Roatán
Encyclopedia
Roatán, located between the islands of Útila
and Guanaja
, is the largest of Honduras
' Bay Islands. The island was formerly known as Ruatan and Rattan. It is approximately 60 kilometres (37.3 mi) long, and less than 8 kilometres (5 mi) across at its widest point.
The island consists of two municipalities (out of a total of four in the department):
Jose Santos Guardiola in the east (named for the former president of Honduras) and Roatán (also including the Cayos Cochinos
) further south in the west. The most populous town of the island is Coxen Hole
, capital of Roatán municipality, located in the southwest. Other important towns include French Harbour, West End, and Oak Ridge, the capital of Jose Santos Guardiola municipality.
The easternmost quarter of the island is separated by a convoluted channel through the mangrove
s that is 15 meters wide on the average. This section is called Helene, or Santa Elena in Spanish. Satellite islands at the eastern end are Morat, Barbaretta, and Pigeon Cay. Further west between French Harbour and Coxen Hole is Barefoot Cay. Known as Burial Key until 2001, Barefoot Cay now is privately owned and houses a luxury resort popular with celebrities.
Located near the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef
, the largest barrier reef in the Caribbean Sea
(second largest worldwide after Australia
's Great Barrier Reef
), Roatán has become an important cruise ship and scuba diving
destination in Honduras. Tourism
is its most important economic sector, though fishing is also an important source of income for islanders. Roatan is located within 50 minutes of LGS. The island is served by the Juan Manuel Gálvez Roatan International Airport
. Which includes direct flights from Atlanta and Houston via Continental and Delta airlines respectively, with other domestic connections for international flights arriving into mainland Honduran cities like the capitol Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula. Roatan is also serviced by the Galaxy Wave express Catamaran ferry that operates two daily ferry's in the morning and evenings to La Ceiba, Honduras with a duration of one hour each trip depending on the weather.
indigenous peoples
of the Bay Islands are believed to have been related to Paya
, Maya
, Lenca or Jicaque, which were the cultures present on the mainland. Christopher Columbus
on his fourth voyage (1502–1504) came to the islands as he visited the neighboring Bay Island of Guanaja
. Soon after the Spanish began raiding the islands for slave
labor. More devastating for Native American communities was exposure to Eurasia
n infectious disease
s to which they had no immunity, such as smallpox
and measles
. Diseases ran in epidemics, and no indigenous people survived.
Throughout European colonial times, the Bay of Honduras attracted a diverse array of individual settlers, pirates, traders and military forces, engaged in various economic activities and playing out political struggles between the European powers, chiefly Britain and Spain
. Roatán and the other islands were used as frequent resting points for sea travelers. On several occasions, they were subject to military occupation. In 1723/1724 an approximately 20-year-old-man from New England
, Philip Ashton
, managed to survive as a castaway
on the island for sixteen months until he was rescued (see Edward E. Leslie, Desperate Journeys, Abandoned Souls, 1988, pp. 100–120). During that time they were governed by self-proclaimed King Kyle Edward Chauncey, a red-haired white man leading mostly Spanish speakers among those of European descent.
In contesting with the Spanish for colonization of the Caribbean, the English occupied the Bay Islands on and off between 1550 and 1700. During this time, buccaneer
s found the vacated, mostly unprotected islands a haven for safe harbor and transport. English, French and Dutch pirates established settlements on the islands. They frequently raided the cumbersome Spanish cargo vessels carrying gold and other treasures from the New World to Spain.
In 1797, the British defeated the Black Carib, who had been supported by the French, in a battle for control of the Windward Caribbean island of St. Vincent
. Weary of their resistance to British plans for sugar plantations, the British rounded up the St. Vincent Black Carib and deported them to Roatán. The majority of Black Carib migrated to Trujillo on mainland Honduras, but a portion remained to found the community of Punta Gorda on the northern coast of Roatán. The Black Carib, whose ancestry includes Arawak and African Maroon
s, remained in Punta Gorda, becoming the Bay Island's first permanent post-Columbian settlers. They also migrated from there to parts of the northern coast of Central America
, becoming the foundation of the modern-day Garífuna
culture.
The majority permanent population of Roatán originated from the Cayman Islands
near Jamaica
. They arrived in the 1830s shortly after Britain's abolition
of slavery in 1838. The changes in labor force disrupted the economic structure of Caymanian culture. Caymanians were largely a seafaring culture and were familiar with the area from turtle fishing and other activities. Former Caymanian slaveholders were among the first to settle in the seaside locations throughout primarily western Roatán. Former slaves also migrated from the Cayman Islands, in larger number than planters, during the late 1830s and 1840s. Altogether, the former Caymanians became the largest cultural group on the island.{}
For a brief period in the 1850s, Britain declared the Bay Islands its colony. Within a decade the Crown ceded the territory formally back to Honduras
. British colonists were sent though, and asked William Walker, a freebooter with a private army, to help end the crisis in 1860 by invading Honduras; he was captured upon landing in Trujillo and executed there.
