Susan Solo – Photographer | Traveler | Adventurer

Tag: villas

Returning to Love City Post-Irma: Part One

Back on August 28, 2017, my sister and I finalized our plans for a week-long trip to St. John in June 2018 by putting a deposit down on a beautiful two-bedroom Coral Bay villa. I was thrilled that I would finally get to show my beach-loving sister and brother-in-law one of my favorite little island spots in the world! We all had a wonderful time on Vieques together and it was high time we took another trip.

Two days after our booking, a tropical storm started to form that would later evolve into Category 5 Hurricane Irma on track to bring catastrophic devastation to several of the Virgin Islands. We watched helplessly from our homes on the mainland as satellite images and news footage showed Irma pummeling down on one of my favorite spots in paradise.

After the storm settled and details of the destruction began to spread across our news sources, my sister and I wondered if we might not be able to keep our travel plans to visit St. John, even as far out as our trip was scheduled. Ideally we still wanted to visit, especially if it helped in any way by putting tourism dollars back into St. John’s economy, but we also wondered if the island’s infrastructure would be ready for tourists and/or if we would be a burden at that point.

We decided to wait and see, and as it turned out we received news in October that our rental villa was completely unscathed and as the trip approached, our flight itineraries stayed the same even though many travelers even up through late spring were facing canceled flights. With everything luckily in place for us, off to Love City we went!

As per usual, a rental Jeep provided our transportation around the island for the week. First things first, we headed to our villa to get settled. We didn’t encounter any issues at all driving around the island. Roads were clear, even on the quieter Coral Bay side, and we only noticed a pile of cable in the street closer to the villa. Downed trees and debris have been completely cleared. Of course, that’s not to say we didn’t see other signs of destruction, but a little more on that in the next post.

You can see a small sample of Irma’s aftermath in the photo below. The foliage surrounding the villa and on the hillside is quite bare. Some trees fared well, but a large percentage on the island were completely stripped during the high winds of the storm. It buoyed my spirits, though, to see new leaves growing and baby trees here and there already popping up. Nature has been hard at work over the last several months healing itself.

Somehow this villa managed to come out of the hurricane untouched by Irma. We noticed the home next door undergoing some repairs, but our villa didn’t seem to have even a shutter out of place. The beautiful landscaping looked healthy, and we even spotted a critter or two scurrying around outside. (And a spider or two inside, but thankfully I had three other people to help remove them when needed.)

The villa is named All About the View, and you can see why. This side of the island provides an unparalleled view of Caribbean islands (including the BVIs!) as far as the eye can see.

Somehow I completely missed taking any images of the villa’s interior, so the four images below are courtesy of the listing on vrbo.com. The perfect size for two couples, this villa has two master bedrooms and two bathrooms – one of each on the main level and the lower level. The kitchen provided everything we needed (well, except a can opener so no huevos rancheros for us, womp womp) to prepare a few meals at home and sandwiches for the beach. The cozy living room area was a good hang-out spot for the four of us even though we didn’t have use of the TV. This house is not hooked up for cable or satellite yet, but we were perfectly happy without it.

So that’s where we stayed for the week! If you’re a couple, two couples, or small family looking for a place to stay on St. John, I definitely recommend All About the View. It’s not always easy to find a smaller villa that also has a pool, so thankfully this fit the bill for us. And I think they’ve probably replaced the can opener by now.

In the next post, we explore the island, head to the beaches, and eat/drink at as many restaurants as possible. Stay tuned!

August 16, 2018
Honduras Snapshot

It’s time (or well past the time) for a Honduras snapshot post! Here I’ve rounded up a few nuggets of info about our trip, and some of our favorite moments and photos.

Trip Details

Chris and I traveled to Roatan, Honduras and stayed on the east end of the island in Camp Bay. We flew round-trip from IAD to RTB with a layover in MIA. Our Saturday-to-Saturday itinerary from April 7-14 included a week-long stay at the Living Waters villa which we reached by rental car.

Best Moment

I don’t know if it gets any better than snuggling a sloth, but I also had an amazing time kayaking around the water behind the villa.

Worst Moment

The power at the villa went out for a little while one day, and I did get a couple of itchy bug bites, but that’s all just part of island life. I’m reeeeeeally not complaining. The trip pretty much went as smooth as we could hope for! I’d happily accept a couple of bites and a temporary lack of electricity if it meant I could return to that magical spot on the island right now.

Funniest Moment

Seeing Chris play jungle gym to a couple of capuchin monkeys was certainly worthy of a few giggles!

