Today I held a sloth, had a macaw on my arm, had a monkey take a picture with my phone, and saw starfish while snorkeling. Four new things, all in Roatan, Honduras.
I’m told it was 28 of us who squeezed into a small bus, only slightly larger than a 15-person van. I don’t know how many rows there were, but I was immediately behind the driver, with my left foot squeezed onto the floor next to Alison’s feet and my right foot on a platform about 4 inches (10cm) higher. While atching everyone load into and out of the vehicle it was easy to think of clown cars.
Raymond, our excellent guide, took us first to a monkey and sloth farm. I chose to pet but not hold guinea pigs. Then I decided to be brave and hold a three-toed sloth….I asked and learned it was definitely a girl sloth as she did not have a section of brown fur on her back as a boy sloth would. Her name was Sophia (Sofia?). The next opportunity was macaws, and I continued to be brave and allowed a 5-year old macaw (gender unknown) to “sit” on my arm. The final opportunity was monkeys, but they are so “enterprising” that one must totally empty one’s pockets to enter their area and my bravery was exhausted so I chose to take pictures from outside the cage. One monkey objected to my being so close, and the next thing I knew my phone (camera) was on the ground and a picture had been taken,
The next two stops were for the “green dots” which is another way of saying that we found two geocaches. The first was easy enough to get to, the second required going down a rather steep road that was unpaved in sections.
My favorite stop of the day was the last one, namely the place where we snorkeled. About 20 of us, with several staff, motored out in a small boat for a few minutes to a shallow area then got into the water. It’s the first time I’ve seen starfish, and these were very different from the starfish at home. Some were the prototypical orange-ish color, others were brown or even black, and one was yellow; all were quite “regular” in shape with five legs with approximately equidistant spacing, and what could be described as a “web” between the legs.
We also got to see some reef with a variety of types of coral and a good number and variety of fish. I saw my first “school” of fish this trip as well as some familiar ones that I described after visiting the Bahamas this trip. I saw beautiful blue tangs which are a stunning cobalt blue (or lapis blue) with black markings and a yellow tail. For the first time this trip I saw butterfly fish which are mostly yellow but have a black dot toward the top of the body near the back fin. Today I finally noticed that the base of the purple fan coral is a mix of vivid violet and lavender while the fan itself is closer to lavender.
It was different but fun to snorkel with 20 friends and while what we saw was lovely I realize I’ve been spoiled with some of the spectacular snorkeling I’ve done. On the way back to the ship after lunch, Raymond commented that he had never had a full van of people who knew each other and that he would remember us. Perhaps I’ll visit him one day at the Hilton in Vermont where he works much of the year.
I still have two more opportunities to snorkel this trip, as well as one more country, Belize, which we will visit tomorrow.
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