The Secret Side of the Caribbean

Think this region is just sun and slick resorts? One forward-thinking cruise line is offering cultural journeys that go much deeper.

- Qin Xie

“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.

Alvarez took us through the small settlement on crescent-shaped Chachahuate. The island is one of the Cayos Cochinos, photogenic coral islets that form part of the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System. But our small band wasn’t there to snorkel or swim—we wanted to learn more about the Garifuna. This community of people has mixed Indigenous Caribbean and Black African heritage and was collectively exiled by the British from their home island of St. Vincent in 1797. Many settled on the coast and islands of Belize and Honduras, where Garifuna continue to live today.