Deo and Auri came back down to spend Christmas in Roatan, and were here for 2 months, along with Deo's girlfriend.  We decided we'd plan another camping trip to Guanaja.  One of Deo's friend's had a boat that he could take us on if we covered the fuel costs, and the boys brought other friend along, as they said that they would be clearing the land.
I told them that I'd be getting groceries, but everyone should bring along some food.  And bug spray, lots of bug spray!  
I had done some shopping to make camping a bit less rough.  Camp chairs, a camp table, a camping cot, a battery bank with portable panels.   A better cooler (and Deo had also brought down a good cooler).  It all went in the boat.  Jose had asked for a wheelbarrow, so that went in the boat too.  And the dog also went in the boat- when we headed out, we were fully loaded!
When we arrived, we got things unloaded and set up the tents.  Again, the bugs were out in full force.  I thought we had prepared with bug spray, but even with it on, it didn't seem to slow them down at all.   The camping cot made life just slightly more pleasant, but I was determined that the next time we went, I'd have a little shack with a mattress to sleep on and screens on the window.

After multiple delays, we finally closed on our land in November.  Sidney came over from Guanaja to sign, and we met in my lawyer Manuel's office to sign the papers.  My friends Monica and Ed were down, so we had champagne that night to celebrate.

Deo and Auri are spending the next few years working up in Canada, saving money.  As we were planning on closing on the land in Aug and they were coming down for a month, we thought we'd plan a camping trip over for a few nights, so that they could see it for their first time.
The closing kept getting delayed, so we checked to make sure it would be ok to camp out, even though the land wasn't officially ours yet.  
We arranged a boat to take us over from Jonesville and drop us at the land for 2 nights.  We stocked up on some groceries, packed up a cooler, tent, travel hammocks, water and a few other basics, and off we went!  Fortunately the property a few lots down has a rundown dock, which is a good landmarker, so we found our spot pretty easily.  So exciting to pull up to our land for the first time!  Blake (the boat captain that took us) helped us unload supplies, and then headed out to stay with his uncle while we were camping.  His uncle coincidentally turned out to be our realtor Sidney.  Sidney wanted to come out to show us the property boundaries, so we planned to see them the next day.  
We got our tent set up and started raking our land and burning all the leaves.  The property had just said idle for years, so there was lots of debris, and the bugs were relentless.   Tons of plastic bottles everywhere that had washed ashore.  The boys took a break to snorkel and see what they could see.  I kept raking, and had multiple fires going- the smoke helped a bit with the bugs.  I had brought some bug spray, but the boys hadn't packed any, and it was clear we were going to run out.  Fortunately we had a cell signal, so we asked Blake if he could pick up some when he came, as well as bringing us more drinking water and more ice.  We couldn't even hack 1 day of camping before calling for support!  
The property a few lots down had a well(the run down former resort that I had originally looked at), so we filled up a bucket of water from there for bathing.  We met the caretaker Jose (I had met him briefly when I was looking at properties, and had been in touch with him already to see if he would be interested in doing some clearing for us).  He had his entourage of several dogs and a pig with him.  We visited with him a bit, and talked about what needed to be done on the land.
Our first sunset was so amazing.  As we're on the west side, we had a perfect view.  We cooked some dinner over the fire, and marveled at our incredible piece of paradise.  Then night came, and we went out to lie on the dock and look at the stars.  Amazing how many stars you see when there's no electricity!

I visited Guanaja for the first time in 1997, a few months after Hurricane Mitch had wreaked havoc on the island.  I was instructing diving at the time, and a few of my students were traveling around on their sailboat, so they offered me a ride over.
Once I was there, I went to the former Bayman Bay Club to visit with the manager, who I had met at a dive show in the US.  They had some guests that were interested in doing a dive course, and they had no instructor on staff, so it worked out perfectly!  I stayed at the hotel for a few days, taught a course and earned money to catch a flight back to Roatan. 
Ever since then, I had thought about going back to visit, but there were no ferries from Roatan, and flights were pricey and had to pass through La Ceiba.  I met someone at the hostel who was living in Guanaja and interested in starting a hostel there on his uncle’s property.  I encouraged him to get started, and would occasionally contact him when one of our guests was interested in Guanaja, to see if he had gotten anything going.  A few years later, he still hadn’t gotten anything started, so I decided to plan a trip over with my boys and give him some motivation as well as getting to know the island better.
We loved our days in Guanaja, and we helped give Aaron a nudge to get his place going.  We planned several trips over after that, and one summer, the boys spent a week there at a fly fishing camp.
Now that my boys are starting adulthood, Deo’s been considering buying a piece of land.  He wants one on Roatan, but I thought I’d look for something for the 3 of us to buy together in Guanaja, so we could enjoy both islands.
I went over in March 2022 to spend a few days on Guanaja at Aaron’s place, and arranged for a realtor to take me to see a few properties.  I was mainly interested in the leeward side of the island, as I don’t like constant wind.  We went to see a few pieces of land on West End.  It’s a beautiful stretch of beach with almost nothing on it.  2 houses that are vacation properties with caretakers, and a rundown former resort that was being sold.  That immediately attracted me, I was so excited about the thought of it.  I sent the boys videos and photos.  There was another piece of land a few doors down from there, but I pretty much immediately dismissed it as being more than we wanted to spend for completely undeveloped land.
I started day dreaming about the business that my kids and I could develop together over there.  I headed back to Roatan, worked on an offer with the realtor on the 1st spot, and waited to hear back.  Unfortunately they turned us down flat, not even a counter offer.  I asked the realtor to find out their best price, but it seemed like they weren’t really interested in selling.
I shelfed the day dream, and tried not to feel to disappointed.  I figured the right thing would come up at the right time.
Fast forward a month later, and the realtor contacted me to let me know that the owner of the 2nd piece had dropped his pricing by $30,000.   I called the boys, and we discussed whether we wanted to make an offer.    It had to be a team decision, we were only moving forward if all 3 of us were ready to commit together.  The boys hadn't even seen a photo of the property, but they trusted my judgement, so we decided to put an offer in.  After a few weeks of back and forth, we had a signed deal in April 2022, with a close date in August.  Power of attorney paperwork issues with the absentee sellers turned the close date into November.

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