Kilotonnes of Seaweed become a Curse to Many, a Resource to a Few

You can look at the Sargassum overabundance as a curse, and you can also look at it as a blessing. In February, when millions of cubic meters of Sargassum washed onto beaches and mangroves along the Roatan shoreline, many islanders took action. Others did nothing at all. After two months, the results are in.
The winter of 2026 broke records, creating a Sargassum bloom never before seen at this scale in the western Caribbean. The 2025 Sargassum biomass was estimated at 37 million tons, but this year will surely smash the record once the tally is in.

The extraordinarily large bloom is attributed to wind-driven upwelling in the Atlantic, which brought extra nutrients to the Sargassum belt.
On Roatan, two species of Sargassum have wreaked havoc: Sargassum natans and Sargassum fluitans have been washing up. Sargassum is a type of brown macroalgae, or seaweed, that grows in the Atlantic and is pushed eastward by wind onto the shores of islands and continents. Things get out of hand when Sargassum quantities become 50 or 100 times greater than in a typical year.

The Sargassum Impact

Sargassum disrupts ecosystems, creates a foul odor and traps tiny fish. The seaweed depletes oxygen in the surrounding water. As it breaks down and decomposes, Sargassum produces hydrogen sulfide and ammonia, resulting in a low pH level. This further harms the aquatic environment and the animals that live there. The result is the creation of dead zones under and around floating, decomposing Sargassum.

In other words, Sargassum degrades water quality and makes the marine environment inhospitable. The number of species and the density of marine life drop. Once Sargassum leaves the island’s coast, the true scale of those negative effects can be assessed. When Sargassum envelops mangrove areas, it also stifles local fish species that use mangroves as nurseries.

Another negative effect is the microplastics that are brought in by the Sargassum. The pieces of Sargassum float hundreds of meters from beaches, and swimming or snorkeling can be a less pleasant experience.

There are a few benefits of this seaweed for critters that feed on it. Sargassum provides a rich environment for organisms such as bacteria and fungi, which grow on decomposing plant matter, breaking it down and turning it into nutrients. Some fish, including juvenile triggerfish and filefish, feed on the invertebrates that live with the Sargassum. Tiny amphipods and isopods graze on the decaying Sargassum, and those, in turn, become food for crabs and fish.

There are examples of such events in the recent past. In 2018, Mexico’s Caribbean coast was so inundated with Sargassum that it caused a die-off of dozens of animal species. This year, Sargassum has overwhelmed Roatan’s beaches, and the island’s marine life has been hit hard.

While Roatan is about 42 kilometers long, its meandering shoreline stretches well over 160 kilometers. Tens of millions of cubic meters of Sargassum have washed ashore on Roatan.

WEST BAY UNDER SARGASSUM SIEGE

On Feb. 9 and 10, the situation got out of control. As rainy weather kept most West Bay tourists from going to the beach, Roatan’s premier beach shore was packed with Sargassum. West Bay, the jewel of Roatan tourism, has been affected as never before. The 1,000-meter-long beach was surrounded by a belt of Sargassum that was 100 meters wide and half a meter thick.

Local authorities became preoccupied with solving the immediate problem of Sargassum affecting the beach experience for thousands of tourists visiting the jewel of Roatan. They felt they needed to act quickly, and that solution was to truck the Sargassum to dumping sites across the western side of the island and bury the rest under the white beach sand with heavy machinery and plenty of manpower.

Sargassum has been racked by hand by dozens of municipal workers, wheel barrowed onto trucks and dumped by the side of West Bay Road and at the municipal dump. Paya Magazine calculates that more than 300,000 cubic meters of Sargassum were removed from West Bay Beach in the winter of 2026.

While covering tons of Sargassum directly beneath two meters of white West Bay sand seemed to solve the aesthetic problem in a matter of days, as with many quick decisions, the unintended consequences might take several months or years to be realized. “Burying the Sargassum on a white sandy beach like West Bay can result in changing the color of the sand over time,” said Darrell Humphries, HOA manager at Palmetto Bay since 2016. “If you start placing Sargassum there, you can end up with darker, browner-colored sand eventually.”