In the latter half of the 19th century, the island populations grew steadily and established new settlements all over Roatán and the other islands. Settlers came from all over the world and played a part in shaping the cultural face of the island. Islanders started a fruit trade industry which became profitable. By the 1870s it was purchased by American interests, most notably the New Orleans and Bay Islands Fruit Company. Later companies, the Standard Fruit and United Fruit Companies became the foundation for modern-day fruit companies, the industry which gave Honduras the sobriquet "banana republic
".
The 20th century saw continued population growth resulting in increasing economic changes, and environmental challenges. A population boom began with an influx of Spanish-speaking Mestizo
migrants from the Honduran mainland. In the last decades they tripled the original resident population. Mestizo migrants settled primarily in the urban areas of Coxen Hole and Barrio Los Fuertes (near French Harbour). In these areas Spanish is common, with English speakers more common among descendants of early colonists, as well as in the other areas inhabited chiefly by islanders rather than former mainlanders.
But in terms of population and economic influence, the mainlander influx was dwarfed by the overwhelming tourist presence in most recent years. Numerous American, Canadian, British, New Zealand, Australian and South African settlers and entrepreneurs engaged chiefly in the fishing industry, and later, provided the foundation for attracting the tourist trade. The rapid and dramatic demographic changes that Roatán has experienced in the 21st century has contributed to the complexity of the environmental challenges of the island.
In 1998, Roatán suffered some damage from Hurricane Mitch
, temporarily paralyzing most commercial activity. Native islanders claimed the storm broke three previously undisturbed Aguila shipwrecks.
are an English-speaking people who have been established in Northern Honduras (specifically, the Bay Islands) since the early 19th century. They are chiefly of European and British-Afro-Caribbean descent. Caracol is Spanish for "conch, snail or shell", and relates the people of the Bay Islands to their unique environment and their sea-faring culture. In its current usage, the term caracol refers to all people born in the Bay Islands region, and their descendants. The term "caracol" has also been deemed offensive by native Islanders and the term is only used by Spanish-speaking "mainland" Hondurans who have a long standing rivalry with native Bay Islanders because of their differences in culture, language, beliefs and ideals. All native islanders regardless of race, creed or color prefer the term "Islanders" when being referred to. The region of the Bay Islands encompasses the three major islands of Roatan, Utila and Guanaja, the Hog Islands as well as the smaller islands or cays. These people are also called "Islanders," especially locally.
English is the first language of all native islanders regardless of race and Spanish is spoken second, whereas mainland Honduras is primarily Spanish speaking. It remains this way because of the islands past as a British colony as well as all islanders being the decendants of the British Isles. With the steady influx of mainland Hondurans migrating to the islands an increase in Spanish has arisen but because of the tourism and cruise ship industry that support the islands, English continues and will remain to be the first spoken and dominant language among all native island peoples. Over time the form of English spoken by the Caracol has changed. The language differs mostly in morphology but also in pronunciation and accent and, to a lesser extent, in syntax and vocabulary, from the English of the other British Caribbean colonies. Evidenced by the usage of the wide variety of old standard English terms and words that are used throughout the islands. They are similar enough to be mutually intelligable and understood throughout the entire Bay Islands. The language can also be learned, although it is not taught in the general sense, whilst the accent derived from the wide variety of ex-patriots living and working on the Islands from North America and Europe.
--24.20.23.119 (talk) 20:10, 22 November 2011 (UTC)
The capitol city of Coxen Hole underwent a major reconstruction between the years of 2003 to 2005 adding new black water and septic lines as well as fresh water lines to accommodate the growing business sector and population. These lines are used in conjunction with the new water treatment plant and a waste management plant that recycles waste which are adjacent to the Roatan International Airport. Unfortunaetly, many of these lines were not hooked up to the main sewer system and raw sewage still flows directly into the ocean. This exact environmental restructuring is under way in the town of West End (The islands main tourism hub and nightlife strip of the island as well as the official center of snorkeling and scuba diving on Roatan). The project has received much hesitation from residents in West End as the project has been poorly planned and executed. Residents of West End are also being made to pay for much of the municipal project and face leans and levies against their properties if they are unable to pay. Construction of the sewerage system began in August of 2011. Less than a month later, rainy season began. Every rain storm washes the clay and sediment from the construction zones directly into the ocean and onto the reef. This mixture of red clay and sediment is particularly detrimental to the health of the reef. Yet the Municipality has taken very few measures to lessen the dameging environmental impacts caused to the reef by the construction. The project's expected completion date is the end of 2012 or before the start of the following rain season which starts from the middle of October to the end of March. Though it is illegal to use plastic bags in the Bay Islands and is illegal for a business to bring in plastic bottles unless they remove them, the island and its reefs continue to be littered with plastics. The Roatan Marine Park was the main force behind reintroducing recycling to the island after a 3 year absence.
