Roatan
Deciding what we should do in Roatan was easy. Six years ago Roatan was a port on our Carnival Paradise cruise that we did with another couple. On that cruise the two guys did scuba and my friend and I booked a tour with Victor Bodden. Back then Victor’s business was just getting started and the two of us spent the day with Victor touring the island in his car. That day in Roatan was the highlight of our cruise!
I emailed Victor and made arrangements for the 6 of us to do a private tour. (Bob and Zach did not do the tour with us. Roatan is one of the top scuba destinations in the world so they absolutely wanted to dive. In fact the cruise was chosen so they could dive in Roatan. They booked their dive through the ship and had a great time!)
The one concern I had was that Jane has trouble walking and I knew from reading other reviews that we would have to walk up the big hill to get to where the independent guides were located. I explained this to Victor and he said we could have part of our group walk up the hill to meet the guide and once we were in his van then we would be allowed to drive down and pick up the rest of the group.
Our original itinerary had us in Belize on Thursday and in Roatan on Friday from 8:00 to 3:00. In March Carnival revised this schedule by flip-flopping those days and changing our time in port to 11:00 to 6:00 for Roatan. I actually liked the new times better…it gave us a chance to eat breakfast in the dining room and then watch as the captain maneuvered the ship into the dock at Mahogany Bay.
The ship passed by two shipwrecks near the pier...
...and then the captain turned the ship around and backed into place at the dock.
Bob watching as the ship turns 360ยบ.
I wish I could tell you all about the beach at Mahogany Bay…but I just got a glimpse of it from the ship and that was all. Our time in port was so short that we just didn’t have time to do our tour AND visit the beach. It is too bad that Carnival doesn’t extend the time in Roatan to allow for both. (Or maybe it is shorter by design so people will choose to not do tours and just stay at their beach?)
As soon as we docked we were able to get off the ship. The shops at Mahogany Bay remind me a lot of Puerta Maya in Cozumel…and rightly so since both were built by Carnival. We didn’t want to waste any of our day so we walked directly through the shopping area. Matt waited with Jane in a covered area while the rest of us hiked up the hill. It was steep…but if you are in half way decent shape it is doable.
When we reached the top of the hill there was a gal with a Victor Bodden sign and a walkie talkie. She informed us that we would be spending the day with Francisco. She called him on the walkie-talkie and in just a short time he was there to pick us up in his van. I took one look at him and before he even told us I knew he was Victor’s brother! We piled in and Francisco drove down to pick up the other two and we were on our way.
When booking the tour I emailed Victor the things we would like to do…see the island, buy vanilla (I was worried I might not get any in Cozumel), see his monkeys, visit a school and spend some time snorkeling on a beach. Francisco had this information but also told us he would be willing to take us wherever we wanted to go. The kids loved having our own private tour and I thought the $25/person cost was a good deal.
As we drove, Francisco told us lots about the island of Roatan. He was a native to the island and was able to answer all of the questions that “geography teacher Marji” could throw at him! It is striking to see the contrast in houses on the island…huge mansions to very humble homes.
Francisco said this was the home of one of the elected officials…
This mansion was for sale…the price had dropped but was still in the millions…just a “bit” over our budget!
More common were homes such as this…
We were curious why so many homes were built on stilts and Francisco said it wasn’t so much because of flooding…but to provide a cool place to be in the afternoons and to provide a place for drying laundry.
Marji was especially looking forward to stopping at a school, but Francisco said most of the public school teachers were out on strike. I found this interesting. In 2004 my friend and I visited a school in Roatan (we are both teachers) and on the day we were there, the teachers had gathered the kids together to tell them they were going on strike the next day. Francisco explained that this is not unusual…when the government gets low on funds it just quits paying the teachers…and they go on strike. This happens multiple times each year…sometimes for as long as several weeks!
Driving to one of the highest points on the island gave us a gorgeous view of the ocean. Pictures don’t do it justice…the water was so many different colors of blues and turquoise.
This must be a frequent stopping spot for tours since there were several small stands set up where people were selling crafts, jewelry and cold drinks.
