Roatan, Honduras

Wednesday, June 16th – Roatan

  

The ship docked at 7 a.m. which was actually 6 a.m. local time in Roatan. Kent, Bob and I went to breakfast, while Laurel opted to order room service. Bob and Kent were excited because they had a day of scuba diving planned at Bay Island Beach Resort (BIBR). (Note: Bay Island Beach Resort closed permanently in 2010.) Bob had done his own research when looking for a place to dive and after contacting several resorts on the island, he chose BIBR. I think one thing that swayed him to make this choice was the dive site called “Spooky Channel” that was located near the resort. Bob had been certified for several years, but Kent had just finished a scuba class and got his certification a couple of weeks before the cruise…the Roatan dive was his first!

 

Photo of Spooky Channel saved from old BIBR website.

After breakfast, the guys grabbed their gear and got off the ship. It was so much more convenient to get off here because we were docked and didn't need to tender to shore. Before going back to the cabin to see if Laurel was ready, I went to one of the upper decks and took some pictures of the coastline and the dock area. It was funny because when I had the pictures printed I could see Bob and Kent all alone on the end of the dock (if you look VERY closely) waiting on their ride! Bob said they were the very first two people off of the ship that day!

Back at the cabin, Laurel had finished her breakfast and was ready to go. She was upset with Kent because room service had delivered her food while she was in the shower and Kent had stuck it on the table in the corner and not told her it had arrived. He left before she got out and she didn’t see the tray. She had gotten impatient thinking the food was very late and had called to check on it. About that time she spotted the food!

I had arranged to have Victor Bodden, a local cab driver, meet Laurel and me at the dock. When you first leave the ship, you must walk through an area filled with buses waiting on tours. Once you leave this area, there was a very long line of white taxis just waiting for passengers. Some of the cab drivers were yelling to us wanting our business but as soon as we said we were looking for Victor they pointed us in the right direction. Victor was in the process of lining up another cab for a group of people and once he had that taken care of, he turned his attention to us. His cab was parked quite a ways down the line so he grabbed our bags and told us to wait while he went to get it.

Victor told us that it was up to us what we wanted to do for the day. We told him we wanted to see “real life” in Roatan and not just the tourist areas so he started off by taking us to the eastern end of the island. Roatan is one of the Bay Islands off the coast of Honduras and is 30 miles long and about 4 miles wide. Right away, we passed by two different ship wrecks near the shore. As we drove along we saw several very large and expensive mansions, but mostly we passed shanty-type houses. Victor explained that the tourist areas were on the western end of the island but the people that lived on the eastern end were very poor.

Laurel and I (and Kent too) are teachers and we were interested in seeing what a public school in Roatan would be like. Since it was still very early in Roatan, we saw lots of kids walking to school…all wearing uniforms. When Victor pulled over in one small town, we didn’t realize it at first, but he had stopped at a school. From the street it wasn’t obvious that it even was a school, but once we got out and walked through a narrow walkway, we were inside of a courtyard that was flanked by classrooms.

The courtyard was filled with children all lined up in single file rows listening as a man spoke to them. Right away another man noticed us and came to see what we were up to. After we explained who we were and that we just wanted to see the school, he spent 30 minutes or more visiting with us. The man was a social studies and English teacher at the school. He was very self conscious of his English, but he was actually very fluent. He told us that the man speaking to the children was the principal and that he was telling the kids that all of the public school teachers in Honduras were getting ready to go out on strike! Since the parents don’t listen to news on TV or read newspapers, the kids were supposed to relay the information to their parents at home.

After the principal finished speaking he came over to meet us. The teacher said he wanted the principal to show us around because he (the principal) needed to practice his English!! I teach at a small rural school and we have major financial concerns, but compared to this school, we are in very good shape. The classrooms were very sparsely decorated and overcrowded. One third grade class that we observed had over 40 students with one teacher. Each classroom was almost like a separate building and each one opened up into the central courtyard. None of the classrooms had doors and no screens on the windows.

The principal showed us a two story “classroom” that had just been built from concrete blocks…each story consisted of one room. The classroom was just a shell…no doors or windows and only contained a few desks. He said the school couldn’t afford to build the classroom on their own so they had parent volunteers helping. As we walked back towards the street, we looked briefly into the principal’s office, but couldn’t see much…the electricity had gone out! Laurel and I both agreed that visiting the school was one of the highlights of the week!

