moving mountains: El Bight

Posted by Scot

We found out the remarkable building on the rock behind us is a hotel, called the Villa on Dunbar Rock. You can check out their website here.

So far, Honduras has been a pleasant surprise. We didn’t really know what to expect when we came here. At least for me, I had kind of imagined this as a stepping stone to Guatemala and Belize, and hadn’t thought too much about Honduras as a destination in it’s own right.

Some of the scenery from El Bight.

But as it turns out, El Bight on Guanaja has been one of the best anchorages we have been in so far. It is a great combination. There are enough boats here that we don’t have the same “end of the world” feeling we had in parts of the Bahamas. At the same time, there is lots of room, and we don’t feel crowded. The nice thing about having some other boats around is that we have been able to meet a few other cruisers, and have gotten some advice about what to see and where to go from here.

Channel into the jungle. I explored up here a bit on the kayak.

The anchorage is really well protected, but we are far enough out from shore to have had a good breeze the whole time. This has kept the temperature bearable. Last night, we didn’t even need to run the fan in our cabin. And it has kept the bugs down. We have been warned about the sand fleas around here, but so far, they haven’t been a problem.

Hurricane Mitch tore Guanaja down to bare soil in 1998. The greenery has rebounded, but you can still see it's impact all over the island.

To top it all off, there are some interesting things to see around here. I have already mentioned Bonacca, the settlement on stilts, that is just a few minutes away by dinghy.

Fly fishermen from a nearby resort.

This guy has hung out next to our boat for several days now.

Just past Bonacca, there is a channel cut through the island that takes you from the south shore to the north. We went through there a couple of days ago, and came into a beautiful, protected bay. Apparently Columbus landed somewhere near there when he first “discovered” Honduras.

The water here is so clear, the dinghy looks like it is levitating.

Near Columbus's 1502 landing site.

Yesterday, we took took the dinghy a couple of miles in the other direction to a remarkable little resort called “Graham’s Place”, on Josh’s Cay (also called Graham’s Cay). If you ever really want to feel like you have gotten away from it all, Graham’s is the place. The island is small, and the resort encompasses the whole place. When they are full, there are only 60 guests. You can walk around the whole island in about 10 minutes. There are villas that are literally about 8 steps from the water on the beach. There is a bar and restaurant on site. Graham also keeps a bunch of “pets” including parrots, fish and sea turtles. I don’t think the rooms are super high end, but it was a great place to spend the afternoon.