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I wrote about the crystal skulls long before the new Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull movie and before Mysteries of the Crystal Skulls aired on the sci fi channel. In KILLER KNOTS, my latest Bad Hair Day mystery novel, hairstylist Marla Shore and her fiancé Dalton Vail sail away on their first Caribbean cruise with a killer on board. They visit all the ports in the Caribbean to which I’ve traveled while on twenty plus voyages. The locations in the story are real, and my descriptions are based on notes and photos I took in these ports.
One of the most interesting places is the island of Roatan off the coast of Honduras. Here’s an excerpt of what I say about it in my story:
From KILLER KNOTS, Chapter 17:
Roatan had been a pirate stronghold for Captain Henry Morgan who plundered Spanish ships carrying gold from mainland Honduras. In the 1920's, British archaeologist Mitchell Hedges explored the ruins of a pirate fortress at Old Port Royal. He discovered four wooden chests filled with gold doubloons. Back in New York, he sold off his loot for six million dollars and bought himself a castle in England.
But that wasn’t his most noted discovery. Hedges also uncovered a crystal skull in Belize said to have supernatural properties, and ancient artifacts in limestone caves at the far end of Roatan. He believed these mysterious relics to be remnants from the lost civilization of Atlantis.
Other explorers, Howard Jennings and his friend Robin Moore, came in the 1960s. They unearthed chests containing silver bars and gold coins. Much more could remain hidden on the island, a lost legacy from the thousands of pirates who’d lived there.
As for my heroine, Marla Shore, other thoughts of a more immediate nature occupied her mind:
She began dreaming of a different type of treasure: the liquid kind. She couldn’t wait to claim a lounge chair on the beach, sip an icy rum drink, and sink her feet into the powdery white sand.
Tabyana Beach turned out to be everything she’d hoped for in a tropical paradise. As they entered the grounds, she let her eyes feast on the twisting vines, almond trees, coconut palms, pink bougainvillea, and sea grapes. Buildings sprinkled among the shrubs held changing rooms and showers, a barbecue pit, and the ever-present gift shop.
Tabyana Beach is one of the most lovely beaches I’ve visited. Crystal clear water, soft grains of sand, rum punches, and a steel band. What more could you want?
Roatan is a magical place, full of hidden treasures, pirate history, lush foliage, and beautiful beaches. No wonder the pirates harbored here. Was the crystal skull found by Hedges created by the ancient Atlanteans as he surmised? Or was it a gift from aliens? Could the Mayans have crafted it using tools known to them at the time? Is Hedges's skull part of thirteen skulls that must be found and aligned in order to save the world in 2012? Or do the crystal depths hide the knowledge of the ages? Mysteries abound, many of which no doubt are still hidden by the creeping vines and majestic splendor of this tropical isle.
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