(RMP) is a grass roots, community-based, non-profit organization located on Roatan. The organization was formed in January 2005 when a group of concerned dive operators and local businesses united in an effort to protect Roatan’s fragile coral reefs. Initially, the RMP's goal was to run a patrol program within the Sandy Bay-West End Marine Reserve (SBWEMR), to prevent over exploitation through unsustainable fishing practices. Over time, the organization expanded the scope of their environmental efforts through the addition of other programs to protect Roatan’s natural resources, including patrols and infrastructure, education, conservation and public awareness. With a rapidly developing island, the number of challenges the RMP face increases every day. They focus on engaging diverse community stakeholders to aid in developing solutions that can ensure long-term, sustainable management of our natural resources.
West Bay Community is a short drive away from West End either by car or water taxi and although it is known for the world famous West Bay Beach, which has been profiled numerous times on House Hunter's International, it also features some of the larger and more well known resorts on Roatan as well as their own restaurant and bars open to the public. The Vintage Pearl restaurant is known as one of the finest restaurants in Honduras as well as the Bay Islands and has received very high ratings on many travel websites featuring Roatan. It also offers the largest wine cellar of any restaurant in the Bay Islands as well as an open menu that offers a mixture of Asian and European dishes fused with their own signature touch. The Hungry Monkey, Mangiamo's, Beacher's and the Thirsty Turtle all offer a variety of different styles ranging from Deli to beach side eatery. These locations are known for being local lunch spots as well as offering a dinner menu.
There are many other bars and restaurants scattered through out this island gem that insure not only West End or the West side of the island is a place to be. Including the island favorites, Island Saloon bar and grill, the Blue Parrot Jamaican grill and the newly opened Tako which offers a wide array of Japanese cuisine primarily focusing on sushi and it has become an immediate hit on the island among locals and visitors. The famous Herby's sports bar and grill, unmatched anywhere in the country in its size and scope features an exact replica of the Dallas Cowboys stadium jumbo tron and 25 wide screen televisions lined in perfect view throughout the bar making it the perfect venue for any sporting event as well as the Pineapple grill featuring the highest quality in fine dining with local and imported beef as well as a large wine cellar. Both are located at the Pineapple Villas complex in French Harbour (The islands second largest city as well as a hub for business, banking and shipping. Its also the commercial fishing center of Roatan and the Bay Islands.) along with Gio's restaurant which features two locations in the towns of French Harbour and Flower's Bay (short drive away from West End and West Bay) and is renowned for their king crab dishes and Honduran beef. ROA nightclub and Las Palmas are among the many locations around the island that features dancing and drinks, along with the locations listed above. When it comes to nightlife accommodations, Roatan does not disappoint.
Diving has been the islands tourism backbone and it continues that tradition with some of the most spectacular and renowned dive sites in the Caribbean and the World. All major hotels as well as the smaller hotels in West End, West Bay, Oak Ridge, Sandy Bay and French Harbour all feature their own private dive shops for guests with West End being the hub for diving with its ever growing list of reliable and professionally trained dive shops like Coconut Tree divers, Anemona dive shop, Til's dive shop and Reef Gliders among the many. Roatan is not only a haven for scuba divers, it also offers some of the most amazing snorkeling locales in the Caribbean and most are accessible from almost any point of the island especially within the marine park which stretches from the town of Sandy Bay on the north coast of the island to the famous West Bay beach, which makes the beach unique as it is an official marine park. Poaching and fishing in the marine park is strictly prohibited and against the law. There are two outer banks on the southside of the island near the airport known as "Big bank and Lil bank" that share a very unique characteristic. They both feature coral formations and species that are found no where else in the world only on these banks that belong to Roatan. Diving on the banks is not prohibited but conditions are not always ideal because of their location in open water but when the weather allows they provide quite possibly the most unique and exciting scuba diving experience one could ask for anywhere in the world. Because of the constant, almost year round ocean currents in the Honduran sea these banks are also the cleanest corals found throughout the Caribbean as well as the least untouched.
Island tours via independent tour operators or transportation provided by the hotels is a big hit among visitors with local island drivers providing a narrated tour of the island from east to west stopping at any desired destination or attraction that is available or open on the tour. Most tour's often pass through the historical island towns including Punta Gorda which is the oldest settlement in the Bay Islands and is home to the Garifuna people who are the descendants of freed slaves who made their way to the islands over two centuries ago. The Carambola botanical gardens located in Sandy Bay offers a unique view of all the local and indigenous plant life that calls the Bay Island's home. The Gardens have been owned and operated by the Brady family of Sandy Bay for over twenty-five years. The Arch's Iguana farm in the town of French Key is a must see for any visitor to the island. The Iguanas literally number in the thousands and the different species and kamoto dragon like size of some make the park a truly unique attraction on the island. It also doubles as a preservation and rescue for any Iguanas that were once pets or have been injured due to hunting or poaching. Ironically the Iguana is an Island delicacy and a source of food for many Islanders and this is a tradition that remains since the first settlers to the island, with a predetermined hunting season in place as the island has an abundance of these magnificent creatures. Some species of Iguana can only be found on Roatan and the same can be said about specific species in Utila and Guanaja as well.
