My (Incomplete) Roatan Snorkeling Guide

Map and notes by my side, I drove my rental car out of Mahogany Bay Cruise Center, eager to explore Roatan's reefs from a number of beaches. My goal was ambitious: write the definitive guide to snorkeling on the island. However since I was visiting from a cruise ship, the Sky Princess, I had only a few precious hours. And I was sick, suffering from the start of a respiratory infection that had left me with laryngitis that morning. Nonetheless I was determined to get a start on my research and savor my first taste of the local coral reef.

The Mesoamerican Barrier Reef, the world's second largest, surrounds the island of Roatan. The biggest of Honduras's Bay Islands, Roatan is over thirty miles long, lying in the Caribbean Sea north of the mainland. I had targeted half a dozen sites, mostly focused on the western half of the skinny island. Fortunately the roads were in good condition with a minimum amount of construction underway on the booming tourist destination. Driving through dense jungle and passing vacation villas, I soon found myself on the north coast and in West End.

The busy tourist town's shops and restaurants weren't my focus; it was Half Moon Bay, West End's scenic beach-lined harbor. Parking my car near the south end and leaving my daypack on the beach near Ginger's Grill, I snorkeled to the reef just a hundred feet toward sea.

Purple sea fans quickly came into view, dominating most of the seascape in the shallow, calm water. The swaying corals sheltered motionless schools of bluestriped grunts. A princess parrotfish in pastels of pinks and baby blues scraped algae from hard corals. At least two butterflyfish varieties, foureye and banded, in addition to several lone Atlantic blue tangs called the reef home.

I was luckily ready with my camera when a large scrawled filefish, over two feet in length, glided gracefully by me. However, I was far away, closer to the breakwater, when my traveling companion photographed a school of Caribbean reef squids.

While I was amazed at the vibrant life just a few kicks of my fins from the beach, a couple from Latvia told me the snorkeling was much better at West Bay. Another tourist, from Canada, elaborated, telling me the reef was unbelievable just beyond Infinity Bay Resort. Fortunately the beach was the next stop on my agenda and just a few miles up the coast.

With the morning clock ticking and more cruise ships arriving, the resort-fringed beach was quickly crowding with day trippers. Nonetheless, I found a convenient parking spot costing just one U.S. dollar an hour in view of the azure sea. It soon became clear why most visitors to Roatan head immediately to West Bay: the long span of white powder sand and crystal clear water is everyone's dream of a Caribbean paradise. And lucky for me the beach is only a few short yards from the coral reef.

It was easy to find Infinity Bay Resort, where I stowed my backpack under a palm tree. Alert to the pleasure craft and paddle boarders around me, I quickly headed out to sea. The white sand soon gave way to dense coral mounds divided by deep canyons of more corals. I could see an unlimited number of pathways waiting to be explored all along West Bay's beach; dense schools of Atlantic blue tangs were even leading the way.

There had to be hundreds of the surgeonfish, in sharp contrast with the lone individuals at Half Moon Bay. After following one congested school, I found another of a different surgeonfish variety, the ocean, much less brightly colored, pale gray with yellow tails.

Just as impressive were the multiple parrotfish species, including the princess and stoplight. While they were mostly lone individuals, their vibrant blues, pinks, and greens shone brightly from the depths of the reef. One queen parrotfish joined a school of Atlantic blue tangs for several seconds, all the fish finding their way along a busy reef highway, the queen escorted by her loyal army.

Later, another queen parrotfish paused deep below me near an outcrop of coral, the sunlight illuminating the fish while a dozen tiny cleaner wrasse gently attended her. I've seen turtle cleaning stations in Hawaii, where tangs and other fish eat the algae from the skin and the shell of turtles, but this was my very first parrotfish cleaning station.

While I headed to the rocky cliffs defining West Bay's southern border, my traveling companion Jackie remained close to where we had entered the underwater world. She later gave me the photos she captured of the largest parrotfish she had ever seen or that I had ever heard of, a rainbow parrotfish. This individual already had a reputation as being a longtime denizen of the local reef and was easily four feet in length, the biggest creature most visitors would see while snorkeling in the Caribbean.

Meanwhile I continued with my own discoveries, encountering a barracuda further from shore in deeper water. Harmless, he was as still and shadowed as I've come to expect the species to be. I followed shallower and tighter pathways through the coral, encountering more schools of surgeonfish, until there was barely enough water to swim in as I closed in on the southern cliffs and the beach. But one more surprise awaited me moments before I exited the water when I witnessed my very first spotfin butterflyfish.

It was noon with two sublime snorkeling spots conquered, half the day gone yet half of it still remaining. Imbibing in some water and a granola bar, I was ready to continue the research into my Roatan snorkeling guide. Starfish Alley was nearby, a boat ride to the outer reef halfway between West End and West Bay and an opportunity to see an array of Caribbean cushion stars in reds, yellows, and oranges. But the boat operators were asking close to $50 for the long ride so I declined for the sake of both thrift and time.

Maya Cay was an easy drive toward the port and the next logical stop. It was also unique because it was on the southern coast of Roatan in a more urbanized area. Maya Cay is a private island, home of a wildlife rehabilitation center for a number of animals including monkeys and macaws, but also protecting adjacent coral reefs. However I soon discovered that reaching the island is by both boat and appointment only, meaning it's mostly visited as part of a cruise ship excursion booked days in advance.

My plans were unraveling and my energy was waning. My voice struggling, I could barely tell the gas station attendant in English let alone Spanish how much fuel I wanted. The turtles at Palmetto Bay, the lagoon at French Key, and, the sandbar at Pigeon Cay off the distant eastern end of Roatan would all have to wait until another day.

I returned the car to Mahogany Bay and plodded through the cruise port, visiting a gift shop and browsing some kiosks. Harnessing a last bit of energy, I took the short bougainvillea-lined walk to the resort that was carved out of the mangrove coastline over a dozen years ago. Chaise lounges and umbrellas populated the beach whose sand was certainly dredged and imported, now protected by rocky jetties and buoy barriers, and framed by gargantuan cruise ships like my own. Several snorkelers crisscrossed the calm water.

I envisioned a natural reef a short swim beyond the artificial walls, and contemplated a third chapter in my very incomplete guide to snorkeling on Roatan. But the siren call of food and rest beckoned from my ship, ending any dream of a finished book right then and there.