Diving and Beaches

Central America Caribbean » Honduras » Bay Islands » Roatán
September 2nd 2008

Published: October 25th 2008

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Shlub

White Sands

West Bay again.

After the adventurous journey out of La Moskitia we were originally intending to head to Cayos Cochinos to do some diving and chill out on deserted beaches etc but we couldn't get hold of the resort and so we went to plan B - Roatan.

The idea was that we'd spend about 5 days diving here before heading back to La Ceiba for a day trip somewhere and then the trip home. We managed to score what was basically our own appartment with a full on kitchen, which was great because we could cook for ourselves and save some money. The problem, however, was that Laura had developed an ear infection while we were in La Moskitia (probably due to the diving before) and it only ever got worse while we were there. Initially the doctors gave her some ear drops but in the end she ended up on a full course of antibiotic injections and even steroids in an attempt to clear it up. Ear infections aren't pleasant at the best of times and so this crippled the last few days somewhat but we still managed to have fun.

I decided to do some diving in the mornings

Fire Worm

Snorkelling photo

and then spend the rest of the day doing stuff with laura, which seemed to work pretty well for us.

One day we rented a scooter and toured the full length of the island stopping off at various viewpoints, towns, beaches etc along the way. Laura's shoes had broken so we also stopped along the way to pick up a dirt cheap pair of havaianas sandles each. Towards the end of the day we found a deserted white sand beach where we hung out for a while until the sun had almost set before driving back to west end.

Another day we went down to a gorgeous beach called West Bay but unfortunately didn't swim or anything as Laura's ear was really bad at that stage. Eventually when her ear was almost better (but she still couldn't dive) we did a little snorkelling in some of the bays around the place where you can see a few reasonably cool things but it's not half as good as the diving around Roatan.

Speaking of the diving, I was impressed by the quality of the diving on Roatan, which did seem slightly better than that on Utila. I did

Corals

Snorkelling photo

some great dive sights (including a big wreck) of which my favourite - which I dove twice - was Texas. It's a huge wide open dive site on the southern point of Roatan and can have some strong currents, which bring in lots of good stuff. Like the books say there are some really big barrell sponges here but there's loads of other stuff to look at too. The only down side to Roatan was that they don't really get half as many whale sharks as Utila.

Additional photos below

Photos: 15, Displayed: 15

West Bay

Roatan has some great (but all touristy) beaches. This is West Bay - considered the best by many.

hmmmm

This poor unkempt parrot was one of many that are kept in a bar and don't look too happy. This guy was very friendly though and came hobbling over along the floor before clamering up my bag, onto my leg and then up onto my shoulder - no doubt looking for food. He was hard to get rid of in the end!

Like no other

I was very very tempted to whip out the credit card to go along in this submarine which takes you to a depth of 2000feet!!! No other place in the world can you pay someone to go this deep with you (there is one other place that does something similar but not as deep) and it's serious exploration down there.