Útila
Utila is the third largest of Honduras' Bay Islands, after Roatán and Guanaja, in a region that marks the south end of the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System, the second-largest in the world...
and Guanaja
Guanaja
Guanaja is one of the Bay Islands of Honduras, and is in the Caribbean. It is about 70 km off the north coast of Honduras, and 12 km from the island of Roatan. One of the cays off Guanaja, also called Guanaja or Bonnaca or Low Cay , is near the main island, and contains most of the...
, is the largest of Honduras
Honduras
Honduras is a republic in Central America. It was previously known as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras, which became the modern-day state of Belize...
' Bay Islands. The island was formerly known as Ruatan and Rattan. It is approximately 60 kilometres (37.3 mi) long, and less than 8 kilometres (5 mi) across at its widest point.
Jose Santos Guardiola in the east (named for the former president of Honduras) and Roatán (also including the Cayos Cochinos
Cayos Cochinos
The Cayos Cochinos or Cochinos Cays are a group of two small islands and 13 more small coral cays situated 30 kilometers northeast of La Ceiba on the northern shores of Honduras. Although geographically separate, they belong to the Bay Islands department and are part of Roatán municipality. The...
) further south in the west. The most populous town of the island is Coxen Hole
Coxen Hole
Coxen Hole, also called Roatan Town, is the largest city on the island of Roatán, and the capital of the Bay Islands department of Honduras, with a population of 5,070 as of census 2001. It is also the location of the island's Juan Manuel Gálvez International Airport.Bus service connects Coxen...
, capital of Roatán municipality, located in the southwest. Other important towns include French Harbour, West End, and Oak Ridge, the capital of Jose Santos Guardiola municipality.
The easternmost quarter of the island is separated by a convoluted channel through the mangrove
Mangrove
Mangroves are various kinds of trees up to medium height and shrubs that grow in saline coastal sediment habitats in the tropics and subtropics – mainly between latitudes N and S...
s that is 15 meters wide on the average. This section is called Helene, or Santa Elena in Spanish. Satellite islands at the eastern end are Morat, Barbaretta, and Pigeon Cay. Further west between French Harbour and Coxen Hole is Barefoot Cay. Known as Burial Key until 2001, Barefoot Cay now is privately owned and houses a luxury resort popular with celebrities.
Located near the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef
Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System
The Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System stretches over 1000 km from Isla Contoy at the tip of the Yucatán Peninsula down to the Bay Islands of Honduras...
, the largest barrier reef in the Caribbean Sea
Caribbean Sea
The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean located in the tropics of the Western hemisphere. It is bounded by Mexico and Central America to the west and southwest, to the north by the Greater Antilles, and to the east by the Lesser Antilles....
(second largest worldwide after Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
's Great Barrier Reef
Great Barrier Reef
The Great Barrier Reef is the world'slargest reef system composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for over 2,600 kilometres over an area of approximately...
), Roatán has become an important cruise ship and scuba diving
Scuba diving
Scuba diving is a form of underwater diving in which a diver uses a scuba set to breathe underwater....
destination in Honduras. Tourism
Tourism
Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes".Tourism has become a...
is its most important economic sector, though fishing is also an important source of income for islanders. Roatan is located within 50 minutes of LGS. The island is served by the Juan Manuel Gálvez Roatan International Airport
Juan Manuel Gálvez International Airport
Juan Manuel Gálvez International Airport is an airport located on the island of Roatán in the Bay Islands Department in Honduras. It serves national and international air traffic of the island. The airport is named for Juan Manuel Gálvez the former president of Honduras...
. Which includes direct flights from Atlanta and Houston via Continental and Delta airlines respectively, with other domestic connections for international flights arriving into mainland Honduran cities like the capitol Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula. Roatan is also serviced by the Galaxy Wave express Catamaran ferry that operates two daily ferry's in the morning and evenings to La Ceiba, Honduras with a duration of one hour each trip depending on the weather.
History
The pre-ColumbianPre-Columbian
The pre-Columbian era incorporates all period subdivisions in the history and prehistory of the Americas before the appearance of significant European influences on the American continents, spanning the time of the original settlement in the Upper Paleolithic period to European colonization during...
indigenous peoples
Indigenous peoples
Indigenous peoples are ethnic groups that are defined as indigenous according to one of the various definitions of the term, there is no universally accepted definition but most of which carry connotations of being the "original inhabitants" of a territory....
of the Bay Islands are believed to have been related to Paya
Paya
Paya may refer to:* Paya Indians - a tribe in Honduras that speaks the Paya language.* Sri paya, a spicy meat stew native to Pakistan and North India* Paya Jaras - a state constituency in Malaysia....
, Maya
Maya peoples
The Maya people constitute a diverse range of the Native American people of southern Mexico and northern Central America. The overarching term "Maya" is a collective designation to include the peoples of the region who share some degree of cultural and linguistic heritage; however, the term...
