Page 168 - WDT Winter 2018 japan

After digesting, I got in a few laps in a sinuous pool at the
Mayan Princess Resort, where my room included a full
kitchen, dining nook and furnished balcony. I could easily
imagine settling in for a week or more, exploring the world’s
second-largest barrier reef system. I’ve dived and snorkeled
at several sections of the Great Maya Reef, which extends
from the northeast tip of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula south
past Belize to the Bay Islands
of Honduras. Roatan and its
sister island Utila rank in high
on Top 10 lists for underwater
adventures at the reef, and I had
envisioned breathtaking coral
walls, all sorts of curious-looking
tropical fish and spooky, irides-
cent night dives.

Instead, I joined local families at
Sunday Mass in Punta Gorda,
the oldest permanent commu-
nity in Honduras. Some 3,000
Garifuna traveled from their
home island of San Vicente to
the “Fat Point” in the late 1700s,
establishing a town that retains
Garifuna culture and traditions. Children learn their ances-
tors’ language in elementary school and perform traditional
dances at a small, rustic restaurant on the beach. The Sun-
day ritual included joyful Garifuna singing that drowned the
sound of the pounding rain.

Several churchgoers joined me at Yurumei restaurant, where
cooks mashed plantains for machuca, a rich soup of coconut

168 WDT MAGAZINE WINTER 2018