video: madame president

I'm SO happy and grateful for Hillary Rodham Clinton!

I'M 100% WITH HER!

the sea breezes at paya

Paya Bay Resort is located on a small peninsula that juts out from the northeastern side of Roatan Island. Near constant 15 to 25-MPH tropical trade winds flow across and through the property about 85% of the year, day and night. These balmy sea breezes keep ambient temperatures cool and insects at bay. This natural phenomenon results in Paya Bay being an extremely low risk place for insect-related concerns. This is particularly the case during the dry summer season. Here in Roatan, we call the easterly trade winds "Nature's A/C"!

video: this. this is a speech!

I LOVE my Leader of the Free World!

beautiful island art

Ruthlen has made great progress with the art she's creating for our rooms. Here's a sneak preview!

Paya Bay Resort, Roatan, Bay Islands of Honduras.

overheard

Don't let the gray hair fool you.

- CNN's Anderson Cooper, last night.

video: wéndeti nagaira

This new Honduras tourism promotion video is a very slick production! "Wéndeti nagaira" means my beautiful homeland in the Garífuna language.

2 for 1 summer sale

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pay attention to the present moment

It is only in the present moment that we experience being alive.

Life, in all of its fullness, is happening right now. While our thoughts are sometimes elsewhere, beautiful opportunities and moments are being passed over and lost to the flow of time. And though we cannot possibly fully experience each leaf that falls to the ground, sometimes we get so attached to reaching our goals that we don’t pay attention to the wonder all around us. When we do that, we live in a world that exists only in our heads, while we miss life itself. There is so much to be enjoyed and appreciated that we need to remember to pay attention to the present moment, because it is the only space in which we can experience being alive.

- The Daily Om

video: lena dunham and america ferrera at the dnc

"I am the proud child of Honduran immigrants. I am profoundly grateful for the access and opportunity that exists in this extraordinary nation." - America Ferrera

video: first lady michelle obama's magnificent speech

video: anastasia somoza's moving speech at the dnc

washington post editorial excoriates donald trump

DONALD J. TRUMP, until now a Republican problem, this week became a challenge the nation must confront and overcome. The real estate tycoon is uniquely unqualified to serve as president, in experience and temperament. He is mounting a campaign of snarl and sneer, not substance. To the extent he has views, they are wrong in their diagnosis of America’s problems and dangerous in their proposed solutions. Mr. Trump’s politics of denigration and division could strain the bonds that have held a diverse nation together. His contempt for constitutional norms might reveal the nation’s two-century-old experiment in checks and balances to be more fragile than we knew. Any one of these characteristics would be disqualifying; together, they make Mr. Trump a peril. We recognize that this is not the usual moment to make such a statement. In an ordinary election year, we would acknowledge the Republican nominee, move on to the Democratic convention and spend the following months, like other voters, evaluating the candidates’ performance in debates, on the stump and in position papers. This year we will follow the campaign as always, offering honest views on all the candidates. But we cannot salute the Republican nominee or pretend that we might endorse him this fall. A Trump presidency would be dangerous for the nation and the world.

- Washington Post

Wow. WaPo dropped a nuclear bomb on the Trump phenomenon. Total annihilation.

the force of love

"Every good feeling unites you with the force of love, because love is the source of all good feelings."

"The life purpose for each of us is to overcome negativity by choosing love."

- lessons from The Secret

a great choice!

The more I learn about Tim Kaine, Hillary's choice for VP, the more I like him! What an awesome man. His strong connection to Honduras is very intriguing.

After being admitted to Harvard Law School, Kaine took a year off to volunteer with the Jesuits at a vocational school in El Progreso, Honduras. In Honduras Kaine learned to speak Spanish, a skill he will likely use on the campaign trail this fall. According to Kaine, that year was a watershed time in his life. “I think of El Progreso everyday,” Kaine said. “The people, aside from my family, are the most important in shaping who I am today.” He also claims his experiences with the Jesuits have inspired his public service: “I do what I do for spiritual reasons. I’m always thinking about the momentary reality, but also how it connects with bigger matters of what’s important in life.

- TIME 

article: a beautiful and affordable caribbean isle

Flying in, you'll see an island that is about 40 miles long, 5 miles across at its widest point and vibrantly green. There are no high-rise hotels, because building regulations don't allow for them. Density restrictions within the beach zones have contained development in a good way. Cows and pigs still graze this lush, green island. Bananas and coconuts still grow wild. Despite the dramatic growth in its expat population, Roatán remains an untamed paradise and a Shangri-La for nature lovers. Honduras, with the help of its Ministry of Tourism, became the first country to adopt the concept of "geotourism" as its tourist agenda, going a step further than the popular "ecotourism" and meaning to suggest a very natural experience.

