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!

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.

I have a bit of a, not-so-secret, obsession with monkeys. Not the kind that throw their crap at you at the zoo, but the small cuddly ones that you could slap a diaper on and tote around like a hairy child. I was on an uncontrollable high when I found out that my dream of holding a monkey was going to come true at Gumbalimba Park in Roatan, Honduras. Seriously…it was as if someone had just told me that I won a brand new car…and gas for a year…and free maintenance. This was going to be way better than the twelve sea monkey farms that I tended to as a child. Yes, this obsession runs deep.

“What is the most unique place to visit on Roatan?”

Without hesitation I have to say, “Hole in the Wall!” (The Restaurant–not to be confused with the dive site.)

I admit that during my first year on Roatan, the tiny Island nestled in the Caribbean Sea, off the coast of Honduras–I heard about Hole in the Wall, but I didn’t get a chance to experience it for myself. After all, to get there, you first had to drive to Jonesville Bight, farther east than I had ever been. For those of you who have spent any time on Roatan, you’re having a good chuckle–the entire Island is only 37 miles long.

The Bay Islands of Honduras have always been knwn as one of the world’s most inexpensive places to learn to dive. Don’t think that because it’s cheap, it’s any less amazing.

The Meso-American Barrier Reef System, begins off the Honduran coast, and then continues past Belize to Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula. It is the second largest barrier reef, and much more accessible than the first largest, Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.

The Bay Islands can be considered sea-life central. People dive alongside whale sharks, hammerheads, dolphins, manta rays and beautiful vibrant corals, all in abundance. The islands have a very Caribbean feel to them, even though they are considered Latin American. Roatan has indigenous Garifuna tribes, who are of African descent, and English is primarily spoken.