished describing how he was glad it wasn’t raining because it’s usually too dangerous to go in the rain, when the skies opened up and released a total downpour. Just our luck. The tour company did not seem to have a problem with this however, and everything went on as usual. They suited us up with their harnesses and helmets and off we went through the canopy! There was something extremely freeing about torpedoing through a jungle canopy in the rain with no need to break because the zip lines were so slippery that the hand breaks wouldn’t work even if I wanted them to. Instead of breaking, the staff just jumped in front of us and caught us before we went flying into the tree at the end of the line. It didn’t hurt that all of the staff were Black-Latin men in very good shape who kept on hitting on us and giving us complements. Tori and I both decided that if we ever went through a particularly hard break-up we’d just take a vacation back down to Honduras. We also enjoyed that, on certain platforms, there were no railings to keep people from falling so they just connected our harnesses to the tree and kept shoving us together around it. We decided that horses must feel like we did when they get tied to things. Unfortunately, having to catch us didn't always do wonders for the staff. At one point, a portly older woman came cruising down and was headed directly for a tree when the man working there jumped in between her and the collision to receive a direct kick in the balls. His exact words were, “I need a vacation.” I would too if I were him. We were just on a four month vacation, I highly recommend it. We were sad to leave our last port but not so sad to leave the rain behind us as we scanned our ID cards to get on the ship for the last time and made a b-line for the United States.
The last two days consisted of trying to shove all our souvenirs into bags that, unlike Hermione’s purse, did not magically grow in size. Everyone had flash drives and went around to friend's computers in order to steal their pictures, and no one slept because we all wanted to spend as much time with each other as possible. I managed to fit some more tanning time in as well because I knew that I’d be headed back to snowy Colorado. I was never able to stay out for too long though, because they finally drained the pool and the heat got to be too much without a way to cool off. Interestingly enough, my father and I had debated whether the pool was going to be fresh water or salt water, and it turned out to be both! It was fresh water for the first half of the voyage and salt water for the second half. Curious, very curious. The last night on the ship was one of the clearest nights we’d had the entire voyage. We went out and star gazed and attempted to do gymnastics, with attempt being the key word *cough Michael cough.* And, because I’m a sucker for cheesy things, I made my friends write messages in my journal as a yearbook substitute. We went to the commencement ceremony where they played a slide show that actually felt a little creepy because they had all sorts of pictures of us that we didn’t know they had taken. Captain Jeremy then said goodbye to Dean Jill because this was the last of her eight voyages as Dean. He gave her a bottle of expensive Champagne and a pink Semester at Sea sweatshirt. I thought that he should have just stopped with the alcohol. If she really wanted a SAS sweatshirt, she probably already had one from one of her eight prior voyages. To add insult to injury, he then put the sweatshirt on her in front of the entire ship. I’ve never seen a grown woman being dressed before. Dean Jill’s speech put the cherry on top of the ice cream. It was a seven page list of random things about Semester at Sea. Everyone in the Union was looking around at each other like, “yeah, we know, we were all here.” The highlight of the list was the extended description of different things we waited in line for, concluding in, “They should call this Semester in Line!” I personally do not think the marketing team should follow her advice; Semester in Line is not nearly as catchy as Semester at Sea. Just saying. The next morning, we pulled into port at 7am and waved eagerly with bacon in our hands to the group of parents standing to great us with waving flags, and one particular parent in a Santa suite. Christmas? Oh yeah! December 13th feels a lot different in the tropics than it does at home. There was then a lot of anxious waiting to get off the ship, hauling around of luggage, and a small amount of crying, mostly from my end and no one else’s. It was hard to believe that when I got off the MV Explorer, I would probably never be getting back on it.
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