The captain cuts the catamaran’s engine a few hundred meters off Half Moon Bay, right as the color drains out of the sky, and that’s the moment couples staying in West End actually book the boat for. Romance in the Bay Islands has very little to do with candlelit menus and almost everything to do with getting away from other people, on a set of islands small enough that “away” is still a short boat ride.

A snorkel boat off West End will point out sea turtles without a second thought, but ask the same captain about the “monkey and sloth hangout” up the road and the answer gets vaguer. That gap between the wildlife trip everyone recommends and the one it stays quiet about is the entire story of animal activities in the Bay Islands. The credible encounters start on Útila. The Whale Shark and Oceanic Research Center (WSORC ) runs boat surveys along the island’s north drop-off, tracking whale sharks (Rhincodon typus) rather than staging photo-ops with them.