LITTLE FRENCH KEY Website:
After a lot of research, I found a place, called Little French Key. It looked like a little slice of heaven and we booked directly with LFK. We booked their $88 package, which included transportation to and from the cruise port, boat ride over to the island, use of the island, and lunch with 2 drinks.
Since Carnival docks at Mahogany Bay, we were actually closer to LFK than if we had came with NCL.
We made our way out of the port and we knew they said you had to go outside the port to catch a cab. I THOUGHT we were outside at this point...boy was I wrong. When we ask about getting a cab to LFK, we were pointed in a direction toward the road and were told to walk up that road to the taxis.
We headed toward the road and started walking...and walking, up the hill, in this area that was part of the road and had a white stripe which I assume was suppose to be for the sidewalk area to walk in even though it was in the street.
I'm looking at my husband and saying "Really? We have to walk this far out to catch a cab? Are you sure we are going the right way?" Well, it had to be the right way...it was the only way...and it was a hill. I now know that there was NO way that Brayden would have done this. Just no way at all! So, it's probably best that they didn't come because it could have taken hours to get him to the taxi place.
So what seem like a forever walk, really wasn't as bad as I thought. I remember doing this same thing to go to Almaplena in Costa Maya back in December, so it was worth it.
We came over the hill and could see people lining the streets and cars right beyond that. We were reading the signs as we walked by. The first sign that was being held, I couldn't tell what it said. The others, well they weren't ours. So finally I ask someone and they pointed at the first sign. When we went up to them, they said "I yelled Little French Key when you walked by, but you kept walking." I must have not heard them. So they marked my name off the list and informed me that they were still waiting on others to arrive. I let them know that we were originally a party of 6 and that the other 3 in our party would not be coming. So he told a kid that was there (at least he looked pretty young to me lol) to be our driver and take us to Frenchys 44. His name was Justin and he was in a private car.
Frenchys 44 is a restaurant. The owners own it and Little French Key. The driver takes you to the restaurant where you get on a boat and go over to the island. The drive wasn't very long at all. Maybe 15 minutes if that.
We pull off the main street and on to a gravel road. You could tell that this "area" was the "high end" area for sure. The houses were huge and amazing and I just wanted to live in one of them.
We arrived at Frenchys and checked out the area before checking in with the staff. They had a horse in the yard and my husband and daughter went over to say hello while I checked us in and paid the fee.
You walked out on this deck hanging over the ocean. I assume this was the restaurant because there were tables and chairs there and a bar with the register. There were mangroves along the side.
We only waited maybe 10 minutes and it was time to get on the boat to go over to the island. My excitement was still building. It's not a "regular" boat you get on. It's like a flat barge type boat. I'm not sure what you call it. It was just flat and had a bench around the outside and plastic chairs on the inside.
Here we come LFK. You can see where it's at from the restuarant. So it's just a 5 minutes ride over. Sakari was looking on with excitement. Getting closer... you could see the beautiful aqua water. The water was the most gorgeous color I have ever seen. I felt as though I was looking at a postcard. It's sure to be the best day ever. I think I had found paradise. There was the famous 2nd story deck that I watched videos of people jumping off of over and over. Yes, it was becoming a reality. I was actually here. I was actually going to be able to experience this place AND jump off that 2 story deck that I have seen so much of. Could this water be any more perfect? I mean really?
There was a little "island" on the island that I had seen in the pictures. Even though I had seen pictures and people told me there was a deck to get over there, I still couldn't quite picture me being there and now I was.
I think I have only seen 1 person post the picture of the mermaid with the fountain dolphin. I had always wondered why this was never really including in most pictures regarding LFK. I thought maybe it was because it was off the beaten path or something. But no, it's as soon as you get off the boat.
We decided to walk down the deck toward the bigger part of the island first. We wanted to take a look around the grounds and check out the animals prior to settling in at the beach. I knew once we made it back to the beach, there was no dragging me away from that paradise. I was just snapping pictures as I walked along, trying to take in all of the beauty. This place had several boat docks all around it. I'm not sure what they were all used for. This was looking from the back of the 2 story deck that people jump off of.