, Lenca or Jicaque, which were the cultures present on the mainland. Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus was an explorer, colonizer, and navigator, born in the Republic of Genoa, in northwestern Italy. Under the auspices of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, he completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean that led to general European awareness of the American continents in the...
on his fourth voyage (1502–1504) came to the islands as he visited the neighboring Bay Island of Guanaja
Guanaja
Guanaja is one of the Bay Islands of Honduras, and is in the Caribbean. It is about 70 km off the north coast of Honduras, and 12 km from the island of Roatan. One of the cays off Guanaja, also called Guanaja or Bonnaca or Low Cay , is near the main island, and contains most of the...
. Soon after the Spanish began raiding the islands for slave
Slavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
labor. More devastating for Native American communities was exposure to Eurasia
Eurasia
Eurasia is a continent or supercontinent comprising the traditional continents of Europe and Asia ; covering about 52,990,000 km2 or about 10.6% of the Earth's surface located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres...
n infectious disease
Infectious disease
Infectious diseases, also known as communicable diseases, contagious diseases or transmissible diseases comprise clinically evident illness resulting from the infection, presence and growth of pathogenic biological agents in an individual host organism...
s to which they had no immunity, such as smallpox
Smallpox
Smallpox was an infectious disease unique to humans, caused by either of two virus variants, Variola major and Variola minor. The disease is also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera, which is a derivative of the Latin varius, meaning "spotted", or varus, meaning "pimple"...
and measles
Measles
Measles, also known as rubeola or morbilli, is an infection of the respiratory system caused by a virus, specifically a paramyxovirus of the genus Morbillivirus. Morbilliviruses, like other paramyxoviruses, are enveloped, single-stranded, negative-sense RNA viruses...
. Diseases ran in epidemics, and no indigenous people survived.
Throughout European colonial times, the Bay of Honduras attracted a diverse array of individual settlers, pirates, traders and military forces, engaged in various economic activities and playing out political struggles between the European powers, chiefly Britain and Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
. Roatán and the other islands were used as frequent resting points for sea travelers. On several occasions, they were subject to military occupation. In 1723/1724 an approximately 20-year-old-man from New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
, Philip Ashton
Philip Ashton
Philip Ashton stayed as a castaway on uninhabited Roatan Island in the Bay of Honduras for 16 months in 1723/1724. His memoirs about his solitary stay were not believed by everyone; some people believed the book was a novel in the style of Robinson Crusoe...
, managed to survive as a castaway
Castaway
A castaway is a person who is cast adrift or ashore. While the situation usually happens after a shipwreck, some people voluntarily stay behind on a deserted island, either to evade their captors or the world in general. Alternatively, a person or item can be cast away, meaning rejected or discarded...
on the island for sixteen months until he was rescued (see Edward E. Leslie, Desperate Journeys, Abandoned Souls, 1988, pp. 100–120). During that time they were governed by self-proclaimed King Kyle Edward Chauncey, a red-haired white man leading mostly Spanish speakers among those of European descent.
In contesting with the Spanish for colonization of the Caribbean, the English occupied the Bay Islands on and off between 1550 and 1700. During this time, buccaneer
Buccaneer
The buccaneers were privateers who attacked Spanish shipping in the Caribbean Sea during the late 17th century.The term buccaneer is now used generally as a synonym for pirate...
s found the vacated, mostly unprotected islands a haven for safe harbor and transport. English, French and Dutch pirates established settlements on the islands. They frequently raided the cumbersome Spanish cargo vessels carrying gold and other treasures from the New World to Spain.
In 1797, the British defeated the Black Carib, who had been supported by the French, in a battle for control of the Windward Caribbean island of St. Vincent
Saint Vincent (island)
Saint Vincent is a volcanic island in the Caribbean. It is the largest island of the chain called Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. It is located in the Caribbean Sea, between Saint Lucia and Grenada. It is composed of partially submerged volcanic mountains...
. Weary of their resistance to British plans for sugar plantations, the British rounded up the St. Vincent Black Carib and deported them to Roatán. The majority of Black Carib migrated to Trujillo on mainland Honduras, but a portion remained to found the community of Punta Gorda on the northern coast of Roatán. The Black Carib, whose ancestry includes Arawak and African Maroon
Maroon (people)
Maroons were runaway slaves in the West Indies, Central America, South America, and North America, who formed independent settlements together...
s, remained in Punta Gorda, becoming the Bay Island's first permanent post-Columbian settlers. They also migrated from there to parts of the northern coast of Central America
Central America
Central America is the central geographic region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. When considered part of the unified continental model, it is considered a subcontinent...
, becoming the foundation of the modern-day Garífuna
Garifuna
The Garinagu are descendants of Carib, Arawak and West African people. The British colonial administration used the term Black Carib and Garinagu to distinguish them from Yellow and Red Carib, the Amerindian population that did not intermarry with Africans...
culture.
