TooEze

My friend from work just returned from spending a week at a resort on Roatan's West Bay, and she said the sand flies and flies were not that bad on that beach. She said they only really noticed them when it got closer to dusk. She said they went on an island tour and stopped at Turquoise Bay and they noticed them there during the day, but on West Bay they didn't really notice them much. There are some milder bug sprays like skintastic on the market for children, so if you applied something like that I'm sure it won't be a big problem. There are also lots of bars & restaurants along the beach, so I'm sure you could get away from the sand if they became a problem.

Regards John

Thanks for the help. I have done more research and from what I've seen a boat tour on the Rio Dulce looks very interesting. I've talked to the manager at the Hacienda Tijax (the cruise ship horseback riding goes from here) and he said we were welcome to use their facilities (pool, restaurant and tours). There are also several marina's that do river tours near the town of Fronteras, where the major bridge crosses the Rio Dulce. We rarely book excursions off the ship (less crowds and less cost) but I'm slightly paranoid about Guatemala. I've also read about a town called Livingston that is on the Carribean cost that is home to the Garufuna people, who are decendents of african slaves. They say that this place is more like Jamaica than Guatemala. This place can only be reached by water, so renting a boat for the day would probably be the way to go to see this place. So we haven't decide between doing that, or renting a cab for the day and going to Fronteras for a boat tour down the Rio Dulce. By putting Livingston Guatemala or Rio Dulce into MSN's search engine brings up several great articles on this area. Regards John

We are sailing on the Sun on Jan 28th. One of the ports is Santo Tomas de Castilla, Guatemala. There is virtually no info available for this port because I don't think there have been many cruise ships there in the past. Does anyone have any knowledge with this port. Also on the NCl site when you look at the shore excursions it really doesn't give any descripition or info on any of their trips. Is there some where that gives more info on the various excursions.