The "yard" actually had grass growing there... on the island, which kind of shocked me. I guess I expected all sand for such a tiny island. There were more statues around the place. I definitely do not recall seeing any other statues in any reviews other than the mermaid one.
Wait, what is this? A pony? Just running free around the island? Wow, that was really neat. He was not fenced in or tied up or anything. He had free range of the entire island. Of course my husband and daughter had to go check it out.
There was beautiful lush scenery. The grounds were landscaped to a tee and you could tell they took great pride in everything there by all of the little details. Statues were just everywhere.
More of the pony... he wasn't too friendly. Well, I guess you could say he was more scared than anything. He was a rescue pony and even though you could get fairly close to him, once you got within a good 5 feet of him he was turn around or back up and try to get away from you. There was just no petting him. Poor thing.
Then we got to the birds. There were huge cages up and down one end of the island. They had tons of birds and every one of them talked.
It's funny because at first we had no idea that the birds talked. I don't remember anyone every saying this either. We were going by and I hear "Hello" and did a double take. I was like "you talking to me?" and it continued to tell me hello.
Then I heard "Hola". LOL This is the first time I had ever heard a bird say Hola instead of Hello. But hey, then again I have never been around a talking bird in another country that speaks Spanish either. (Well, I take that back, some of the birds at Maya Key talked and said Hello).
The pony (well actually I think it was a miniature horse, came closer to us as we were looking at the other animals.
The macaw birds loved attention and would come over to the edge of the cage and my husband would pet them and stroke their beak. They seem to love it.
This was Sakari's favorite bird. I'm not sure why. She said "I like green birds. I wish I had a green bird." Any time she wants something, whether it be an animal, a toy, some candy or anything in life...you get the "I wish I had..." She never comes right out and ask "can I have". I don't know where she picked this up at but the tone in her voice when she says it is completely adorable.
I kept telling my husband he was going to come back with less fingers if he kept putting them in the cages. He wouldn't listen. Sakari was watching his every move. She's a typical 5 year old. They watch you like a hawk and take in every little thing you do. They are a mini-me.
What happens when you have a mini-me you ask? Well, monkey see, monkey do and she did exactly what her daddy did...stick her fingers in the cage. I don't even have to tell you what happened after that because I'm sure you all guessed it by now. One less finger! Well not really, but you get the picture. She got what she calls a "my bleed is coming out" boo-boo.
So it was on to the monkeys. This little guy put his back up against the cage for my husband to rub him. Still.sticking.his.fingers.in.the.cage=bad! Just stop it, just stop it now. You are a bad influence on our daughter.
There was a lot of noise going on. I kept hearing some banging sounds. I was off to explore the noise. There were a bunch of men working on a HUGE cage. Of course I had to be nosy and see what was up, what they were doing and what was it for?
Well, I guess they have some baby jaguars. They were getting a little bit bigger and they needed to build them a bigger cage and that's what they were doing. Where were they at? Some place safe until next week when they would be bringing them back to the island when their new cage was finished. AWWW MANNNN! REALLY? We were going to miss out on the baby jaguars. Darnit. Yes, you are able to hold them too!!!! We were just a week too early. I'm pouting now.
The man I was talking to continued to tell me that all of the animals here are rescue animals (just like Maya Key). He said when you have rescue animals, they are very strict with you. Everything has to be perfect and the rules have to be followed. They have to have permits and be inspected. They have to have a certain amount of space and requirements. That is why they were building a bigger cage. I guess I didn't realize there were so many rules in a third world country. There sure doesn't seem to be rules anywhere else. It kind of brought a warm fuzzy feeling to me to know that they were taking such good care of those animals.
The hubby was STILL petting more animals. They also had several deers. They were a little too quick for me to catch. They were always in motion.
Then there it was. The monkey cage we were about to enter. Anyone who read my Victor Bodden review with the zip lining and monkey adventure will know that Sakari (being the dare devil she is) zip lined all by herself there and then went in to see the monkeys and was attacked by one and bitten. It was a very bad experience for her and a little traumatizing. She hasn't viewed monkeys the same since then. I wasn't sure if she was going to step foot in the monkey cage at all. Everything was all up in the air at that moment.
