Julie Bootsma

Roatan was our favorite! Very primitive! Get up early and do as much as you can in this port. The ship docks first thing in the morning but leaves in mid afternoon so don’t sleep in on this port day, you will regret it. You pull right up to shore here – nice! You will see dozens and dozens of cabs lining the street waiting for your business. After the “bus load mentality” of Belize we decided to go on our own in Roatan. We are so glad that we did! We had read another review from a family that did the same thing and got a taxi driver that they loved. They posted his name and cab number on their review. When we saw ALL the cabs we thought that we would never find this guy but as soon as you set foot on the ground all these taxi guys bombard you for your business. We told them that we were looking for Victor Bodden and amazingly other taxi drivers started yelling his name and there he was. He was very nice! A young soft spoken guy who spoke English well. We felt very comfortable with him right away. He took us on a tour of the island, showed us his house, told us about growing up on the island, about his family etc. It truly gave a good feel for what life is like on Roatan. Then he took us to a beach on the West End. His cousin manages this beach and for $3.00 a chair we basically had a private beach for most of the morning. This beach was right next to Tabyana Beach where ALL the cruise ships excursions go. That beach was SO crowded with row after row of white plastic sit up chairs. Our beach was not crowded and we had nice reclining chairs and shade under the palm trees if we wanted. Victor took us to a snorkeling shop and helped us get our gear and helped carry it to the beach for us.

The snorkeling was good, the water very clear. He came back and picked us up in time to hit the vendors in town before getting back on the boat. If you want to do Roatan the way we did it PLEASE look up our cab driver. His name is Victor Bodden. He drives cab #081. You can even email him at victorbodden@yahoo.com and set it up before hand. He will meet you outside the boat with a paper that has your name on it. I recommend him highly!!

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Roatan Shore Excursions

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