Location: French Cay Harbour, Roatan, Honduras
Position: 16 21.255 N 086 26.646 W
We’ve spent two great weeks in Honduras. We are anchored between a reef and the island. The reef isn’t visible from the boat much of the time, so we sit aboard looking straight out to the ocean. It was a little disconcerting at first. It didn’t feel like we were protected, at least until we got used to it. The reef soaks up almost all the energy of the ocean waves and all we get are small waves from the short fetch inside the reef. And the sea breeze really cools things down nicely. All-in-all it’s a fine, safe place to sit while we explore.
Being so close to the reef it’s a short dinghy ride to some great snorkeling. There’s a wall dive nearby. The reef is close to the surface and there are lots of colorful fish. But as you swim along the reef drops off like a cliff edge going down as far as you can see. It was a bit disconcerting the first time we went out there - it made us dizzy, like stepping off the edge of a cliff, but now we are used to it. The days we don’t go snorkeling we just swim off the boat. The temperatures are pretty hot most of the time (in the 80s and 90s) and it’s a great way to cool off in the afternoon.
Coxen Hole is the capital of the Bay Islands and is about 10 miles west of here. A seeming rabbit warren of narrow bustling streets, it hosts a myriad of stalls and shops selling everything from backpacks to TVs to clothing to woven hammocks. Street venders selling fish out of plastic coolers, meat hanging from hooks in small butcher shops, and small cafes are all commonplace. It’s very much like any major city - there are lots of things to buy, you just have to find where the best prices are. Cruise ships stop here a few times a week - you don’t want to be in town then as all the prices are higher. We can see them passing by the anchorage so we know when they are here. Much of the local economy revolves around the cruise ships. The disparity between local prices and “cruise ship” prices is really something. Being good cruisers, we always make sure to tell people we’re not from a cruise ship and get the price nailed down before we take a taxi ride or sit down for a beer or a meal.
French Harbour, the town nearest our anchorage, is not very touristy. Mainly locals live here so we get to really feel the flavor of the island. There are, however, a couple of dive resorts to the east of the anchorage that have happy hours a couple of times a week. Of course the $1.25 beers attract all the cruisers, so it gives us a great opportunity to socialize with the other boaters in the anchorage. During the last happy hour we noticed several people drinking what is apparently the local drink of choice. Named the “Monkey La La” (http://www.caribbeantravelmag.com/article/Recipe-Finder/Drink-of-the-Month---Monkey-La-La) it’s a concoction of ice cream, vodka, Kahlua, and ice, blended to the consistency of a milk shake. We’re certain they contain no calories and they looked really delicious – we haven’t tried one yet, but will let you know what we think after the next happy hour.
There are several open double-ender boats around that seem to be unique to these islands – at least in our limited experience. They’re around 25-30 feet long, only about 5 feet wide, and are powered by “single lunger” diesel engines. The nicest one is all prettied up with a center console and bimini and sometimes sits at the iguana farm dock about a hundred feet from us (we’ll tell you more about the iguana farm in another Khronicle). Our favorite one is bright yellow and has no steering wheel – the rudder just has a couple of lines led forward and when the driver wants to steer, he simply pulls on one line or the other. We really enjoy hearing them put-put-put through the anchorage.
As always we try to buy foods that the locals eat - they are usually cheaper and we enjoy trying new foods. We had some funny shaped wrinkly squash the other day that almost had the texture of a melon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chayote). It was very tasty, especially when stir fried with garlic. Yum!
Our hearts go out to all of you in the frozen North. Think warm thoughts and have a hot toddy on us. Just remember – the groundhog saw his shadow so there are only six more weeks of winter to go. That’s not so bad, eh?
Mark & Julie
s/v Rachel
