Category Archives: Roatan

Visits to the island of Roatan, Honduras

Gumbalimba Park, Roatan

November 29, 2014 Maurice Leave a comment

Ever since we decided to come to Roatan, Pam has wanted to go to Gumbalimba Park. It’s an animal sanctuary, filled with monkeys, iguanas, parrots, macaws, and especially hummingbirds!

It’s near the West End, in a lovely setting on fifteen acres of lush jungle with ocean frontage, a swimming pool, restaurant and tons of trails to explore. To start your tour, there’s a “pirate cave” to explore, with bats hanging around.

But, the monkeys are the main draw of course, and they just love to interact with people. They are very curious, and cute, and silly and well, they are little monkeys!

As soon as the golf cart arrives, the monkeys sneak on and steal anything not tied down, including water and pop bottles. They’ll take the keys right out of your pocket!

They come around and sit on your shoulder, wrap their tail around your neck and settle down for a snack – or until another monkey figures he deserves the seat. Not sure what startled Pam and this monkey, but pretty cute shot.

I was quite surprised how soft their feet and hands were. I expected they had some sort of claw, or nail to help grip, but they are so soft and gentle. It was really a lot of fun to hang around with them.

There were some of the largest parrots and macaws we’ve ever seen. Oh my – so colorful! They are essentially free in the park, although they have large cages for their protection during the night. While we were making silly with the monkeys a couple of big beauties just sat on a branch and watched us.

The big emerald macaw loves to sit on your shoulder, and patiently lets you take as many pictures or movies as you like. BUT watch out for your buttons! He loves ’em! And he ate the top bottom off my golf shirt.

We saw lots of different lizards, geckos and iguanas. They have close to twenty different types. One that was quite startling was four or five feet long, but in the color of a tiger! Quite the unique beast.

We finished our little tour with the hummingbirds. We’ve seen them around our resort, and had trouble getting a picture or movie of them. Well, that all changed today. Who knew there were this many hummingbirds in the world, let alone one place!

The beach is nice, but needed to be cleaned from the storms of the last couple of days. The water is quite churned up, and it has been tossing lots of seaweed on the shores. Still, Gumbalimba Park is a great way to spend a day with some silly monkeys!

Coming home, we saw a family out for a drive. On a scooter. All three of them. Yep, three of ’em! Not too many rules and regulations on these roads! hehe

Roatan, Vacations

Mahogany Bay, Roatan

November 27, 2014 Maurice 1 Comment

Wednesday was a crazy rainy day. We did some grocery shopping, and checked out a few stores.

We arrived at Mahogany Bay, the new cruise ship terminal. There are two cruise ship docks; the original dock is in Gravel Bay. Each terminal can handle two ships, and often there are two in each. Today Mahogany Bay had two ships at dock.

There are a lot of gift shops, boutiques and souvenir shops in the terminal. We were very surprised to see that the prices are as good, or even better, than some of the simple vendors we’ve seen out on the beaches and along the roadside.

Roatan has absolutely beautiful wood products, ranging from little hummingbirds carved out of mahogany on a key chain, to mango wood vases, to rose wood carved into apples, to ice buckets in purpleheart, zebra wood and mahogany. There are gorgeous salad bowls, intricate masks and amazing picture frames carved from mahogany with ocean scenes or jungle scenes or toucans and parrots. There are even beer steins carved with scenes of Roatan life. And there are mahogany chests from as small as 3 inches by 3 inches up to 3 feet by 4 feet and even larger! All exquisitely carved with amazing scenes.

And coffee! We’ve had Copan Coffee, grown right here on Roatan in the hills. It is mild and very good. But the Cafe Maya coffee is truly amazing. Rich and dark, but smooth and tasty. We’ll be bringing some of that home for sure!

Here is a little movie of the terminal and the rain.

Roatan, Vacations

Cameos, cephalapods, and chelonians

November 26, 2014 Maurice Leave a comment

We have been looking for the Stone Castle Cameo studio for a few days. The lady who told us where it was, said we couldn’t miss it. And we did. Over and over again. Finally we discovered we were looking on the wrong road! VERY tough to spot a building from five miles away!

It is a teaching studio, with several local artists working in the ancient art form of cameos using seashells. Ranging from giant conchs to small snails, the range of items carved is truly staggering. If you come to Roatan, even if you don’t like cameos, you have to see this place. I didn’t want to leave.

There were four cruise ships docked today, so we decided to see what West Bay would look like with so many people in port. And it didn’t disappoint! The place was jumping with every store open, every vendor out, and even a couple of guys with monkeys!

We had lunch at the Grand Roatan, a beachside cafe right in front of where there is amazing snorkeling. It’s basically the last restaurant on the beach. We had Garifuna Soup, on the recommendation of the waiter. And he was so right. Totally amazing – shrimp, lobster, conch, fish, plantains, peppers, carrots, in a coconut cream base. Really really good – we’re coming back for it, you can bet!

The water was not as crowded as we expected, and the visibility was quite good. We saw tons of cool things like a Caribbean reef squid (a cephalapod) and of course, our favorite chelonian, a hawksbill turtle!

There is a little mammal here, that is part of the guinea pig family, and is called the Hiata. It’s often called the Roatan Rabbit, because of the large rear legs which makes it hop around, rather than run. We’ve spotted them in lots of places, but never managed to get a decent shot. So here is the best we’ve gotten so far…

Roatan, Vacations

Lionfish Louis

November 25, 2014 Maurice 2 Comments

We explored the far east of the island today. We visited a number of small towns, including Punta Gorda. It is a village that is almost exclusively Garifuna. The Garifuna are an Afro-Carib people who were forcibly relocated to Roatan from St Lucia by the British, because they actively resisted British rule.

