When is the best time to go?
We went in July. This is low tourist season. Surprisingly high tourist season is in winter which is their rainy season.
Where is Roatan? Where is Honduras?
Roatan is a Caribbean Island just north of Honduras. It's part of that country. There are two other islands nearby - Utila and Guanaja.
Honduras is part of Central America. It borders El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua. It also touches the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean.
Weren't you afraid to bring your daughter to such a dangerous place?
We thought a lot about this and did our research. Truth be told, I was a bit nervous. So, probably mostly to make me feel better, I bought my daughter an AmberWatch. This is a digital watch that can emit a very loud alarm if you push a special set of buttons. We showed her how it worked and told her it was for emergencies. There were a few other things we did to plan for all of our safety...
We booked our hotels in advance. Then we made sure that the hotels sent transportation to the ports to pick us up. It feels good to get off a crowded plane or boat and see your name on a white card with a known driver ready to take you to your destination. It's also cheaper than just catching a random cab when you get there.
Since we had a lot of problems with theft when we went to Costa Rica several years ago, I brought along a PacSafe backpack. This is a cable net that locks around your luggage, and you can fasten it to anything solid - like a bedpost. Passports, wallets, and unused camera equipment stayed in the backpack enveloped in the PacSafe while we played. Very compact and very easy to use.
When we got there we realized much of our preparation was unnecessary. Roatan is small, economically growing, and quite safe. Where we stayed in the jungle outside of La Ceiba was way out of the way. La Ceiba itself was actually pretty nice for a Central American town - probably much safer than many places in the United States. Just don't wander into any unknown neighborhoods.
What was the weather like?
Hot and humid!!! Now I understand why you see so many people lounging around all over the country. It's too hot to exert any energy. On Roatan it never rained on us. On the mainland in the mountainous jungle it rained for a short period almost every afternoon, sometimes pretty hard.
Were the mosquitos bad? Sand fleas? Other bugs?
I got eaten alive despite application of deet. My wife and daughter were barely touched. Go figure. Long pants and long sleeves are the only things that protected me.
The beaches are full of sand fleas, both on Roatan and on the mainland. These things are so tiny they are practically invisible. Their bites look and itch just like mosquitos.
Mosquitos were prevalent wherever we went, but at least we could see them. Again, they loved me.
Where did you stay? And would you go back?
On Roatan we stayed at the Bananarama Resort in West Bay. West Bay is THE place to stay - pristine white beaches and plenty of diving/snorkeling. Nothing like it on the whole island, at least not yet. Bananarama itself was great in every respect except for the room. It smelled funny because of the running water, and it was located right next to the loud electrical generator for maximum disturbance when the power went out.
In La Ceiba we stayed at Omega Tours lodge. They were great in every respect except for the wildlife tours. Room was awesome, food was great, staff was friendly and helpful, the grounds were exotic, and the adventure tours were really fun. But if your primary objective is wildlife, this may not be the place for you. The staff was not interested in getting to any of the wildlife sites early in the morning when the animals are active. On our 2 wildlife trips we got there at 10:30a when it was nice and hot and devoid of wildlife.
Was it expensive?
I was surprised that it was. Roatan was as expensive as a typical American city.
Did they take US dollars? Credit cards?
Everyone took US dollars. We could have avoided changed into Limpiras if we didn't want to. Not every place takes credit cards. In fact, few places we went took credit cards. We spent a lot of cash. ATMs work just fine when you can find them. Never saw one in Roatan, but they were easily available in La Ceiba.
Did you ever lose power?
Oh yes. It's a regular occurance.
What kind of photographic equipment did you use?
On this trip I had a Canon 20D 8.2megapixel digital SLR. I used a 100-400mm IS lens for the wildlife and a 38-138mm IS lens for just about everything else. No tripod, no monopod, no filters. Shot mostly in RAW mode.
Almost everything was taken in Aperture priority mode. For wildlife it was cranked wide open to get the fastest shutter speed. In the dark jungle I cranked the ISO to 400 and reduced the exposure compensation to -1 to increase the shutter speed more. Shooting in RAW mode makes it easy to make up for the -1 exposure compensation. All panoramas were taken in Manual mode.
