Honduras

The second flight from El Salvador was late leaving and quite scary.  A massive electrical storm with lots of thunder and lightening was raging and it was teaming with rain.  They did take off though, not sure if the delay was the weather or something else as it did not change much and still raging when we left.  Pretty bumpy flight too, not long but still gone 11.30pm by the time we got our bags.

We found that our bags were all absolutely soaking – inside and out, they must have  had them sitting out in the rain for a long time before loading the plane.  Hope we can dry some stuff by morning.

No taxis at first either but eventually we take off to our BNB where the host is waiting up to let us in.

Such lovely people running it, so helpful and a joy to deal with.  In the morning we went wandering of to a supermarket to find breakfast and things.  Considering many people say this city is the “Murder city of the world” (it’s actually number 42) we felt very safe and not worried at all.

Very hot here, 40 plus and still early, most unexpected but I think it is unusual as everywhere the locals are commenting on how hot and not normally like this.

A long drive to Copan Ruins – about 2 hours longer than it will be when they finish the road.  Currently many sections are one way with 30 min stops as sections are kilometre’s long.

On the way we saw a lot of very basic living, most probably the worst I have seen anywhere for many years, very sad. 

The other thing is how hazy it is, apparently there are many forest fires due to the dryness and intense heat there are over 2500 fires.  The smoke is dense over the whole country – which is causing delays to flights and is creating the extra heat.

The town of Copan is lovely – it reminds me of old towns in Spain and Italy, similar housing style, cobbled streets etc.  Bumpy though in a tuk tuk so hard to get photos as you go past things, roads are really steep not good for walking around in high humidity and heat.

The ruins themselves were surprising in many ways – especially as when you go in there are Scarlet Macaw’s everywhere. 

Not sure I really agree with them being fed for tourists but they do say it is a re-introduction for damaged birds?

Some great stone carving’s around, very spread out and although a map at the entrance we got a bit lost and did miss a few things – including the best sculptures that were more hidden away to protect them.

Incredible structures and carving when you think of the tools they would have had and the conditions it was all built under – assuming they had the intense heat that we have now.

There were some tunnels but they wanted silly amount to enter.

The afternoon took us to a rescue park for birds – they take birds that the government confiscate and try if at all possible to re-introduce them to the wild.  The ones they can’t they use to breed birds and then release them.  Great job but so sad what people have done to some of the birds. It was good for wild birds too.

An even longer shuttle ride from Copan to La Ceiba – a couple of nights in the mountains where we had planned walking but at this temp with all the smoke haze is not an option.  Lucky it had a lovely natural pool in the rocks, helped to keep us cool.

Ferry across to Roatan, a short ride but very bumpy even on an almost new catamaran.

We had not been sure what to expect at West Bay, our first stop for a few nights.  Reviews are very mixed about the snorkelling so hard to know if it will be good or dreadful.  The accommodation is great – very tired but who cares about that as it is at the quiet end of the beach and just has a nice feel.
The beach before the Cruise ship clientele appear. 

The first 2 days the beach was full of cruise ship passengers (11,000), crazy stuff especially when most of them do not use the bars or restaurants which are all almost empty but other interesting things appear like this pineapple bar, unfortunately they also serve cocktails in the water, seeing the state of some people I am surprised they don’t drown.

Once they go though it is pretty nice.  The snorkelling is down the other end of the beach, a bit of a walk but well worth it.  Coral on the beach side is pretty dead but lots of fish.

We were surprised by the number of fish  and the size of some like this Permit – huge.


but it was obvious why the coral was dead with so many people walking on it with shoes, flippers etc.  No care whatsoever. 

On the outside of the reef the coral is in much better condition plus lots more sea life and less people.

We did a boat trip to supposedly better spots but apart from one turtle it was better off the beach.

A number of snorkel sessions from the beach found us a lot of interesting stuff, Spotted Eagle Rays,

Scorpion Fish (hard to see)

and Flounders (even harder to see

as well as lots of other more common stuff.

Next stop was to West End – supposed to be good for snorkelling off the beach – not so though.  Certainly some coral and fish but not as good as West Bay. 

Not enamoured with West End, beach is filthy after a Sunday full of locals and the clean up is very basic at best. Not only that but the whole place has a very seedy look and feeling.  We did manage to find some postcards though, but no way to post them in Honduras without spending 50 USD to go 8km.  Getting a collection as we still have the ones bought in Nicaragua too – there we went to 3 post offices but no post to Australia……

Back to West Bay for the last couple of days – every time we snorkel here we find new species and things we have not found before although better if we go out before the crowds from the cruise ships (another day of 11,000). 

Tied together with life jackets and rings and towed around – screaming, treading on coral etc.  Wish the locals would care more and police it better.

A night snorkel, the first for both Chris and I was interesting with lots of lobsters and unfortunately for Chris a Sea urchin managed to spike her foot –  not comfortable but no real harm.

A couple more snorkel’s and we will be off to Belize, yet more flights as yet again the shuttle we were going to get to the border not running and the ferry down to one day a week – not convenient.