Garifuna Tours | Bay Islands | Miami | Italian tourism trail
The Other Caribbean
by
Chuck ThompsonThe best Garifuna village to visit is tiny
Miami, a few miles from
Tela, a Honduran coastal city with a broad beach, inexpensive
in-town accommodations, and the first-class Maya Vista Hotel on a
hillside overlooking the expansive sea, whose restaurant is one of
the best in the area. From Tela's central plaza, Garifuna Tours
leads day trips to Miami, a village of palm-thatched huts protected
by 25 or so miles of uninhabited beach. An authentic lunch and
sometimes a bit of impromptu Garifuna music make for a quick but
unforgettable look at a culture as untouched as possible this close
to the United States.
Honduras also offers more traditional retreats, such as on the
famed Bay Islands, consisting of 50 islands or keys, the largest of
which, Roatan, is 40 miles long and three miles wide. With clear
turquoise water and an extensive barrier reef system, Roatan offers
some of the most spectacular diving and snorkeling in the world.
Scuba trips are the Bay Islands' chief attraction - on many islands
it's the only attraction - but Roatan offers first-rate,
full-service resorts sprinkled along pristine beaches at the base
of the island's lush, green hills. Among the surprises are a number
of fantastic Italian restaurants, which seem as oddly placed here
as the Garifuna populations on the mainland. The answer to the
Italian mystery is soft beaches, steady winds, and busy beach bars
and clubs, all of which have made Roatan a fixture on the Italian
tourism trail.
San Blas Islands, Panama
Limited
electricity, phones, and visitor services mean there's not
a lot to do on many of the more than 350 San Blas Islands other
than roll over and keep the tan lines even. Most of the islands can
be explored in a few hours or less, leaving a lot of down time.
Getting the picture? The pace in this out-of-the-way corner of
Panama is slow - imagine a Masterpiece Theatre miniseries on the
lost works of Euripides - perfect for swinging in a hammock and
knocking off a Great American Novel or two.
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