Roatan

We had baleadas and smoothies again for our last visit to the Hotspot 'fly' cafe. We checked out and put our bags in Katelin's room. We headed out for a snorkel but soon turned back after being stung numerous times by tiny jellyfish - luckily the pain didn't last long. We hung out by the bar until our 2pm boat back to the mainland. We said our goodbyes to the lovely staff and DMs - definitely the friendliest hostel of our travels, I could have stayed a lot longer if it weren't for the bugs. Katelin came to wave us off and fetch cinnamon rolls for us.

Someone had stolen our leftovers (plus other people's) from the fridge. Jess, the receptionist, was reviewing the CCTV footage as we were leaving to find the culprits. Wrong as it might be, we all suspected the newly arrived Hondurans who had been drinking heavily and leaving a lot of mess around.

We got back to La Ceiba and had an hour to buy new tickets, have a coconut and get some caramel popcorn. The boat to Roatan, Galaxy Wave, is a proper big ferry rather than the tin can that goes to Utila. The terminal is also a big posh affair with security scanners whereas Utila just has a ticket booth. The poshness is reflected in a higher ferry price ($65 return). We were almost the only gringos on the boat.

We left at 4:30pm. An hour and a half of freezing aircon and a basketball movie later and we arrived at Roatan. There was a beautiful sunset and we saw a huge cruise liner leaving the island.

We got a taxi for $20 with a very nice driver, Juan Carlos, and booked him for the return journey - took about 35 mins. There is just one main road along the island and he said there are 410 taxis for all the tourists. Roatan is much bigger than Utila at 65km long whereas Utila is ~15km. Tourists are located in West End (cheaper area) and West Bay (pricey).

He dropped us off at Chillies, which is at the West End in Half Moon Bay ($39), where we were shown our new lodgings: a very cute wooden cabin nestled in a jungle setting with barely room to swing the furry reception cat, and with just a curtain separating the bathroom.

We went for a wander along the beach front which is paved but has no pavements and has restaurants and bars either side. It is much less built up than I'd been lead to believe and is a lovely cute place. Many of the restaurants are a bit fancy and prices are in dollars ($8-15 for a main) but there are a few cheaper ones and a fair bit of street food.

We had dinner at Creole's, a cheap and busy place. I had a 'small' bean and cheese quesadilla which was plenty (60L), Hannah had a large version (100L) which she couldn't finish and Anna had chicken, rice, beans & coleslaw (120L) and drinks for 25L each. Very reasonable prices and lovely food - I suspect this will become our regular. We had thought we'd have to be cooking for ourselves but it's much cheaper than we'd feared.

My new nickname is Soggy Tits Sparrow courtesy of Katelin due to my bikini sodden wet t-shirt and then me telling the taxi driver I am a pirate!

We were told by one of the guys at Captain Morgan's that everyone in Honduras should carry their passport at all times and if police catch you without it they can put you in jail for a night! We had not heard of this before and I find it unlikely they'd target Westerners but good to know!!!Read more