Adventures with David & Gail

Little Guanaja! – About 150 miles west of the Vivorillo Cays are the Bay Islands of Honduras. The three major islands are noted for tourism and especially diving. They also have a huge fishing fleet that works the banks between the Bay Islands and the Jamaica banks. In the guide book we have, there are a few pages about the Bay Islands but only a column and not even a chart about Guanaja, the first one you arrive at going west. But it is a good stopping place and a port of entry for Honduras, so that’s where we headed.

We left Vivorillo Cays with Casa del Mar early on the 12th of April. Conditions were good for a downwind sail with winds about 20 kts and the seas swells coming in 6-8 ft. We figured about 24 hours to reach Guanaja with arrival the next morning after sunup. In fact, it took 24 ½ hours. All in all, a good sail on a furled headsail only with little use of any diesel except to charge the fridge and batteries.

Guanaja (wah-NAH-ha) is a large relatively uninhabited island with a small islet in its protected bay. About 8000 of the 12000 total population live on the little islet, called variously Guanaja Town, the Cay, or by the old name of Bonacca Cay. It is so small you could explore the whole island in about 30 minutes and meet most of the people twice. It is packed. The houses are close together and hanging over the edges. Kind’a like the Kuna Yala islands but all grown up! There are no streets, only narrow, paved sidewalks and small narrow canals. Some call it the Venice of the Caribbean. No cars, scooters, golf carts, or even bicycles that we saw. Everyone walks around. It is very friendly, unique and quaint.

We anchored out in the harbor while Casa was invited to pull up to the freight dock. They were immediately “adopted” by one of the local men. His name was Mario and he “volunteered” to help us clear in and get whatever we needed. First, he sent a water taxi over to pick us up so we didn’t have to put the dinghy in just yet. Then he escorted us to the immigration office but it was closed. After several calls and disappearances, he finally located the immigration lady and we got cleared in. Then to the port captain, the ATM, the market, and finally a water taxi back. He was very nice and accepted a tip of about $5.

We were immediately struck by how clean the island was. With everything so close, it was important to keep the clutter down. There were trash cans everywhere. There were pallets of crushed plastic bottles waiting to be shipped out on the dock for recycling. There were people sweeping and picking up around the areas. It was such a difference from other places we had seen around the islands and a credit to the people that lived there.

We moved the boats up north along the coast of the larger island to a sheltered bay called El Bight and tucked in behind the reef. This was close enough to town to dinghy back and yet nicely sheltered from the sea swells and winds.

We went back into town the next day for internet mostly and to explore. Seems that fishing season is closed now and all the boats are in harbor so the men don’t have much to do. There is a lot of activity in town and some construction going on, but mostly things were not too busy. Mario found us again! Now he wanted to watch our dinghy to be safe. Okay! We caught up on emails and business (actually filed our taxes on-line with our TurboTax software. Cool! It was the 14th.) And picked up a few more provisions. We got back to the dinghy and there was Mario diligently watching the dinghy. Another little tip.

The next day we decided to go tour around in the dinghy. We invited Mike and Linda along with us since they had not launched their dinghy yet. We were planning to go to the north side of the main island. On the way, we stopped back in town to see if we could get a phone chip. And guess who showed up to help. Yep. Mario!

There is a canal that cuts through the island with a depth of only 4-5 feet in some places and power lines overhead so you cannot take the big boat. A little history here. In 1998, Hurricane Mitch made a completely unexpected turn south from Caymans and headed straight for Guanaja. It hit the north side and stayed for 3 days. Luckily, there were no fatalities. Because of the mountains, the town was mostly undamaged but the hillsides were stripped of their trees. The hills still show signs of the damage even today.
The north side is calmer and has some beautiful beaches where there are several resorts and dive operations. But with no roads on the island the only access it by water taxis. We stopped at a spot called Michael’s Rock and snorkeled all the way around. It was a very pretty reef with a lot of color and sea life.

Then we went a little further to a resort called Island House and had lunch at The Green Flash Bar. Very nice and very well maintained. We met an ex-pat named Steve who owns a fly fishing company here (called appropriately Fly Fishing Guanaja) and he filled us in on some of the local info including pizza night at Hans’s in El Bight. So, it was back through the canal and a long wet ride against the wind to the boat.

Pizza at Hans’s was a little underwhelming but different because it was German and not Italian. We tried the Flam Kreugel which was a rye bread crust and cream based sauce. But the company was good and the evening was pleasant and we really enjoyed the entire day.

It was to be the last day at Guanaja, as the weather forecast said we should be moving on for a short hop on over to Roatan. And so we did!