Honduras Travel

CoCo View Diving Resort in Roatan, Honduras is a resort that primarily caters to scuba divers. It is a small community of bungalows, cabanas and buildings on a secluded peninsula and not a traditional luxury resort with fancy restaurants and clubs.

CoCo View has a very tropical feel, with flocks of Hummingbirds darting around, palm trees and other lush tropical greenery everywhere, and no cars at all. All of the bungalows and cabanas are directly on the water. Diving is sensational, with two walls and a wreck right off the resort beach (see map) and dozens of coral reef/wall dive sites reachable via dive boat within minutes.

All divers know that getting into the waters isn’t cheap. What if we told you about a place with so many dive shops that prices are incredibly competitive, you can easily (and safely, of course) get scuba-certified, and it’s on the rich and colorful waters of the second-largest reef system—the Caribbean’s Mesoamerican Barrier Reef? West End Village is what we’re after!

Where’s it at?

Though the name suggests both mammal and fish, whale sharks are indeed sharks. These bus-size behemoths, found in tropical waters around the globe, can reach more than 12 metres in length and weigh 34 tonnes. Whale sharks are gentle giants, filter feeders that prefer small fish and plankton to people. They often swim with their massive mouths agape to hoover up their prey. Seeing one up close will leave you spellbound and feeling like Jonah.

The Honduras we think we know is a small Spanish-speaking country wedged somewhere between North and South America, between the First World amenities of its capital and the Third World poverty of its countryside, between an affordable cultural vacation destination and a risky stop in politically unstable terrain.

But there’s a tiny piece of that country, not quite 25 square miles’ worth, that is so rare and different that the few who have been there tend to want to stay forever — and many have.

Before us the ocean was brilliant blue green with mild 4-foot swells. We sped across the Honduran channel at 40 mph aboard the Galaxy Wave Ferry, knick-named the “Vomit Comet.” The name is well deserved due to the typical chop encountered in these seas.

We were heading to the Honduran coastal town of La Ceiba from the island of Roatan. I thought seasickness pills were in order, but my wife went without.

Travel to Honduras – Episode 291
by Chris Christensen
Listen:
Amateur Traveler Episode 291 – Travel to Honduras

Or see more at: http://centralamerica.amateurtraveler.com/2011/07/30/travel-to-honduras/