Best Meal

This one is a straight-up tie: we absolutely loved our home-cooked lunch at Geraline’s (part of our Jade Beach tour guide’s family – I wish she could cook for us after every time we go snorkeling!) and our giant crab feast at Gio’s in the French Harbour area. I’ve never had so much fun making a mess while eating.

Something We Learned

This was our second time doing a mangroves tour (we also saw a mangroves forest on Grand Cayman), but this was the first time we had an opportunity to get really close to the tropical trees and to learn about them from a born-and-raised Roatan local. Mangroves are salt-tolerant trees that have adapted to harsh conditions that would normally kill other plants, and they provide a rich environment for all kinds of fish, birds, and insects.

We’re Thankful We Packed

I’m always happy to embrace my inner-nerd and work on a jigsaw puzzle during our beach trips. I pack a 1000-piece one every time. It’s perfect for a rainy day (although this time we didn’t have any rain at all), and it gives me a break from the sun whenever my fair skin has reached its UV-limits. I also like to work on it in the early morning while I eat my breakfast, and this puzzle happened to be breakfast-themed! So meta.

We Didn’t Need To Bring

Scuba gear. I originally planned this trip around completing our open water diver certification, but I simply didn’t end up falling in love with scuba diving like I was hoping and decided not to continue the training for now. More on that later, but I didn’t end up needing the wetsuit I brought for our open water checkout dives.

Trip Regrets

We spent the week watching kite surfers on the water behind our house and it looked like so much fun. But it also looked like a steep learning curve, and that week was really just carved out for pure and utter relaxation, so we decided not to put the effort into much of anything beyond floating in the pool, eating, and drinking. I wish we had at least attempted it though! We’ve decided we would love to go back to this exact spot and stay a week or longer, so next time we will definitely sign up for some lessons.

Reasons To Go Back

See above re: kite surfing and…I would like to stay at that amazing house again!

Favorite Photos

August 7, 2018
Flying a Drone in Honduras

Our trip to Honduras in April was my first opportunity to travel with the DJI Mavic Pro since I purchased it, so I thought I’d write a little bit about the process of traveling with a drone and share some of the images I took with it. (All photos in this post are from my trusty little Mavic.)

I actually bought the drone before we left for our trip to Peru last summer, but I didn’t yet feel confident about flying it at home let alone in another country, so I decided not to bring it despite all of the amazing photo opportunities we would have had with it. And then our next trip after that was to New York, where my understanding is that drones are pretty much a no-no in the entire city. The whole reason I settled on the DJI Mavic Pro, though, was for its highly portable design, so I’ve been itching to take it somewhere scenic. Enter Roatan, Honduras!

So my first order of business before packing the drone was to research the country-specific guidelines and laws for entering the country with a drone and for flying an unmanned aerial vehicle, or UAV. I have no interest in breaking any rules and ending up starring in an episode of Locked Up Abroad. I’m a very law-abiding traveler.

Simply doing a search on “drone laws Honduras” provided enough sources to verify their general drone laws, such as not flying over people or large crowds, respecting people’s privacy, and stay out of areas like airports and military facilities. We follow their same guidelines here in the United States plus some additional laws, so after some thorough reading I felt comfortable packing the Mavic in my carry-on camera bag and heading off to Honduras.

Law review, check. Next up: general safety. The Mavic operates on Lithium-ion Polymer batteries and since they can (very rarely!) be hazardous, I purchased a LiPo safety bag and port covers for extra safe transport of the batteries. For anyone wanting to travel with a drone, keep in mind that LiPo batteries are not allowed to be packed in your checked baggage, so you’ll need to plan to carry them on with you. The fire resistant safety bag keeps the batteries contained if they should short-circuit and spark. I also read that the batteries travel best if they’re partially or mostly discharged, so I let them drain before the trip.

Going through security at our airport, Dulles International, was a breeze, or at least as much as it can be these days. I took my Mavic out of my bag along with my other electronics that are larger than a cell phone, and everything cleared the security process with no issues. And just a quick note on going through security, Chris and I have been using CLEAR for almost two years and we absolutely love it. We’ve never had to wait in line, and that gives me plenty of extra time to unload my electronics for the x-ray and re-pack afterward. If you sign up through my link, you’ll receive two months free (and I will, too)!

When we arrived on Roatan, we didn’t have to do any paperwork or processing on the drone like I’ve heard some other countries require. For instance, in Peru you need to apply in advance to receive approval and there is a tax assessed and charged that gets refunded as you exit the country. Bringing the Mavic to Roatan was easy breezy! But since drone laws are constantly evolving, we’ll check the laws again if/when we return to Honduras someday in case anything has changed.

