Joe and Elaine

Here is the Permit picture! hey Steven where is the 40 pound Tarpon picture?

Permit enroute to Super Slam!

Now here is what it looks like.

Four over the water cabanas taken from the new Cabana.

Sonya and Konrad on the boathouse roof deck.

Sonya meets, More and Less the two Amazon Parrots.

Konrad takes a sunset snorkel.

A water spout, a fairly common sight in the Bay Islands.

New Cabana

In this picture we had not installed all the white trim yet. The hand rails are also in the mail, would I lie to you? This cabana has flush toilet and larger bathrooms. New King Coil deluxe beds and on demand hot water from propane. They have the same vaulted ceiling as the other cabanas.

Waiting for you!

The bed skirts are also in the mail.

Other news: The solar panels are here, 24 new 245 watt solar panels. This will be a huge help in our continued march toward no Diesel generator. We also finally have our 2 KW wind generator working! I cannot say enough about our Eco and sustainability for our energy needs. If anyone is planning on a solar electric addition you might want to come see what we are doing here. The ultimate plan for Mango Creek Lodge is for a further 5 Tree houses some ready by this fall. All running on solar and wind with minimal diesel generator backup. People, yes it is a little easier to do this down in the tropics, but some alternate energy need to come into everyone’s life and now is the time. We started in 1996 when panels cost $500.00 each, and gave 47 Watts.  The new panels are slightly larger but give 245 Watts and cost about $210.00 each. The technology has been incredible, they also have new MPPT charge controllers that give up to 30% more usable power.

Security: Yes things are bad in the third world and crime has been increasing. So we now have a full time 24 hours a day security team. Headed by Chulo a huge guy with tattoos raised in Brooklyn N Y , a very formidable presence, you will love him. You can now rest completely at ease that in these troubled times we are preventing anything from interfering with Your holiday.

We are having a great season and would love to have you come check us out. Remember our special April is for Lovers, deal of $200 off per couple so book soon. Terry

Bob came day fishing and here are some of his pictures. He was well on his way to catching the biggest Grand Slam ever at Mango Creek. When you start with a 10 pound Bonefish, follow by getting a 25 pound Permit, you would almost say its in the bag. Well the Tarpon had a bit to say about that and the 30 pound plus Tarpon that Bob hooked got off fifteen minutes into the fight and the Grand Slam was gone. Bob left and went home early to be with his injured wife at 2:00 pm in the afternoon. Hey guys and Gals there are not many Fisher people who would head home early that close to the Grand Slam. Our hats are off to you Bob and we hope Diane is feeling better soon, you really have a great guy.

Permit at Mango Creek Lodge

It's about the fish isn't it Bob!

Huge Bonefish at Mango Creek with Michael

Big Bonefish at Mango Creek

Building the new cabanas

Many people when visiting Mango Creek have seen my start of building a tree house, a five sided tree house, or a Pent Tree House! Pardon the humor but what I was looking at creating is more rooms with a view. When standing in the tree houses the front pointed part will be looking over the coastal bush and bamboo and having a panorama of the ocean. All the while being set back in the trees. I picture being able to watch the humming birds on the front porch while laying in bed.

I am hoping that the new tree houses will be fun and exactly what people are looking for when not wanting to be over the water. We hope to have a dumb waiter for bags and stuff and maybe even a fireman’s pole to slide down. They will be equipped with shower, bathroom etc. and will have a four foot deck out front. There will be four built eventually but two right away. Plan to have them available before June.

The other thing happening at Mango Creek is we are going SUPER ECO. While we are one of very few places in the world that have our amount of sustainability we are going even greener. Plans are for a water wheel electric generator, a incinerator generator and we are expecting 24 new solar panels in the next little while. All this is to get us off the diesel generator.

We will also be eliminating the composting toilets and will be putting in two new sewage systems. These toilets have been great but sitting on that high thrown will be a thing of the past soon.

Please check in every once and a while to see how these projects are going, or better yet come have a gander for yourself.

Nice Bonefish Adam

Michael and Adam had a great but windy day yesterday with four large bonefish. Recent times have seen a bonefish over 9 pounds, they seem to be getting bigger or we are getting better. Way to go Adam and Michael.

Cabana 5 and 6: We are in fact building them now, will have them completed by Feb 9th. They will be, when completed, fully ADA approved to the best of our ability. That means we will be able to welcome our wounded warriors as well as others. They will be set out about the same way as our other cabanas with about the same space. They will have marine flushing toilets instead of composting toilets.

Tree Houses: We will be going right on to constructing two tree houses when the cabanas are done. They will be five sided, making them ” Penthouse Tree Houses”. they will be slightly smaller than the cabanas over the water but still have the same facilities.  in addition they will have bridges like Swiss Family Robinson. I have this image in my head of being up in the trees, lying in bed in the morning watching the humming birds visit the feeder, then standing up and the panoramic view of the sea and Lime Cay comes to view. We hope to have some fun things in them too, like a fireman’s pole to get down quick and a dumb waiter for getting luggage up.

Solar Power: We will be adding new panels to our system to have more power. This will make us more efficient and more Eco friendly than our 5 star system that we already have.

