Roatan is an island off the east coast of Honduras. I really enjoyed this stop on our cruise. There are two cruise ship ports here. The bigger one is called Mahogany Bay and is owned by Carnival. It is where the mega ships go. It is designed for thousands of people at a time.
We stopped at Coxen Hole. It is the smaller one. There is a small shopping area when you get off the ship. You can walk to the town a few minutes away.
There was one other small boat in port with us. It was a German ship. It was playing loud music. It was pretty jarring. Viking cruises are very quiet. The only music you really hear is classical background music sometimes. Everyone who came off our boat seemed shocked by the noise. I guess we all adapted to the quiet really quickly.
I was immediately impressed by how beautiful Roatan was.
I really liked this house on a hill.
Our included excursion for the day was a trip to Carambola Botanical Garden. That included a bus tour around the island.
It’s early in the year so not a lot was in bloom at the garden but what was there was spectacular.
I have photographic proof that the husband was cheating on Nemo with a dog who lives at the garden but I’m not allowed to show it.
After the tour we wandered around the shopping area. We tried out some very comfy bamboo beds and then laughed hard at how much they wanted us to pay to buy them. We also got a foot massage under a little cabana there.
We went back to the ship for lunch. Yes, I hate not exploring local cuisine but:
- food allergies are scary
- feeding a vegan and food allergy person at the same time is hard
- we already paid for ship food
- and this was some of the local cuisine on offer
Yeah, iguana. The tour guide had made a joke earlier that they say that chicken tastes like iguana. Guess she wasn’t kidding.
Afterwards I went out wandering around by myself. I walked over towards town. There wasn’t much open except the iguana stand. I did find a souvenir shop where I bought myself a t-shirt. I said, “Hola” to a bunch of dogs laying on the sidewalks. Then I walked the other direction from the port. I had a guy ask me if I needed a taxi. I said no. So he asked if I needed a husband. I said, “Hell, no.” I didn’t know those were my only options. I was doing just fine on my own.
I just wandered around for a while along the main road. There was a restaurant that had a nice little garden area set up.
I looked at some birds and just had an amble. I guess I did a lot because with the tour, my walk, and my hour walk around the promenade deck I manage to do this.
Roatan is a place that I could see us returning to. We didn’t do any beach or snorkeling time here. I’d like to do that. It would be a good place to settle in for a bit and explore.