The majority permanent population of Roatán originated from the Cayman Islands
Cayman Islands
The Cayman Islands is a British Overseas Territory and overseas territory of the European Union located in the western Caribbean Sea. The territory comprises the three islands of Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac, and Little Cayman, located south of Cuba and northwest of Jamaica...
near Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
. They arrived in the 1830s shortly after Britain's abolition
Abolition
Abolish means to put an end to something or to stop something.Abolition may refer to:*Abolitionism *Abolition of death penalty *Abolition of monarchy*Prison abolition movement...
of slavery in 1838. The changes in labor force disrupted the economic structure of Caymanian culture. Caymanians were largely a seafaring culture and were familiar with the area from turtle fishing and other activities. Former Caymanian slaveholders were among the first to settle in the seaside locations throughout primarily western Roatán. Former slaves also migrated from the Cayman Islands, in larger number than planters, during the late 1830s and 1840s. Altogether, the former Caymanians became the largest cultural group on the island.{}
For a brief period in the 1850s, Britain declared the Bay Islands its colony. Within a decade the Crown ceded the territory formally back to Honduras
Honduras
Honduras is a republic in Central America. It was previously known as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras, which became the modern-day state of Belize...
. British colonists were sent though, and asked William Walker, a freebooter with a private army, to help end the crisis in 1860 by invading Honduras; he was captured upon landing in Trujillo and executed there.
In the latter half of the 19th century, the island populations grew steadily and established new settlements all over Roatán and the other islands. Settlers came from all over the world and played a part in shaping the cultural face of the island. Islanders started a fruit trade industry which became profitable. By the 1870s it was purchased by American interests, most notably the New Orleans and Bay Islands Fruit Company. Later companies, the Standard Fruit and United Fruit Companies became the foundation for modern-day fruit companies, the industry which gave Honduras the sobriquet "banana republic
Banana republic
In political science, the pejorative term Banana Republic denotes a politically unstable country dependent upon limited primary productions , which is ruled by a plutocracy, a small, self-elected, wealthy group who exploit the country by means of a politico-economic oligarchy...
".
Mestizo
Mestizo is a term traditionally used in Latin America, Philippines and Spain for people of mixed European and Native American heritage or descent...
migrants from the Honduran mainland. In the last decades they tripled the original resident population. Mestizo migrants settled primarily in the urban areas of Coxen Hole and Barrio Los Fuertes (near French Harbour). In these areas Spanish is common, with English speakers more common among descendants of early colonists, as well as in the other areas inhabited chiefly by islanders rather than former mainlanders.
But in terms of population and economic influence, the mainlander influx was dwarfed by the overwhelming tourist presence in most recent years. Numerous American, Canadian, British, New Zealand, Australian and South African settlers and entrepreneurs engaged chiefly in the fishing industry, and later, provided the foundation for attracting the tourist trade. The rapid and dramatic demographic changes that Roatán has experienced in the 21st century has contributed to the complexity of the environmental challenges of the island.
In 1998, Roatán suffered some damage from Hurricane Mitch
Hurricane Mitch
Hurricane Mitch was the most powerful hurricane and the most destructive of the 1998 Atlantic hurricane season, with maximum sustained winds of 180 mph . The storm was the thirteenth tropical storm, ninth hurricane, and third major hurricane of the season. Along with Hurricane Georges, Mitch...
, temporarily paralyzing most commercial activity. Native islanders claimed the storm broke three previously undisturbed Aguila shipwrecks.
Caracoles
The Caracol peopleCaracoles
The Caracol people are an English-based creole speaking people who have been established in Northern Honduras since the early 19th century and are mainly of European British-Caribbean descent...
are an English-speaking people who have been established in Northern Honduras (specifically, the Bay Islands) since the early 19th century. They are chiefly of European and British-Afro-Caribbean descent. Caracol is Spanish for "conch, snail or shell", and relates the people of the Bay Islands to their unique environment and their sea-faring culture. In its current usage, the term caracol refers to all people born in the Bay Islands region, and their descendants. The term "caracol" has also been deemed offensive by native Islanders and the term is only used by Spanish-speaking "mainland" Hondurans who have a long standing rivalry with native Bay Islanders because of their differences in culture, language, beliefs and ideals. All native islanders regardless of race, creed or color prefer the term "Islanders" when being referred to. The region of the Bay Islands encompasses the three major islands of Roatan, Utila and Guanaja, the Hog Islands as well as the smaller islands or cays. These people are also called "Islanders," especially locally.
English is the first language of all native islanders regardless of race and Spanish is spoken second, whereas mainland Honduras is primarily Spanish speaking. It remains this way because of the islands past as a British colony as well as all islanders being the decendants of the British Isles. With the steady influx of mainland Hondurans migrating to the islands an increase in Spanish has arisen but because of the tourism and cruise ship industry that support the islands, English continues and will remain to be the first spoken and dominant language among all native island peoples. Over time the form of English spoken by the Caracol has changed. The language differs mostly in morphology but also in pronunciation and accent and, to a lesser extent, in syntax and vocabulary, from the English of the other British Caribbean colonies. Evidenced by the usage of the wide variety of old standard English terms and words that are used throughout the islands. They are similar enough to be mutually intelligable and understood throughout the entire Bay Islands. The language can also be learned, although it is not taught in the general sense, whilst the accent derived from the wide variety of ex-patriots living and working on the Islands from North America and Europe.