According to Humphries, turtle grass and spaghetti grass, with their high calcium content, eventually turn into sand, but Sargassum turns into a solid, darker material. “Sargassum is a darker type of product once it is broken down,” Humphries says. “It’s empirical, a lot of observational stuff we have learned over time.”

Another potential unintended consequence of burying Sargassum under a relatively narrow and steep West Bay Beach is the potential to speed up beach erosion. While burying Sargassum along West Bay Beach has given beach users a wider and taller beach, that effect could be only temporary.

Sargassum blocks sunlight reaching both coral and sea grass.

The higher beach will erode more quickly from currents and storms in the coming months, and perhaps a year or two. The waterlogged, spongy Sargassum will eventually be compressed into a minuscule layer of brown solids. When the currents finish their equalizing work and the Sargassum compression process ends, West Bay Beach might be narrower and lower. The beautiful beach might be less wide after Sargassum floated into West Bay in February 2026.

BEYOND WEST BAY

While the attention of Roatan Municipality authorities focused resources and manpower on tourist areas such as West Bay and West End, the rest of the island was left to fend for itself. The communities of Punta Gorda and Brick Bay were particularly affected by the tons of decomposing, foul-smelling seaweed.

Some places have had it worse than others. In the Brick Bay community, the Sargassum has been accumulating and decomposing for more than six weeks. Several hundred people live in this densely populated south side seaside village.

As older seaweed decomposes, new waves of Sargassum wash ashore, replacing it. The stench of rotting Sargassum is similar to that of a failed septic system. While no one has become ill, constant exposure to the stench of decomposing Sargassum has been stressful and miserable. “People are getting accustomed. In their homes, the smell seems less strong,” said Ricardo Hernández, a longtime Brick Bay resident.

The Honduran Navy has considered bringing in a floating barrier to prevent more Sargassum from floating into Brick Bay. The most likely outcome is that the problem will solve itself naturally. Nature will take away what nature has created. “We are waiting for a northern that would move the Sargassum out to sea,” says Hernández, whose Brick Bay home is 15 meters from the sea.

SARGASSUM AS A RESOURCE

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade, goes the proverbial phrase. The ideal situation would be to treat Sargassum as a periodic resource: a fertilizer, a building material for roads and landfills, and even an element for creating building blocks.

In Mexico, local entrepreneurs have found a way to turn Sargassum into a construction material. They gather Sargassum from beaches, and then wash it with fresh water to remove the salt. Next, the Sargassum is dried and shredded, and a cement mixture is added. The rectangular Sargassum building blocks are then dried in the sun. The resulting Sargassum-cement blocks are strong, fire-resistant, thermally massive and inexpensive.

On Roatan, some islanders have been using Sargassum as fertilizer for well over a decade. They pick up the seaweed from the beaches, rinse it with fresh water, and then spread it around the base of their fruit trees. “We let it dry out and put it all over the plants,” said Richard Anderson, a hotel owner from West End. “It’s like Popeye when you give him spinach.” Anderson rinses the Sargassum and then dries it out before using it all over his property.

There are also islanders who use Sargassum as a construction material and landfill material. Over the years, the Palmetto Bay maintenance staff has become expert at quickly gathering Sargassum from the beach and using it for improvements in community areas.

Islanders have been using Sargassum as a fertilizer.

Palmetto Bay maintenance staff has been using washed-out Sargassum, turtle grass and spaghetti grass to construct a walking trail and road system in its low-lying Bird Sanctuary community area. This project began in 2014, so the Palmetto Bay HOA staff has gained extensive experience handling Sargassum and using it in careful, strategic ways.

Palmetto Bay maintenance staff have been using Sargassum as a natural, free fertilizer for some of their plants. “It’s a great fertilizer; it’s great for mixing in with regular soil,” says Darell Humphries, manager at Palmetto Bay.

The steps in producing this free plant stimulant are minimal. Workers gather the Sargassum with a tractor, place it on a trailer, and dump it in an area where rain rinses it down. Then the Palmetto Bay staff places the broken-down Sargassum at the base of plants and trees. “Peppers and other vegetables do very well with Sargassum,” says Humphries.

