March 21, 2008, Newsletter Issue #109: Bay Islands, Honduras

Tip of the Week

Imagine a group of relatively unknown islands sculpted by white sand beaches and swaying palm trees, a place where orchids grow wild and fresh water flows from natural mountain springs. Tucked in the Western Caribbean 840 miles southwest of Miami and 30 miles off the coast of Honduras lie the Bay Islands: an archipelago of seven islands and 50 small cayes which stretch for 70 miles in a northeasterly arc.

Scuba Diving Highlights: Visibility throughout all of the Bay Islands ranges up to 150 feet, with little current and very calm seas. Roatan Island includes 85 species of coral and over 800 species of fish. Guanaja´s dive sites include everything from shipwrecks to underwater volcanoes. And the seamounts of Utila Island attract great pelagics.

Bay Islands Weather: The rainy season runs from May until October. The rest of the year, the interior and Pacific coasts are relatively dry. The lush Caribbean coast gets more average rainfall year round.

Average Bay Islands Air Temperature:
Day: 80° F Night: 67° F

Water Temperature:
78° - 84° F

Bay Islands includes:
Roatan Island - Only 33 miles long and three miles wide, Roatan is the largest of the island group. This is an island which caters to sun worshippers, nature lovers, adventurers and those seeking the diverse pleasures of her warm, clear waters. This is the place to visit if your goal is to be blanketed in quiet tranquility, in a very natural setting, on the edge of the world´s most incredible unexplored dive sites and watersports environment!

Guanaja Island - From the pages of a Robinson Crusoe adventure, Guanaja island has something few destinations can offer. If you want to escape to natural beauty and great scuba diving, Guanaja has both in abundance. There are 35 moored dive sites, featuring everything from shallow reefs to wrecks, caves, canyons, underwater volcanoes, and walls plummeting from 20 feet to 6,000 feet. Turtles, eagle rays, Jew fish and literally hundreds of tropical fish species abound. Indigenous toadfish, octopus, and huge coral crabs are visible at night. Dolphins, whale sharks, reef sharks, black tips and hammerheads can also be spotted.

Utila Island - The smallest of the three Bay islands, Utila is only eight miles long and three miles wide. Ultra laid back, this island offers true barefoot living and excellent scuba diving. It is not uncommon to see schools of jacks, snappers, spade fish and every species of grouper found in the Bay Islands at just one dive site. Look for resident hawksbill or green turtles, spotted, green and goldentail moray eels, and balloon, porcupine and webbed urrfish puffers. The largest fish in our oceans, whalesharks feed year-round off the coast of Utila Island. Growing as long as 60 feet, an opportunity to swim with this animal is definitely a unique experience.

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