Roatan, Honduras - monkeys, snorkeling and beach

We had some pretty gloomy weather the morning the ship docked in Roatan. All throughout the day we had intermittent rain showers and some spotty sunshine... nevertheless, we were looking forward to the day. The plan for the day was to explore Roatan with a guide from Victor Bodden tours.

Ship docked at Mahogany Bay in Roatan, Honduras

We were able to get off the ship pretty quickly since there was no tendering involved at this port. One of the first things we noticed was the heat and humidity... we walked for around 10 minutes before we reached the meeting location where our guide was already waiting for us.

Our first stop was a visit to Victor Bodden's property to see monkeys, birds, and other animals. It felt a little like a giant petting zoo where we were able to feed and pet most of the animals.. there were even a few that we could hold if we wanted to. This may have been one of my favorite excursions had it not been for the spider monkeys with overactive bladders! The little bugger climbed onto my arm and not even five seconds had passed when I suddenly felt a warm trickle of urine all over my arm... talk about gross! After that experience, I wasn't too interested in holding any of the other monkeys... thank goodness for hand sanitizer!

Spider Monkey

the monkeys loved drinking grape soda, which probably explains the reason for their overactive bladders

spider monkey drinking grape soda

the culprit just moments before he peed on me

beautiful parrot

Ben feeding the parrot

I liked this one more than the monkey

Following our visit to see the monkeys and birds, our guide Tex took us to a spot on the beach where we could look in on a dolphin excursion from a nearby wooden pier. Ordinarily, we would love seeing dolphins but we had just recently watched "The Cove," the documentary about the dolphin slaughter and capturing in Taiji, Japan so I couldn't help but feel really bad for the captive dolphins...

Dolphin Excursion in Roatan

Ben and Jeff

beautiful part of Roatan, Honduras

From there it was on to West Bay Beach to see if we could snag a day pass at the Mayan Princess and if not, find a place to rent a beach chair. Tex drove on the sand along the beach for about half a mile before turning back onto a main road. I had read that it was pretty difficult to get a day pass at one of the resorts along West Bay Beach if arriving later in the afternoon (which we were trying to do) but we decided to take a chance and see if there was still room. Fortunately for us, there were a couple of cruise ships leaving earlier than us and some of the visitors were actually on their way out when we arrived. We were told there may not be any beach chairs left but that there were still a couple of pool chairs available. When we got to the beach, we realized that there were plenty of beach chairs.

Ben was really excited to go off snorkeling again... I was less enthusiastic about it but always think it's better to have at least one person keeping an eye out for the other person while snorkeling. The beach itself was very crowded and filled with vendors trying to sell crafts, tshirts, jewelry, and water sport rentals. I suppose that if we had gone on a sunnier day, the water would have looked clearer but on the day we went, it was slightly cloudy.

Mayan Princess - really nice pool and right on the beach with easy access to beach snorkeling

 

another shot of Mayan Princess

West Bay Beach - there's Ben running off to go snorkeling

Ben snorkeling - this was moments before I panicked as a school of fish swam towards me

Mayan Princess security on the beach

 After a couple of hours at West Bay Beach, we decided to leave 30 minutes earlier than we had planned. Fortunately, Tex was already waiting for us in the parking lot. It was nearing time to be back on the ship and it looked like rain was on its way so we decided to head back to Mahogany Bay, where the ship was docked. Once inside the Mahogany Bay gates, everything screamed "cruise tourist"... the place was lined with souvenir shops, touristy photo-op areas (see below) and a Fat Tuesday, which was a Spring Break-ish type place ridden with sloppy, drunken cruisers.

Ben actually owned a pair of orange crocs at one point

Why are we holding a fake lobster, you ask? I have no idea but we are on vacation and we are tourists so we willingly do things like this

view of Mahogany Bay from our room at the end of the day

We really enjoyed our time in Roatan, Honduras. Hiring a private guide was a good choice since we felt that we got to see a significant part of the island and did not need to worry about searching for a cab at each stop.

Next up: Belize and Xunantunich Ruins!