Discovering Roatan’s Coral Reefs

The island of Roatan has been near the top of my “places I need to go” list for a long time. I was really excited when I finally booked the New Year’s cruise, and I knew I’d get to check it off my list. Roatan is know for its spectacular scuba diving and beautiful coral reefs, so that was the first shore excursion I booked because I didn’t want to miss out on the diving here.

Diving on Roatan’s Coral Reefs

Because it was a New Year’s cruise, and there were multiple ships in port, all of our excursions were crowded. If there is one type of excursion you don’t want to be crowded, it’s a scuba trip. When we were in the Maldives we had only 3-4 people per dive master, so they were able to show you some really cool stuff.

Dive master leading the way

In Roatan, we had 10 people per dive master. Not only did it seem like we could see less because of the big group, there was also a huge variance between the skill levels of the divers. I’m not a pro, but it seemed like some of the other divers needed to re-take their open water class because they had no buoyancy control and occupied one of the dive masters because they kept going up and down. Their lack of buoyancy control also put the delicate coral reefs in danger.

One of the great part about Roatan’s coral reefs is we only had two 5 minute boat rides to get to the two dive sites. Shorter boat rides meant more time underwater. Meaning I got more pictures!

Exploring Roatan and trying new food

After we got back from the dives we opted to find a nice local bar and try some food and drinks. Our guide and the owner of the bar suggested I try their local beer, and their signature menu item, iguana.

Salva Vida a local Honduran Beer

I have to say the beer was fantastic, probably the best local beer I enjoyed on the cruise. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I ordered iguana, but what came out wasn’t it. At first glance it looked great, some red beans and rice and a spicy shredded meat. Upon closer inspection the meat still had hundreds of tiny bones and even some scaly skin in it. The rice was really good, and the iguana had a good flavor to it, but I couldn’t get over the bones. Every single bite I was spitting out bones.

My Favorite Pictures from Honduras

Now if you follow me on instagram you will have seen quite a few of these before. The beer photo above is one of my favorite pictures from the cruise because the ship is in the background.

Isla Roatan from the my drone. You can actually see the international airport too.

The Norwegian Jade and an MSC ship in Roatan

A big ol’ grouper sitting on the coral reefs

I thought this coral formation was pretty cool

An accidental photo of the coral turned out to be one of my favorites!

Mallory trying to point out something cool

All of the beautiful colors you can see on Roatan’s coral reefs

We saw some fish, but not nearly as many as the Maldives

More colorful coral

My favorite picture from Honduras was this little sea turtle resting on the coral reef

Roatan was one of my favorite stops along the cruise, and I love scuba diving, so I will have to come back and spend more time exploring the island and its coral reefs.