Day 15: Accommodation in Cayos Cochinos (Turtle Bay)
Today is our last full day in ouraccommodation in Cayos Cochinos and we have been listening to a strong swell and wind all night, as soon as we wake up it makes us presage that the day will not be as relaxed as yesterday in the Cayos Cochinos Tour, but it looks like it will be much more moved in our particular paradise.
We woke up at 5:30 in the morning and just to look out the window we verify that the sky is really cloudy and the waves are strong enough that if today we had chosen to do the tour or it would have been the day of Going back to La Ceiba, probably the trip would not have been so pleasant. It even makes us consider tomorrow's departure because although the idea is to hire a private service to take advantage of the time here, leaving around 1: 30-2 in the afternoon, depending on how we see the weather, we may have to choose to go out 6:30 in the morning with the free transportation available at the hotel on Saturday morning to La Ceiba.
Seeing that the wind is still blowing, we take advantage of one more hour in bed reading and enjoying the sound of the waves, until around 7:30 we decide to go down to the lounge area where we see that the weather has improved greatly, giving way to a sky much clearer, although the swell remains due to the wind.
Working time in accommodation in Cayos Cochinos
We take a while in the area outside the food hall to work, until they serve breakfast, pancakes with a plate of fruits to share among all the guests who have put in the dining room bar and that we have to say, stays quite short For all of us who stayed.
As we will discuss later, in a detailed analysis of the accommodation in Cayos Cochinos, in Turtle Bay they make two daily departures, one at 9 and another at two in the afternoon for diving or snorkeling. Being the last day we will be in this paradise Roger takes the opportunity to make the morning departure, preferring to stay here taking advantage of the relaxation that all guests go to read on the beach, lie down for a while in the sun and take some odd bath Now that the wind seems to have eased a little.
Cayo Mayor Beach
And so we let the morning pass until 12:30 when the boat returns and the activity of lunchtime begins in the lounge.
Accommodation in Cayos Cochinos - Turtle Bay
First of all we want to highlight the few possibilities there are to find accommodation in Cayos Cochinos, since there are only options to stay in Turtle Bay, just as we did, in Cayo Mayor, or stay in Cayo Chachauate, in one of the local houses.
The most common is to get here on a day trip, like the one we did yesterday and then return to Roatán or Útila, much more common islands to stay in, apart from being much more crowded.
That said, we would like to make a brief, but very personal review of Turtle Bay, the accommodation in Cayos Cochinos that we chose, after deciding that we wanted to spend here the last days of the trip to Guatemala and Honduras.
Advantage:
- Unique location in Cayo Mayor to access the rest of the keys in a very short time.
- Being in a protected environment, practically uninhabited, where it is not usual to find accommodation.
- Unique coral reef, considered by many to be one of the best in the world.
- In the whole complex there are only 5 rooms, 3 of them normal and two superior, which are cabins, perfectly integrated in nature, overlooking the sea.
- In our case we had a rest area outside the room, with two species of hammocks, with unique views, especially at sunset.
- Facilities on the jetty to relax with exceptional views.
- Free transfer from / to La Ceiba if your schedules fit:
Wednesday at 8 in the morning they leave from the Hotel Paris in La Ceiba towards Cayo Mayor and on Saturdays they return to La Ceiba at 6:30 in the morning.
In case the schedules do not fit you can hire a private transfer service, which really is not private, since it is one of the boats that do the Cayos Cochinos tour daily from La Ceiba and take advantage of their return to join the group for $ 50 per person including the boat plus the taxi from Sambo Creek to La Ceiba, which is approximately 15 kilometers.
The tour to Cayos Cochinos from La Ceiba, hired from any agency costs about $ 40 per person, so you pay that full service, even if you only use your place for the return journey.
- Free WIFI. Although this is only available in the common areas, it is of quality and can be worked perfectly, without disconnections.
- Drinks are not included in the price of room packs plus meals. The price is not too expensive, considering the place where you are. Soft drinks $ 2.50 and beers $ 4.
Disadvantages:
- Price: This is perhaps the most controversial point and is that the price of this accommodation in Cayos Cochinos It is approximately 100 euros per person / day that includes accommodation and full board. If you register on their website, they usually send promotions with discounts.
- Food services: The food service is the one. Breakfast is served at 8:30, lunch at 13:30 and dinner at 18:30 and dishes are not chosen. They cook the same for all guests.
- Reduced mobility, having to have Turtle Bay practically for everything, although we have to say that after our stay, we saw that there were services, such as transfers or the tour, that we could have tried to contract directly with the locals of Cayo Chachauate, although we don't know exactly if these have any covenant with Turtle Bay to provide or not according to what services to its guests.
- Payment currency: Already in the reservation they warn you that the only form of payment is in dollars or by credit card. They do not accept payment with lempiras, the currency of Honduras.
- Language: Incomprehensibly, although they say that all the staff is bilingual and being in Honduras, the only people who speak Spanish are the local people who work in the cleaning or the captain of the ship, the rest of the staff as the manager, the instructors of diving or the cook, they only speak English and 4 words of Castilian.
Points to improve that would make Turtle Bay lodging in Cayos Cochinos featured:
- Gastronomy: As we mentioned before, food is not a choice, but the chef cooks what he wants every day and is served. In our case we have to say that practically every day we liked the food, although we must consider that they are very basic dishes.
Of course you have to take into account the place where you are and that the closest place to stock up is La Ceiba, although if you think about it on the other hand, considering what you pay for, instead of going only twice a week to stock up, they could go more often and offer more quality in this point.
Apart from the variety, we found a couple of days in which the burnt breakfast pancakes were served and did not even apologize.
Another of the points to improve in the food service is that if they serve an entree to share, such as ceviche to a table of two people, if at that table two more people sit, as happened to us with another couple, to share dinner, do not put more dishes, share what there is, saving them that plate.
