Author’s note: This is my last piece on my recent trip to Honduras. To read more posts in this series  click here. The post below is a continuation of my day tour of the Garifuna villages on the island of Roatan).

After our visit to Punta Gorda, we drove to the other side of narrow Roatan to visit another beautiful traditional Garifuna Village, the community of Oak Ridge. Oak Ridge is quite unique as the entire village is built around a large bay and is a fishing community. It has been termed “The Venice of Roatan” which I find a little humorous however it is definitely worth a visit to this picturesque town.

It was raining and there was no way I could ever have gotten a better shot of Oak Bridge than this one that I found on http://www.2backpackers.com (which is an awesome blog by the way).

All the homes are painted in a variety of pastel hues and are raised up on stilts. Many are even built over the water itself for easy access. Boats are the main transportation and unfortunately I didn’t have time to take a boat tour as I’m sure it would have been spectacular. Nevertheless, I still got a great feel for Oak Ridge by driving around with Ray Anthony behind the wheel. It was still raining thus I never got out of the car yet I was glad to at least check it out. I found many fascinating subjects and took perhaps too many pictures of the unique homes on stilts.

Here are some of my favorites. (You can tell it wasn’t the best weather and consequently I did my best to try to brighten these pictures up. Imagine what they would have looked like on a sunny day. Spectacular!).

As you can see most homes are built up on stilts either to be protected from water or from another pest, sandflies. Sadly many of the garifuna villages aren’t prosperous and live in some state of poverty. There are issues with teenage pregnancy and poor education. Yet hopefully these issues will be overcome as they have an extraordinary culture that is quite a gift to us all.

Author’s note:

I’m sad to say goodbye to this trip. Honduras was quite an eye-opening adventure. But the good news is I have another one less than a week away! Paris and Provence….two places I lived in during the early 1990s awaits. Four days from now I’ll be on a plane with my mother and sister off to seek beauty, rejuvenation and lots and lots of pictures! Stay tuned…