We stood outside the cage for a LONG time...it seemed like eternity, but I'm sure it wasn't since our day was much too short there. We begged, we pleaded with her and she put her foot down and said "no". So we did the only thing we could do when she refused something...."ok, bye and started walking without her". That gets her every time. For the smart little 5 year old that she is, you would think she would have picked up on this yet...but it still remains "our little secret" for the moment and still works.
So in the cage we all went. We reassured her over and over that it would be ok. They were not going to bite her. They were nice monkeys. At this point I was praying it wasn't a repeat because if she was bitten again, that would be the end of any future monkey business. She would loose all trust in us.
They had several monkeys in that cage. They did let me know that there was one called "nippy". He was called nippy for a reason. We made sure we stayed away from that one and didn't let Sakari anywhere near it.
They had a baby one. It was the absolute cutest thing ever. Sakari wanted to hold that one and when she did, she didn't want to let go. It just attached itself to her like a baby and oh my gosh adorable. They named her Baby Lisa.
Inside the monkey cage was a RABBIT. Um ok, I have never seen a "rabbit" that looked like this but that's what they said their rabbits looked like. I was just wondering why it was in the monkey cage??
So I guess my question is...why are there so many animal rescue places in Roatan? It seems to be the big thing. Where do they get these animals from? Are there just monkeys, jaguars, big cats and such just running all over Roatan? It just makes me wonder.
There was a huge monkey cage beside the one you go in.
We decided to keep walking on. We were at the end of the animals and I wanted to continue to go full circle around the island.
We came to another boat dock area. There was the boat that brought us over and it had huge barrels of food or cookers. I couldn't tell what. But that's what they did was bring the food over from Frencys.
It can't be a beach area without a hammock of course. Of course, everyone has to have a "posed" picture in the hammock as always....to make it look like you spent the day there basking in the beauty of the Caribbean of course. About this time Sakari is saying "Are you done yet? I'm falling out"
Anyone for some volleyball? Nah, I didn't think so either. It was too hot and I had to get to the water. Let's keep going.
I found a cool resting spot in the shade. Then more statues...
So we come across a beach area. Hmm, I was unaware of this area.
I knew this wasn't going to be prime Real Estate and we wouldn't want to stay here very long, but hey I was willing to do a short term sale for awhile and explore the place.
They had some really weird looking wired chairs. Don't worry, they had regular chairs too.
Guess who was the first out to the water this time??? Yep, it wasn't Sakari this time around. For once moma was first!!! I mean how else did I obtain a picture of her entering the water from the water right? One might ask how did I manage that? (You did ask that right?) Well, she was busy getting her goggles out of my bag. hehe That took her awhile to find. I dug mine out as we were walking up to the beach. Yep, check one off for the smart mommy today. I'm in the lead!
Out in the distance you could see these black things in the water. They are actually chairs that you could go out and sit in. Pretty neat.
To the right there are mangroves. Now I have never snorkeled among mangroves, so this was going to be a different experience for me. The far upper right of the picture is looking over toward the other beach...you know, the one that is paradise?
To the left there was a palapa sitting in the water.
Yes, people were using them. This area was not too deep and the area where the chairs were out there wasn't very deep at all. It's like most of this little island area. Shallow-ish around the edges of everything and deeper toward the middle.
So off to exploring I go...snorkeling time.
Now I have to say I came across this weird looking black thing in the water, I wasn't quite sure what it was. It was kinda weird looking and I snapped the picture and hurried off. (More on this later...because I find a lot more and they were out in the open and I knew what it was-sea cucumber) but being in the area I was in was just kinda creepy and weird I guess.
I took a shot of looking into the mangroves. It was eery and neat at the same time. I'm now picturing a horror movie where jaws comes out at your or some half octopus man eating barracuda snake devours you. There were tons of neon fish everywhere in this area.
Sakari found a shell with a crab in it. It would remain her friend for the rest of the day (the poor thing). He had a faulty shell, but it was the place he called home.
There was fish everywhere and even some coral.
