Sloth love (Roatan, Honduras)

Roatan is often the only part of Honduras people visit, because of its cruise ports and safety. Luckily the island has a lot of fun things to do and see.

The tour

Kenry, our tour guide, first brought us to an overlook at the top of the island. From here we could see the town and the dock with our ship. There were children along the way banging paint cans with sticks to try to make money from the passing tourists.

The next stop, a chocolate place, was primarily just to stretch our legs. But it showed how chocolate is made and had numerous samples – dark, milk, white (not that I consider that chocolate anymore, but they did have samples). I bought a caramel-filled chocolate-covered cookie, and some chili chocolate and ginger chocolate, which are often my faves.

The sloths

The main attraction was the sloth and monkey habitat, Victor’s Monkey Business. This site also has zip-line if you want to try that too as you’ll see them zip over the animal area).

We got to see a 3-day old baby sloth (squeeeeeee!), and 10-month-old sloth.

They were the highlights, but there also were many adult sloths in a specially designed sloth-holding rack. I mean, the whole reason they have those giant claws is to hang on to things, so the rack seems to be very comfortable for them.

While I’d seen wild sloths before (in Columbia), it was very fun to see these guys up close. The baby sloth was tiny and resembled a Wookie with tiny long claws just like the adults. It was nuzzling its mom and was just adorable. You can hold the adult sloths in the morning. They don’t smell like koalas do, which is nice.

The non-sloths 🙂

We also had a great time with the monkeys too. One white-faced capuchin stole my father’s gum packet and ran around with it until the other monkey in that cage stole it. When he dropped it, the monkey in the adjoining cage grabbed it, but couldn’t get it through the mesh. It was finally retrieved.

The black spider monkeys are so named because they use their prehensile tails to hold onto things when eating. This makes them look like spiders hanging from things. One very much likes holding people’s hands/arms with her arms and tail. But watch out, she’ll steal your watch or jewelry if she can.

There are also a variety of other animals at Monkey Business. Like small white-tailed deer and sheep in the field to the side of the animal cages. Other cages held military parrots, scarlet parrots, toucans, a night monkey, coatimundi, green iguanas, and agouti. And they for the most part, all seem to like sunflower seeds which are handed out as treats by the guides.

The tour, continued

When we returned to the cruise port, we checked out the rum factory. Like most rum factories they had a couple of samples for us to try (although I didn’t particularly like any of them). But what made this place stand out was that you could make your own rum cake there for under $20 and take it home.