Guanaja, Honduras

The sail to Guanaja was interesting. With lots of wind we were moving fast! With 1 reef in the main sail and the jib partially rolled in, we sustained a speed of more than 7 knots. We didn't see any squalls or thunderstorms. But (and this is a very important but) the waves were big and they were coming from the side, making Taia roll uncomfortably. Therefore we had a very fast but uncomfortable sail.

We got to Guanaja, the most eastern of the Bay Islands of Honduras, at 8.20 am local time. We anchored and, as is customary now after spending a few days sailing, we went to sleep for a few hours. After that, we wanted to stretch our legs and decided to go say hi to our friends from Seraphim and go walk around in Bonacca, the capital city of Guanaja.

Bonacca is a very picturesque small island where about 6,000 people live. Nearly all of the houses are built on stilts. There are no streets but rather small sidewalks and water canals. There are no cars in Bonacca and because of the canals, some people call the island the Venice of the Caribbean.

Bonacca, seen from the anchorage.

Walking around Bonacca

Another view of Bonacca

One of the famous canals

A house or an experiment? Nobody seems to be living there.

The next day we decided to anchor at El Bight, a small but protected bay less than 2 miles east of Bonacca. With a total of about 8 or 9 boats there, the daily ritual was to do some kind of activity in the morning (or some school for those of us with kids) and then finish the day having a cold beer at Manati, the biggest bar/restaurant of the bay.

The snorkeling in Guanaja was really great. The coral reefs are very healthy, in contrast with some of the places we visited in the eastern Caribbean. But, for some reason I don't understand, we didn't see a lot of fish and the ones we found were, for the most part, small.

One day Tim, from Seraphim, offered to take his tree-climbing harness out of the boat and teach Matias and Camila how to climb trees. They got really excited about it and the following day they spent quite a bit of time going up and down. Of course, all the adults watching ended up having a turn too. What a treat!

We did two hikes in Guanaja. The first one, from Michael Rock, where we walked for about 45 minutes to get to a beautiful waterfall.

A nice cool shower after a nice hike.

To get to the fall, we had to use a rope to get across two rocks.

A swing in the middle of the forest. What a treat!

The second hike, where we walked for about 3 hours to get to the top of Michael Point, the highest point in Guanaja. The hike itself is easy and not challenging if it weren't for the heat and the ticks. We were all wearing long pants and long sleeves to avoid catching the ticks we were warned lived in the area. We had to take a few breaks and drink lots of water but we managed to get to the top. The view from up there was gorgeous and there was lots of wind which was very welcomed by our hot bodies. Unfortunately, we started seeing ticks on our clothes half way up there and, at the end of the trip, we did a full search for them in our bodies and clothes. We found a few of them in Matias and Ernesto but none on either of the girls. Are these ticks sexists or what? Not that I'm complaining, though. That was my first close encounter with such creatures and they are not very good looking. Fortunately, these ticks don't carry any disease.

A nice view from Bonacca

We were on a break here. You can't tell, but it was really windy!

Getting to the top. Finally!

Fixing the world's problems or just having a break?

Lunch at the top of Michael Point.

On our way down...