Isla Roatan
Nobody in our group had been to Isla Roatan before. As usual, we reserved an off-ship tour. We went with Victor Bodden Tours. We selected the Best of Roatan private tour, with the options of the Monkey House, the Iguana Farm, Carambola Gardens, and the Butterfly Farm. As in Belize, there was nobody to meet us as we got off the ship, but asking for directions brought us quickly to their location. We were quickly taken to the tour van and we were on the way.
Our first stop was the Iguana Farm. It had rained the night before, so the iguanas were not moving much, as they were laying in the sun to warm up. We were able to get some good iguana pictures, as well as some wild turkeys, bunny rabbits, and down at the water, some lobster and tarpon. There were a few other birds in cages there too.
The Iguana Farm is at one end of the island, whereas most of the other sights are at the other end. So we had a little bit of a drive going to the Monkey House. Along the way we stopped at the top of a rather high hill for some scenic pictures of the ship. At the Monkey House, one of the guides volunteered to show us around and take us into the various enclosures to hold the monkeys and mccaws. Our guide did a great job and earned a nice tip as a result. The monkeys were very playful, and seemed particularly interested in Steve's college ring. Lot's of good pictures holding the monkeys and birds.
The next stop was the Butterfly Farm. In addition to the butterflys, there is a bird sanctuary as well. Lots of mccaws and toucans with picture opportunities. The butterfly area is actually a rather small portion of the location. A guide walked us around explaining what the different birds were and also pointed out the different butterflys in that enclosure. This was an interesting stop too.
Next was the Carambola Botanical Gardens. We were met at the office by Mr. Bill Brady, the owner. He is originally from North Carolina. It was quite interesting to run into someone with a bit of Southern drawl accent down in Isla Roatan. Anyway, the gardens are very impressive. Many different types of orchids and other flowers and trees. We also saw a large termite nest, some smaller lizards, and a couple of humming birds. I think Mike particularly enjoyed this stop as one of his hobbies is raising orchids, though I think everyone else liked the gardens too.
The driver took us to where the West End shops are, but there was nothing that really interested us there, so we went to the Stone Castle Cameo Factory. This was rather underwhelming. While the cameos are very nice, there was not much on display, and the workers were putting more of it away while we were still in the place. Not terribly customer friendly. It didn't take too long for us to head back to the ship. We were dropped off back where we started at the cruise port. In all it was a very good tour that I would recommend.
Before going back to the ship, we walked outside the actual port area to a local flea market down the street. We were greeted by 3 boys about 10 - 13 years old that were looking to hustle money. They stuck with us for about 30 minutes, with Lois repeatedly telling them they should be in school and to go away. Finally, I got stern with them and told them to go bother some other tourists, because I was tired of them and didn't want to see them any more. With reluctance they then left and I never saw them again. I was getting tired of watching them in case they tried to pick pockets or create a diversion for someone else to do so. We picked up some t-shirts and other souveniers, along with another good local beer, and then headed back to the ship.
Pictures from Isla Roatan can be found here.
Debarkation
We all got up early to eat breakfast and wait for our numbers to be called. We were off the ship by about 8:30AM, found our luggage quickly and went right through customs. We went across the street to the parking garage, called the hotel and waited about 20 minutes for them to come pick us up. Once they arrived, it was 15 minutes back to the hotel to get our car and drive back to Mt. Pleasant.
Summary
All in all, a very good trip!
Pictures of public areas on the ship are found here.
Pictures taken by Lois Mencik are found here.
Pictures taken by Kari Mencik are found here.
Pictures of the towel animals are found here.
Page << < 1 2 3 4 5 6
|