Our rental villa in Camp Bay was the perfect spot to practice flying without disturbing a soul. The last thing I want (besides breaking laws) is to make anyone feel like I’m being a creepy spy, or to bother people with the noise. Once the Mavic is up in the air you can’t hear it, but the take-off is a little loud.

We even had plenty of time and resources to get a little creative with the aerial photos. I had a version of the image below in my head ever since we planned this trip and I had a blast executing my vision! Now I just need to learn how to take images with the Mavic on a self timer so I don’t have to be holding the controls.

This area just down the beach from our rental home was also a fantastic spot to fly. We had the beach all to ourselves one afternoon! I’ll never get over how gorgeous it was from all angles – on the ground and from the air up above, Camp Bay is simply stunning.

I’m really looking forward to traveling with the Mavic more in the future! I also brought it with me on a recent trip to St. John, USVI, with no issues at all and those posts are coming soon. If you are a drone pilot and have any good travel tips or recommendations, please let me know in the comments or send me an email!

Note: This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase something through one of my links, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you so much for reading and for your support!

June 25, 2018
Off the Beaten Path in Camp Bay, Roatan

You know when you find an unspoiled, incredibly special corner of the world and you sort of want to keep it a secret, but you know you probably should share it so as not to be a completely selfish human being? Camp Bay, Roatan is one of those places. Chris and I fell pretty hard for it, so I’m doing the right thing and spreading the word about this Caribbean gem.

While the west side of Roatan is a popular Caribbean cruise destination, Chris and I generally love to get away from the crowds and find spots that are less developed for tourism. So once we honed in on the idea of visiting Roatan, we looked away from the cruise ship ports to see what else we could find. I discovered information about Camp Bay and immediately decided we should head all the way east on the island to find our peaceful paradise. Plus, once I saw photos of a villa called Living Waters, I was sold. You’ll see what I mean.

During my trip research I read several mentions about how tricky it is to drive to the east end, but Chris and I are always up for a bit of adventure. Undeterred, we decided we would rent an SUV and hit the road toward the more undeveloped part of the island.

The roads were indeed bumpy since they are unpaved about 1/3 of the way, and even the paved roads are a bit of an obstacle course with some pretty serious potholes, but we took it slow (there’s no need to hurry on island time anyway!) and we had zero issues getting to and from Camp Bay.

Once we arrived, my jaw hit the beautifully tiled floor of our home-away-from-home for the week. If you’ve been following our travels, you may have noticed that Chris and I usually tend to favor staying in a private home rather than a resort or hotel. Living Waters ended up being our favorite villa to-date!

On top of being spoiled with such a fantastic house in a stunning location, it never rained once during our entire stay. As many times as we’ve endured some pretty bad weather situations while traveling, I’m truly grateful for these trips where it all goes off without a hitch.

(I hope I’m not jinxing ourselves for next time.)

When we weren’t in the pool listening to our beach mix playlist and enjoying a cold drink from the comfort of a pineapple-shaped float (how is that for an idyllic relaxation combo?!), we made use of the kayaks to paddle ourselves around the crystal clear waters behind the house. Kayaking here was one of my favorite activities of the week!

Chris also did some snorkeling near the house. We originally intended to take the kayak all the way out to the reef (you can see it in the distance in the picture below, where the water breaks into a small bit of white) and do some snorkeling there, but the lure of lounging by the pool overtook our desire to do anything strenuous. I’m sure you can understand. And besides, mid-week we were treated to a boat ride right up to the reef on another island for some really great snorkeling – more on that in an upcoming post!

If I haven’t fully convinced you to take a trip to Camp Bay yet, take a look at Camp Bay Beach.

Did you book your plane tickets yet?!

If a private villa isn’t your cup of tea, Camp Bay Lodge is situated a few lots down from where we stayed. The rooms look comfortable and charming, and the Lodge offers kite surfing lessons! We ran out of time to try it, but after watching the surfers behind the house all week, we decided we want to go back and give it a go (but we’ll definitely be staying at Living Waters again). Camp Bay is also home to Dive Pangea, owned by one of the nicest women you’ll ever meet, Chrissie. If you’re into scuba diving, I implore you to get yourself out to the east end and dive with her! She is a wealth of knowledge about the island and the reef.

Unspoiled beach, tranquil accommodations, and adventure in the form of water sports – what else do you need? Food? The east end of Roatan has that, too.

