Honduras

I’m not going to lie, until the moment we arrived in the harbor in Roatan, Honduras, I didn’t want to go. I thought it was going to be a complete waste of an excursion day.  When I read through the cruise excursion brochure, it was full of zip line tours and tourist packed beach clubs.  Also, because of the long trip to the Caymans the following day we were only allowed a relatively short amount of time on the island.

I couldn’t have been more wrong.  Roatan turned out to be one of the highlights of the trip!  The ship pulled into Mahogany bay along side two separate shipwrecks – spooky!  The island is a picturesque tropical island – it looks like the location where they could have filmed Lost or Jurassic Park.  Lush covered hills, valleys and stunning ocean views from everywhere on the island! 

We chose to rent a car again – this time we lucked into a brand new 2013 Kia Sportage! It had working seat belts and everything! When you exit the cruise port, you can make a left and go West towards the tourist side of the island, or right towards the natural side.  We went East.  We drove all the way to the end of the road, which took us to Oak Ridge, a sleepy fishing village.  The houses were all on stilts so the fishermen could pull their boats right up to them. 

Upon the recommendation of the car rental guy, we decided to spend the majority of our day at a beach club called Palm Beach.  After scaling down a long gravel road and paying $10 a person to get in, we found ourselves on a secluded private beach. We were literally the only people there!   There was a crew of 6 to attend to our every need – a man to take us snorkeling, a woman to give us massages, servers to deliver us drinks to our lounge chairs – we thought we had died and gone to heaven!

Branch is the King of Relaxation

An abandoned aviary they had on the property.

After 30 minutes, two cabs did drop off additional beachcombers but there was plenty of room for everyone to spread out and have a nice quiet day on the beach.  It was truly an incredible afternoon and exactly what we were looking for!

Unfortunately, we had to be back on the boat by 2:30 PM so we had to drag ourselves away from Palm Beach.  We made sure to grab some pictures along the way back:

This spot on the island is known simply as "The View"

Roatan is definitely a place we would highly recommend to anyone looking for a tropical vacation. It was fully of friendly locals, beautiful views, and even a Bojangles if you get a hankerin’ for some American fried chicken!

We were sad to leave, but promised each other we would return some day. Next up, the Cayman Islands!

View looking straight down over the railing of our balcony

The island of Roatan

Another day, another sunset!