Water comments:
Snorkeling at West Bay Beach and West End was a piece of cake. There was never any current. Although there were some fairly stiff breezes on many of the days, the wind always blew from the east, which was offshore in this area of the island. (East wind is apparently the prevailing wind.) Thus, the water was always flat calm and there was no surge. Not so on the southern shore of the island. I think a lot of the days would not have been snorkelable at a south shore resort such as CoCo View, which supposedly has good snorkeling.
I was a little disappointed that the fish life, at least at the places we snorkeled, seemed somewhat depauperate and not especially diverse relative to other places I have been in the Caribbean. Disappointed might be too harsh a word; it might be better to say I wish there were more fish, as I still really liked the overall snorkel experience. Examples of lack of fish diversity: I was there for two weeks, snorkeled for about 3 hours/day every day but one, and saw only one stingray, one lizardfish, no triggerfish except for some durgons at Utila, no nurse sharks, one turtle, no hawkfish, just a few morays, a single observation of copper sweepers in a crevice, and two hogfish (plus maybe a few Spanish hogs). Perhaps most surprisingly, there werent that many grunts and snappers. Yes, I always saw grunts and schoolmaster snappers on every snorkel, but usually just one or two here and there, not the big schools that you see in places like Belize. Really abundant fish consisted of small wrasse (juv. blueheads), parrotfish, and blue tangs. A few fish seemed more common in the Bay Islands than what I have observed elsewhere: indigo hamlets (I hadnt seen many of these before), queen angelfish, and trumpetfish.
Heres the rundown on the specific sites we snorkeled:
West Bay Beach: The best place to enter the water is at the very southern end of the beach. The cruise ship beach area is just north of here, but thank goodness it doesnt extend all the way to the end of the beach. Head out towards the prominent black rock offshore; in fact this snorkeling spot is often called black rock. The inshore water was rather murky with a vis. of about 25 ft., and most of the coral was dead with few fish; you have to swim out to get to the good stuff. I wonder if the nearshore area had once been alive previous to the development of West Bay Beach. Once you get far enough offshore, you start to see live coral and the water clears to 50-100 ft vis. The coral appears to be in good health, and the underwater topography is spectacular with mini-canyons and a wall that drops from about 8 ft down to sand at 25 ft. The snorkeling area is huge and basically goes on forever along the wall parallel to West Bay Beach. Contrary to what I had read before my trip, cruise ship people really didnt affect us here. Even though there may be hundreds jammed on a short stretch of beach, few bother to swim far enough offshore to get to the good snorkeling. Plus, the snorkeling area is so big, it never got crowded. Although the underwater scenery was great and would be especially impressive to a novice snorkeler, I was disappointed with the fish life. There just werent that many fish except for small wrasse, damselfish, and parrotfish. Also, the fish were quite skittish, which is surprising considering that this is a marine preserve. I found the fish to be very hard to photograph because they were so shy.
Half Moon Bay: Located right in the middle of the settlement of West End. I found this spot to be better than I expected. There is an extremely convenient entry with steps at Half Moon Bay Cabins at the north end of the bay. A shower is right there when you get out, and you can use the resorts lounge chairs and go to the bar for refreshments. Great spot, as long as cruise ship people arent there (see more on this below). Half Moon Bay underwater is no where near as spectacular as West Bay Beach nor was the visibility as good (it was maybe 40 ft), but there were many interesting critters. Fish were a little more diverse than at the reef at West Bay Beach, and inverts (other than corals) were more common. We saw many trumpetfish and a large octopus in the open, as well as shrimp, lobsters, tube worms, anemones, flounders, snails, cucumbers, etc. that you just didnt see at West Bay. On our third visit to Half Moon Bay Cabins, we were dismayed to find the place overrun with cruise ship people. They took up many of the lounge chairs, and a number were out snorkeling. Apparently the cruise ships have a deal with the hotel to run snorkeling tours there. This isnt good, as the snorkeling area in Half Moon Bay isnt that big and some of the cruisers were standing on coralheads, holding onto gorgonians, etc. I fear for the health of this area if the cruisers continue to come and increase in numbers. I also would be upset if I were paying money to stay at Half Moon Bay Cabins and suddenly found all these cruisers descending upon this small, quiet resort.
Luna Beach Resort: Piers often have an interesting array of critters that you may not see elsewhere, and we decided to check out the pier at Luna Beach. It did not disappoint. There was a non-descript pile of rocks on the bottom next to the pier that was loaded with life: many arrow crabs and banded coral shrimp, scorpionfish, numerous juv. squirrelfish, etc. Banded coral shrimp were all over the pilings of the pier, which were also covered with pretty encrusting sponges. Close inspection of the pilings revealed many tiny juvenile fish and blennies. We also discovered a good snorkeling spot at the southern end of the resorts beach (toward West Bay Beach) just where the shoreline turns to rock. In about 4 feet of water, there were coralheads and sea fans teeming with 100s of fish, mostly grunts and snappers. This would be a great spot to take a child or a beginning snorkeler. It was by far the best snorkeling we found in real shallow water, and despite being right next to shore, the visibility was fairly good.