I remember seeing these pictures that were just amazing where people have half the lens above water and half below water. I thought I would try it out. I have to admit, it's not as easy as it looks!!! Plus, I'm shooting with a small point and shoot that doesn't have a wide lens to begin with, so the odds are against me for sure. I took A LOT of pictures, just to try to get 1 decent one. It's not easy when the water is moving either (from me floating around)
It started getting a little dark...oh no!!! Was it about to rain and spoil our day? (Pssshhh, nothing could spoil my day at this point, I'm already wet and I'm in the water so who cares?)
I seen this windmill type of thing. I wonder if they use it for their electricity out there? I mean how does an island obtain electric? I have always wondered that about small islands.
We decided it was about time to head over to the other beach (the one I knew I was going to love with the aqua blue water). So we started walking back, but not the same way we had come...we were still going full circle.
We passed by the owners house. If there are animals to be found, my husband and daughter will be the ones to find them. They took off running toward something and I hear this "awwwwww" and when I catch up, this is what I find.
This would be the bathrooms. The sink area was outside of the restroom and between the mens and womens.
We are almost back to the paradise beach area....we have come full circle around the island.
There were more neat things for landscaping around the place.
We walked over to the itty bitty small island part and they had a deck that runs along the water facing toward the area/beach I had just came from.
The clouds were rolling in and we started to feel a little drop here and there. The hubby ran to the cabana type structure that had plenty of seating in couch like chairs or up at tables. We weren't going to actually sit there, there was too much to do and see. We just wanted to find a place to put our things so it wouldn't get wet.
I looked at him and said "There's no time like the present to get in the water and snorkel. I mean after all, we were already wet, it was starting to rain, and there's the water....off I went.
It was starting to rain a little and I was headed out to do some snorkeling. So, off I went.
I have never taken a photo of it raining before while in the water...so I thought this is neat...it'll be my first. I like first. First are good. There were several first at this place and that always make a place worthwhile. I have done "drops" in the water before, but not rain.
Others had the same idea I did...swim while it's raining and no worries about getting wet...you're already wet.
Awesome self portrait while snorkeling. No those are not my lips at all. Who is this imposter? Remember the unflattering butt plop in to the tube while cave tubing? Well this is another one of those unflattering pictures. The idea behind the self portrait was to have me snorkeling with the rain drops above my head. I don't think it turned out the way I had wanted or expected.
Well, it had been about 15 minutes since the rain started and just like that, it stopped and the sun started to come out again. The sun would remain out after that and it would be nothing but perfect weather from here on out.
Now I have to say, I did NOT take the "snorkeling tour" with LFK. I did NOT go out to the snorkeling site. But it would be REAL easy to get there on your own by canoe (which you are allowed to do). There were several people out there in the canoes beside the boat that took people out. We just chose not to. I'm not sure why. I do a lot of snorkeling, but I was perfectly content with what all I had seen today (some first) and just being in the beautiful water where I was at. Maybe someone that has actually went out to the snorkel site can comment on here about it. But I did go here with the intentions of just going here for a fun, relaxing, beautiful island day. Not so much as a snorkeling adventure.
So with that in mind. I was sitting on the deck and you could tell where the snorkeling site is. As you can tell, from my picture below where the boat is in the water, it's not far.
So, this area that you see toward the bottom of the picture off the deck, it's VERY shallow. Like you could walk in it. It's full of sea grass and sand. There were a lot of conch's in there. The area you see above it sticking up out of the water is just some rocks...once again, very shallow. Right beyond that was the boat. When we were in the canoe, I knew that the water there was shallow and couldn't for the life of me figure out how you would get a canoe through it. But, there is a way and people were doing it. I believe there's a "path". There were tons of canoes out there.
I also took a picture in the same direction, but there's another island directly in front of LFK. I'm not sure if it's owned by them as well. It did have a small dock area to it and it's back upped to this "lagoon" area that we all swam in. You know, the beautiful paradise aqua blue water?
This is from sitting on the same deck and looking toward the first beach area that we were at. Now it's NOT the beach you see in the pictures. That's another area that was around the corner from the beach area we went to. The area we were in during the beginning of swimming was to the left around the corner. You see the black wire chairs sticking up out of the water? Those were the chairs that were directly in front of the beach when we were standing on it.
It also shows the area of the mangroves I was snorkeling at from the first beach.
