Isla Roatan

Day 4 was spent in Roatan, Honduras.  We docked in a gorgeous cove,

hidden from the poverty of the island.

Our first views were of this ship wreck.  I guess if I had to be ship wrecked, this would be a pretty good place to be.

 We didn't dock until 11:00, so we were all anxious to get off the ship and head for our shore excursion.

I planned all of our shore excursions and chose not to use Carnival since the prices were so high.

In Roatan I had found a private beach resort and booked us all to be picked up and brought there for the afternoon.  Because it was not a cruise sponsored excursion, our bus couldn't pick us up at the port, we had to walk quite a distance through the countryside to get to our transportation.  It was extremely hot and there were locals crowding the sides of the street trying to get us to go with them.

Almost immediately we were exposed to the poverty.  All over the island people were living in unfinished basements with no windows, electricity, or running water.  I am not sure if the homes were never completed or if they were destroyed in a hurricane at some point.  The homes that were finished were obviously owned by the wealthy and were surrounded by barbed wire fences.

Our 45 minute drive to the Turquoise Bay resort was a real eye opener to the poverty of 3rd world countries.  It broke my heart to think of how little these people had.

We finally arrived at our resort and all of our uncertainty dissolved.  It was beautiful and very private!  Most of our time on the beach was spent alone with just our family.  It was a nice break from the mobs of people on the ship.

 Is this paradise, or what?

 There were live starfish in the water.  I have never seen one that was living.  It was incredible!

 We rented two canoes and paddled out into the bay.  This resort is the National Geographic dive center for Roatan.  Several people from our cruise ship group took boats out to the reef to scuba dive.  The beach was interesting where we were.  The sand was trucked in.  The island has few sandy beaches.  As we walked out into the water, the sand ended and the bottom became muddy.  We couldn't snorkel here, we would have had to take the boat out to the reef.

 There was a lovely pool area that we all enjoyed in the afternoon.  We had the pool all to ourselves.

 Jeff and Scott enjoyed the local beer.

 The kids all fell asleep on the ride back to the ship.  Look at my sweet Hannah loving on Simon!

We had a wonderful day in Roatan!  If you ever visit there, I would recommend checking out the resort where we went.  Their website is http://www.turquoisebayresort.com/ .

My next post will take you to Belize for a cave tubing adventure!