Wind Generators: We think we have a solution to getting a lot more efficiency from our wind generators.

Toilets: One of the companies we are now part of is Marine Sanitation Inc. They are dealers for Marine toilets and sanitation systems. In the near future we will be designing a “Red Fox” sanitation system. This will eliminate our composting toilets, for you that do not know these new fantastic systems process waste and supply fresh clean water for the garden areas.

Other Projects: We are committed to trying to get away from Diesel Generators. We hope to install a ” Over Shot Water Wheel” to generate Hydro Electric Power from our creek. We are not sure if this is possible or not but we are looking into it. Better solar heaters for water. Incinerator to cleanly dispose of garden and paper waste. This might also generate some power or heat water.

I will be posting progress pictures a bit later. Maybe some new cabana pics right away. please watch the blogs for more news, and start planning your trip down to see now.   Terry

Things will remain the same here at MCL as we want you comfortable, full of good food and grinning ear to ear from a fishing trip or day snorkeling or diving. You may even be interested in two significant developments in the works now. First, we are adding another, larger over the water cabana which will be handicapped friendly and can also fit a whole family for their vacation. Second, the tree houses are coming along. Two of these elevated cabins will be situated near the waterfall and have connecting walkways near the tree tops!  Can’t wait for you to try ‘em out.

Romantic Dinner under the stars!

Well it turned into a Very exciting week. First there was the close approach of Hurricane Ernesto. Ernesto passed about two hundred miles North of Roatan and all was well. Some rain fell but all in all a good thing. Then there was the Earthquake a 4.3 power quake that shook the restaurants and cabana, but it was again a minor thing thank goodness. The weather somewhat cleared and we all went snorkeling. In our snorkel area we found some locals with a gil net which is against the law so we had to yell at them, so they withdrew and we saved a lot of fish from certain death. A gill net kills all species of fish and the waist is incredible, in some cases 10 fish killed for every usable fish. Thank goodness they are illegal. Patrick and Lauren had a great day down Island, walking the beach in West Bay, with no cruise ships it is wonderful. The next day Michael took them for a day at the Pigeon Cays for Picnic and snorkeling. On the way there they encountered a pod of Wild Bottlenose Dolphin and Michael got them close enough to actually snorkel with them, what a great experience. On their last full day we heard of a turtle net strung across a long distance in Port Royal. So with the help of Patrick and Lauren we went and destroyed the net. This net is also illegal here but with little infrastructure I believe it falls to us the concerned people to do our part to protect wildlife and especially turtles.

So to sum up the week, we had Hurricanes, Earthquakes, Gil Net removal, Beach walks, Pigeon Cay tours, Mangrove Dorey ride, Dolphin snorkel, Turtle net removal and to top it all off a romantic Lobster dinner under the stars on our boathouse roof. I think we got them started in their life as a married couple quite well thank you.

Best of luck in all your endeavors Patrick and Lauren Gines.

Michael’s pictures are on our FaceBook page for MangoCreekLodge so please have a look.

It is now fix up time with all the varnishing going on as well as boat fix up. We are set and ready for any storms we might have so please book with us soon for the coming season. Terry

Patrice at the Dolphin encounter

Patrice went with guest to the snorkel with the dolphins and had a great time.

We have lots of projects underway. The fishing boats are being repaired and painted, new super looking stripes. Walter has been busy doing his creative painting.

Walter doing his thing!

We are slowly progressing on our two new Cabanas. We are planning on them being wheel chair accessible, this will require the water flush toilets instead of our composting ones in the other cabanas so we have built all the septic tanks ready for the two toilets. We plan on building the cabana and hope to have them available to guests by November. As well as being great for wheelchairs will be super for families and even just two couples. The front deck will be shared allowing a separate place for families or friends to relax. In addition to the boats we also have redone the lift rack for the fishing boats.

The fishing has been great, we are seeing bigger bonefish. I am not sure why this is but hope it continues. now is the time of higher water levels so the Permit are on the flats, they are just as picky but you see more and we catch more this time of year and again in September when waters rise again. The truly amazing fishing bews is that we are seeing more and larger Snook. Usually by this time of year they are gone, but we got a fish over 12 pounds. That is a great fish for here on a fly rod, sorry no pictures.

OK it is coming onto summer up north but this is still a great place for a holiday so come see what we have to offer.

This next shot shows Katie enjoying her hammock.

Nigel got a nice Permit while here.

Dalia’s special fish tea served in a fresh unripe coconut, it is becoming world famous!

Thanks Nigel for the photos, hope you come back again soon.

John and Kate have sent their photos.

One of Kate's Baracudas

John with a nice Bonefish

Beauty

Giant Baracuda, glad they got that one away from the flat, they eat a lot of bonefish!

Believe it or not but this one is probably the biggest bone ever caught here, but they saw bigger ones!

Big Bonefish

Katie and Mike were here for their vacation and had a great time. We just loved this young couple. They snorkeled, Scuba Dove, Fished and just had a great time, here are some of their photos, hope you come back soon you two.

Katie and Mike with Lobster Dinner under the stars.

African Pompano