A Cutting-edge Cruise Line Is Helping Travelers Explore the Secret Side of the Caribbean

""Welcome to Cayo Chachahuate," Roger Alvarez announced with an easy smile. As I stepped ashore, I couldn't help grinning back: for the first time in three days, it had finally stopped raining. Alvarez, our Honduran guide, was happy to be standing on this speck of an island, which lies nine miles north of the mainland of Honduras. With the sun fully out, tropical colors seemed to reenergize the landscape. Turquoise water ran out to the horizon; coconut palms towered over the latte-colored sand."

"Many of the 100 or so full-time residents of Chachahuate are fishermen, and living conditions are primitive: there's no running water, and everyone has to evacuate whenever a bad storm comes around. But the Garifuna have built a community there: a nursery for children, several convenience stores, rustic bars, and even a basic bed-and-breakfast for the small number of backpackers who come over to the island on rudimentary speedboats."

Roger Alvarez welcomed visitors to Cayo Chachahuate as rain cleared and sun revived tropical colors, turquoise water and coconut palms. Chachahuate is one of the Cayos Cochinos, coral islets within the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef. The island hosts roughly 100 full-time residents, mostly Garifuna fishermen whose community traces mixed Indigenous Caribbean and Black African heritage and exile from St. Vincent in 1797. Living conditions are primitive: no running water and mandatory evacuation during severe storms. The Garifuna maintain a nursery, shops, bars and a basic bed-and-breakfast. The 92-suite expedition ship Le Bellot provided a contrasting luxury base for visiting and exploring remote Caribbean ports.

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