There were some wired chairs in the water in this area too. Remember the crab from the other side that Sakari picked up as a friend? Well she would soon discover that they were attached to these chairs everywhere. She had several "new" friends and was collecting them all.
As she collected these crabs (and snails), she started putting them on the table on the palapa out in the water. Daddy was sitting out here on it. She would line them all up and go to get more. What she didn't realize is that they were racing the minute she walked away to get off the table and back in to the water. It was like watching a frog race. Daddy was laughing and then would get the "straight serious" face when she would come back with more and have this puzzled look on her face as to where they were all going. You know he was accused of letting them all go. "Be free my little friends, run while you can, run as fast as you can."
Daddy completely not paying attention to his crab watching duties. I got the pleasure of letting her put a crab and a snail on my leg and crawl around as she screamed with excitement. I don't know how I was elected for this experiment. Sakari decided that daddy was no longer a very good babysitter of the crabs and stopped giving them to him at the palapa table. So, he decided to come down the the chairs with her.
At this point, I decided that all of this crab crawling on my legs required another drink. The hubby went and got me a "Monkey LaLa". Now everyone on these boards talk about this LaLa drink like it is heaven and you can't get enough. So, I was going to try it. Hmm, ok. It was good, but not as good as a Dirty Monkey. Sorry guys. When the hubby brought it back to me, he informed me that the people at the bar told him "You're lucky because this is the last one of the day." Um ok, I'm not sure if that meant that whatever is in this, they were all out or what. Either way, I was ok with it. I tried it and then decided to go back to the Miami Vice I had become addicted to during this cruise. Yea, it was much better to me.
Now about the drinks. Your admission comes with 2 "tickets" and you are allowed 2 drinks with those tickets. It's 2 tickets per person. So, we had 3 people=6 tickets. Which means we ended up with 6 drinks and just bought the daughter a drink instead. hehe
So at this point, we decided it was time to try out the canoes. Now you see this thing floating in the water? Well it was there when we arrived and this picture was actually taken as we were walking down the dock and headed toward the "yard" area. Looks like they had every kind of canoe possible. One person, two person, three person.
**disclaimer** In my defense, we were having such a good time that I did not check my settings on the camera when we took off in the canoe. I still had it on the underwater setting, which gives off a RED look when it's above water. So, Sakari is really not a red girl...just so you know.
Once we got going, Sakari decided to take over the oars. I let her and daddy do all of the work. Seriously...she did and she did a fine job of it too. I actually took a video and she rowed us all the way back to shore. Just look at the determination on her face.
WAIT, STOP. HOLD UP....JUST STOP THE CANOE!!! What is that I see under the water? Back up, turn around!!! Husband doing a complete omg face and turning the canoe around quickly.
Could that be? Is it what I think it is? Is this a sea cucumber? I have never seen one in person before. I have seen pictures of people finding them while snorkeling and holding them. Heck, I didn't even know what it was until this board and people that had posted pictures of them. Had I run across one before, I would have NEVER touched it for fear of what it might do. But, since I had seen pictures of people holding them, I figured they must be harmless.
I needed to make sure that's what this was in the water. I mean the water was crystal clear and you could see to the bottom, but just to make sure...(I'm now sticking my camera down in the water). I pulled the camera back up out of the water to view my picture...YEP!! IT REALLY IS A SEA CUCUMBER!!! WOO HOO. Another "first" for me (or what I thought was the first time spotting one until I got back to the room, downloaded my pictures onto the computer and when reviewing them, I found that this is actually what the picture of the weird looking thing around the mangroves was when I first started snorkeling. Remember the scary looking thing that I snapped a picture of and hurried off before it ate me?)
So now I took note of exactly where it was located. How many feet and inches from the other island, directly in line with the crab babysitting palapa, 90 degree angle from the sea grass, 180 degrees north of the paradise beach...yep, I think I got it. Once we returned from the canoe trip, I was headed back out with my snorkel gear on a cucumber hunt. I WAS going to touch one of these things.