There were two boys there helping and they were more than eager to visit with us.
They said they were out of school because of the strike and had been off for 2 weeks. They pointed out the pier in Coxen Hole that Carnival used before building Mahogany Bay.
My mind is a bit fuzzy here (what’s new?) but Francisco took us to a resort where he said we could use the rest rooms by the beach. We took time to walk around and it was lovely…but weird because no one was around. I believe he said a friend of his owned the place. (I could be totally wrong on that fact however!) The beach was on more of a lagoon with the ocean off in the distance.
I was really obsessed with replenishing my vanilla supply on this cruise. I did pick up the liter bottle in Cozumel, but decided to do a little comparison shopping in Roatan. Francisco took us to a grocery store and helped us find the vanilla display…there were 2 brands. The half liter bottles were marked 23 lempira each. Thank goodness he was there to help us figure out the price in US dollars. I bought 3 of the half-liter bottles and the price was $4 total! Wow…that’s a LOT cheaper than in Cozumel. BUT…I have not yet used any of the Honduran vanilla so it may not be as good. We will see. Hopefully it is not too bad because I gave 2 of the 3 bottles away as gifts!
Tim just graduated this past May with a degree in Marketing and had just started a position with Farleys & Sathers…a large candy company. (They own a lot of other companies as well…like Brachs.) What a surprise to walk in the grocery store in Roatan and right by the front door find a huge display of Sather’s candy! Here is the proud businessman…
As the afternoon went on, we just tooled around in Francisco’s van taking in all of the sights of the island…asking questions as we went…and learning lots! (Marji was in the heights of glory!)
Mangroves...
Bob and Zach's scuba dive was through Anthony’s Key Resort so Francisco stopped by for us to see the resort where they were diving…very nice!
I purposely hadn’t told the kids many details about what we would be doing at each port. They make fun of me enough as it is for being an “over-zealous” planner…I didn’t want to go overboard with information for fear of ridicule.
The first the kids knew about monkeys in Roatan was when we got in the van and Francisco started reviewing what I had requested for the tour. The monkeys are part of a “mini zoo” in the yard of Victor’s house and with an admission of $5 each you can go into the cages and “play”. I think my expectations were a bit too high and I was a little disappointed. There weren’t as many monkeys as I had imagined and the cages were much smaller than I envisioned. I worry that the monkeys get handled too much…but then again I’m not an expert on monkeys. Maybe they enjoy all the stimulation & attention. Don’t get me wrong…I did have fun…and the kids LOVED the experience.
When you arrive, you pay the admission and you are assigned a “guide” who takes you from cage to cage telling you about the animals. Our first furry friend was an anteater. As soon as someone would come close he would press his back up against the cage hoping to get his back scratched.
Nothing unusual to us…but there was a caged squirrel and some deer. Cute…but something I can see regularly in Minnesota. For $5 I guess you are limited on what you can offer. (It cost Bob and I thousands of dollars the last time he saw a deer…it nearly totaled his car!)
When we got to the monkey cages it was worth the admission price for me just to watch the kids have fun with the monkeys!
The little critters would jump from person to person…looking in pockets…trying to open purses, picking at beads on my shirt, etc. This guy was obsessed with trying to get the button off the top of Tim’s hat!
I’ve heard the phrase “barrel of monkeys”…but Victor had a “bundle of monkeys”! These three little guys would cling to each other and turn into a little monkey ball when you held them.
After the monkeys we saw a toucan in a cage and then got to spend some time with parrots. Matt got a good scalp massage from these guys!
The birds picked up where the monkeys left off and tried to pry off the button on Tim’s cap!
There is a small gift shop next to the animal cages and Marji and I each bought a round inlaid wooden box filled with coasters. I bought it with the intention of giving it as a gift…but I liked it so much I decided to keep it for myself! We saw these same types of boxes at other places…and even in Belize…but the prices at Victor’s shop seemed to be the lowest.
