- jbnokesphotography
International Travel
February was a short and busy month, but on the 22nd we hopped on a plane and headed for Roatan, Honduras for a dive trip.
Waking up to a beautiful scene like this in a different county can be a lot of fun.
We were staying on a cay, in an area known as Oakridge on Roatan. It is the area right in the middle of the image. There are no cars, motorcycles or even a road. There is a few foot paths that lead to different areas. All access is by boat. Image found on Google.
Up until I started my business, the images I posted were about the actions we were doing. My business has changed some of the focus of my photography. I find myself being more interested in the culture and people; not just nature and sites. One afternoon we hired a boat to take use up and down the coast line a bit and see some of the sites. Last time we were in Roatan the place we stayed was very remote.
From the areas we could see from our "resort", there were many depressed sections of the island. One of the reasons I wanted to take the boat tour was to capture images of the very depressed housing of many locals call home. There are some amazingly poor living conditions on the island. As I was reviewing the images later, it led me to reflect about where I live and work. There are many very depressed areas at "home"; however, they are just not as concentrated. Roatan is only 32 sq miles and the best I could find has a population of 50,000. The county I live in has about the same population, however it is about 80 times larger at 2541 sq miles.
On our boat tour, there were many interesting stores. Here is a gas station, 2 different hardware stores and a couple of convenience stores. Just pull your boat right up.
Speaking of gas stations, there was one main station in the area, but many more of these small "stations". Gas is stored in just about any kind of 1 gallon container and stacked on shelves. The station then has a funnel with a tube that can reach down to a boat. They dump 1 gallon of fuel at a time into the funnel down to the boat. In a couple of the images you can see the hose on the dock.
Being on the water means transportation is primarily by boat. Need to go to town, by boat. Need to go to school, by boat. Need lumber, by boat. I think you get the idea.
Being on the ocean means there is a huge commercial fishing industry.
At some point it is always time to leave. My next post will have our diving images.