We hung out in the lagoon area and I took a few more pictures of the area...both toward shore, the 2 story jumping deck and so on. Now the bad part about carrying around a water camera is that when you dunk it in water and then pull it out of water, you get water spots if you don't wipe it off. Who has time to wipe it off? Especially if you are, well, basically still in the water, but out of the water? I usually pull it out and then give it a shake and that usually clears it. My memory was slipping because my mind was still fixated on the sea cucumber that I was about to go hunting for. Oops. This is the only real picture I think I got of under the two story deck. So, I'm sharing it, like it or not, blurry and all.
So we made it back to the shore. Without a word, I ran for my snorkel gear as if I was Rocky training for the fight. Not a word was spoken to the hubby. He knew that look in my eyes. He knew I was on a mission and nothing was stopping me. I was cucumber hunting.
Snorkeling and taking pictures along the way.
I made it. There it is in all it's "glory?" Well, they are kinda ugly but still. So I had to touch it. I just had to. Really easy. Very gentle, I picked it up and waited for something to happen. Nothing did. Ok. So I think I'm good. It's time for a few pictures. The underside of him was pretty neat and it had shells attached to it.
Is this it's face? Remember, this is my first encounter. I don't know anything about sea cucumbers. I'm a "newbie". I keep meaning to look them up and gain a little knowledge about them.
So I gently put him back where I found him and quickly swam back to the other side to brag to the hubby about my find. Thank goodness I took good notes on the directions to get there. I had to show him the pictures on the camera. He gave the "yeah, I'm real enthused about it" look to me and continued sipping on his drink.
Out I went again to snorkel. Along the way I find this...Yes, it was a real conch.
So now I had a fulfilling day and when I got back to the shore, the hubby was saying that he was hungry. Well, our admission did include a lunch. They were preparing it and passing it out at this time, so we thought "why not."
He had went over and got a plate before I could even get my snorkel gear back and the "hut" and grab Sakari. When I went over to them to get a plate (which they were lined up down a table) the lady there ask where I was sitting, my reply "I'm not sitting anywhere yet, I'm still standing here." She said "We'll bring it to you." Um ok. So I pointed...um...let's see..."how about over there?" as I was pointing to a table under the roof of the bar and right behind the "live" band (which was a singer, a guy playing a guitar maybe? and a sound system that was really loud as I was trying to eat.
A guy brought over the plate and I was trying to get situated with getting a place at the table (which was one of those high tables), I was trying to get Sakari up on the chair and situated while she complained that she was not hungry and just wanted to play with the crabs, and trying to move a chair out which was really close to the speakers...I hear the guy serving the plates ask for a ticket. I ignored him thinking...um the tickets were for the 2 drinks that come with admission. You are NOT getting one of my tickets I'm suppose to use for the drinks...PAH-LEEZE! He didn't bother to ask again when he seen I was too busy fumbling with trying to get everything situated. I really didn't understand this after thinking about it. I mean we had wristbands on that are colored. The color tells the staff there what package you paid for. Our color would indicate that we paid for the meal with the package. WHAT TICKETS???? I'm still confused about this but oh well.
So here was the meal:
Now I can't tell you really what all was on this plate. I'll have to look in my email from them to see if they mention what all it is. BRB...you're not going anywhere are you???
Ok, I'm back. Are you all still with me? Here's what the email said is included:
includes Brochettes of Fillet Mignon, Lobster, Shrimp, marinated chicken
breast, fresh home made Yucca chips, fresh home made salsa, rice
and beans. They did bring out the lobster at a latter time and came around putting it on everyone's plate.
Now I'm a lobster lover and a shrimp lover. I also love chicken. I'm not a big red meat eater.
I have to say, and this is MY opinion...I hated the food. Completely hated it. The lobster was probably the worse I had ever ate and actually the smallest and worse I had ever seen. It was totally weird...the texture and all. The chicken....now I love chicken in the Caribbean, every place I have EVER been in the Caribbean that had chicken, it was the best...but this chicken, um, I just don't know. It had a weird texture to me as well. I hate anything with fat on it and I will completley choke if I see fat. Well, this didn't have fat on it, but it had that texture in your mouth type of fat feel. The salsa was ok, I took a few bites of the yucca chips (which I have had before and knew what they tasted like. They are kinda bland to me) and the rice and beans were "ok". But I had just came from cave tubing the day before and their rice and beans are amazing. This just wasn't cutting it for me at all.