--24.20.23.119 (talk) 20:10, 22 November 2011 (UTC)
Environment
Roatan lies on the southern edge of the Mesoamerican Reef System, the second largest barrier reef in the world. Reef systems are very delicate and have experienced massive damage and degradation worldwide. On Roatan, unchecked tourism development and an increased population are putting a strain on its natural resources. Deforestation, run-off, poorly managed waste treatment, and pollution are the main threats to the terrestrial and marine environments. Unfortunately, corruption and bad governing have meant that developers can break environemental laws and face little if any opposition.The capitol city of Coxen Hole underwent a major reconstruction between the years of 2003 to 2005 adding new black water and septic lines as well as fresh water lines to accommodate the growing business sector and population. These lines are used in conjunction with the new water treatment plant and a waste management plant that recycles waste which are adjacent to the Roatan International Airport. Unfortunaetly, many of these lines were not hooked up to the main sewer system and raw sewage still flows directly into the ocean. This exact environmental restructuring is under way in the town of West End (The islands main tourism hub and nightlife strip of the island as well as the official center of snorkeling and scuba diving on Roatan). The project has received much hesitation from residents in West End as the project has been poorly planned and executed. Residents of West End are also being made to pay for much of the municipal project and face leans and levies against their properties if they are unable to pay. Construction of the sewerage system began in August of 2011. Less than a month later, rainy season began. Every rain storm washes the clay and sediment from the construction zones directly into the ocean and onto the reef. This mixture of red clay and sediment is particularly detrimental to the health of the reef. Yet the Municipality has taken very few measures to lessen the dameging environmental impacts caused to the reef by the construction. The project's expected completion date is the end of 2012 or before the start of the following rain season which starts from the middle of October to the end of March. Though it is illegal to use plastic bags in the Bay Islands and is illegal for a business to bring in plastic bottles unless they remove them, the island and its reefs continue to be littered with plastics. The Roatan Marine Park was the main force behind reintroducing recycling to the island after a 3 year absence.
Roatan Marine Park
The Roatan Marine ParkRoatan Marine Park
The Roatán Marine Park is a grass roots, community-based, non-profit organization, non governmental organisation established in January 2005 by a group of dive operators and local businesses that were concerned about the alarming rate of reef degradation in the Sandy Bay-West End Marine Reserve...
(RMP) is a grass roots, community-based, non-profit organization located on Roatan. The organization was formed in January 2005 when a group of concerned dive operators and local businesses united in an effort to protect Roatan’s fragile coral reefs. Initially, the RMP's goal was to run a patrol program within the Sandy Bay-West End Marine Reserve (SBWEMR), to prevent over exploitation through unsustainable fishing practices. Over time, the organization expanded the scope of their environmental efforts through the addition of other programs to protect Roatan’s natural resources, including patrols and infrastructure, education, conservation and public awareness. With a rapidly developing island, the number of challenges the RMP face increases every day. They focus on engaging diverse community stakeholders to aid in developing solutions that can ensure long-term, sustainable management of our natural resources.
Night Life
The main strip of the island is the coastal beach town of West End which also doubles as the islands main tourism hub and its center for diving. West End features a wide variety of bars and restaurants ranging from Thai, Chinese, Japanese, Italian, French, Argentinian, American, Jamaican, Honduran and local island style cuisine. Because of these various different cultures West End offers some of the best dining found, not only on Roatan but Honduras as well. West End also features an abundance of bars/eateries ranging from the Blue Marlin, Sundowners, Wet spot (actual name), Mucho Bueno (Ask for the shot's handbook), Blue Channel, Foster's, Nova, Barefoot bar, Cannibal Cafe, Coconut Tree, Eagle Ray's, Tong's, Besos grill and many more. Locals, foreigners and tourists congregate in West End not only on the weekends but also during the work week. West End is constantly teeming with activity both day and night. Whether you're dining or simply looking for a good time or diving in one of the many dive shops, there are no shortages of good times in West End.West Bay Community is a short drive away from West End either by car or water taxi and although it is known for the world famous West Bay Beach, which has been profiled numerous times on House Hunter's International, it also features some of the larger and more well known resorts on Roatan as well as their own restaurant and bars open to the public. The Vintage Pearl restaurant is known as one of the finest restaurants in Honduras as well as the Bay Islands and has received very high ratings on many travel websites featuring Roatan. It also offers the largest wine cellar of any restaurant in the Bay Islands as well as an open menu that offers a mixture of Asian and European dishes fused with their own signature touch. The Hungry Monkey, Mangiamo's, Beacher's and the Thirsty Turtle all offer a variety of different styles ranging from Deli to beach side eatery. These locations are known for being local lunch spots as well as offering a dinner menu.