The maintenance tractor operators try to avoid picking up Sargassum that has rolled around in the water and become entangled with a lot of sand. They try to keep picking up Sargassum and keeping the entangled sand to a minimum, somewhere around 5% to 10%.

There are about nine ambulances providing emergency transport from accident scenes to emergency centers around the island. UNIMED has two; AirEvac in West Bay has one; Woods Medical Clinic has one; there is the airport ambulance; the Red Cross and COPECO have one ambulance each; and the Roatan Fire Department has two ambulances.

The islanders relied on their neighbors and enterprising businessmen to help with emergency transport until the late 1990s. That changed in 1998, when Hurricane Mitch battered Roatan and the Fire Department received its ambulance. It was based at the Coxen Hole fire station and staffed by Fire Chief Elton Woods.

Emergency dispatching takes place via WhatsApp groups, where someone posts an emergency and another person reads it and says an ambulance has been contacted. It is a poor man’s emergency dispatch system, but it works.
Some believe it could work better. “It is a shame Roatan still doesn’t have an emergency dispatcher,” said Ana Svoboda, president of the Honduran Red Cross Bay Islands Council from 2016 to 2021. “This would reduce anxiety; get emergency services to accident scenes more quickly and ultimately save lives.”

It is a poor man’s emergency dispatch.

Roatan is now dotted with private clinics offering emergency ambulance services. West End-based UNIMED has two ambulances and provides services to tourists and locals. Their ambulances provide BLS, or basic life support, and DLS, or advanced life support. They have systems to treat heart failure. “Our doctors provide treatment on-site, not at the clinic,” says Daniel Cartagena, UNIMED’s manager since 2018. “We do the first assessment on-site, and if it is a motorcycle accident, we take them to Satuye Hospital.”

UNIMED is strategically located in West End and offers emergency transport, 24/7 emergency care, lab tests, X-rays, general surgery, air ambulance services, and an array of specialist doctors. UNIMED began in 2015 with a wheeled ambulance based at Coconut Tree in West End. “We assisted with many emergencies at that time,” Cartagena says.

In 2019, UNIMED expanded its services to provide a stabilization facility and care for minor emergencies. UNIMED is part of a chain of clinics and urgent care centers in Latin America. UNIMED is a sister company of AirEvac International and is owned by Raul Mendoza, a California businessman.

There are several other private clinic ambulance providers for cruise passengers in case of emergency. One of them is the island’s oldest private hospital, owned by Dr. Jackie Woods.

Dr. Woods opened Woods Medical Center, or WMC, on Main Street in Coxen Hole in 1999. From the beginning, the center has operated as a 24/7 emergency facility. Since 2023, it has had its own ambulance. “We only use the ambulance for cruise ship patients,” said Dr. Woods, owner of Woods Medical Center. In 2025, WMC has an intensive care unit, or ICU, that is able to stabilize a patient. “We can treat trauma,” Dr. Woods said.

The biggest necessity is the blood bank.

Other elements of good emergency treatment include the availability of emergency blood centers and 24/7 laboratories. The key is Coxen Hole’s Satuye Hospital, which stores Roatan’s blood supply. The typically stored supply of 10 to 12 pints of blood is small and easily depleted. “The biggest necessity is the blood bank, 10 to 12 pints of blood, and those can be drained with just a couple of motorcycle accidents,” said Jackie Woods. While the island’s Red Cross has a list of several donors with AB blood type, the price per pint is $60 to $70.

After operating for years at the mall in French Harbour, CEMESA is currently closed. CEMESA purchased a house from the former Roatan mayor at the intersection of Jackson Road and Main Road in Brick Bay and is working to open sometime in 2026.

Blaze Consumes Large Portion of Fantasy Island Resort

Wilmer Guerrero, Roatan’s fire chief, said getting water to Ezekiel Cay, where the hotel is located, was difficult because the wooden bridge leading there could not support heavy water trucks. The hotel opened in 1989, and the 250-foot wooden bridge could not support the 50,000-pound weight of a fire truck carrying 3,000 gallons of water.

At the time of the fire, Fantasy Island was hosting about 60 guests. While guests were safely evacuated to nearby hotels, some lost personal items and documents.

