Honduran Hooky - Part 8, Roatan or Bust

Later that night in Copan, Sean and I attended a local Circus. It was a relatively small family affair with only one truck and one tent. It was also not very crowded. We both noticed young European looking couples on holiday there. There were no animals in this circus. There were some strength and balance acts and lots of clowning around. It was terribly homophobic, but the local audience loved it. Everything is so muy macho in South America. But it was nice to be out and be amused. We were more than ready for the dive part of our trip.

The next day, we loaded all of our luggage into a different van, ignoring the beggars, of course, and Carlos drove us to San Pedro Sula. The windshield rattled the entire way, and Woody stipulated that the rubber gasket that held it in place must be rotted out completely and there was nothing holding it on. He even gently pushed it out to show us. That was not comforting. We all bid a fond farewell to Carlos and got his contact information.

Our flight took place without event and we landed at Aeropeurto Juan Manuel Galvez. We rented a car and the boys loaded it and off we drove to Bay Islands Beach Resort, (BIBR) which was only about a 10 minute drive, as the island is only 34 miles long and the hotel is right across the island from the airport.

Left portion of Roatan. I marked the airport (bottom) and hotel locations (top) , but they look fuzzy now. Below, the right portion of the island.

The easiest way to locate BIBR on any aerial map is to look for Spooky Channel. You can see it clearly on the image above. BIBR has 44 acres on the waterfront there.

We had reserved a beach front room for the duration of our stay. I must say, that every time I arrive in the Caribbean I am just stunned by the beauty of the beach, sand and palm trees. This time was no different. It was love at first sight. I guess I am easy to please.

Anyhow, we were shown to our rooms and I was delighted. Sean and I were on the second floor and had our own balcony that overlooked the water.

The rest of our dive group was also there by then and it was great to be reunited with them.

We set out to explore the facility which included the dive area,

With it's extremely competent Dive staff,

The grounds,

And the restaurant.

I approved and just couldn’t wait to get in the water.