When emailing Victor to plan our day he told me to make sure that we ask our guide to find him so he could say “hello”. Before I even had a chance to say anything that morning, Francisco told me that Victor was sorry but he wouldn’t be able to see us that day. He is building a new house and had gone to the mainland to get supplies.
What a surprise when I came out of the gift shop and there was Victor! He had made it back earlier than he thought and he was looking for me! How fun to see him again after 6 years! Victor is such a humble, considerate person and I’m so glad that his business is doing well.
A couple of photos of the flowers in Victor’s yard…I am always amazed by the foliage in the Caribbean!
Next stop…West End…a kind of a fun, quirky place on the island of Roatan. There are lots of little stores, places to eat, dive shops and little cabins to rent for the night. The roads are unpaved and made of sand. It just felt like a really laid-back type of place. By the time we got here the kids were getting hungry. None of us wanted to take much time to stop at a restaurant so the kids ask Francisco if he could find us some quick authentic Honduran food. He pulled up alongside a little food stand on the side of the road and ordered “baleadas”. He told the lady working there that we would be back to pick them up shortly.
I knew the kids…especially the guys…would enjoy having a beer to go with their food so Francisco stopped at a tiny little store where we were able to buy some local beer and Diet Coke for Jane and I. We were all so thirsty that we couldn’t wait until we got the food!
Here is what I found on Wikipedia: Baleadas are one of Honduras's most original and popular foods. A baleada is a wheat flour tortilla, often quite thick, folded in half and filled with mashed fried beans. This is the no-frills baleada. People may also add other ingredients. The most common types of baleadas are the baleadas sencilla (simple baleada) which has crumbled cheese and cream. The other baleada is the baleada mixta (mixed baleada) which has same as the baleada simple but with an additional scrambled eggs. Many other people add sausage, plantain, hot sauce, avocado, chicken, pork and chimol which is diced tomato, onion and bell pepper.
Francisco explained that you could get baleadas at quite a few places on the island but if you went to some of the tourist places they would charge around $5 a piece. We stopped back to get our order and it was $11 for 8 baleadas! (Ours contained chicken, beans and cheese.)
After picking up our order, Francisco pulled over and we found a couple of rickety old wooden benches to sit on while we ate. The kids insist that this was one of their favorite meals of the whole cruise!
We had brought all of our snorkel equipment with us and the plan was to spend part of the afternoon at the beach. After having a bite to eat, the kids all unanimously decided that they would much rather continue touring the island than snorkel. Francisco suggested that we just make a quick stop to see the beach…but not stay.
He took us the Infinity Bay Resort. We walked through the area by the pool to get down to the beach.
If I’m not mistaken if you looked in one direction you were seeing Tabyana Beach and if you looked the other way you were seeing the beach in front of Bananarama. But I will be the first to admit I don’t always remember everything!
We just stayed long enough to get our feet wet and then headed back to the van.
Marji's one big request for the day was to visit a school. I tried to describe the school that my friend and I had visited six years ago and Francisco thought perhaps they weren’t on strike like the other schools. Once we got there and I saw it I’m pretty sure it wasn’t the same school AND we discovered the teachers had just gone on strike that same day!
There were still a lot of kids hanging around however. We had brought some school supplies that we gave to the teachers to distribute to the kids and Tim had brought some candy to hand out. (The kids thought it was neat that he worked in a candy factory!)
I teach in a small, rural school in a 100-year old building…but it seems modern by comparison to the classrooms we saw. The teachers told us that a thousand kids go to this modest school and there are two shifts to accommodate everyone. I’m sure Marji will be telling her geography students all about her day in Roatan and what the school was like.
By the time we left the school it was time to head back to the ship. (We had to be back onboard at 5:30 pm for 6 pm sail away.) Francisco dropped us off right at the entrance to Mahogany Bay and we said our good-bye’s. What a great day we had!
A little shopping and then back on the ship to shower and change for dinner. It was fun to tell Bob and Zach all about our adventures and to hear about their day diving.
I will end this post with just a few more random photos that I took from around the island…and then start writing about our FABULOUS day in Belize!
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