West Bay Beach, Roatan

We spent a week at Bananarama Dive Resort on West Bay Beach on Roatan Island. It was an awesome time snorkeling and kayaking. You could have a complete vacation without ever leaving this beach.

Our first adventure on the island of Roatan when we get to Bananarama Resort - let's see the beach!

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Bananarama Dive Resort has a great place to eat or drink at the beach.

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Cafe Bananarama has a small selection and, unless it's cruise ship day, they take their own sweet time preparing your meal. I recommend the ham-a-rama sandwich.

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The Bananarama staff had several animal creations to rotate through each day as they replaced the towels. Here my daughter poses with an elephant, but we had a sheep and a turkey on other days.

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Diving is what it's all about at Bananarama. Their schedule is completely filled with dives and classes. We were probably the only non-divers there, but that's OK. When my daughter is 10 she can take PADI dive lessons here to become certified.

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Ah, the beach at West Bay! Completely pristine and irresistable to a 4-year old. She almost never got out of the water.

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Where can you find colors like that just 2.5 hours away from Houston?

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The always-visible L-shaped pier at West Bay. A pier never looked so aluring.

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This was our room at Bananarama. It really sucked. The rancid tapwater made the place smell. The beds were hard. The location was right next to the generator, and as luck would have it, the power went out on the stillest night of the trip. So we had zero circulation and a loud engine right outside our open window.\n\nEverything else about Bananarama was great. Very friendly people, tasty and plentiful breakfasts, easy beach access....

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The family poses next to some kayaks. My daughter was dying to try the kayaks, but I wouldn't let her on the first day since it was so windy. She was pretty disappointed.

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But on Day 2, the first thing we did was try the sea kayak. And that's also what we did on Day 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7. She LOVED paddling the kayaks. And she did a pretty decent job paddling, too.

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My daughter LOVED paddling the kayaks. And she did a pretty decent job, too. "Scoop it like a spoon, not like a knife!"

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My daughter LOVED paddling the kayaks. And she did a pretty decent job, too. "Scoop it like a spoon, not like a knife!"

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My daughter LOVED paddling the kayaks. And she did a pretty decent job, too. "Scoop it like a spoon, not like a knife!"

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My daughter LOVED paddling the kayaks. And she did a pretty decent job, too. "Scoop it like a spoon, not like a knife!"

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My daughter LOVED paddling the kayaks. And she did a pretty decent job, too. "Scoop it like a spoon, not like a knife!"

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A typical sunset off West Bay. Most of them were fairly colorless, but it wasn't hard to make a nice sunset image anyway.

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Gumbalimba park offers a canopy tour and the chance to handle real monkeys and parrots. We didn't go. Didn't seem like something our daughter would enjoy. But if you go, you should be able to get there by walking along the beach instead of taking a water taxi or regular taxi.

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Gumbalimba park offers a canopy tour and the chance to handle real monkeys and parrots. We didn't go. Didn't seem like something our daughter would enjoy. But if you go, you should be able to get there by walking along the beach instead of taking a water taxi or regular taxi.

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Dive tanks can't wait to get started in the morning. They're all lined up waiting to get on the boat.

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Dive tanks can't wait to get started in the morning. They're all lined up waiting to get on the boat.

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This guy only came out on cruise ship day to sell hand-woven hats to the tourists. My wife wouldn't let me get one.

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A baselisk hangs out on a tree at the Bananarama resort. This one is a male - you can see his crest. Whent they are young and therefore smaller, baselisks can run across water. That gives them the nickname of Jesus Christ lizard. They have another nickname here on the island - the Monkey La La. But I don't know why they call it that. There is also a delicious alcoholic drink called the Monkey La La that you simply must try.

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There are hammocks all over Bananarama resort, plus you can always find a guy selling them for $20 on the beach. I think you can talk him down to $15, though.

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Gotta harvest a few coconuts for the cruise ship crowd. They took them and macheted off the top so that they could poke a straw into the milk.

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Pretty decent sunset just off the beach by Bananarama Dive Resort.

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Pretty decent sunset just off the beach by Bananarama Dive Resort.

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Pay close attention. If you want to see the best snorkelling spot on West Bay, go just past the L-shaped pier and swim out along the white buoys. When the buoys end you'll swim over a lot of coral into the open water where it's about 40 feet deep and gorgeous!\n\nLook for extremely large parrot fish, schools of purple tangs, and maybe even a barracuda. That's what we saw!

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My daughter is ready to snorkel. We trained her in our pool in Phoenix before the trip. She was already a pretty good swimmer.\n\nBut when I told her the coral was dangerous - it's sharp enough to cut you, plus YOU could damage IT - she panicked whenever we got too close. And when she panicked she jumped on my back.\n\nLuckily I had a small turtle-shaped kickboard stuffed in my shirt to give me extra buoancy for just such an occasion. Having her ride on my back worked out great! She still got to see everything, and when she felt comfortable she could get off and swim on her own.

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My daughter is ready to snorkel. We trained her in our pool in Phoenix before the trip. She was already a pretty good swimmer.\n\nBut when I told her the coral was dangerous - it's sharp enough to cut you, plus YOU could damage IT - she panicked whenever we got too close. And when she panicked she jumped on my back.\n\nLuckily I had a small turtle-shaped kickboard stuffed in my shirt to give me extra buoancy for just such an occasion. Having her ride on my back worked out great! She still got to see everything, and when she felt comfortable she could get off and swim on her own.

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My daughter is ready to snorkel. We trained her in our pool in Phoenix before the trip. She was already a pretty good swimmer.\n\nBut when I told her the coral was dangerous - it's sharp enough to cut you, plus YOU could damage IT - she panicked whenever we got too close. And when she panicked she jumped on my back.\n\nLuckily I had a small turtle-shaped kickboard stuffed in my shirt to give me extra buoancy for just such an occasion. Having her ride on my back worked out great! She still got to see everything, and when she felt comfortable she could get off and swim on her own.

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Even the dogs love to swim. And even the dogs get tired of swimming sometimes.

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There are several places to eat along the West Bay beach, and we took a walk down the beach every evening.

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On the north side of the beach you can catch a glass-bottom boat ride over the reef. We didn't try this since we spent so much time snorkeling.

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Cabana Lana looks like a nice place on the West Bay beach of Roatan.

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At then end of West Bay beach you'll find Bite on the Beach restaurant. Great food, try the Monkey La La drink.

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Looking back at the West Bay beach from Bite on the Beach restaurant.

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My daughter poses playfully in the evening on West Bay beach. I used a little bit of fill flash to illuminate her.

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My daughter poses playfully in the evening on West Bay beach. I used a little bit of fill flash to illuminate her.

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A paddleboat at sunset off West Bay beach.

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The most colorful sunset we saw off West Bay beach on Roatan Island.

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The most colorful sunset we saw off West Bay beach on Roatan Island.

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The most colorful sunset we saw off West Bay beach on Roatan Island.

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Can't find blues like these in the USA.

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3 scholars all try to ride a kayak vertically.

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A Hondurian family buries a member in the sand. Notice how empty the beach is? That was typical for this time of year, except for cruise ship day.

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A Hondurian family buries a member in the sand. Notice how empty the beach is? That was typical for this time of year, except for cruise ship day.

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A pelican flies by the West Bay beach. Not too many seabirds here - saw a few pelicans and a few frigate birds and that was about it.

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The L-shaped pier towards the end of West Bay beach.

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At the far south end of West Bay beach there are what appear to be the remains of an old pier. Even a broken up pier looks beautiful here in Roatan.

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I'm your ice cream man, stop me when I'm passing by. There was always someone selling icecream on the beach.

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Can you believe the color of this water?

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The L-shaped pier at the end of West Bay beach. This is a good place to flag down a water taxi to go to West End.

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West Bay beach from the L-shaped pier.

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Can you believe the color of this water? You won't find blues like this in the USA.

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Family gets some lunch at the small deli at the end of the driveway to Bananarama. Some days you just need to have a deli sandwich, and they make an excellent sandwich here.\n\nWe brought a spiral notebook and a set of markers to occupy our daughter at restaurants. She filled that notebook over the course of our vacation mostly with drawings of princesses.

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