• Punta Gorda - Our East Roatan Culture Tour takes you off the beaten path and right into the heart of our Afro-Caribbean roots.
  Join your local guide as we leave the beaten path behind towards the East end of Roatan Island. We’ll drive along a scenic highway, exploring the little villages we encounter and enjoying the amazing views of the unspoiled side of our island.

On the visit to the town of Oak Ridge you will explore the seat of the Santos Guardiola municipality, a village that was the home of the Bay Islands’ commercial fishing industry back in the day where houses are still built around the water and on stilts, making for many photo opportunities.

Next, your tour guide will take you to the Garifuna village of Punta Gorda, where you will be able to smell, taste, touch, hear and dance the culture of Roatan Island and discover the things that distinguish us Bay Islanders and our traditions from the rest of the Caribbean.

The garinagu (collective Garifuna language name for the tribe of Garifunas) are people proud of their history and the fact that they never worked as slaves. Their journey on this part of the word originated with the arrival on the Caribbean island of St. Vincent of West African slaves who washed ashore around 1635 while likely on their way to New World mines and plantations.

They intermarried with the local populations of Arawaks and Carib Indians, who were immigrants from South America, to become what is actually known as Garifunas or Black Caribs.

The Afro-Caribbean Garifunas lived for a while peacefully alongside French settlers who reached St. Vincent later in the 17th century, until the British troops exiled them in 1796 and eventually shipped them off to Roatan, where they established little fishing villages and started to develop crops of cassava, a mainstay of traditional Garifuna cuisine.

From Roatan, the Garifunas branched out to Belize, Guatemala, and Nicaragua, where they still live according to their ancestral traditions of artisanal fishing, and farming with a mixture of South American and African music, dance and spirituality.

UNESCO declared Garifuna language, dance, and music to be a “Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity” in 2001.

During this tour, you will learn to dance Punta music, appreciate the Garifuna traditional clothing, toast with the famous Guifity drink (that allegedly has medicinal properties), and taste a sample of their cuisine.

Come as a valued guest, leave as a friend. Our passionate, local guides can’t wait to share personal and entertaining stories of our rich history and lifestyle with you!

• Punta music dance lesson
• East island sightseeing tour
• Taste a sample of Garifuna cuisine

• Mangrove Tour
• Gratuities