Advertisement
DSCF4267
The 12 seater plane we flew in to both Belize City and Roatán Leg 3: Belize to Honduras
On Tuesday 12 we were due to take a 3pm flight from Caye Caulker back to Belize City and onto Roatán in the Bay Islands (Honduras). The lady on the morning shift at Sophie's Guest rooms kindly said we could chill out on site and continue to use the facilities. When she left at 1, we also had to make our way to the airport which is not really an airport per se...it's one single room with about 6 chairs and just one run way literally about 50m away! They only expect you to check in around 30 minutes before your flight here, so us being kinda early for them, they offered us an earlier flight. The staff were really nice and friendly, much like everyone else on the island, which is why it was a little sad for us to witness an American lady being incredibly rude to the staff, shouting at them and demanding they hurried up so she could have a cigarette. Maybe if she wasn't late she would have had time.
The great thing about it being such a small airport is that there were no
DSCF4295
The dolphin pens at Anthony's Key Resort delays and we boarded our 12 seater tiny plane perfectly on time. Our flight lasted around 10 minutes, which was good as it was slightly terrifying to be flying over vast expanses of sea in a plane which was about 2 metres wide! We had to get used to it though as our flight from Belize City to Roatán was on a plane exactly the same size as there were only five passengers in total going on the hour long flight. This flight went even higher to around 9000 feet and I had to stop looking out of the window after a while as my legs turned to jelly.
We made it into Roatán around five and took a taxi to our hotel, Seagrape Plantation Resort, which is located in West End near to the half moon beach front and bars. We were given a cabin within just a few metres from the pool and sea (which also handily picked up the wifi from the nearby bar) and we spent a while just chilling in the pool before heading out to the beach front to a nearby mexican restaurant. The food there was gorgeous and the portions
DSCF4346
High energy hand signals with Gracie were again very generous. On our way back we popped into the supermarket for a few beers to stock up our fridge.
On Wednesday we headed over to West Bay, which is another strip of beach front and bars accesible by a 5 minute water taxi. West Bay has the best beach on the whole island but didn't really offer a lot to do other than swimming, sunbathing or drinking. It was undeniably beautiful there though and it was nice just to watch the world go by whilst enjoying a pineapple daiquiri and yummy calzone in a local bar. The bar was right next to one of those places that offers fish pedicures and Mal suddenly had the idea for us to get one. It was rather random! The sensation of the fish nibbling at our feet was quite a peculiar sensation, almost like lots of tiny bubbles hitting them at once. Mal was sat having his pedicure in hysterics and finding it hard to keep still - the curse of being ticklish!
After the pedicure we headed back to our hotel and just spent the rest of the day chilling in and around
DSCF4327
Mal getting a smooch off of Gracie the pool. The following day we just chilled out at our hotel again, spending most of our time in the pool or reading books at the poolside or in the hammock on our cabin porch. It was a lovely, peaceful day.
Friday 15 was Mal's birthday and we marked it in style by spending a whole day as dolphin trainers at a nearby hotel called Anthony's Key Resort under the supervision of Kim, one of the many trainers. We had four sessions overall with Kim, the first was a general introduction to some of the 22 dolphins which are housed across several different sized pens just 50m or so out into the sea. We liked the fact that the dolphins here are let out for free swimming in the sea and that choose to return again and again of their own accord.
The first dolphin we were introduced to was a pregnant female name Maury, who was very vocal and quite keen to do tricks for fish. After meeting Maury, and learning the basics about dolphins, we had a hands on experience preparing one of the four daily fish feeds for all the dolphins
DSCF4308
Getting Gracie (left) and Tilly to sit up - this involved weighing out capelins and herrings using our bare hands (cue fingers smelling of fish!). After a powerpoint on food preparation and dolphin anatomy, we then headed back out in the boat for our second platform session with the dolphins, again with Maury in particular, and we learnt some basic hand signals that the trainers use to get the dolphins to do tricks, including (but not limited to) asking the dolphin to hula, getting it to blow out of its blowhole like a foghorn, or getting it to roll onto its back. After each successful trick, we got to feed a fish or two to Maury. If she did something wrong we just had to ignore her for a few minutes but this happened very rarely.
We then broke for an hour and a half for lunch before heading back out to the pens for session three. This time we learnt high energy hand signals (commands that require more energy from both the trainer and the dolphin but more so from the dolphin), including jumps, getting the dolphin to back up whilst on their tail and going as fast as they could in a circle. This time, however, we worked with a different non-pregnant female called Gracie who Kim usually works with as the primary trainer. Gracie, like Maury, is very food focused and vocal and would make a number of cute sounds if she pulled off her trick and knew she was about to get some fish!
Another powperpoint session later (this one being a little set of hints and tips of how to tell the dolphins apart and also outlining the various programmes offered at the resort), the time came for our final session, the water based behaviours. For this session we got to go into the water with the dolphins and to do some lower enrgy tricks, like getting them to kiss our cheek or shake our hand, as well as having a dorsal fin ride and a ride where you were face down on a body board and two dolphins pushed on the balls of your feet with their rostrum and made you speed through the water like lightning. It was truly awesome and was a great way to end an amazing day.
Once back at our hotel we couldn't resist going for a dip in the pool before heading out to the strip for some dinner. We couldn't help being sucked in by the beach relaxtion vibe going in Roatán as it soon becomes very infectious and the vibe just turns into a party mood as the night unfolds. This place is all about relaxing, being on the beach and having a good time. We were kind of sad to leave for Copàn Ruinas (literally translated as Copàn ruins - I'm sure you can guess why) the following day.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.064s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 10; qc: 46; dbt: 0.0397s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb