Pancho Madera
New
From the moment you start your planning to visit Bos on the north shore of Guanaja you become inextricably part of the Bush family, and you start to learn some of the language and customs! Your e-mail messages are handled by daughter Catherine in San Pedro Sula, in Island English. You soon learn to be very specific with your questions, and that way you get the right answers. Island life is laid back, and Bo epitomizes the No Stress attitude I dont think that anything really bothers him.
You make your booking for Guanaja then try to work in the travel from the mainland. There are three or four airlines that fly puddle jumpers from La Ceiba to the little airstrip on Guanaja, morning or afternoon flights, but be careful about the departure schedule! Our tickets showed one time, the flight announcements at the airport another, the check in desk another, and the plane actually leaves when the pilot decides! Bo was at the airport to meet us; a tall, handsome 50 year-old who comes from traditional Island stock of many generations. The title airport is a little misleading; its a short landing strip, accessed by boats and a dock no roads, no paths, no vehicles! You leave along the canal with pelicans resting in the pines, head out past the beach Columbus arrived at in 1502, pass around Michaels Rock to Bos Green Flash bar and restaurant built out over the dock, hammocks slung in the shade.
There you meet eldest daughter Stephanie who basically runs the business on-site, as well as acting as waitress and house maid while wife Marta runs the kitchen. During the week, the two other children and a grandchild attend school a few kilometres away in Mitch (the small town named after the 1998 hurricane) and stay at Martas moms place. By Friday evening they all seem to appear in one boat or another for the weekend.
We were shown up to our room, half of the Casa Serena, with shared screened-in porch with our neighbour (a bone fisherman from Washington State, USA). The rooms are fully adequate without being luxurious; there was always a good supply of hot water for showers and loads of fresh towels. The Main House also has accommodation and is more spacious, especially for entertaining, at the same price we had a delightful evening over some rum and cokes with a trio of travelling Americans who had grown up living in Trujillo just across on the mainland.
You join the family, become part of the family, and are basically treated as such. Three meals a day are prepared by Marta in her kitchen beside the bar, and meal times are relatively limited when the meals ready its time to eat! But then again, you may have been out diving with Bo, and Marta knows when to expect you back. If youve been off hiking, fishing or snorkelling, you know when you have to return for the next meal. Meals are all traditional Island or Honduran, but if you dont think youre getting enough fruit, for example, all you have to do is ask Marta and fruit will be served. The bar works mostly on the honour system and you chalk up the Salvavida beers you drink, while Stephanie or Marta chalk up the double rum and cokes!
We booked for the week long divers package that includes ten dives, accommodation for seven days, three meals a day, and pick up and drop off at the airport. The diving was arguably the best weve had in the Caribbean, with excellent coral reef structures, amazing walls, swim-throughs, and caverns; sponges and fans galore, turtles, nurse sharks, moray eels, and stingrays; deep dives, shallow dives with a myriad of reef fish. No currents, little swell and chop, and all within a short boat ride of home.
One last comment that is not specific to Bo Bushs Island House; in common with Utila and Roatan, Guanaja has no-see ums and little black fly. Take DEET and use it with abandon if you want to be itch free!
You make your booking for Guanaja then try to work in the travel from the mainland. There are three or four airlines that fly puddle jumpers from La Ceiba to the little airstrip on Guanaja, morning or afternoon flights, but be careful about the departure schedule! Our tickets showed one time, the flight announcements at the airport another, the check in desk another, and the plane actually leaves when the pilot decides! Bo was at the airport to meet us; a tall, handsome 50 year-old who comes from traditional Island stock of many generations. The title airport is a little misleading; its a short landing strip, accessed by boats and a dock no roads, no paths, no vehicles! You leave along the canal with pelicans resting in the pines, head out past the beach Columbus arrived at in 1502, pass around Michaels Rock to Bos Green Flash bar and restaurant built out over the dock, hammocks slung in the shade.
There you meet eldest daughter Stephanie who basically runs the business on-site, as well as acting as waitress and house maid while wife Marta runs the kitchen. During the week, the two other children and a grandchild attend school a few kilometres away in Mitch (the small town named after the 1998 hurricane) and stay at Martas moms place. By Friday evening they all seem to appear in one boat or another for the weekend.
We were shown up to our room, half of the Casa Serena, with shared screened-in porch with our neighbour (a bone fisherman from Washington State, USA). The rooms are fully adequate without being luxurious; there was always a good supply of hot water for showers and loads of fresh towels. The Main House also has accommodation and is more spacious, especially for entertaining, at the same price we had a delightful evening over some rum and cokes with a trio of travelling Americans who had grown up living in Trujillo just across on the mainland.
You join the family, become part of the family, and are basically treated as such. Three meals a day are prepared by Marta in her kitchen beside the bar, and meal times are relatively limited when the meals ready its time to eat! But then again, you may have been out diving with Bo, and Marta knows when to expect you back. If youve been off hiking, fishing or snorkelling, you know when you have to return for the next meal. Meals are all traditional Island or Honduran, but if you dont think youre getting enough fruit, for example, all you have to do is ask Marta and fruit will be served. The bar works mostly on the honour system and you chalk up the Salvavida beers you drink, while Stephanie or Marta chalk up the double rum and cokes!
We booked for the week long divers package that includes ten dives, accommodation for seven days, three meals a day, and pick up and drop off at the airport. The diving was arguably the best weve had in the Caribbean, with excellent coral reef structures, amazing walls, swim-throughs, and caverns; sponges and fans galore, turtles, nurse sharks, moray eels, and stingrays; deep dives, shallow dives with a myriad of reef fish. No currents, little swell and chop, and all within a short boat ride of home.
One last comment that is not specific to Bo Bushs Island House; in common with Utila and Roatan, Guanaja has no-see ums and little black fly. Take DEET and use it with abandon if you want to be itch free!
