A guided Sea Kayak Tour

My main reason to come to Honduras was for a sea kayak tour that I booked through Uncommon Adventures.  It was based out of the town of Oak Ridge on the south shore of the island of Roatan.  Oak ridge is out of the main tourist view.  It is a locals only village that sits on a bay.  And literally on the bay.  Everyone gets around by boat.  There are a few streets but they don't help all that much.  We arrived after dark and were water taxied out to the house we were to stay in for 6 days.  It was quite an adventure being taken out into the harbor on a boat that had no running lights and all the people in the village were out in their boats zipping around too.  Ocasionally someone would flash their flashlight to show where they were.

  The town sits on the harbor on shacks on stilts.  Each shack has a dock side and might be attached to land on the steep harbor side.  The town is complete with all kinds of stores along its waterfront like tiendas (small grocery store), gas stations, a general store and a few internet cafes.  Not many hotels or restaurants though.  This is a locals village.

The sea kayak tour was through Uncommon Adventures and was a week long event.  We were put up in a nice Hacienda up on a ridge overlooking the bay.  The guide has been constantly searching around to find the best place to rent for the trip.  He did a good job with this place.

  It was a rustic mahogany trimmed lodge with a deck and small swimming pool.  The home made food was great with lots of local fresh fish and shrimp.  When we were there the power kept going off on the island.  The country is having dificulties with the power company.  It doesn't seem to offer the island enough power so it shuts off parts of the island rather randomly.  This was rather interesting and you got used to keeping your headlamp or flashlight close by.  The trip had day trips from the cabin at Oak Ridge in our sea kayaks with snorkeling in the guides favorite spots.  The guided trip was a refreshing change from the touristy West End scene. 

For the last night we got in a water taxi and went out for dinner at the Hole in the Wall. It was a fun time as it seems to be a locals and wanna be locals restaurant on a dock on a bay west of town.  Great food and fun talking to the "locals" who were mainly ex-pats.