The fire spread because of the high heat and the highly flammable wooden structure of the hotel resort. The buildings formed one continuous structure that allowed the fire to spread with little impediment.

Almost half of the resort was destroyed.

The wind blew from east to west, engulfing the hotel’s wooden structure. The recently renovated lobby, reception area, dining area, kitchen, convention center and discotheque were all consumed by the fire. Also, 36 of the 108 rooms at Fantasy Island were destroyed. In the end, almost half of the resort was destroyed.

The eastern wing of the hotel was spared thanks to heavy machinery. A heavy digger demolished part of the hotel, creating space between the building already on fire and the hotel rooms to the east.

According to Elvin Canales, chief of Fire Department Company B in Dixon Cove, about 900 meters of 2.5-inch water hose was connected to cisterns on the main island. The hotel used two excavators to destroy part of the building so the fire would not spread to the eastern side of the hotel. “Airport firefighters provided the hoses,” Canales said.

The firefighters also placed their only floating water pump, a Kawasaki FJ180V, inside the Fantasy Island swimming pool. Pumping at a rate of 260 gallons of water per minute, the pump was eventually damaged by the intense heat generated by the fire.

There were several devastating fires on Roatan in the past three years. According to Canales, the Fantasy Island fire, alongside the 2024 Roatan Public Hospital fire, are the largest structure fires in Roatan in the 21st century. The French Harbour Hill neighborhood suffered a fire that destroyed 25 to 30 homes in 1990. The Agua Azul packing plant also was destroyed by two fires.

A Tegucigalpa Duo Entertains and Inspires

The couple’s move from Tegucigalpa to Roatan came suddenly in June 2025. “I had a small tragedy in Tegucigalpa. I lost everything I had,” Aguilar says. Rather than breaking them, the setback inspired the couple to make a dramatic change in their lives and move to Roatan. José García, the blind musician already performing on the island, suggested they come there.

The musicians began performing on the street in West End and gained other contracts. The couple also performs in front of Taquería Raúl in West End. For one hour, from 3 to 4 p.m., the duo plays at the Ramírez Store in Sandy Bay. They have their toddler son next to them. José García, another blind musician, joins the duo for two evenings a week at Blue Marlin. Their toddler son, Schneider, accompanies them. “With this, we sustain ourselves, thanks be to God,” Aguilar says.

They were taught music at the Pilar Salinas School for the Blind in Tegucigalpa. The school was founded in 1948. Pilar Salinas Padilla, who was born in 1924, later founded another school for the blind in Guatemala. In 1978, she founded the Artisanal Center for Industry and Rehabilitation for the Blind. That school prepares blind people for professions. Salinas died in 2005.

In Santa Lucía, outside Tegucigalpa, Michael and Daisy attended the Artisanal Center for Industry and Rehabilitation for the Blind. “It is there they taught us, or rather awakened our musical talent,” Aguilar says. The couple learned to play a variety of instruments.

in Tegucigalpa I lost everything I had.

They were taught by singing coach Mr. Visitación Salgado. The professor who teaches musical instruments is Oscar Orlando Disqua. “In Tegucigalpa, there are musical bands of blind people,” Aguilar said. “They perform at events on contract.”

The graduates of this school play in musical groups all over Tegucigalpa and Honduras. “In Tegucigalpa, they leave us tips, but it is less than here,” Aguilar says about playing in parks and other public spaces in the Honduran capital.

There are several blind people who support themselves by asking for money, but there are also those who are self-reliant, creative and inspire others, often those more fortunate than they are.

There has always been good, locally raised food on Roatan. As far back as 500 years ago, Paya Indians living on the island supplied food staples to the Spanish in Trujillo on a regular basis. The same Paya Indians provided supplies to English and Dutch pirates who used the island as a base.
The well-being of islanders depended on the food they ate. Today, some of the food consumed on the islands is still locally sourced, locally raised and locally butchered. There are a still a few organic farmers on the island. Several hundred homesteads keep their own chickens, ducks and pigs. Dozens of island farmers raise cattle to keep their land free of brush. In fact, Bay Islanders have continuously kept cattle, hogs and chickens here since the 1830s, and probably longer — since the Garifuna settled here in 1797. The Bay Islands archipelago has enough fertile ground to produce plentiful crops of sweet potatoes, corn, cassava, chatas and bananas. 

