Caribbean Holiday - Part 2 - Roatán, Honduras

 "People don't take trips . . . trips take people."
- John Steinbeck

Docking in Roatan, another ship coming into port with the mountain of Honduras behind it.

Each morning aboard, I rose with the sun and peered from our balcony at the sights of the beautiful Caribbean Sea. Our third day at sea brought into view the mainland  "mountain of Honduras", as our driver called it.  Our ship had slipped between  mainland  Honduras and the Isla de Roatán then into Mahogany Bay.

Mahogany Bay is a tourism village owned and operated by Carnival.  It's densely packed with duty free shops, international vendors peddling their goods (most surely made abroad but marketed as Honduran) and a few local artisans who I'm sure paid dearly for their tiny booths to sell their handmade goods to the thousands of eager spenders coming ashore.  The pristine buildings, walkways and gardening, although nice, is a far cry from the true Island experience.

We had chosen to book our excursion outside of the cruise ships offerings and found a highly recommended snorkeling tour at Upachaya. We exited the tourist village and along with a few others climbed a small hill to where the outside vendors must wait for their fares.  We found our driver, Marco, immediately and he ushered us into his passenger van.  He informed us that we were the only passengers from this port and we would need to go to the Royal Caribbean port for the others.

We careened through the hills on narrow roads, sometimes three vehicles wide nearly rubbing as they passed.   It was quickly apparent that roadsigns, stop-signs, and most general rules of the road are optional in Central America.  The drive was marked by dense foliage, small residences, businesses and foot traffic of all ages.

Flowers colored the landscape, fruit and nuts were in various stages of growth, and a few howler monkeys lounged in the branches of the big trees as we sped by, too fast for pictures but I've included a little video showing some of the drive. We arrived in Coxen Hole before the other boat had begun to disembark, so Marco  took us to his little house on Main Street to wait.  We wandered the tiny lane with homes, shops, and restaurants flanking the ocean and admired a vendor as he sold his produce for the morning until the others arrived on foot with Marco's wife.  Grand total for the tour was....drum roll please....five of us.

Fresh produce for sale, roadside.

Our driver then pointed us to the North side of the island where we exited the paved roads.  The road briefly passed the "gold mine", the local dumb where people could be seen picking through the garbage for recyclables to sell back.   As the other passenger vans sped by us, Marco explained that his van is his own so he must care for it.  "Those are owned by resorts.  They replace their shocks once every 8 months, I replace mine once every 8 years."  This  made sense to us, and our ride was much smoother than theirs, I'm sure.

We arrived at Upachaya and were greeted by Barbara, the proprietor.  She showed us down the beautifully built wooden walkways while explaining the various edible and medicinal plants on her property.  We were fitted with fins (John and I already had masks and snorkels), and walked through the mangroves to the tiny dock.  Barbara pointed out where several iguanas and a boa frequented, but since it was only in the low 80's, it was too cold for them to show themselves.

 Our boat sped through the mangroves and past luxurious island homes.  Near the reef, coral emerged from the water due to low tide and the sea turned from cobalt blue to pale turquoise.  We slipped off the boat into a turtle grass patch under only about four and a half feet of water.  Our guide, Al, took time to make sure everyone was comfortable, then our adventure began.  Al led us across the waves into the magical wonderland that is the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef.  The murky sea limited some of our experience, but didn't ruin it a bit.  Although the pictures don't do justice here are a few.  Al showed us an arrow crab, green eels, a snake eel...

  ...an octopus, lobsters....

(one lobster....two lobster)

 ...lion fish, french angel fish, scorpion fish...

(he's the one that looks like a rock)

...urchins, sea cucumbers, and starfish to name a few.

(you try taking a underwater glamor shot)

When our swimming abilities limited us, he hold grab our hand and drag us down to see the wonders  he had found.  Everyone had the privilege to see the most the sea had to offer.

Back ashore we cleaned off with a refreshing freshwater shower and made it to the large palapa in the center of the property.  The whole group decided that we would have Monkey La La drinks, because with a name like that, what else would you have on vacation.  We were then treated to a mostly home-grown lunch of fresh, super-delicious papaya, coconut, coleslaw (not your garden variety), pasta salad, and chips with guacamole and salsa. 

We all interrogated Barbara, an expatriate from the United States, regarding her experiences relocating and setting herself up in a foreign country.  She told of her experiences creating her oasis property, dealing with local government and the officials, building processes, working with caretakers and employees and the like.  She proved to be an extremely valuable and encouraging resource for John and I, since we plan on doing something similar to her.

I do prefer most of my food to be dead.

We were picked up by Marcos and after two attempts (apparently it needed a running start) the little van careened up the driveway and back across the island.  Back at port, John and I dropped off our supplies on the ship and proceeded to the Mahogany Bay shops to find a few treasures.  Satisfied with a few finds, we wandered on to the beach to enjoy a little rest before boarding the ship and setting sail for Belize City, Belize.

(to be continued)