Paradise: Roatan Island, Honduras

Of all that we saw on our adventures in Honduras, I must say that Roatan was the highlight for me. It's an island about an hour and a half off the northern coast. We took a boat ride there in the afternoon and returned the next afternoon - not near enough time for all there was to see. And we really didn't take a lot of pictures...we went to a village called West End at night to check out the restaurants and dancing on the beach. It was beautiful. But the real beauty was when we went to West Bay the next morning. I have never seen anything like it. This place is the best kept secret of Honduras and I kind of hope it stays that way. It's a great place to vacation especially because there aren't too many people.

This is a view of West Bay before we descended to the beach.

Marcela, hanging out in the shade before we went swimming.

We were both in heaven!

Aren't the colors amazing?!

Marcela and Aunt Judy swimming in the water. The boats in the area have glass bottoms so that you can take rides and look at the coral reef and all of the beautiful fish.

Marcela and Aunt Judy.

Armando getting ready to go snorkeling for the first time. I'll post snorkeling pictures when I get them from Lance - he had an underwater camera.

Lance enjoying the beach.

Judy in the shade.

I think this picture is a definite keeper!

Marcela loved the sand. I didn't get too many pictures of her because I had to stop her from eating the sand.

She was worn out by the end of the exploring and swimming.

Tour 3: Cuero y Salado National Park

Our final tour was close to La Ceiba, Honduras in a National Park called "Cuero y Salado." We took about a half hour drive to the park and then went out on a boat into a river and lagoon area where we saw tons of wildlife.

This is one of many fields of pineapple we drove by to get to the national park.

We arrived at a very small town that had "train service" to the national park office. It was probably 5 or 6 miles in the train going about 15 miles an hour. The train was just two cars like the one you see above and ran on a tractor motor or something.

We rode through pretty countryside to get there and saw lots of birds and rural life.

This is at the national park dock. We stopped and had some famous "Valiadas" here. Valiadas are basically a quesadilla with refried beans. They're famous in the northern part of the country.

Lance at the dock.

This is a "bleeding tree." The guide says if you cut into this tree is gushes out a blood-like substance.

Can you see the gecko on this tree?

There were tons of turtles in the lagoon. This one was hilarious - he had his neck stretched out as far as he could "sunning himself."

This isn't a great shot, but it's an anteater. We just happened upon it and the tour guide was so amazed. He said in the 18 years he's given tours there, he'd never seen one and didn't even know they lived in the area.

We saw crocodiles and alligators of all sizes. Small....

And LARGE!

And they can disappear in the blink of an eye.

When we returned to the station, there was a man taking a tied up crocodile back to the wild. They had found this one at the dock in La Ceiba chasing a dog - ready to eat it. YIKES!

To Miami Honduras

Our second tour in Tela was to a unique little village called Miami which was located on a very small peninsula - on one side was the Caribbean and on the other was a fresh-water lagoon. You could walk from one side to the other within a minute. This little village was completely demolished during Hurricane Mitch, but was rebuilt afterwards.

A view of some little islands in the background called Cayos Cochinos. This was taken from a lookout pont before we arrived at the end of the peninsula.

Lance, Judy, and I went on this tour while Armando stayed back in Tela with Marcela, playing on the beach.

Our sister Lilly requested one thing of us while we were there...to write her and Billy's names in the sand and take a picture of it. So Lance did...with a little humor.

We took a little raft ride through the canals and out into lagoon. We saw all kinds of wildlife.

There were tons of pelicans.

And blue herings (Dad you would have loved this tour!) It's a bird-watcher's paradise.

There were local villagers that make their living catching crab in the canal and lagoon and selling them. There were all kinds of little floaters that had traps at the bottom. We stopped and pulled one up and found some crab. Our tour guide bought a bunch from them and then on our way back we stopped by his place and he honked the horn. His wife came out and got them to make for dinner.

This is a white-faced monkey we saw in the mangroves. We pulled our boat up to the trees and watched them for awhile.

Again, a birdwatchers paradise. This is in the large-open part of the lagoon.

The branches of the trees there all grow toward the water. It's like something you would see on a creepy cartoon where all of the trees have fingers that are going to reach out and get you. When we would go through the little canals and there would be trees over us, the tour guide would say, if a green snake falls on you, don't worry, they're not poisonous - just throw it out of the boat - sometimes they fall from the trees. Luckily that didn't hapen - I would have died of heart-failure right there. But, if you look closely at this picture, you can see a little crab crawling up the tree branches from the water - it looks like a spider.

This is a little view of the village of Miami from the lagoon side.

And this is where the lagoon and the caribbean meet. Kind of crazy!

We had the most delicous lunch of fresh fried fish, rice and fried plantains. That was my favorite meal while we were there. The BEST fish I've ever had!

Judy enjoyed fresh coconut water with her meal.

And we all found a hammock to rest in before heading back to Tela.

What's Up Doc?

We stayed near the dock in Tela, Honduras - a dock that is mainly used now just for fishing off the edge. It's old and rickity and crabs infested. But it gave us a great view of the sunset, the surrounding mountains, and the ocean. Plus we got to see local fisherman in action with just a fishing line and something tied to it.

Just a cool shot of some canoes and the dock.

At the end of the dock looking toward Tela.

Armando, Judy, and Marcela.

The ocean at dusk.

This was one of the fisherman pulling in his catch of the day.

Armando and Lance.

If you click on this picture and look at it large, it looks like Lance has been pasted on top of the background.

And this is just a cool shot we took from a bridge in Tela looking across to another bridge.