- U.S. News & World Report 

Photo: Devon Stephens Photography

video: the daily show's trevor noah on trump's rnc speech

Also, this: Fact-checking Donald Trump’s acceptance speech at the 2016 RNC

greener energy for a brighter future

Roatan Electric Company (known popularly by its acronym RECO) is making a gigantic investment in Roatan's energy future. The company is currently constructing a new plant that will use much cleaner-burning natural gas to replace existing infrastructure that utilizes the dirtier fossil fuel diesel. While still far from the ideal of being 100% green, RECO's commendable, forward-looking move to cleaner natural gas is a huge leap in the right direction. This past week the massive tanks that will store the natural gas were delivered to the construction site (the security guards I chatted with said they were manufactured in Texas). The new tank farm being installed next to RECO's existing plant is quite impressive to observe. We islanders hope the move to natural gas-generated electricity will also result in lower utility rates, which currently are some of the highest in the entire Caribbean basin. I took these photos of the interesting project with my phone's camera this afternoon.

Roatan, Bay Islands of Honduras.

project z: a spa nestled in nature

In addition to Project X, another project currently in the works for 2017 is Project Z. The idea with Project Z is "a flowing spa experience nestled right into nature." It will consist of a series of interconnected levels. Each level will be dedicated to a unique spa treatment, including -- possibly! -- a steam bath inside a small cave! Guests will be able to do the entire series of treatments or pick-and-choose specific ones to enjoy.

Paya Bay Resort, Roatan, Bay Islands of Honduras.

wonkette on melania's plagiarism

"Asked about the alleged plagiarism, Melania said that such accusations are especially hurtful to her children, Sasha and Malia." - HobbesEvilTwin (commenter)

Read Wonkette's hilarious take

photo of the day

Guests enjoy the Zen Rock chillout station. The energy and vibrations of the crashing waves travel right through your entire body. Paya Bay Resort, Roatan, Bay Islands of Honduras.

video: john oliver is brilliant

little angels

Cashew season continues. Britney and Emily dropped by, once again, to sell roasted cashews.

that burning desire

When you find that burning desire to be or do something, you've found a powerful force that can cut through seemingly impossible circumstances and limitations.

- lessons from The Secret

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bliss beach

Bliss Beach is simply beyond words. These captures speak for themselves.

Paya Bay Resort, Roatan, Bay Islands of Honduras

we can choose to start anew anytime

We can choose to start over in this very moment, there is no need to wait for a new year or a new month or a new week.

There are times in our lives that lend themselves to starting something new. The beginning of a new year, finishing school, leaving a job, or changing homes—these all are times that turn our minds to fresh starts. Their advantage is that they bring with them the energy of that event, creating a tide of change around them that we can ride to our next shoreline. But we can choose to start anew anytime. In any moment we can decide that a bad day or a relationship that’s gotten off on the wrong foot can be started again. It is a mental shift that allows us to clean the slate and approach anything with fresh eyes, and we can make that choice at any time.

- The Daily Om 

wonkette's tribute to elie wiesel

Not being a nuclear specialist in any way, I’m scared. I’m scared, because I know that what is imaginable, can happen. I know that the impossible is possible. I’ve seen the film, and while I was watching it, I had a strange feeling that I had seen it before — once upon a time, it happened to my people. And now it happens to all people. And suddenly I said to myself maybe the whole world, strangely, has turned Jewish. Everybody lives now facing the unknown. We are all, in a way, helpless. We are talking about nuclear arms, about the Bomb with a capital B, a kind of divinity in itself. Unless those who know, militarily, what it means — we readers, writers, people — we don’t know what it means. And I hear about thousand bombs, [sic] megatons — I don’t have that kind of imagination. To me it’s an abstraction. But to me, all this means is that the human species may come to an end, that millions of children will die. 

- Elie Wiesel, discussing the 1983 TV movie The Day After

Read Wonkette's exceptional tribute

cacti blooming

This is time of the year when the the cacti growing in the rocky terrain around the property bloom. Interestingly, the flowers open at night (there must be nocturnal pollinators they depend on for their reproduction). Cactus flowers can be astonishingly beautiful and complex for what appear to be rather primitive types of plant life.

I returned after dark to take these photos of the open bloom.

Paya Bay Resort, Roatan, Bay Islands of Honduras.

island horsemen

Late this afternoon I spotted Omar and his buddy riding their horses on the Big Beach.

Paya Bay Resort, Roatan, Bay Islands of Honduras.

video: nature is speaking

punarhanma

Punarhanma, our newest trail at Paya Bay, is named after the sanskrit word for rebirth. It starts at the Ananda Yoga Pavilion, as it should. It is a spiritual, magical. mystical trail.

Paya Bay Resort, Roatan, Bay Islands of Honduras.