We did a big grocery store trip in at Eldon’s in French Harbour before arriving to the house so that we could eat several meals there, but we went out to eat several times, too. A few steps down the beach sits La Sirena, where you can drink the best rum punch on the island while watching the sun set.

After a short drive along the main road one evening, we found ourselves at The Crow’s Nest in Coxen Hole for delicious margaritas inspired by local flavors including island plum and mango. Anywhere I can feel like I’m in a jungle treehouse enjoying good food and drinks is fine by me!

And in sticking to our tradition of finding food with a Mexican flare while traveling (seriously, we end up eating Mexican food pretty much anywhere we go), we hit up Temporary Cal’s Cantina for some fish tacos. Cal’s is located mid-island and it took us over a half-hour to get there, but we’re always willing to drive a distance for chips and salsa.

We ended our week with a spectacular King Crab feast at a French Harbor restaurant, but more on that in a future post. And all of that is to say we didn’t go hungry by situating ourselves in Camp Bay. We never felt isolated (at least not in a bad way; we did feel blissfully far from the crowds), or like we couldn’t get out and explore.

Need more ideas for what to do around Camp Bay? Before you think we just sat around in these hammocks all week, up next is a post about our adventures on neighboring Bay Islands!

SaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSave

SaveSave

April 29, 2018
Isla Mujeres Snapshot

Once again I’m a little behind in getting this one done, but I finally put together my Isla Mujeres snapshot post!

Best Moment

The entire purpose of our Isla Mujeres trip revolved around seeing whale sharks, so obviously the best moment was getting to do exactly that! More specifically, the very best moment was the first time we entered the water sans cameras so we could simply enjoy the experience. We plunged into the deep not knowing what to expect, and after merely a minute of being in the water, there they were larger than life – whale sharks, swimming right alongside us. It’s one of my most favorite travel moments so far.

Worst Moment

Other than the five-hour delay of our flight coming back home from Cancun, the winner for Worst Moment really wasn’t that big of a deal. Not surprisingly, it entails yet another weather-related incident! Unbeknownst to us, a wildly windy storm swept across the island as we slept through one night early in the week. According to what we could tell from the crime scene the next morning, the winds whipped into the patio table umbrella next to the pool at an angle that toppled the entire table. The glass top broke into a million little pieces, rendering the pool and patio unusable. Fortunately no one was hurt and no other damage was done, and this registered on the not-a-big-deal scale in the grand scheme of things.

Our incredibly sweet villa owner (also a Susan!) immediately swung into action right after we let her know what happened, and with the help of her villa manager and crew, the mess was cleaned up within hours and we were back to happy pool life.

Best Meal

We loved the food on Isla Mujeres so much that it inspired me to write an entire post on the topic. Chris and I unanimously decided that our dinner and drinks at Green Verde earned the number-one spot, but I also really (really really) enjoyed our pineapple dessert at Limón.

Something We Learned

I learned that real, fresh coconut juice is saltier than I expected.

We’re Thankful We Packed

Our own fins. Keeping up with the whale sharks proved to be more work than I expected, and I was happy to have the comfort of well-fitted fins with which to chase after these guys!

We Didn’t Need To Bring

Full-size bottles of sunscreen. The main grocery store on the island is totally legit! Chedraui has just about everything you could possibly want for your stay on Isla Mujeres, including several sunscreen options at very reasonable prices. (We’re used to seeing just one brand with a hugely marked-up price tag when we island-hop.)

Trip Regrets

Originally we planned to spend a day off-island seeing Chichen Itza, but the temperatures were well out of my comfort zone. We lucked out with sunny skies nearly every day of our trip so I’m not complaining, but a heat index of 105 and up means I need to be no more than ten feet away from water (or a/c) at all times. Even with the promise of swimming in a cenote after the Chichen Itza tour, I just didn’t think I could enjoy the ruins so we took a pass on that excursion this time.

Reasons To Go Back

I would love another swim with the whale sharks! I hope to get to do it again someday soon. Also as mentioned above, we skipped a mainland visit to see Chichen Itza because it was just too darn hot. I wouldn’t have survived. So we’ll go back another time, maybe in the cooler months. But we weren’t completely void of getting to see Mayan ruins on this trip. We spent one morning at the Temple of Ixchel ruins on Isla Mujeres at what is basically the southern-most tip of Mexico.

Favorite Photos

Hands-down, I’m most happy to have captured this shot. It brings back such great memories! And it kind of looks like he/she is smiling.

October 14, 2016