I'm glad Clark and Sabrina decided to go out with us today. After the bad notifications that I'd been getting this year, regarding Honduras, anyone would be skeptical.

We took the ships' tour, just as a precautionary measure.

We waited in the Stardust lounge. Our departure time was to be 10:15 A.M., but of course, the tender process was a disater.

We took the Roatan Sightseeing and Beach Tour. We loaded up in a small tour bus which held less than 20 people. Which was good, so everyone that wanted to take photos, had a window seat.

Sherika (sp?) our guide, wisked us on through the city and to a small stop for a bathrrom break. I headed upstairs and outside to take a few photos. An Asian couple and I swapped taking photos of each other.

I then headed back in and downstairs to peek into the gift shop. I just wanted to buy a couple of postcards and stamps. There were quite a few tours buses that had pulled up and I assumed this is a regular tourist stop.

We loaded back into the bus and were wicked off through the countryside. We headed to east end of the island and drove through Coxen Hole, the capital of Roatan. Here, we saw the city hall and the commercial center.

We then continued on past two shipwreck sites: Tolum and Alexander, the latter catching on fire.

Next, we headed through little towns, like Barrio Los Fuertes (Spanish-speaking town) and French Harbor (fishing village), to soak up some local culture. We stopped at a small vendors area with a beautiful backdrop. The ladies sold all types of souveniers and other little trinkets. I purchased some coconut candy, that was extremely sweet, but good.

These milk and coconut bars, or tabletas de coco, are a traditional sweet treat enjoyed by young and old alike! In the northern coast of Honduras, tabletas de coco are traditionally made and sold by the Garifunas­—the Afro-Indigenous community.

Next we headed over towards French Cay, to Arch's Iguana Farm, the one and only natural iguana farm in the world! I hadn't read the tour description, so I didn't even know we were coming here. It's all an adventure and a new discovery.

The park provides a home for thousands of free-roaming iguanas, a species that is now protected after almost being hunted to extinction on Roatán, where you can see them in their natural habitat, lazily hanging from tree branches and basking in the sunshine. A visit here will allow you to observe the iguanas up close (just be careful not to step on any!) we were given branches with leaves on them so that we could hand feed the iguanas. I was really surprised to see that Hope let one crawl on her. Eeewww!

Arch's Iguana Farm began over 20 years ago as a way to protect the iguanas, whose numbers were dwindling due to over hunting (iguana meat is the main ingredient in a popular stew cooked on the island). The owners of the farm began to collect and feed the iguanas, and provided them with a safe haven to reproduce and live freely without being hunted or confined to cages.

Each year, Arch's reintroduces some of the iguanas back into the wild, in an effort to help keep Roatán's ecosystem in balance.

The iguanas are the real stars of the place, but visitors can also view the other inhabitants of the property: a few curious monkeys, as well as some tarpon fish and lobsters that can be seen from the docks at the water's edge. While we were standing on the dock, another cruise passenger stated that she was going to push her husband over and into the waters with the tarpon fish, if he kept talking.

Today, this family run business has morphed into one of the key tourist attractions on the island with plenty of visitors and cruise ship passengers stopping by daily (where else can you see and walk among 2000+ iguanas in one place?).

Towards the end of this tour, I caught Sabrina smoking. I snuck up on her and rubbed my finger across her ankle. I thought she was going to jump up into the tree.

We then loaded up and drove through a few small communities like Sandy Bay, continuing into the West End, where most restaurants and souvenir shops are located. Our tour ended at Las Palmas Resort. Here, we spent the rest of our day relaxing in the sun and some swimming.

Guuny and Tuwana ordered lunch. Some fish that they stated was really good. Clark, Sabrina and I took a dip in the warm water.

After a while, Gunny joined us. The water was really warm. It was 84 degrees today and was just beautiful.

Before our time was up, we headed over to the big yellow chair to take some photos, before heading to the showers and on to change.

This was a nice day.

We headed back to the port and looked around. Again, I could only find one embroidered polo, but it'll work.

We waited on the tender, loaded up and headed back to the ship.

It was so close to dinner, we all just headed up to The Garden Cafe for dinner.

I didn't notice it, unitl my shower, that I actually had over 25 mosquito bites on one leg. They really ate me up after that swim. I'm just happy they don't itch.