It’s a quaint little town, with little or nothing for tourists, expect a dance show, which only occurs when there is a cruise ship in the harbor, apparently. No ship, no show.

So we checked out Lionfish Louis…. a beautiful piece of property barely fifteen minutes from where we are staying. The water was beautiful and warm, but not great for snorkeling. The beach was long and sandy, with a couple small islands to snorkel around. There was a long dock with just a TON of fish under it. Almost like they wanted out of the sun!

The horse featured in the picture just sort of wandered onto the beach, took a drink of the sea water, and casually wandered away. Not sure who he belongs to, or anything.

Here is a brief movie of the horse taking a drink from the sea. Unreal eh?

Roatan, Vacations

Back to West Bay

November 23, 2014 Maurice Leave a comment

We had met a couple from Kelowna and they’ve moved down to West Bay, so we took them on over and decided to stay for a snorkel. On the way to West Bay we saw these cows stuck up in a tree. I assume it was from the heavy rains. Hope they got down safely!

West Bay is really the heart of the tourist district. There are lots of hotels, hostels, and beach homes, with lots of restaurants and shops. Vendors stroll the beach with a variety of products to sell you, ranging from hand carved “Roatan Jade” turtles and other animals, to hammocks, bracelets, massages, henna tattoos, hair braiding…

If you’ve been to Mexico and been on the beach, you have an idea of what the beach vendors are doing on Roatan. We even saw a guy riding a bicycle powered cooler to sell you ice cream! Not an easy thing to ride a big heavy bike through the sandy beaches.

Speaking of bikes – what do you make of this picture? The scooter has tires with NO tread, and the young lady on the back balancing the tank of cooking gas, has no helmet other than a construction hard hat. And of course she was wearing flipflops and shorts just to complete the safety conscious outfit!

The water was absolutely super today. It’s the best it’s been and we know it will continue to get better. The weather has cleared and no rain is forecast for the next week. The stuff we’ve seen! Holy cow.

The reef itself is in very good condition. There are lots of fish, and we saw more pelagics today. There were several big permit fish, and an enormous grouper. There were rainbow parrot fish that were from three to six (!) feet in length.

There are sharks in these waters, but we have not seen any yet. HOWEVER – we did see a remora, the fish that attaches itself to sharks. But this remora was attached to a barjack! Check out the picture closely – the remora is attached mid spine, at the top of the fish.

I uploaded fourteen pictures from today’s adventures, but didn’t reference all of them in the post. Click here to see the full gallery of pictures we’ve uploaded so far.

Here’s a little movie of a mutton snapper – the large silvery fish with a dot on his body. But you’ll also see a coney and a barjack cruise by in the background.

Roatan, Vacations

Are we in Vancouver?

November 21, 2014 Maurice 2 Comments

There last couple of days have been rain-filled! We have not been in the ocean, but we’ve driven around the island and seen some “stuff.” We’ve checked out the local grocery stores and found a great wholesale fish market. Tons of fresh fish right off the boat.

We’ve been having these huge prawns – a dozen are more than a meal for both of us – and they run about 7 bucks for the dozen – the currency here is the Lempira – 21 are equal to one US dollar.

We’ve found a couple nice fresh bakeries and have sampled the local specialty – a sweet bun with coconut cream topping. Ummmm Pretty Darn Amazing! They’ve been a great breakfast.

We saw a pretty nasty accident – a motorbike delivery guy got whacked by a taxi. It was not pretty. When we returned home several hours later, the accident was still there, so the cops have to be doing quite an investigation.

Here’s a picture of our kitchen – how about those mahogany cabinets and the beautiful granite counter tops? Pretty nice place. The kitchen has really gotten a work out – we’ve only eaten out the once, and I tell you – we’re more than happy to eat our own cooking!

Roatan, Vacations

Around the Parrot Tree

November 19, 2014 Maurice 1 Comment

We didn’t venture very far today. We jumped into the ocean here around the resort, and it’s quite wonderful. The reef is really healthy, full of fish and teeming with coral. But we’ve both felt a difference to it, but neither of us can put our fingers on what it is.

Maybe it’s that the fish seem less skittish, or maybe it’s just our imagination. But it’s been great fun exploring. The weather has been typical for the Caribbean in November – a little rainy, a little sunny, a little cloudy – but always nice and warm. Right after a rain, the water is a bit murky, but a couple feet under the surface, it’s back to beautiful and clear.

Take a look at this picture of an ocean triggerfish. Pam took this in about three or four feet of water, and it’s a bit cloudy, a bit dark. It was taken just after a brief rainstorm while we were in the water.

Now look at this picture of a lionfish. I took this picture down at about fifteen or twenty feet. A lot clearer, and nice color! Weird eh? We’ve seen far too many lionfish here. Lots of very small ones, too. Not good news for the reef.

We saw a couple of flying gurnards too. Always neat. They have these pretty blue wings that spread when they are trying to take off. We’ve seen them before, but they’re pretty rare.

We’ve been eating in most nights. Have only eaten out the once for ribs. The supermarkets aren’t quite as nice as the ones on Aruba and Bonaire, but we’ve managed to find lots of great stuff. We got a dozen big prawns (VERY fresh) for five bucks, a bag of saffron rice (enough to feed four) for fifty cents. For dessert, we got a bag of rambutan (lychee-like fruit with a hairy skin) for a buck from a street vendor, and had them with some pistachio ice cream. Great deal – tasty and sweet!

Here is a brief movie of the ocean triggerfish. You can see how shallow the water is that he is in. His dorsal fins almost touch the bottom, and the top of the water!