Now like I said, this is MY opinion. Others had stated that they liked the meal and how good it was. So, food is one of those subjects that it's a personal preference. The hubby didn't seem to mind his food. He ate every bit of it other than the yucca chips (and he don't eat lobster so he declined it when they came around serving it).
All I can say is that I'm glad I wasn't "too" hungry at the time and what I did eat tied me over until we returned to the ship. Sakari didn't care for it either.
So, if and when I return to this place, I will NOT buy the package that includes the meal. It is just not worth it. They did tell me that if you did not get the package with the meal, and if you were to "buy" the plate of food, it would cost you $22 a plate. YIKES. IMO, I wouldn't pay $10 for this plate. But that's just me. So, to each his own.
And now it's time for a little more snorkeling one last time.
Now this little guy was hurrying across the bottom of the ocean. He was hilarious going sideways and all as fast as he could. I got a video of him and Sakari just laughed the entire time. It's what you call a true hitch-hiker. Of course Sakari being curious about everything related to any creature, wanted to know what happened to the conch that lived there. Then wanted to know what happens when he grows up and needs a bigger house...and so on and so on. You know how curious their little minds are and the questions never stop. Well, they stop when you dunk your head under the water and she knows you can no longer hear her and the advantage of having a snorkel is that I can last longer under the water with it than she can above water asking the questions. wink wink
So I am done with snorkeling. It's time to do the one thing we had been waiting to do...the JUMP!
We gathered up our courage and headed to the second story dock.
We decided to stay behind on the deck and let daddy "try" first. So he headed down the deck.
He gets up there, he looks, he looks over at us, he just stands there. Um ok...jump, do it, do it. Nope! Sakari is standing there with me and I said "Daddy's too scared." She looks at me and says "come on, I'm going first. I'll do it. I want to go first!!!" LOL She is aventurous I told ya. She's not scared to do anything.
So we head down the deck and up the stairs. Now I have to admit, once you get up there, it is a little intimidating. It doesn't look that high from below, but up there...yikes. Then you are looking down into the water and you can see the bottom because the water is so clear. "Are you sure this water is deep enough? I can see everything on the bottom of the ocean!" There were several people up there and they said that it was a good 12 foot, which reassured me. But yet they were too scared to go.
Well, it looked as if it was up to me to be the first to jump. Sakari was not happy about it, but someone had to be down there for when she jumped and swam back up to the top to catch her just in case...I mean after all, I was just informed that it was 12 feet deep...even though she can swim and the water is calm, I still don't "trust" her/it if you know what I mean.
I took a picture of the view from standing up at the top.
Whew, a boat came along and gave me a little more time. Ok, that saved me for a minute. Meanwhile I'm hearing Sakari say "Just go or let me go." I'm trying to explain to her that I have to wait because a boat is coming (as I feel a bit of relief knowing it wasn't my turn YET).
I gathered my wits and here we go....JUMP!
Ok, that wasn't so bad. Now it was Sakari's turn to jump. Now I have to say that we did not get any actual "pictures" of us jumping. We video taped all of them. So these pictures are not the greatest because I had to pull them from the video and do a screen shot. (Notice the look on the girls face as Sakari jumped.)
So here goes Sakari, she is ready.
Yippee, you did it big girl. She was so excited.
We did encounter a minor problem...she managed to loose her goggles with the jump. She had them on top of her head instead of on her face. So, mommy had to go back and retrieve them. Thank goodness they float is all I can say.
So now it was daddys turn to try again. Yeah for daddy.
Sakari couldn't wait to do it again and headed back up the steps to repeat this over and over a few times as older people looked on in amazement. LOL "How old is she again?" We hear a lot of "You see, she's not even afraid to do it and you guys are" back and forth between each other on the deck. Mommy jumped again and Sakari took one last plunge.
So then we were done. We accomplished something new and now I can relate to all of the numerous videos I had watched prior to going. What fun.
So things where winding down and I knew it was almost time to leave this beautiful paradise. I would give anything to be in the position to never have to leave, but reality slapped me in the face and told me it was time.
