Roatan

Wow what can I say.....I can see why some people could think this was paradise. This was the view out of our room when we woke up this morning. We docked at Carnival's private port complete with private shopping and private beach. Little did we know this was going to be the most commercialized area we would see all day.

 (double click to enlarge)

We hadn't booked our day with the cruise ship directly so we had to walk off the property to meet our guide. It went from a familiar American type feel to completely different world really fast. Our driver Martha said that on the island (34 miles long and 4 miles wide) there is only one real road. The mayor promised to fix the road but hasn't and in the meantime guys go out on their own and fill pot holes with dirt in hopes of getting a few $$ from passing cars. Believe me we would be doing the same thing if our roads were this bad too.

On our way to the first stop of the day we passed by the Norwegian Dawn from Norwegian Cruise Lines. Martha said that the ships are usually on the island 4 days a week and keep them very busy. At 3000 passengers per ship I can imagine that they are pretty popular. We stopped on the mountain side on the south end of the island to do a little zip lining. Or I guess we would say a lot of zip lining. It was Kristen's first time so we stayed away from the extreme 550 feet up and 2,000 foot long zipline.  But still our adventure had 13 different zip-lines and 1.8 miles of zipping.

From there Martha took us through Coxen Hole and to the beach on the south end. This was the touristy area but felt kinda like what I would imagine the hotels and resorts of the 80s would have been. Much smaller hotels than the huge all inclusives we see now. Literally 50 feet into the water was an amazing coral reef. We had brought snorkel gear specifically for this purpose and super excited we did. It was pretty amazing what you could see and experience. (I apologize for the lack of underwater videography skills)

The South End beach

Unfortunately I learned the hard way just how sharp coral is and will be hobbleing around the next couple days. We brought a little first aid kit so we have gauze but all we had for tape was this ridiculous duct tape so I have one hell of a cool bandage.

Back on the boat before 5 and off to Belize for tomorrow.