March 12, 2025 Roatán, Honduras

Clocks were set back an hour overnight, both Honduras and Belize have a different time zone than Costa Maya and Cozumel in Mexico.

The sky was cloudy but was clearing when we finished breakfast. We walked on Deck 11 and 12 before breakfast. The humidity felt high and the temperature was around 23°C. The announcement that the ship was cleared came at 8 a.m., as we were sitting down in Qsine for breakfast with Zegrid.

Today’s excursion was Best of Roatán and Las Palmas. The pier was only half the length of the one in Puerto Costa Maya yesterday. We met for today’s excursion in the bus parking lot.

The tour started by travelling a short distance to Macaw Market to visit the Roatán Chocolate Factory. We learned about chocolate making. We were invited to sample 11 kinds of chocolate including white chocolate which is made from cocoa butter, not the chocolate bean. Milk chocolate has milk added for a milder flavour. Their 80% dark chocolate bars included mixtures with nuts, coffee, coconut, chili and another with sea salt. The 75 gram chocolate bars were $5US or $30 for 6 in a special box. Also for sale were habenaro sauce, coffee and ice cream.

We passed the Carnival Corporation cruise terminal where the Carnival Liberty and a Princess Cruises ship were moored. It is close to City Hall.

Next stop was the old French Harbour section, where our group of 26 boarded a small covered boat for a 25 minute ride, in the sunshine, along some protected mangroves before turning around near the Fantasy Island resort. Red Mangrove grows in areas where the tide changes while white mangrove are on higher ground and are not near the tide area. In the summer birds nest in the mangroves while small fish and shrimp dart among the mangrove roots. The bay was protected by the Mesoamerican Reef. The tide varies very little. usually only 23 centimetres. The skipper directed the boat closer to the Fantasy Island beach so that we could see the different colours of the water due to the different depths.

We could see the Reef, just 600 meters away. There were some shrimp boats moored. The catch of shrimp was good this year, but the price was depressed. Pink shrimp are found in deep water while white shrimp, worth less, are found closer to shore in shallower water. All beaches in Roatán are open to everyone. Within the cove was an old beaten boat where a Russian family has lived for ten years. There are three boys who go to school. The parents left Russia due to the chaos back in 2014 and do not plan to return.

Roatán, Honduras, is located on the largest of the Bay Islands of Honduras. When first discovered the island had a large rat population. The island was formerly known in English as Ruatan and Rattan. Roatán is 65 kilometres off Honduras’ coast along with the smaller islands of Utila and Guanaja.

Roatán is surrounded (similar to Bermuda’s reef) by part of the 1,000 kilometre long Mesoamerican Reef, the second largest coral reef in the world, Australia’s Great Barrier Reef on its north east coast being the largest. The southern part of the reef starts at southern Honduras and extend north along Guatemala, Belize and into a small area along the southern Mexico coast. The reef protects the coastline from storms and hurricanes. Beyond the reef the depth rapidly deepens to over 250 feet in places.

Our tour guide, Gillian, circulated one Lempiras bank notes which are worth about four cents US (a little over five cents Canadian). The different denominations of bills have a portrait on the front and braille numbers. The reverse gives the name of the person on the front. Gillian named a lot of the tropical fruit grown on the island. The people of Roatán depend on the native plants for remedies and medicines. They go to a medical doctor as a last resort.

Roatán exports coconut and bananas, but tourism is the number one industry.

The final stop was Las Palmes, where at the village of Garifuna a troop of performers from 2 to 62 years of age demonstrated native dances to the rhythm of drums and a hollow turtle shell. Then we had almost an hour for a beach break. Most of the group had lunch in the restaurant while a few tested the water wading in a short distance. Chris and Shirley from Vancouver joined us on the covered patio overlooking the beach. We just had a light snack of salsa and nacho chips and beer or pineapple juice to drink. It was pleasant in the shade with a light breeze. The temperature had climbed to 31°C.

We were back to the ship around 3:30 p.m. Waiting in the security line, Claudia and Brett hailed us saying they had a story to tell us of their snorkelling excursion. They had a good time snorkelling the reef, but an elderly gentleman had some difficulty putting on his mask and snorkel while treading water. They thought that he was inexperienced. When they returned to the boat later the man was lying on a bench not looking well and were told he had swallowed water. When the group returned to land, a medic was called to assess the man. After returning to our stateroom we climbed up to Deck 10 to get some ice cream on such a hot day. We heard the horn blast from Harmony of the Seas as it got ready to leave its berth.

The captain’s announcement was just after the 4:30 p.m. All Aboard, advised that Constellation would be leaving around 5 p.m. He mentioned that the overnight temperature would be 28°C, partly cloudy and a ENE wind of 15 knots (27 km per hour) as the ship travelled 118 nautical miles to Belize City at a speed of 9 knots.

There was a Captain’s Club Senior Officers Party at 5:30 p.m. in the Reflections Lounge on Deck 11 we here met Zegrid, Claudia and Brett. They told us that they had been informed that the man in distress on their snorkelling tour had died. The dance company aerialists gave a stunning performance of balancing and grace. Then Sarah introduced the Senior Officers present and had a fun game with the 60 guests by showing baby photos and asking which officer it was. We were served complimentary cocktails or wine and canapés.

We went to dinner and were finished in time to see the 7 p.m. show featuring the pianist Josh Christina before going to the Rendezvous Lounge to dance their final dances of the set which happened to be Sambas.

Total steps today 10,880