Cayos Cochinos: We took an all day boat/snorkeling trip to the Cayos Cochinos (Hog Cays), a small group of about 15 islands about 20 miles s. of Roatan and closer to the Honduran mainland. The trip was run by Las Rocas (our hotel) dive shop. This was a great trip that I highly recommend. The Cayos are drop-dead gorgeous and consist of two larger islands about 300 ft in elevation and the rest low-lying small cays with nothing but sand and coconuts. The small cays fit everyones dream of what a tropical island should look like. We stopped at one for snorkeling, which had a total of 5 coconut palms growing on it. The snorkeling was nice, but not especially different than Roatan. Again, most of the fish consisted of small reef fish, and the coralheads were pretty. I did see a large Caribbean king crab (a.k.a channel clinging crab) out in the open on top of a purple sea fan, which I presume was a highly unusual sighting. It made for a great photo op. After snorkeling, we went to another small cay that has the only village in the Cayos Cochinos. This village is inhabited by Garifuna fishermen and consisted of a series of mostly grass or palm huts along the sandy shore. Numerous dugout canoes were pulled up on the beach, some powered by outboard and some by battered sails. It was a beautiful spot, and also a glimpse into a completely different way of life. We had a delicious lunch of barbecued fresh fish served by an older woman in one of the only wooden houses on the cay.
Utila: We also took an all day boat/snorkeling trip to Utila. Again, this was arranged by the Las Rocas dive shop. We were the only snorkelers on this trip; the rest were divers. We searched for whale sharks to and from the island, but didnt see any. The diving spot was on the north side of Utila in Turtle Harbor. The divers dove the wall there, and we swam from the boat inshore to the shallow reef. The snorkeling was O.K., but nothing fantastic. Again, mostly small fish were present; visibility was about 40-50 feet. There probably are better places on Utila to snorkel, and this was merely convenient to the chosen diving site. I did see my only stingray of the trip on this snorkel, and also managed to get a nice photo of a barracuda. Afterwards, we went around the island to Utila town for lunch. This actually turned out to be the highlight of the trip. Both myself and my friend were quite surprised to find that Utila town was much more attractive than any of the towns on Roatan. It was cleaner, and most of houses were freshly painted and well-maintained. Generally, there seemed to be a feeling of pride of community than you didnt see on Roatan. The Bay Islands were originally settled by Cayman Islanders, and you could definitely see the similarity in the style of house to those in the Caymans. Id like to return to Utila some day and spend more than just an hour!
Snorkeling at West Bay Beach and West End was a piece of cake. There was never any current. Although there were some fairly stiff breezes on many of the days, the wind always blew from the east, which was offshore in this area of the island. (East wind is apparently the prevailing wind.) Thus, the water was always flat calm and there was no surge. Not so on the southern shore of the island. I think a lot of the days would not have been snorkelable at a south shore resort such as CoCo View, which supposedly has good snorkeling.
I was a little disappointed that the fish life, at least at the places we snorkeled, seemed somewhat depauperate and not especially diverse relative to other places I have been in the Caribbean. Disappointed might be too harsh a word; it might be better to say I wish there were more fish, as I still really liked the overall snorkel experience. Examples of lack of fish diversity: I was there for two weeks, snorkeled for about 3 hours/day every day but one, and saw only one stingray, one lizardfish, no triggerfish except for some durgons at Utila, no nurse sharks, one turtle, no hawkfish, just a few morays, a single observation of copper sweepers in a crevice, and two hogfish (plus maybe a few Spanish hogs). Perhaps most surprisingly, there werent that many grunts and snappers. Yes, I always saw grunts and schoolmaster snappers on every snorkel, but usually just one or two here and there, not the big schools that you see in places like Belize. Really abundant fish consisted of small wrasse (juv. blueheads), parrotfish, and blue tangs. A few fish seemed more common in the Bay Islands than what I have observed elsewhere: indigo hamlets (I hadnt seen many of these before), queen angelfish, and trumpetfish.
Heres the rundown on the specific sites we snorkeled:
West Bay Beach: The best place to enter the water is at the very southern end of the beach. The cruise ship beach area is just north of here, but thank goodness it doesnt extend all the way to the end of the beach. Head out towards the prominent black rock offshore; in fact this snorkeling spot is often called black rock. The inshore water was rather murky with a vis. of about 25 ft., and most of the coral was dead with few fish; you have to swim out to get to the good stuff. I wonder if the nearshore area had once been alive previous to the development of West Bay Beach. Once you get far enough offshore, you start to see live coral and the water clears to 50-100 ft vis. The coral appears to be in good health, and the underwater topography is spectacular with mini-canyons and a wall that drops from about 8 ft down to sand at 25 ft. The snorkeling area is huge and basically goes on forever along the wall parallel to West Bay Beach. Contrary to what I had read before my trip, cruise ship people really didnt affect us here. Even though there may be hundreds jammed on a short stretch of beach, few bother to swim far enough offshore to get to the good snorkeling. Plus, the snorkeling area is so big, it never got crowded. Although the underwater scenery was great and would be especially impressive to a novice snorkeler, I was disappointed with the fish life. There just werent that many fish except for small wrasse, damselfish, and parrotfish. Also, the fish were quite skittish, which is surprising considering that this is a marine preserve. I found the fish to be very hard to photograph because they were so shy.