The islands have plenty of grass to support cattle, pigs and goats brought in by the Spanish from Europe.
In addition to an abundance of staples on land, the Bay Islands have a steady supply of seafood caught nearby and processed in packing plants on the island. Shrimp, wild-caught in the clean waters of Honduras, is a better alternative to the farm-raised shrimp consumed in much of the U.S.
Since the middle of XX century here was a gradual increase in dependence on food imported from mainland Honduras, Belize, the United States and beyond. While in the 1950s most island families still produced their own food, today this local production accounts for less and less. Here are some island farmers that keep the farming traditions on Roatan alive.

Island Grown Solutions for Healthy, Autonomous Living

Goats Galore

The couple’s one-acre Sandy Bay homestead is in the hills overlooking the northern shore of the island. It is quite feasible to support oneself with very little land, as efficient organic farming can yield significant harvests from small plots. In fact, smart, noncommercial farmers don’t need dozens of acres to support their families. Yourgin’s ambition is to expand his farm to three acres to include a food forest that produces ample food for the goats.

The couple started their ranch with sheep in 2015. They later expanded their operations to include five milk cows and as many as 64 sheep.

The Sandy Bay farmers were focused on raising the Black belly sheep crossed with the Dorper. The sheep eat leaves and grass, but their demand for grass was not as significant as that of cattle. Sheep are picky eaters and typically refuse to eat anything other than grass, which is why their meat is considered sweeter.

The island goats on the other hand are less picky and eat many more leaves. “Goats are more like deer in this respect. […] They have limited grass digestion,” says Yourgin. If a sheep stops eating, you have 24 hours to help it, and if you lose a sheep, you lose the work and effort you put into raising it. “You lose nine months of work.”

The Levys scaled down recently and focused their efforts on hardier goats. “The winters were too hard for the sheep,” said Yourgin. The sheep’s wool would absorb water and took an entire day to dry. “It would have easily four inches of hair on their backs,” said Yourgin. The wetness would make the sheep susceptible to illness and death.

This made raising the sheep and keeping them healthy a difficult and time-consuming undertaking.

Currently Yourgin has five male goats and five females. His two goat pens are just a few meters from his house, so he can keep watch over his flock. The young mothers are kept for their milk production, which provides the farm with a steady income. He has several breeds: Saanens, a Swiss breed of domestic goat known for its milk. Yourgin also has Boer goats, a South African breed known for meat production.

Yourgin’s goats produce milk daily for up to 10 months after giving birth. After that, the female goat is given one or two months to recover before she can become pregnant again. After about 150 days of pregnancy, she gives birth to one, sometimes two kids. First-time mother goats usually have one offspring, but more experienced mothers tend to have twins and occasionally triplets.

Yourgin says that milking just one cup is not good for business. He likes his milk goats to produce at least two liters of milk per day, and some of them do. His best producer can give him almost three liters of milk in 24 hours. Yourgin’s record-producing female goat is named Blue String.

Yourgin milks his goats twice a day and sells the raw, unboiled milk to regular customers. Appreciation for raw milk, especially raw goat milk, is rising on the island. “Raw milk is very important to our gut,” said Yourgin. His clientele includes islanders, mainlanders and foreigners. He says there is a tradition in Honduras that if you feel unwell, you should drink goat’s milk. Yourgin has had clients feeling unwell who come seeking goat’s milk for their needs.

The goat’s milk is also used as an ideal alternative for mothers who don’t want to feed their children formula. Some of his customers use the goat milk to make delicious yogurt. The milk is also beneficial for cats and baby lambs abandoned by their mothers.

Yourgin treats his goats with affection and care. At least twice a week, around 3 PM, the goats go outside and play. They search for grass, leaves and plants to supplement their diet. The animals also de-stress, and their milk and meat taste better. “It’s more nutrients for us, and they are happier. I call it ‘physical therapy for the goats,’” Yourgin says about his goat roaming in the island forest. “There is vegetation that makes the milk richer.”