There are many other bars and restaurants scattered through out this island gem that insure not only West End or the West side of the island is a place to be. Including the island favorites, Island Saloon bar and grill, the Blue Parrot Jamaican grill and the newly opened Tako which offers a wide array of Japanese cuisine primarily focusing on sushi and it has become an immediate hit on the island among locals and visitors. The famous Herby's sports bar and grill, unmatched anywhere in the country in its size and scope features an exact replica of the Dallas Cowboys stadium jumbo tron and 25 wide screen televisions lined in perfect view throughout the bar making it the perfect venue for any sporting event as well as the Pineapple grill featuring the highest quality in fine dining with local and imported beef as well as a large wine cellar. Both are located at the Pineapple Villas complex in French Harbour (The islands second largest city as well as a hub for business, banking and shipping. Its also the commercial fishing center of Roatan and the Bay Islands.) along with Gio's restaurant which features two locations in the towns of French Harbour and Flower's Bay (short drive away from West End and West Bay) and is renowned for their king crab dishes and Honduran beef. ROA nightclub and Las Palmas are among the many locations around the island that features dancing and drinks, along with the locations listed above. When it comes to nightlife accommodations, Roatan does not disappoint.
Activities
Roatan is world famous for its extraordinary and pristine diving locations scattered all over the island, because of the aforementioned meso-american reef system which creates a barrier around the entire north shore of the island creating a sanctuary for marine life on the inner part of the reefs and an abundance of spectacular dive sites on the outer reefs. In recent years the island has also seen a steady expansion in Eco-tourism which have taken the island by storm and most of Central American tourism because of its ecological and environmental advantages as well as the promotion of green energy and conservation through out these fragile and precious Eco-systems. Adventure sports and activities from Zip-lining, ATV & moped tours to parasailing, kayaking, paddle boarding, wind surfing and free diving to sunset and daylight catamaran and sailboat cruises to the nearby Hog island's or the island of Utila are also in abundance. Sport fishing excursions has become a growing favorite among visitors on the island for its abundant variety of marine fish, yet the island maintains a strict law against poaching and the killing of all big game fish, primarily bill fish preferring the use of "catch and release" method in its annual fishing tournament and local fishermen doing sport fishing excursions. It is the only way to properly sustain and develop a healthy fishing industry and environment. Zip-lining has become a favorite activity for locals and tourists alike especially the South Shore Adventure Park becoming the islands most frequented destination for zip-lining and other adventure activities, with a 100% safety record and professionally trained and experienced guides and personnel. There are a total of seven zipline companies on the island as well as three adventure/animal parks located in Sandy Bay and West Bay respectively with each location seeing a steady yearly expansion. All of these locations and parks can be found through a variety of travel sites like tripadvisor.com and cruisecritic.com as well as expedia.com and travelocity.com among many others.Diving has been the islands tourism backbone and it continues that tradition with some of the most spectacular and renowned dive sites in the Caribbean and the World. All major hotels as well as the smaller hotels in West End, West Bay, Oak Ridge, Sandy Bay and French Harbour all feature their own private dive shops for guests with West End being the hub for diving with its ever growing list of reliable and professionally trained dive shops like Coconut Tree divers, Anemona dive shop, Til's dive shop and Reef Gliders among the many. Roatan is not only a haven for scuba divers, it also offers some of the most amazing snorkeling locales in the Caribbean and most are accessible from almost any point of the island especially within the marine park which stretches from the town of Sandy Bay on the north coast of the island to the famous West Bay beach, which makes the beach unique as it is an official marine park. Poaching and fishing in the marine park is strictly prohibited and against the law. There are two outer banks on the southside of the island near the airport known as "Big bank and Lil bank" that share a very unique characteristic. They both feature coral formations and species that are found no where else in the world only on these banks that belong to Roatan. Diving on the banks is not prohibited but conditions are not always ideal because of their location in open water but when the weather allows they provide quite possibly the most unique and exciting scuba diving experience one could ask for anywhere in the world. Because of the constant, almost year round ocean currents in the Honduran sea these banks are also the cleanest corals found throughout the Caribbean as well as the least untouched.
Island tours via independent tour operators or transportation provided by the hotels is a big hit among visitors with local island drivers providing a narrated tour of the island from east to west stopping at any desired destination or attraction that is available or open on the tour. Most tour's often pass through the historical island towns including Punta Gorda which is the oldest settlement in the Bay Islands and is home to the Garifuna people who are the descendants of freed slaves who made their way to the islands over two centuries ago. The Carambola botanical gardens located in Sandy Bay offers a unique view of all the local and indigenous plant life that calls the Bay Island's home. The Gardens have been owned and operated by the Brady family of Sandy Bay for over twenty-five years. The Arch's Iguana farm in the town of French Key is a must see for any visitor to the island. The Iguanas literally number in the thousands and the different species and kamoto dragon like size of some make the park a truly unique attraction on the island. It also doubles as a preservation and rescue for any Iguanas that were once pets or have been injured due to hunting or poaching. Ironically the Iguana is an Island delicacy and a source of food for many Islanders and this is a tradition that remains since the first settlers to the island, with a predetermined hunting season in place as the island has an abundance of these magnificent creatures. Some species of Iguana can only be found on Roatan and the same can be said about specific species in Utila and Guanaja as well.