30 October 2012
Most people we spoke to before coming here hadn’t heard of Roatan and if they had, they didn’t know anything about it…Here is a little info on Roatan, Bay Islands, Honduras…
Lying off the East Coast of Honduras, Roatan is the largest, most developed and most visited of the Bay Islands. Basically a long, forested range rising from the Caribbean, it maintains much of the original landscape that the Adventurers knew in the 17th and 18th Century. There are numerous towns around the island, each offering their own unique character to Roatan visitors. The Island is approximately 60 km (37 miles) long, and less than 8 km (5.0 miles) across at its widest point.
The highest populated town of the island is Coxen Hole, capital of Roatán municipality, located in the southwest. Other important towns include French Harbour, West End, and Oak Ridge. Roatan is located near the largest barrier reef in the Caribbean Sea- second largest worldwide after Australia’s Great Barrier Reef and has become an important cruise ship and scuba diving destination in Honduras. It is this that attracted us to Roatan. We are hoping to snorkel and dive as much as possible.
We have already met some really cool locals and expats. Cary is well known everywhere she goes and is quite a socialite. She doesn’t cook, so regularly goes out to various popular restaurants and favourite expat hangouts. English is the first language of all native islanders regardless of race and Spanish is spoken second whereas Honduras is primary Spanish speaking. It remains this way because of the islands past as a British colony. The locals prefer to be called islanders and are proud of their heritage.
Getting to know Patrick has been a blessing as we have learnt much from him about the history. He tells us that the islanders are happy about the influx of tourists, expats and cruise-ship passengers, as they have greatly contributed to the high level of employment and prosperity enjoyed in Roatan.
We woke early and after tidying the house, carried our fins and masks to the end of the jetty and jumped off into about 2 feet of water. We snorkeled towards the reef but soon realized that we weren’t going to see clearly as the water was murky and churned up from the previous day’s winds and rain. We swam out to the reef hovering over a few sparsely covered coral-bommies not really impressed and quite despondent if this was a sign of what we could expect.
By 10:00am we were back to enjoy a great breakfast. Cary was keen to take us to Coxen Hole (the capital) to visit Ace Hardware shops. Patrick who is not diving currently due to the low season came with us because he worked in construction in his previous job. The projects Cary wants us to tackle include building a small block wall to prevent the run-off coming into her back entrance. She lives in a gated community and some of the villas are still under construction and the roads to them are not paved. When it rains the runoff gushes down the hill straight towards Cary’s place. The goal is to divert the water higher up the hill as well as build the very low retaining wall to keep any excess off her carport and to gravel the area in front of her carport.
I was pleasantly surprised to see the well stock, wonderfully, air-conditioned hardware. Our list of supplies was soon in the buggy, and didn’t cost an arm and a leg to purchase either. We stopped at the “bloqueria” to pick up a bag of cement and 20 cement blocks as well as 2 cubic meters of gravel.
Back home we offloaded and walked down to the jetty to snap the setting sun. Did I tell you, we saw the “green flash” after all the years of watching the sun setting over the ocean we had to come to Roatan to finally see that it is true. On an extremely clear day when no clouds interrupt the horizon line, just as the sun vanishes there is a sudden green flash – we have kept a skeptical look-out for it and at last we really did see it.
31 October, 2012
Wolf had arranged for the gravel to be delivered at 8:00am and to their word, the truck arrived. I was still in the shower when I heard him and Patrick shoveling and raking. I came out and began to plant groundcover in the garden which lines the driveway. We worked in the sweltering heat until 9:30am and dived into the pool to cool off. After a breakfast of fresh fruit and French-toast, we headed to the beach carrying Cary’s double kayak loaded with fins, masks, paddles.
The sea was crystal clear and very calm. We paddled across the reef, over a few 2ft breakers and were soon floating over corals and colourful fishes. Wolf gave me instructions to don my mask and fins, swing my legs over and get into the water. I thought I followed his instructions to the letter, however, as I went over, so did the kayak, everything inside it, and Wolf… Luckily nothing was lost…
We started snorkeling and were lost ourselves, in the beauty of this underwater garden. I handed my camera to Wolf and suggested that I hold the kayak while he swims down to take some shots. He has no weights so really struggles to get to the bottom. Patrick, being a dive master said he would try to organize a few weights to put on our belts which will help tremendously.
We were amazed at the lack of colour on the rocks. We saw many brightly colored fish, but very few colourful corals. Nothing like the Comores or Sodwana Bay! We never saw any anemones, no clown-fish, no goldies, no chromis, and no clams. We did spot a few very large parrot-fish though, and a huge potato-bass (grouper) which was camera shy. The temperature of the water was so gorgeous (I’m not trying to make anyone jealous) much warmer than the swimming pool which we use regularly, to keep our body temperature down.
We met the neighbours from next door, a really wonderful couple who come to the island every other month. They are extremely involved in helping abandoned children in Roatan. They own 3 villas in the complex which are still incomplete and are renting the villa next to Cary, while theirs is being built.
We struck an instant connection with them – Charlotte and Gary are sincere and committed Christians, who feel an honest burden to help the children of Roatan. They will unfortunately be leaving after the week-end, but they have offered us the use of their villa for the remainder of our stay – which would be wonderful…
Our evenings are spent watching TV – Cary has satellite TV and is connected to SHAW – yes, Canadian TV in Roatan. I have to say we are extremely fortunate to be in this situation as we are learning so much about living and working in Roatan from various expats and locals – Far more than one could learn by trying to explore on one’s own. Every day is a treat and we are beginning to fall in love with the people.
There were many Halloween parties around the West End – but we preferred to pass. Cary was a also not feeling up to it so it was a TV night – caught a little Canadian News and watched the devastation of Hurricane Sandy.
Cheers from the Happy Islanders