Roatan Island at approximately 33 miles long and 4 miles
wide is the largest of Honduras' Bay Islands.
Located in the Caribbean Sea this tropical island is only an hour boat
ride from the mainland, or a short flight from Houston. However unlike other more famous Caribbean
Islands this is only just started to be discovered by tourists. True, backpackers have known about this
secret waiting to be explored for decades, but now's the time to go before
everyone else hears about it.
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| Getting the boat to Roatan |
And what a treat, bath water warm crystal blue waters
and white sandy beaches are on offer, and there's no fighting for space for
your umbrella, indeed you could even have whole stretches to yourself. One of the best beaches on the Island is
located at the South West tip at West Bay, a huge curve of sand lined with
beach bars and restaurants and several dive centres. It's possible to hire snorkelling gear and
swim from the shore to see vast coral gardens, large brain coral, fan coral and
many other species just a few metres under the surface. If you don't fancy the 10 minute swim out,
there are numerous men with boats just waiting to take you. For $35 for three people, for two hours,
snorkelling gear included, we were able to get a little further out, where the
coral was even more vibrant and had not been damaged by careless feet.
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| West Bay |
Divers have know about this spot for years, indeed its
one of the best value places in the world to learn to dive. And the reason for this is that Roatan just
happens to be located on the Mesoamerican Barrier reef, the largest in the Caribbean
Sea and second largest barrier reef in the world after Australia's Great
Barrier Reef. Being a snorkeler not a diver
I hoped I wouldn't miss out, but I needn't have worried, just a short 5 minute
boat ride from the shore shoals of fish can be seen close to the surface. In fact the water is so clear that the visibility
is excellent, you can even wave at the divers several metres below.
We were warned to pick our visiting day to West Bay
carefully as once a week, a cruise ship arrive and disgorges a few thousand
people for a couple of hours. Spend, eat,
drink, swim and then just a fast as they arrived they disappear. This is great for the people who live and
work on the island, but for the rest of us were glad they weren't going to
spoil the isolated paradise for longer.
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| West End |
We stayed in West End, just round the coast from West
Bay, but with a quieter laid back feel.
It reminded me of some of the coastal towns in Vietnam and Thailand
before they were 'discovered'. This
place is still really only for budget travellers, but with plenty of variable
quality accommodation to choose from there's no need to suffer in a hot dorm
room in tropical heat. There's just one 'main
street' which runs parallel to the beach and this is where all the action takes
place. There's a few supermarkets and
many souvenir shops, all selling the same kind of things, great price hammocks
and the 'uniform' clothes and beads of the 'backpacker'.
There's also the cafe bars serving banana pancakes for
breakfast and chilled beer for the rest of the day, as well as numerous good
quality and reasonably priced restaurants.
One deserving a special mention is Creole's Rotisserie Chicken, packed
with locals and tourist alike every evening, you can smell it before you arrive. Plastic tables and chairs overflow from the
main restaurant as everyone crams in to sample the roast chicken, and salads. Later in the evening the bars come alive with
music, from expected stereotypical reggae tunes to the 'Blue Marlins' karaoke
night.
Could you spend the week here? go on then. Even longer and you could explore the rest of
the Bay Islands. Just Ssshhh, don't tell
everyone.
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| Roatan from the air |
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