January 24, 2019

Today’s port is Roatán Island, Honduras at the dock by Coxen Hole, the largest town on the island. The sun rose in a mostly cloudy sky just after 7 am, when I was walking on Deck 5’s walking track. I had been up on Deck 16 and took a picture of some of the pools. The morning temperature was 26°C and it was windy. The clouds were gray but we did not get any rain on our morning excursion.

Other ships docked at Mahogony Bay, Roatán Island were Carnival Miracle and Marella Discovery 2.

We joined the kids for breakfast on Deck 16’s Windjammer buffet. Catherine and Mia suffered from seasickness overnight. They are fine now that the ship was docked. Then we dropped into the Diamond Club for coffee.

All five of us are going on the same excursion, called Xocolati – the Chocolate Experience, to Carambola Botanical Garden. The bus, with a snorkel (like we had seen in Australia) can hold 26 passengers but there were only 15 people in the group. Elvin was our driver/tour guide to and from the gardens. He gave some history of the island.

Roatán Island is the largest of Honduras’s Caribbean Bay Islands. The other two smaller islands are Guanaia and Utila. The island is surrounded by part of the huge Mesoamerican Barrier Reef. West Bay Beach, at the southwest tip of the island boasts a coral reef near the shore. The bay was located by Christopher Columbus on his fourth voyage in the early1500s. Black Carib indigenous people from St. Vincent island were deported by the English in the late 1700s and moved to Roatán Island to the small settlement of Puta Gorda where they founded the Garifuna Culture which spread to mainland Honduras and Central America.

Our cruise ship is docked at the Port of Roatán.The cost of electricity is $0.25US per kilowatt hour and purified water is $1.50US per gallon. Over a million cruise ship passengers visited Roatán Island last year.

It was a short drive through the town of Coxen Holeand along the narrow main road to Carambola Botanical Garden. The speed limit is 40 kph due to the winding nature of the road. Elvin took the group to the entrance and we were greeted and taken on a walk through 4.5 acres of the botanical gardens nestled in the jungle. As we entered, each person was given a small cup of delicious chocolate milk. Next, we listened to a brief commentary about the gardens and then spent about an hour on a walking tour along the jungle paths, with explanations of the different trees and plants. We saw several types of palm trees, mahogany trees, Norfolk pines, ornamental red ginger bushes, vanilla plants (which are the only member of the orchid family that are edible), teak trees, all spice trees, coffee trees, bread fruit trees, soursop plants, coconut trees, mango trees, cashew trees, cinnamon trees, cassava and cacao trees. Vanilla plants only bloom for 12 hours once per year and need to be hand pollenated.

After the garden walk we were led to a covered platform on a small hill amongst the jungle trees and given a lesson on the creation of chocolates. Julie was the woman demonstrating the process. First, she told us the history of the cacao plant noting that thousands of years ago, people saw rats enjoying the cacao pods and decided that people could eat it too. Over the centuries, the Mayans refined the method of making chocolate. It is a three-week process which started with picking the cacao pod from the trunk of the tree and opening it to remove the seeds which are fermented then dried in sunshine for 20 straight days.

The group split in two. At one table three generations of a Minnesota family celebrating the parents’ (Karen & Richard) 50th anniversary sat with a woman and her 6 year-old son. At our table were the five of us and two American ladies. Each table was given two bowls with 300 grams of dried cacao seeds and two empty bowls, to put the peeled seeds in. The cacao seeds had been slightly heated to make the peeling process easier, but as the seeds cooled they were difficult to peel. A nutcracker would have helped. We spent at least 30 minutes peeling seeds. Then Julie took the peeled cocoa beans to another table where an ancient meat grinder was set up and some of the group took turns turning the grinder handle while Larry and a few others ground some beans on a curved stone tray with a stone pestle, quite a labour intensive job. Next, the ground beans were heated and powdered sugar, like icing sugar, were mixed together to form a paste to which cocoa butter was added and the concoction looked like melted chocolate. There was a large bowl of cut banana pieces and a pile of paper napkins. After peeling their banana piece, people spooned the liquid chocolate on the banana and enjoyed the result. The remaining mixture was poured into small bonbon moulds and taken to the refrigerator to cool while the group ate lunch.

We were served a delicious traditional lunch featuring baked chicken in a mildly spiced coconut milk sauce, rice & beans and fried plantains with lemonade. Dessert was cubed fresh papaya and pineapple plus chocolate pieces wrapped in aluminium foil. The browsing of the gift shop was done by cellphone light as that part of the island was dealing with a power outage. We barely noticed since we had a hot lunch, but the chocolate pieces were from another tour’sdemonstrations since our chocolates had not hardened because of the power failure. We all had a new appreciation of the chocolate making process.

Elvin picked up the group and took us on a different scenic journey back to the ship. The island is rolling with hills and has new condo projects for foreigners eager to enjoy the tropical weather. The closer to the water the higher the price of the condos.

Back at the cruise terminal there were kiosks set up within the terminal property and along the nearby road. Catherine, Scott and Mia meandered through the merchandise and Catherine founda nice leaf shaped pendant necklace. We went to the Dimond Club Lounge for some cappuccinos before spending the afternoon in the shade on the balcony, sipping wine and enjoying the 29°C heat.

We ate dinner in the dining at the same table enjoying Beef Stroganoff, mojo marinated grilled pork chop, Moroccan spiced ahi tuna and Jerk spiced chicken and dessert of English Trifle and Chocolate Soufflé with praline sauce. The ship departed at 6 p.m. heading back north.

Catherine and Mia were coping with seasickness once the ship left port. Catherine did join us for the 8:30 Headliners Show featuring the band Savannah Jack.

Today’s total steps 19,183