Another request we made was to see a local grocery store. I guess I had in mind stopping at one of the small local stores that had the fruit and vegetables on display outside, but the store we went to was “one of the nicest on the island” according to Victor. I wonder if he wasn’t trying to show us the “nicer” side of Roatan instead of the poor areas. The strange part was that the small town where I live in Minnesota has a very large Hispanic and Asian population so we have much more “ethnic” type foods than what were in this store. Most of the items we saw were well known American brands! The power was also off in this part of town so we didn’t spend much time in the dark store.

Victor said he usually takes his tours up to a lookout tower because the view is so outstanding. When we got to the road, it was barricaded and locked so unfortunately we didn’t get to do that. Our next stop was an “iguana farm”. The farm was run by a single man who has been feeding the iguanas for years. They are not fenced in or anything…they just stick around for the free food! The iguanas were just coming down from the trees for their daily meal and they were everywhere! The farm was right on the ocean and down at the shore the man had a fenced in area in the water where he had lobster and sea turtles. Back up the hill was a monkey and several tropical birds. The admission was $5 to get into the farm.

As we made our way to the western part of the island, Victor offered to show us Bay Island Beach Resort where Bob and Kent were diving. Pulling into the resort, the first two people we saw were Bob and Kent! They had just come on shore between their two boat dives. We only stayed long enough to chat for a minute and take a few pictures, but I was glad we got to see where the guys spent their day! (Even though the guys were only on the beach for a short time, they came back covered with sand flea bites!! They said they weren’t aware they were getting bit at the time and the bites never really did itch, but the red spots all over their body made it look like they had some disease!)

Laurel & I with Victor at Bay Island Beach Resort

In all fairness, the resort was very beautiful and if it weren’t for the bugs, I think I would enjoy going back to spend more time. The guys couldn’t stop talking about what great dives they had. Bob was particularly impressed with the dive at “Spooky Channel”…it was the one that had attracted him to the resort in the first place and apparently it lived up to his expectations!! Besides the two boat dives, the cost of the dives also included lunch at the resort.

After seeing Bay Island Beach Resort, Victor kept telling us how much nicer Anthony’s Key Resort was in comparison. He also pulled into that resort so we could take a look. His younger brother works at Anthony’s Key driving a water taxi so I’m sure Victor might be just a little biased. The resort was nice, but you can’t really see much of it without taking a boat because part of the resort is on a separate island.

As we drove towards the west end of the island, Victor showed us where he lived. He has lived on the island all of his life and now lives on a section of land once owned by his father. The large piece of land was divided between Victor and several siblings all of who live on the adjacent lots. I asked Victor if he realized how popular he was becoming on the Cruise Critic boards and he said he couldn’t figure out what was going on at first. He said people just started asking for him by name and he didn’t know why!! Victor has no computer and has to pay to get computer access elsewhere so he doesn’t always answer email immediately. Ships are only in Roatan one or two days per week which limits his “cruise tours”. On the other days Victor said he often “hangs out” at Anthony’s Key Resort and is available if resort guests need a cab or want to take a tour.

The time was going by fast…we had to be back on the Paradise by 2:30 p.m. Our last request for Victor was lunch and snorkeling. He took us to Half Moon Bay where there was an outdoor restaurant and a place to snorkel right off the shore. The snorkeling wasn’t great…or maybe we just didn’t get far enough out to see the good stuff. Laurel had never been snorkeling before so I just wanted to give her a chance to try before her snorkeling tour in Grand Cayman the next day. I have a nice mask and snorkel that I bought when I “thought” I was going to get scuba certified…but Laurel was using a cheap Wal-Mart set that belonged to one of my kids. The mask kept leaking so it wasn’t much fun for her and we didn’t spend much time in the water.

Our lunch consisted of shrimp and conch fritter appetizers…just to get a taste of some local food. Victor ate with us (we insisted on buying his lunch). The food was OK, but the best part was sitting there next to that fabulous blue ocean on a beautiful day.

Following lunch, Victor drove around the West End a bit…this area was definitely a tourist spot. It was interesting because the roads are just sand! Victor dropped us off at the ship and we paid him the $25 each (plus a tip) for our wonderful day. I was so glad we had arranged to spend the day with Victor…having our own personal guide for the day was great!

