We went to Roatan - Finally

Abby broke her tooth a couple of months ago.  One of her molars had a big crack in it, though, surprisingly it didn't hurt. 

There are a lot of inconveniences about living here and even though we live at a hospital, finding a dentist when you really need one is hard.  There are some good dentists in Honduras, I'm sure, but we live almost in the middle of nowhere and finding one proved to be very difficult.  After many emails and asking around, we heard about a retired American dentist who volunteers at a clinic on the island of Roatan, which is about 40 miles off the coast from where we live.  We had to find a way to get there. 

We waited several more weeks until Abby was able to re-arrange her schedule so we had a stretch of four days where she didn't have to work at the hospital.  Then we drove into the city and boarded the ferry to Roatan. 

The boat trip is less than $30 per person and takes just over an hour to get to the island.

Aliyah enjoyed it too, though it was a struggle to get her to go to sleep when it was time for her nap.

Here is the clinic - Clinica Esperanza - where we were welcomed in and given a tour.

It turns out, Abby's cracked tooth was just a fairly large piece of filling that had cracked off.  The dentist repaired it without needing any novocain and was all done in less than 15 minutes - all free of charge!

Since we were already on the island, we took the opportunity to stay for a couple of days. 

Roatan is probably Honduras' most famous tourist destination.  Cruise ships regularly dock throughout the week for people to do a little shopping, enjoy the beaches, and learn about the island's colorful pirate history. 

We visited a small "butterfly museum", which didn't really have many butterflies, but did have a lot of other interesting animals native to the area. 

Aliyah giggled away as she fed some plants to the island deer.

We took a walk down a path to the beach where Aliyah played with shells and bits of coral.

Finally, we took the ferry back to the mainland and drove home.  It was a very nice few days - the first time on Roatan and probably the last for quite a while. 

By the way, it looks from these picture like I'm possibly a single father.  Definitely not true.  Abby always remembers to bring the camera and take pictures, while I remember hardly anything.  Abby's always thinking about how we can keep people back in the US informed in addition to all the other work being done while I consider being on the ball if I remember to put clothes on the kid.  Besides, I ended up carrying Aliyah most of the time since Abby already has another child to carry 24/7.  That being said, I'm sorry Abby isn't in more pictures. It's my fault.