[Composed 11/21/2017]
On one hand, the great part of being on a cruise is that you get to visit a number of locations in one vacation. On the other hand, your time in those locations is often ridiculously short. And so it was with today's port of call: Roatan, Honduras. Still, we tried to eke out every bit of adventure we could.
The plan for our day came together when Shira stumbled across a jam tasting that Marble Hill Farms offers. We're not huge fans of wine or beer tastings, but the idea of trying local jams and jellies sounded perfect. Shira picked up the phone and called Jana over at Marble Hill, and the two of them quickly worked out a plan. We'd catch a taxi at the port, drive to the farm, do the jam tasting and figure it out from there.
We walked off the boat, found our driver Wilfredo, and our adventure began. Wilfredo was kind enough to stop at various overlooks so I could snap pics. He even got us on the grounds of a private golf course so we could grab an especially amazing view. Once at the farm, we did indeed have a jam and jelly tasting. Spoiler alert: they were all awesome.
After the tasting, we made our way down to the beach. With a bit of nudging from one of the staff, we rented a kayak and grabbed my snorkeling gear. We made our way a good couple hundred yards out to what was supposed to be a reef and I plunged out of the boat. What I found below was downright magical. It was like stepping into into some fancy dude's aquarium. The coral was really out of this world. We weren't planning on this kayak / snorkeling adventure, but boy am I glad we did it, it was top notch.
After a delicious lunch, we asked our driver for suggestions and he told us he had a friend who could take us on a tour of the mangroves. Before we knew it, we were in a tiny boat, speeding away from the dock. It was nice and all, but I wasn't quite sure where we were going. That is, until we pulled into a side channel and found ourselves in a tunnel of mangrove trees. It was like something out of a romantic movie.
As we made our way back to the boat, I remarked to Wilfredo that the only thing we hadn't seen this trip were any iguana. He took that as a challenge and promised that on our way back we'd search some out. Not 200 yards later, he slowed down and stopped in front of a dingy looking brick wall. A moment later, he told us where to look, and there it was, an honest to goodness, black iguana! He also took us on a side street in search of some green iguanas, which we managed to find as well.
Had I known that Wilfredo was going to effortlessly grant my last wish, perhaps I should have gone a little bigger than an iguana sighting?
All in all, Roatan was a hit. Getting away from the port let us see the lush countryside, and get a quick taste for how much this little island has to offer.
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