There were lots of locals who had set up booths selling all types of crafts, jewelry, etc. by the dock but Laurel and I wanted to drop off our beach bags before shopping. Having the ship docked was so much more convenient than tendering and it would have only taken us a short time to drop off our stuff and get back off the ship “if” Laurel hadn’t locked her Sail and Sign card in her cabin as we started to leave! In order to get off or on the ship, you have to insert your card into a machine that brings up your picture and other information…without the card, there was no way Laurel could leave the ship. Laurel called the purser’s desk and eventually someone showed up to let her into the cabin. We both thought it was strange that they didn’t try to verify if that was really her cabin or not. After the episode the previous night where Laurel had de-magnetized her card, she got a lot of kidding from the rest of us about the second mishap!

The street leading up to the dock was lined on both sides with booths…many of which sold the same type of things. There were lots of carved wooden items, “Mayan” pottery, jewelry, hammocks, etc. Laurel had a young boy latch onto her and he became her personal guide! No matter what she wanted, he said he knew where to get the best prices and took us from shop to shop. His mother worked in one of the booths and the boy even took Laurel to meet her. We each bought several items and then walked back to the ship. The boy followed us as long as he could and it was almost like he wished he could get on the ship with us. We gave him a tip for his services but were discouraged when we were scolded by a man standing near by. He said if we pay him he will grow up begging and not learn to work.

The line to get back on the ship had grown quite long when we returned, but we were entertained by a group of locals singing and dancing on the dock. Since we had to be back on board by 2:30, it was almost like having half port day and half sea day! I wished we could have stayed in Roatan longer, but I also enjoy the ship time too.

The guys were back on the ship when we returned. Bob’s beloved “Summer Trio” was playing classical music at 3:00 so he rushed off right away to hear them on the Promenade Deck. Being a violin player himself, Bob has always loved classical music. The Summer Trio consisted of three girls from Poland and Bob made it a point to hear them as much as possible during the week. 

I took some time to shower and just relax in the cabin. At 4:00, Bob and I went to “Afternoon Tea” in the Piano Bar lounge. As soon as we were seated, a girl came around with a wooden box filled with many different kinds of tea bags. The small tables were set with tea cups and small plates and another server came with small pots full of hot water to make our tea. “George” was playing quiet piano music as we sat and enjoyed our tea. (Bob found out later that he is married to one of the girls in the Summer Trio.) After a few minutes the server came around again with trays of bite-sized sandwiches and hors d’oeuvres. Kent and Laurel had gone to the “food and beverage demonstrations” and after it was finished, Kent joined us for tea while Laurel went to sit by the pool to get some sun.

Attending the afternoon tea was another thing on my “must do” list for this cruise and I was so glad we found the time to go. There were hardly any other people there that day but I thought it was a wonderful experience…sipping tea, listening to beautiful music and watching the ocean through the windows of the lounge.

The dinner menus had not changed since our last cruise two years ago. There are half dozen or so main courses on the menu each night so I had really intended to try new things this time but often would end up ordering the same exact meals that I did before! Tonight was one of those nights…I had shrimp in puff pastry that I thought was very good (both times!) Bob’s dessert that night was interesting…chocolate cake soaked in chocolate milk. He thought it was pretty good, but to me it looked like something a little kid did while playing in their food! I kinda thought it tasted that way too!

Shrimp in puff pastry.

Since Laurel and I had done our own thing while the guys were diving, dinner time was filled with stories of what we all did that day. Our tablemates listened with interest. They had gotten off the ship and gone into town but said there wasn’t much to see so they just went back to the ship.

Tia Thompsen was the featured entertainer that night. She was billed as a comedian/singer and did a super job on both! Tia had a great time with the audience…especially some of the male members! Following the show I convinced everyone that we should go to the piano bar…it was a fun place to spend the evening on our last cruise and I thought Kent and Laurel would enjoy it. When we got there the place was virtually empty. Only a few people were sitting around the bar trying to sing along, but the piano player didn’t have a good voice and basically no personality. After a couple of songs we all agreed to go find something else to do!

We wandered the ship a bit and ended up in the casino. None of us are gamblers…but that didn’t stop us from having fun watching those who were playing. Laurel managed to stand next to some guy at the craps table who was winning and as he played he gave her lessons! We did run into one of our tablemates and found out she had won a lot of money at one of the slot machines. It was her first try ever!