There were still a lot of people enjoying the place. I'm not sure if they were just planning on leaving a little after us, or if they might be staying on the island and visiting. I wanted to take a few more pictures of this paradise that I probably would not get to experience again any time soon.
When we boarded the boat, the cigar smoking guy at the wheel (which I would discover the next time we came to LFK, is the owner) had his boom box (well a little more than that...look at those speakers lol) on board and the music was blaring...I'm mean blaring. He was having a good old time and I'm sorry, if this would have been playing on the way over there, that would have been nice...but there was nothing going to snap me out of this somber mood I was now in because we were leaving LFK...not going back. I was sad.
We are officially pulling out. Wait, there HAS to be something I left behind, there just has to be. Take me back...just take me back. Any excuse will do. Just take me back please.
People still jumping off the deck. Ok, I'll do it again...just take me back.
Now we are getting a little too far for my comfort...I just wanted to turn around. I'm pretty sure Sakari left a crab or two back there and we need to immediately return please. Sigh...he's not listening. I guess the music is too loud to hear my cries and pleadings...
We are getting ready to pull up to Frenchys already. It's such a short trip. The sailboats where sitting around in the water.
And now LFK is just a memory in the past. One of the best memories of Roatan.
We are officially pulling out. Wait, there HAS to be something I left behind, there just has to be. We head down the deck with the rest of the people that were on the boat with us. The hubby and Sakari stopped to look at a squirrel in a cage and I needed to put my towels and stuff in the bag.
The other group was still walking and started piling in a mini van that was out in the driveway area. Someone at the restaurant came out and ask us if we were going with them and I ask if we were suppose to because they had ask us what time we wanted to return with Justin and I didn't see Justin anywhere. Before we could turn around, the van pulled off. Well, I guess that settled that. We were officially waiting on Justin whether we wanted to or not.
So I took some more pictures...of course.
The hubby and Sakari headed out to visit the horse again. It was a nice horsey. He had 1 blue eye and 1 brown eye.
We started walking back and up pulled Justin. He had someone in the car with him that he had picked up from school (they had a school uniform on) and away we went.
There is the sign as you pull on to the road headed to Frenchy's 44.
Now I will tell you that I left a little earlier than we had to. I did want to get back to the port in order to check out Mahogany Bay. I just had a feeling that this is where my daughter ended up at and I wanted to take some pictures. I had previously seen pictures from other cruisers and was originally going to stay there to "save" money. But, knowing that I had no intention on repeating this route again any time soon, I couldn't pass up the experience of LFK. So, I compromised and just spent a little bit of time over at Mahogany. It was maybe an hour tops.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
So, to summarize LFK up. We had a WONDERFUL day there. This place is absolutely gorgeous and breath taking. Seriously...just look at that water? If this isn't a post card picture of what you think of when you hear "Caribben", then I don't know what is.
I know the prices are a little steep and they spent time transitioning into their current prices until they worked out the packages, but I think this is now the current prices for awhile. Is it worth the price to us? Definitely. I would do it again in a heart beat. No questions asked, hands down. However, if I was to go again, I would definitely do the smaller package since I didn't care for the food. Since the hubby seem to like the food, he could just pay the extra $$ for a plate and I would be happy. Now this is just my opinion and I know a lot of others have reported they liked the food. Food is subjective and this is just me.
Would I do anything else different? Yes. I would take the time to take a canoe out to the reef area and see what there is to see out there and just how good the snorkeling is. Was I upset with the snorkeling that I did do? No, not at all. As I said, I was very content with the amount of things that I did see. I seen a lot of "first" and to me, that's what it's all about for me. There was a wide variety of fish, a little bit of coral, and some interesting things like the mangrove area. I would only go out to the reef because then I would be able to compare it a little better to Maya Key...which is to die for when snorkeling. I almost feel as though I have let some of my fellow cruisers down by not going out there because I know a lot of people wanted a comparison and I really can't give it as far as snorkeling. Maybe others that have been to the reef at LFK can chime in or answer those questions. If you like the pictures that I posted of the snorkeling and can live with that as a "snorkeling spot" then by all means, try this place out and even go out to the reef and report back to us to let us know how it was.