We had another exciting excursion booked for today. Through Royal Caribbean we purchased the Easy Roatan Monkey, Sloth, & Iguana Interaction. Since the ship was not letting passengers off until 11:30am and our excursion was at 11:45, we could take our time in the morning eating breakfast and getting ready. Because of the extra time, we chose to eat breakfast at the main dining room (more French toast). And because I hadn’t used it yet, I visited the Boardwalk Donuts for an added treat.
Still ahead of schedule, we tried some pickle ball again while the ship was pulling into port of Roatan. Since our excursion wasn’t supposed to leave until 11:45, we decided to grab a few bites at Cafe Promenade to hold us over until we could get back to the ship for more food.
Right off the ship there’s signs to the excursion waiting area divided up by excursion “number”. Ours was labeled as “2” so that’s where we waited with another group. About 10 minutes before our start time we were informed by a worker that we were supposed to be in stall “4” for our excursion. Not sure why and how people were supposed to find out but we went ahead and shifted down to 4. We filled out a little paperwork then it was off to the air conditioned bus. Like most excursions, the tour guide told us about their local history and lifestyle as the bus drove to our first stop. The monkey and iguana encounter is very popular to tourists so when we arrived it was too full for our bus to pull in so we rode a short distance to our other planned stop, the iguanas.
After a briefing from the staff, we were taken over to the baby iguana cage. It’s hard to get a perspective in the pictures but their body sizes ranged from about 3-6 inches. I’d say their bodies were equivalent to the skinks we have in the Midwest. Their tails were much longer than their bodies.
The babies were cute but not impressive. Then we headed down the hill to the adult iguanas. Talk about a sight! They were everywhere and they were big. When the worker tossed them bananas, they all scramble on top of each other to get it. It took a little bit to get used to them all around your feet and to avoid stepping on their long tails. The iguanas made quick work of the leaves and stems we were given to feed them. Being very docile creatures, they like it when you pet them. I saw one of them falling over in pleasure against the hand of the person petting it just like how a cat reacts.
Feeding iguanas in Roatan Honduras
After the iguana feeding, the staff lead us down to the dock to show us some large fish and feed them. My family was not too interested in the fish but took the time to snap some pictures with the beautiful water in the background. When we were done with the fish area, they loaded us up on the bus to take back to the monkey/sloth experience.
There was still a wait when we arrived at AJ’s Monkeys and Sloths. While we waited, our tour guide gave us a lesson on the banana tree. When it was our group’s turn, they took us to the first “station” which was the pen of Guinea pigs. They basically moved groups one “station” or cage after the other. There were 2 Guinea pigs out for us to hold and pass around. Due to their successful breeding habits, this place had about 80 of these critters there. Some were cute tiny babies.
Next up was the sloth encounter. They had 3 sloths available for holding. The staff said it only takes a few times for a sloth to be trained to be held by humans. All the worker needs to do is dangle the sloth from their arm claws and lean the sloth into someone and the sloth just wraps around your shoulders and waist. Looking at the sloth you would think their fur is dry and scratchy, but is actually pretty soft. Just the look on the sloth’s face as it slowly pans back and forth. The gold on their backs shows they’re male.
The next cage was the macaws. The worker said these large birds can be a little aggressive at times so I kept a close eye on it as they placed it on my arm. For some reason the worker decided to place it on my daughter, Hannah’s, head.
The last cage to visit was the monkeys. We had to remove everything from our pockets and put our backpacks in a cubby because these monkeys are smart and mischievous. They will reach into your pockets and even unzip them to look for things. While in the cage, one guy had his screen protector peeled off by a monkey. We were also given some Fruit Loops pieces to feed the monkeys. It was entertaining watching how the monkeys interacted with the guests and staff.
We had one last stop on this excursion before returning to the ship. They pulled into a cocoa store. Inside there were samples of many milk and dark chocolate bars to try. There was also a display of the stages of chocolate processing including samples of cocoa nibs. Of course you could buy the bars ($5 each) or shop in the adjoining gift shops. Also at this stop were cashew trees which I haven’t seen before.
We arrived at the port shortly after 3pm so there wasn’t a rush to grab lunch at the buffet since they already closed. Luckily we were not hungry after our snacks before leaving the ship in the morning along with the chocolate samples. We did a little souvenir shopping at the port before boarding the ship. After grabbing some caffeine drinks and smoothies, we dropped in at On Air to try the Visual Trivia. The trivia ended up being a little different than we expected. The task was to write down where the food item originated. We participated and did alright but it wasn’t fun like we were hoping.
Luckily the menu for the main dining room tonight had many good entree options since we didn’t eat a real lunch. We stuffed ourselves again then went up to take pics in Central Park. At that point the ship was leaving Roatan and the sun was getting ready to set. We played some more table tennis before snapping sunset pictures. Waiting in our room was some towel animals for the first time. Ethan and I decided to create our scavenger hunt for each other. We separately went around the ship taking pics on our phones and put them in a note on the iPhone to airdrop to each other. Then we had to go around and try to find the item in the pictures the other person took and take a selfie in front of the item. We only made a small dent in the list before it was time to go to bed. Tomorrow is our last port of call, Costa Maya.
