beautiful paya

Paya Bay Resort, Roatan, Bay Islands of Honduras.  Photos: Tania and Ian.

afternoon in the garden

The Tropical Garden Reserve is one of many beautiful places to be enjoyed on the property. Paya Bay Resort, Roatan, Honduras.

photo of the day

A view from The Heart, a plaza within the Tropical Garden Reserve. Paya Bay Resort, Roatan, Honduras.

tropical garden

A view of a section of the Tropical Garden Reserve. Paya Bay Resort, Roatan, Honduras.

gumba limbas

 

Beautiful gumba limba trees (Bursera simaruba) in Paya Bay's Tropical Garden Reserve. These trees are easy to spot with their red, smooth, peeling, paper-like bark. Mainland Hondurans call this tree "indio desnudo" (naked indian), a name that coincidentally goes with the whole Zone 3 theme.  Local tour guides like to joke that it is the "tourist tree," an association of the peeling bark with the red, peeling skin of sunburned tourists. By the way, the thin, smooth, constantly peeling bark is an evolutionary adaptation that keeps epiphytic (air plants) or parasitic plants from attaching themselves to the tree.

exotic orquids

This species with horn-like yellow bulbs grows in the Tropical Garden Reserve. Anyone know the species? My googling hasn't turned it up yet.

crouching lizard

An adult spiny-tailed iguana (Ctenosaura oedirhina) crouches on a branch in the Tropical Garden Reserve trying to be as inconspicuous as possible. I've noticed dozens of baby and juvenile spiny-tails the last few weeks. I'm guessing the eggs laid earlier in the summer hatched recently. See the Wikipedia page on this threatened species. At Paya Bay you'll see no cages with animals or birds that were brought in from elsewhere. If you practice awareness, however, you'll notice that the property is teeming with wildlife. Its own unique, interesting wildlife.