Blogs from Bay Islands, Honduras, Central America Caribbean

In hindsight I should have realized that the way the morning started was probably a precursor of how the day was going to end up. We were supposed to be able to get off the boat at 10am but the boat was 30 minutes late into docking which was fine because we were not scheduled to get off the boat until 10:45am ship time. We were supposed to return to the ship at 5:30pm but they moved it to 6pm because of the delay. Ship time, I never really noticed this term until this cruise and we’ve been on several. Most of us figured out how to change the settings on our phone so that our phones would not change as we cross time zones. Some people couldn’t change their phone setting though. If you look ... read more

I did some research comparing the larger, Miami-esque island of Roatan to the laid-back, backpacker-friendly Utila and decided to go for the smaller, quieter option. The Ferry Barf-a-Rama Utila is 40km from La Ceiba, and the trip took about 40 minutes on a super-fast ferry, meaning that we were moving at over 32 knots (60 km/hr or 37 mph), which is insanely fast on open Caribbean waters. The math doesn't include the no-wake zones at either end. This translated into basically being stuck on the Bayern Kurve (Pittsburgh reference) for 40 minutes. When we left the port in La Ceiba I wondered why four crewmen stood around the perimeter of the main cabin. At first the passengers were giggling and making roller coaster 'whoas' in unison when we ramped off sizable waves at that speed. But ... read more

You cannot claim you have dived the world, if you have not dived the places that everybody has heard about. So here I am, diving four days in Roatan. Bear in mind, it is also my first visit to Honduras. Honduras has today the reputation of being one of the most dangerous place in the world when it comes to the crime rate. I have no intention to be the target of any gang or any kind of express kidnapping, so don't ask me to stop on the continent. Roatan is actually a very different place. This place is more Caribbean than Central America, and yes it is safe! I took my night plane on Avianca from Lima to San Salvador. There is a short connection before getting on the ATR72 daily flight to Roatan. On ... read more

On Tuesday morning, 3rd of April, I took a very early bus to Copán in Honduras. We left at 4AM to avoid heavy traffic in Antigua, Guatemala City and the border. Fortunately, our shuttle was rather empty, just 6 people, and so we all had space enough to stretch and sleep some more. The night before, at 10PM, Max, Jennifer and Rebecka, the Swedish guys from our hike to Acatenango, had decided to join me on my trip to Copán and I had managed to get the number of the shuttle company from the night watch in my hostel and they had managed to reserve a free spot in the shuttle for the next morning. The bus ride was a bit longer than expected, but that was because the others in the shuttle ordered on our ... read more

29.5. Die Fahrt nach Antigua bringt uns wiederum 1000 Höhenmeter runter, es wird angenehm warm (bisher brauchte man jeweils abends ein Jäggli, hier ist das nicht mehr nötig). Wir kaufen ein PicNic im Supermarkt und essen Zmittag im Zentralpark, einmal mehr umgeben von schönen Kolonialbauten mit Laubenbogen und bunten Fassaden. Auch die Häuser in den Strassen sind bunt gestrichen, nicht höher als zwei Stockwerke, mit schönen Erkern und kunstvollen Vergitterungen und ergeben so ein gemütliches Ambiente. Wir spazieren den ganzen Nachmittag herum, bestaunen die vielen Kirchen-Ruinen, die alle gesichert und abgesperrt wurden, aber offenbar nicht dem Abriss geweiht sind, und die multikulturellen Läden, Boutiquen und Restaurants. Wir können der Versuchung nicht widerstehen und essen Znacht "chez Christophe", einem Lausanner, der seit 20 Jahren hier lebt und auf seiner Karte u.a. auch Racl... read more