Mike in the Wild

For the third time in four years, I was on a cruise that stopped for a day on the island of Roatan.  And for the third straight time, I made a beeline for West Bay Beach - the place I’d been boldly calling the best beach snorkeling in the Caribbean.   Unfortunately on this latest visit the weather didn’t cooperate. Cloudy skies with strong winds and below-normal temperatures combined to create poor conditions for snorkeling.    I planned a full day at West Bay, even buying a day pass at Infinity Bay Resort that fronted the beach and offered the best reef access close to the south end. Luckily a pool and its adjacent lounge chairs were at my disposal because the beach chairs were in a wind tunnel.   A dozen people were in the water, most of them snorkeling near the cliffs that bordered the south end of West Bay and that offered some shelter.  The seas were certainly less choppy there but I was still frustrated by the poor visibility when I finally ...

The highlight of my 2023 Western Caribbean cruise was the stop on the island of Roatan, Honduras's ultra-popular vacation spot.  The beautiful reef off West Bay Beach rewarded me with some of the best snorkeling of the entire trip. When I returned earlier this month on a similar cruise there was no doubt I'd head back to the site for another chance to witness the same underwater beauty.  Rather than rent a car like last year, I opted for the cruise port's $25 package tour that was not only cheaper than a taxi but included a short stop first at West End, a picturesque fishing village on the western side of Roatan.  The tour also guaranteed almost two hours at West Bay Beach, my real interest. However the tour's name was a misnomer, Hop-On Hop-Off, as it was definitely not a flexible mode of transportation, where you had the freedom to get on and get off buses at frequent stops.  Instead, passengers were obliged to start the trip in Mahogany Bay at a set time on a...

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 boom...