Roatan Honduras

Today we landed in beautiful Roatan, Honduras.

This was our first visit to Honduras.

First things first, I found some caffeine.  Real caffeine.  Not cruise ship coffee caffeine. 

Then David and I walked around the port shops.  How darling are these handmade crayons?

Soon, it was time to meet our excursion guides.

We loaded onto a bus and traveled to Half Moon Bay for kayaking, lunch, and snorkeling.

Here's David all ready to find us a boat!

And here I am - ready to go!

Then we picked a kayak and headed out to sea!

Along the way, our guide spotted a living urchin and passed it from kayak to kayak for closer looks.

It was pretty prickly and it felt so weird as it moved around.  Really cool.

After about an hour of kayaking we stopped a secluded beach and went for a nature hike.

There our guide told us all about the local flora and fauna.  This is a banana tree with bananas.  He also showed us their "marshmallow tree" where the fruit actually tastes like a marshmallow.  The same texture and flavor.  David and I know because we ate some.  Quite unusual but very interesting.

Then we headed back to the dive shop / restaurant for lunch.

There we had the best homemade salsa I've ever eaten in my entire life.

And delicious sweet fruit.

And I stuffed myself with as many of these quesadillas as I could hold.  They were beyond amazing!

After lunch we headed back to the beach to snorkel.

We swam all the way to the drop off.  The drop off was over 2,000 feet deep and way out past the land poking out on the right side of this picture.  We saw some of the most beautiful corals in red, green, yellow, and even blue.  It was simply stunning.  By the time we finished snorkeling I was completely tuckered out.

But we walked around and saw this cute parrot while waiting for our ride back to port.

While Honduras is an unbelievably poor country, the people were so sweet and welcoming.

And the stark beauty is unsurpassed.  It's a place I'd love to come back again for another visit.