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Published: December 15th 2012
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On our last full day on the island, we hired a well experienced and local cabbie (George) to take us around the island from the west end to east end and back. There is really only one road, but much to see. The island is about 2 miles wide and 28 miles long. We first visited the West End, which is the most travelled by tourists. At that end are terminals for cruise ships, shops, diving and other tours, and restaurants. All of these things are especially aimed at the island visitors. There is a nice beach, but not really for swimming due to the boat traffic. For us, nothing to really write home about (but, I guess we are, here) but it is a good place for people to hang.
Next we visited the “Mayan Jungle.” Clay asked the tour guide why he called the attraction the Mayan Jungle, when no Maya ever lived on the island and the guide was stumped. Anyway, the point of the place is to show you native animals. See photos. There are monkeys of various types, parrots, toucans, etc. It was pretty cheesy, but interestingly, we saw the local “rabbits.” These are exactly
what we saw in Copan Ruins (same country, Honduras) at the Mayan ruins that we could not identify at the time (we thought they looked like nutria). The next most interesting thing that we saw was the same animal that was a pet of guy in Belize (the mix between ant-eater and raccoon, named Kwashy). So we came full circle on some things we didn’t fully know about.
We drove to various scenic viewpoints. Every one of these “miradors” had stalls of people selling their wares. “C’mon over girly” and “come in and take a look” were the most popular phrases to get Ann interested. The funniest was a guy who wanted Clay to buy shells - - Clay said, “Man, why would I buy them, when I can just pick them up off the beach.” The guy said, “well, just buy a small one then.” You had to respect his tenacity, but we politely declined. The photos of the views tell it all. Moving here, it would be difficult to decide whether to live up on the hill with beautiful vistas or live on the beach and walk into the water.
We visited a couple of the
bigger resorts to look at what the island had to offer. See photos. One is a nudist place. NO photos of that one on here.
We went to lunch at a place that is known for its local seafood. About 40 minutes after ordering (trying our patience), we got our whole fried fish and shrimp platters. Literally, based upon the time it took, we think they went out and caught it. We actually saw fish cleaning being done at the dock outside the restaurant window while we sat for a while. And, we were the only people there! It was very good and fresh, although our fish had some barnacles on it. Barnacles are supposed to be a delicacy in some places, so I guess we were really lucky to get it right on our fish, right? Hahaha! Our meals came with a fresh salad with banana salad dressing (weird!) and fried savory plantains, all for about $10. The Husband came in as we were being served and the Wife went and cooked him the same thing, only it was served MUCH more quickly. He did a better job of cleaning the fish off the bones than we did.
All in all, the drive was really nice and we were able to see some touristy as well as non-touristy neighborhoods. The people on this island appear to live much better than the average folks in Copan Ruins….just an observation. Things are definitely more expensive in Roatan, mainly because things are brought over from the mainland. Another difference is that US dollars can be used in Roatan, but on the mainland, they prefer that you use the currency of Honduras.
We said goodbye to George and the rest of the day was spent relaxing and getting things together for the next day’s travel. Tomorrow is mostly travel, but there are always good and unexpected people to meet and stories developed. We apologize to Wilson for forgetting about him for a while. To Chris and Monica and the rest of the staff at Tranquilseas, thank you for a most awesome adventure! We will wear our Tranquilseas gear with pride and fond memories.
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Sandra Hedrick
non-member comment
Thank you for the post
It sounds like you had a great time in Honduras and that you love to learn. Looking forward to welcoming you home after a little while from now!