O'Connor O'Riginals: Day Three, November 17, 2009: Roatán Honduras, Bay Islands, Central America

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Day Three, November 17, 2009: Roatán Honduras, Bay Islands, Central America

Up early today – our tour of Roatán begins on the pier at 8:20.

The Islas de la Bahía ("Bay Islands") consists of eight islands and more than 60 bays. Roatán is the largest of these at 35 miles long. It is less than 4 miles wide at its widest point and has a population of about 30,000. It is only 40 miles off the north coast of Honduras.

We set our clocks one hour back for this area of the Caribbean.

After a few pictures from the balcony and breakfast, we made our way to the gangway and off to find our group for the “Best of Roatán” Tour. Although the forecast was “partly cloudy”, it was actually raining a bit.

We were met on the dock by local musicians and dancers wearing traditional costumes of the Garifuna (more on them later)

On the bus.

We got to experience some of the unique landscape and the local culture as our guide, Ivy, briefed us on the history of Roatán and the Bay Islands.

Our first stop was Dixon Cove Harbor where we boarded a dory to tour the keys, reefs and shipwrecks.

Tom checking his email…

These ships were bringing lumber to the island. The locals got the lumber anyway, but the ship owners lost out!

Back on the bus!

Next stop was the Garifuna Experience at the YUBU!, where members of the Garifuna, (descendents of Black Carib Indians who settled in Roatán in 1797), demonstrated their music and dance, which have been preserved over hundreds of years. During a war with the English, the men had dressed as women and vice versa. To this day, the men still wear dress-like costumes and masks.

There was an exhibit of making ereba (cassava bread). This is done in an ancient and time-consuming process involving a long, snake-like woven basket (ruguma) which strains the cassava of its juice. It is then dried overnight and later sieved through flat rounded baskets (hibise) to form flour that is baked into pancakes on a large iron griddle. Ereba is usually eaten with fish, hudutu (pounded plantains) or alone with gravy (lasusu). We tried some and Michael bought a couple packages to snack on for the rest of the bus trip.

Also, they had jewelry made out of magnetite just like in Barbados so Tom got the 3 of us bracelets and I got a necklace.

Back on the bus again for Statue Park. The statue is of Honduran hero General José Santos Guardiola Bustillo. They also had demonstrations daily life – a hut made of almond branches, mud and thatched roof, a fish and coconut dish (samples but also for sale), more magnetite.