Half Moon Bay: Located right in the middle of the settlement of West End. I found this spot to be better than I expected. There is an extremely convenient entry with steps at Half Moon Bay Cabins at the north end of the bay. A shower is right there when you get out, and you can use the resorts lounge chairs and go to the bar for refreshments. Great spot, as long as cruise ship people arent there (see more on this below). Half Moon Bay underwater is no where near as spectacular as West Bay Beach nor was the visibility as good (it was maybe 40 ft), but there were many interesting critters. Fish were a little more diverse than at the reef at West Bay Beach, and inverts (other than corals) were more common. We saw many trumpetfish and a large octopus in the open, as well as shrimp, lobsters, tube worms, anemones, flounders, snails, cucumbers, etc. that you just didnt see at West Bay. On our third visit to Half Moon Bay Cabins, we were dismayed to find the place overrun with cruise ship people. They took up many of the lounge chairs, and a number were out snorkeling. Apparently the cruise ships have a deal with the hotel to run snorkeling tours there. This isnt good, as the snorkeling area in Half Moon Bay isnt that big and some of the cruisers were standing on coralheads, holding onto gorgonians, etc. I fear for the health of this area if the cruisers continue to come and increase in numbers. I also would be upset if I were paying money to stay at Half Moon Bay Cabins and suddenly found all these cruisers descending upon this small, quiet resort.
Luna Beach Resort: Piers often have an interesting array of critters that you may not see elsewhere, and we decided to check out the pier at Luna Beach. It did not disappoint. There was a non-descript pile of rocks on the bottom next to the pier that was loaded with life: many arrow crabs and banded coral shrimp, scorpionfish, numerous juv. squirrelfish, etc. Banded coral shrimp were all over the pilings of the pier, which were also covered with pretty encrusting sponges. Close inspection of the pilings revealed many tiny juvenile fish and blennies. We also discovered a good snorkeling spot at the southern end of the resorts beach (toward West Bay Beach) just where the shoreline turns to rock. In about 4 feet of water, there were coralheads and sea fans teeming with 100s of fish, mostly grunts and snappers. This would be a great spot to take a child or a beginning snorkeler. It was by far the best snorkeling we found in real shallow water, and despite being right next to shore, the visibility was fairly good.
Cayos Cochinos: We took an all day boat/snorkeling trip to the Cayos Cochinos (Hog Cays), a small group of about 15 islands about 20 miles s. of Roatan and closer to the Honduran mainland. The trip was run by Las Rocas (our hotel) dive shop. This was a great trip that I highly recommend. The Cayos are drop-dead gorgeous and consist of two larger islands about 300 ft in elevation and the rest low-lying small cays with nothing but sand and coconuts. The small cays fit everyones dream of what a tropical island should look like. We stopped at one for snorkeling, which had a total of 5 coconut palms growing on it. The snorkeling was nice, but not especially different than Roatan. Again, most of the fish consisted of small reef fish, and the coralheads were pretty. I did see a large Caribbean king crab (a.k.a channel clinging crab) out in the open on top of a purple sea fan, which I presume was a highly unusual sighting. It made for a great photo op. After snorkeling, we went to another small cay that has the only village in the Cayos Cochinos. This village is inhabited by Garifuna fishermen and consisted of a series of mostly grass or palm huts along the sandy shore. Numerous dugout canoes were pulled up on the beach, some powered by outboard and some by battered sails. It was a beautiful spot, and also a glimpse into a completely different way of life. We had a delicious lunch of barbecued fresh fish served by an older woman in one of the only wooden houses on the cay.
Utila: We also took an all day boat/snorkeling trip to Utila. Again, this was arranged by the Las Rocas dive shop. We were the only snorkelers on this trip; the rest were divers. We searched for whale sharks to and from the island, but didnt see any. The diving spot was on the north side of Utila in Turtle Harbor. The divers dove the wall there, and we swam from the boat inshore to the shallow reef. The snorkeling was O.K., but nothing fantastic. Again, mostly small fish were present; visibility was about 40-50 feet. There probably are better places on Utila to snorkel, and this was merely convenient to the chosen diving site. I did see my only stingray of the trip on this snorkel, and also managed to get a nice photo of a barracuda. Afterwards, we went around the island to Utila town for lunch. This actually turned out to be the highlight of the trip. Both myself and my friend were quite surprised to find that Utila town was much more attractive than any of the towns on Roatan. It was cleaner, and most of houses were freshly painted and well-maintained. Generally, there seemed to be a feeling of pride of community than you didnt see on Roatan. The Bay Islands were originally settled by Cayman Islanders, and you could definitely see the similarity in the style of house to those in the Caymans. Id like to return to Utila some day and spend more than just an hour!
