Ah,Honduras, Ah, Honduras! You’re so Dearly Missed by us! (“The Carnival Liberty” Cruise, August 14, 2013)

Jankoinmask2013It is necessary to sail so far from your home to meet your compatriot just in Honduras, Roatan Island, Mahogany Bay Center, like Janko did, at the Crafts Store, where the owner of the Honduran masks and his wife were welcoming us in a friendly way.

“Your masks are wonderful”, said Janko to this guy. Then they started the conversation. It happened to be that the owner was a Canadian citizen, from Saskatchewan, got married to the woman from Honduras, and the two were involved into the crafts business which completely depends on tourists’ flow.

“This summer was not bad”, told his story Janko’s new acquaintance ,”The hurricanes seem to be benevolent to us, not disturbing so much this season. People are coming for vacations here to have good time, but not suffer from the bad weather”.

We agreed with our new friend, bought a few things from here, took some pictures for memories, postcards with Honduras sightseeing, wrote our addresses back home, so the Honduran kind lady promised to mail them. And she did. They’ve arrived one month later , so one could see one of them with Honduran stamps.  Exotic gesture from exotic country!Honduras

A strange thing becomes to people: when they are far away from their native land, they are missing it and want to return home as soon as possible. When we are at home, and a little Honduran card arrived to our address, we immediately started to miss Honduras, Roatan island.  True as it is said: it is nice everywhere when we are not there at the moment.

Such is human nature.

Maya Key’s beach is just minutes across the bay. Under the swaying coconut palms we relaxed and swam in the sea, visited the Maya Interpretation Center and Honduran Art Exhibit Center to learn more about Honduras’ rich cultural heritage. We explored life size replicas of the Copan Ruins and saw native Honduran wildlife such as a Jaguar, Ocelot, Mar-gay, monkeys and reptiles at the Animal Sanctuary and Rescue Center.

Some families rushed to Tabyana beach and Gumbalimba to interact with the curiously playful bottle-nose dolphins at Anthony’s Key Resort. Kids were photographed with their new Dolphin friends.

Then – straight to the powder white sand of the beach, cool trade winds and island music, we were in paradise, refreshed by swimming in the turquoise pristine waters of the Caribbean.

Some took a 5-minute lift ride on the Magical Flying Beach chair from the the Mahogany Bay Cruise Center to Mahogany Beach. From the comfort of  their cabana, you can take in the beautiful view of the ocean and our “Carnival Liberty” cruise ship .

Back from the beach we walked by the Gumbalimba Park. At the park we listened to the tranquil sounds of the waterfall as we strolled the nature trails alone. We watched the colors of the Caribbean come alive as parrots and macaws fly around freely. Spider monkeys and white face monkeys in the Monkey Refuge were seen from the distance, we roamed through the botanical gardens to view the ingenious plants of this region.One local guy cut sugar canes for us to try the juice from sugar cane. And we tried it for the first time in our lives. It was fresh and slightly sweet unlike we used to the taste of  other sugar.

Compared to Belize, this Roatan zone was more isolated from the locals. We met only those people who worked there. Bye-bye, the beauty of Honduras.

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