Month 25 is coming to you live from CANADA!
I guess the post title is a little misleading, because I'm still hanging out in the great white north for a couple more weeks. (And it's literally the great white north right now... it's already snowing in some parts of Canada, and it looks like I may see some snow for the first time in over 3 years. Not that excited about it.) It has been wonderful eating all my favorite food - did you know there are bacon poutine chips now? - and seeing my friends and family.
Times have been a-changing in Roatan since I left a few weeks ago, and some new government regulations have thrown many long-stay visitors in Roatan through a loop. When you enter Honduras, you are usually granted a 90-day tourist visa. Most tourists wanting to stay longer were able to pay for visa extensions at local immigration offices without having to do 'visa runs'. Now the government has implemented fingerprint scanners at airports and your fingerprints will be scanned at entry and exit. Apparently the info will be shared with the US Department of Homeland Security, which the US expats are in an uproar about but I'm not exactly sure why. Anyway, visa extensions from within the country are no longer permitted and you must leave Honduras for at least 72 hours before re-entering to get a new visa. Overstaying your visa comes with some hefty fines... there is no 'official' number anywhere but I have heard of people 1-5 days over being charged around $160 and up. I guess this change is an attempt to look like they are beefing up security in the international eye, with all the bad press about Honduras lately. That being said, I can think of about thirty thousand other things this country could use before fingerprint scanners.
So, it seems that visa runs are now a thing, and with the cost hovering around the $500-$600 mark for getting off the island and out of the country for at least 4 days before coming back in, it is highly unlikely that budget travelers and those on retirement/limited income will be doing visa runs to continue to staying on Roatan (or anywhere else in Honduras, I guess, although I imagine visa runs could be significantly cheaper from the mainland). Since I fall in those categories, I can't say with any confidence right now that I will be returning to Roatan once my next 90 days are up. Some people have already left. It's kind of unfortunate and unexpected news, and I have found myself wishing that I would have found out about this before I left... I think I would have probably just packed up my stuff and saved the cost of the return ticket. We'll see how it all plays out - the government doesn't exactly have a great track record of taking care of/being able to fix stuff, and I imagine with all the power outages frying the island's electronics that these fingerprint scanners will be by the wayside in short order.
Well, that's the news! Shall we get on to the roundup? (You can see all the past roundups here.)
1. Gratuitous diving photo:
teaching one of my open water students!
2. Posts from the last month:
- The Definitive Guide to an Incredible Weekend in Ucluelet, BC - a recap of all my favorite places after spending a long weekend in Ukee.
- Surfing in Ucluelet, BC with Wick'd Surf Camps - I had an absolute blast taking a surfing lesson in the chilly waters of Canada's west coast.
- Five Places I Could Visit Again and Again - highlights of places that got under my skin in a good way.
- I Should Have Been a Mermaid - my ode to the stunning sea.
3. Best thing I've found on the internet lately:
Okay, to be honest, when I started reading this article about Google hacks I thought it was lame because I already knew the first few. By the end, I was all, "WTFFFF how did I not know about this until now??" Google has a timer and a tip calculator! Who knew? So I'm sharing the Google geekery...enjoy!
Guys, make sure to follow me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter ... there's lots of extras posted there that don't make it onto the blog. I also have Google+ if anyone even uses that? And I'm on Bloglovin', so you can follow me there too! Plus it makes me figure out what the hell I'm doing next if I leave Roatan. So there's that.
