Yesterday we had a plan. We thought it was a non-cruise ship day, so we walked up and down the steep hills to the beach path below and headed towards West Bay.
As we neared the dreaded Gumbalimba bridge over the canal, we noticed all the kayaks lined up for excursions. Hmmmmmm. Monday's are supposed to be slow with no cruise ships docking?
We followed this guy along the beach path into West Bay. A lot of Roatan vendors seem to have mastered the art of balancing wares on their heads.
Once we walked onto West Bay Beach, I realized the cruise ship schedule I'd read online was wrong. We'd left Laid Back Ville up on our hill. Oh well. People watching is always interesting!
This cruiser bought himself a hat, a sunburn, and a $25 pass to the beach club!
I look at these colorful paintings every time I pass by and think what great Christmas cards they'd make!
Love this mural on corrugated metal siding. We're WAY up there on the tippy top of the hill and that's why it's such a trek to the beach!
The boat below runs the parasailing tours. We saw him running up and down offshore earlier with willing tourists (that would not be me) flying high in the air behind him!
After winding our way through all the vendors, we settled at the far west end of the beach at Infinity Bay Palapa Bar where in exchange for purchasing food and drinks, they'll watch your beach bags and hold your table while you snorkel.
By the time we ate lunch, donned our snorkel gear, and worked our way out to the reef, we were swimming upstream into rush hour traffic -- swarms of guided snorkelers being led and followed by kayaks. No bueno. The water was extremely murky from storms over the weekend, so we headed back to the beach after seeing a few fish.
Snorkeling will best be done very early or late in the afternoon this week. Today's a two cruise ship day, tomorrow's FIVE, and Christmas Eve there's only one in port. Starting Christmas Day, there's a four-day reprieve!
When we arrived back at the villa exhausted from our day of walking and swimming, we were greeted by one of the workers sleeping on the job.
Really dude? There are guys down below digging trenches with picks and I caught you lounging on the sand pile? He and his buddy live at a house towards the bottom of the hill, but they consider themselves to be free range cage free. What a couple of characters! If there's any action and people out, they're hangin'! Last night they walked us all the way to the dock to catch a water taxi. If only we could teach them to run to the grocery store in West End!
I'll leave you with my favorite part of any day here on Roatan. It's totally worth the $3 for the short ride on water into West End.
2 comments:
Enjoying your trip report! Roatan is a nice change from Mexico and Belize, where we have been the last 10 yrs... we stayed at Bananarama last year with a large group really enjoyed it. I actually found your blog on the Isla website when we were going there for our first trip last year. Loved it! We went in November '14, '15 and we're headed back in January!
Thanks for commenting Mike! We're loving Roatan! We had pizza at Bananarama on Sunday. Enjoy Isla! The weather was beautiful last January! We plan on being back on the island in April.
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