- Prices of extras: We understand that certain extras, such as diving, must be paid, now charge $ 10 each day for the transfer of snorkeling equipment, plus $ 10 for each time you dive into the water from the boat to snorkel , it seems excessive. This last point can be confusing. As we mentioned earlier, there are two private boat trips from Turtle Bay for diving or snorkeling, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. The one in the morning is about 4-5 hours. Well, while you are on the boat, 4-5 stops are made for diving, you pay $ 10 for every time you dive into the water to snorkel (???).
- Cleaning of common facilities: Something that caught our attention is the little care that exists in several common areas, where cleaning and maintenance are nil.
This happens for example on the beach that is in the accommodation, where at the time you move away 20 meters, you find a cluster of garbage that is unacceptable.
We understand that the days of strong waves, the same tide brings waste, but we assure you that they were not for this reason, apart from being them, there should be someone to pick them up.
Another of the places where this is noticed is in several common places, such as a swing or a bench that is 20 meters from the dining room, which are destroyed and surrounded by dirt.
In honor of the truth, it must be said that both the dining room and the rooms are in perfect condition and clean.
- Cleaning common items: The two hammocks that are for common use on the jetty, it was impossible to use them without something that prevented your body from touching them. To show a button, as they say ...
- Booking service: We reserve this accommodation about 6 months or so in advance. Our reservation was for 4 days-3 nights in a superior room. While in Guatemala, we received an email from Mike, the owner, in which he told us that due to a problem with an agency, they had assigned our room to other people and gave us a $ 100 voucher for the inconvenience, to spend on Your bar Logically, after the anger over this change, we wrote to explain that the amount between the superior room and the normal room was higher and that we wanted the money reimbursed in our account, to do what we wanted with it. It yielded without further problems, but we believe that the treatment received, with that attempted deception, he told us more or less, what kind of accommodation we were going to find.
- Tip: Something that also caught our attention was the reception of an email in which it was "forced" to leave a tip amount to each staff member, apart from reminding you that it should be in dollars. Of course we did not like this in the least and we gave the tip that we thought convenient to the local staff, both cleaning and captain in lempiras.
When we went to pay the final bill, the manager asked us to include in the charge the amount of the tip, something that we believe is totally out of place.
Conclusion:
Without a doubt the day we return to this area of Honduras we will do it to stay in Cayos Cochinos, yes, being the second time and after the experience, counting that we will come for more days, our stay will come to come with time and look a cabin that is rented, combining it with a few days of accommodation in Cayo Chachauate.
Turtle Bay has a unique location, but to be honest, it seems to us that they don't take care of the details as they should and only aim to earn money, something very lawful on the other hand, but that we believe should always be after giving a unique service to the guest
We have to say that this accommodation in Cayos Cochinos, with a simple face lift, taking care of the most basic details such as cleaning, food and somewhat tighter prices (especially in extras that are not worth what they charge), would be an accommodation of 10.
As we mentioned before and with Roger already embarked to enjoy a day of snorkeling, I have dedicated myself all morning to enjoy the high area of the jetty, where I have taken a good sun bath, then go through the water and finish With a little reading, with which, when I looked at the clock, it was almost noon.
Turtle Bay Terrace
Roger arrives when it is almost 13:30 and after going to the room to take a shower, we go back down to the food hall, where we enjoy another gastronomic day in Turtle Bay, with which we practically already said goodbye to this unique environment, that although with its disadvantages We have to say, it has stolen our hearts.
Unique location in Cayo Mayor
After eating and knowing that it is our last day in Dirty calluses, we decided to ignore that part of relaxation of these last days and with the coffee in hand we go to the area of the jetty, where we enjoy the rest of the afternoon not only of the sun that has ended up giving us the day, but also of A water so calm that it seems incredible to compare it with what we saw this morning.
Afternoon at Turtle Bay
Some physical effort?
As we told earlier in the review of accommodation in Cayos Cochinos, the free arrival / departure times of Turtle Bay include Wednesdays a departure from La Ceiba at 8 am in a pana 26, which is the one we came from, and on Saturday a trip to La Ceiba at 6:30 in the morning. Counting that we have booked the bus from La Ceiba to San Pedro Sula at 4:00 in the morning, we have decided to book a private transport, despite the extra cost, that allows us to be here for one more morning and to take us to Noon to La Ceiba and from there take us to the Hedman Alas bus station. We talked to Clemente, the manager, and he tells us that we can do this without problem with a tour operator they know, who goes through Cayos Cochinos daily doing a tour with tourists. So we close the service tomorrow, confirming that they will pick us up directly at the Turtle Bay dock, about 1:30 to arrive at La Ceiba at 2: 30-3: 00, where a taxi will be waiting for us that will take us directly to Hedman Alas station.
With all this already completed, we only have to spend the last hours of the afternoon watching life go by, something that we repeat a lot in our trips and that we have to say, we love it and what we don't get tired of.
Relaxation time in Cayo Mayor
And without waiting, between coming and going, we find a pink boa, a species that can only be found in these islands around the world and that after having spent these days, we thought it would be impossible to observe it and less as closely as we had the opportunity this afternoon.
Pink boa
After this most complete day, we can only wait for one thing before dinner, repeat a magical sunset, like the ones we have been living these days ago and who visits us again, leaving us an image that surely, it will take us a long time to forget .
Sunset in Cayos Cochinos
Today we take advantage of the last dinner to share a table with a couple that we have met these days and with whom we spent a few hours of the most pleasant, sharing talk and desktop before returning to our cabin to enjoy this unique environment, to which we will surely return day.
Day 16: Cayos Cochinos: Survivors Island - La Ceiba - San Pedro Sula