The goats eat vegetation consisting of grass, wild basil leaves, quiebra-piedra, and hundreds of other leaves and grasses that are vital to their health and coat color. Yourgin sometimes buys animals that are pale, and within a month, their color changes—it becomes red.

The goats instinctively know what is good for them and what keeps them healthy. They know what works for headaches and what stimulates appetite. “An animal with no appetite will die within a week,” says Yourgin.

Farmers don’t need dozens of acres.

The goats provide not only milk, but also meat. While goat meat is not widely known on the island, it is appreciated by those who have tried it before. “It is a very red meat. When you tenderize it with rosemary, it is very close to calf meat.”

Yourgin’s goal is to build up his milking herd to 10 animals. He gets his goats from Santa Bárbara, Copán — Honduras’ cold country. Transitioning sheep and goats from the cool Honduran interior to hot and humid Roatan can be a challenge. When the animals arrive on the island, some goats will eat only a little and lose strength.

Some animals have difficulty adjusting to the tropical climate of the island. To help the goats adjust, he feeds them the leaves of the fence post tree (Gliricidia sepium) for two days, which he says ‘heals all the sickness’ they might have had before.

To keep an eye on his stock, Yourgin built his two goat pen just a few meters from his wooden, two-story home. The fence is not very high for high jumping, atletic goat. “They don’t jump over the fence because they are treated with love,” says Yourgin. The goats know they have their feed 24 hours a day, so they are not interested in running away.

It is important to keep a tight feeding schedule for the goats. “If I go over 30 minutes, he will react,” says Yourgin.

If a sheep stops eating, you have 24 hours.

The alpha goat of his herd is a four-year-old Boer goat named Bear. He is quiet, purposeful in his movements, and watches the herd behind him as he climbs a slope filled with brush. Yourgin throws a few pebbles to chase Bear away from taller trees that grow on the edge of the forest. It’s better for the goats to stay in the open, and the herd will follow Bear wherever he leads them. “This is happiness, this is living: being an animal, pushing the trees, feeling your strength, making your mark,” said Yourgin. “Physical therapy, we call it.”

The two large male goats in the group challenge each other every day. While Bear is still the alpha goat, he must defend his position. In his youth learned how to fight with bigger goats.

“He knows how to fight to maintain his spot,” says Yourgin. “[Challenger] Milk face is not as friendly. He is stronger, like his grandfather.”

Yourgin is one of several goat herders on the island, and they all know each other. There are goats just east of the municipal garbage dump, and some are near Colonia Smith. “We drive hard bargains. The competition is fierce,” Yourgin says about his fellow island goat owners. “Everybody holds on to their good goat.”

Goats offer more benefits than just clearing land and providing meat and milk. Some people receive therapy by interacting with goats. Touching a goat can help reduce anxiety. “A lot of people want to touch a domesticated animal that looks like a wild animal with horns. Many are scared of them,” said Yourgin. “When they touch it, they get a release — a feeling of, ‘I did that.’”

Yourgin had two pigs that gave birth to seven piglets on his farm. He said it costs 37 Lempiras daily to feed each pig and looking after pigs is also time-consuming and risky. “If the pig has no water, it will break everything,” said Yourgin. The venture proved too labor-intensive for his small farm.

Eventually, the ranchers sold all their pigs, cows and sheep. The Levys focused on goats, which require less maintenance and are more hardy animals better suited for island life.

Bee Sanctuary

There are several beekeepers and apiaries across Roatan. Most bee-related businesses are typically run by individuals or families, but there is also one co-op.

Arguably the best bee professional on Roatan is Mr. Dave from Diamond Rock. He can catch a bee swarm, move wild bees into boxes, and harvest honey for beekeepers who are busy with other things.

There is a family apiary in Palmetto Bay – Roatan Bees, that was launched in 2019. Roatan Bee sells its honey in several places around the island. Their honey is organic, raw and unfiltered.

Further west in Corozal, a beekeepers co-op was started in 2013 with just three beehives and is going strong. In 2019, they had 70 beehives, and by 2025, they had well over 100. The co-op sells its products under the label Island Honey and also makes other honey-related products such as soaps, creams and shampoos.

Cattle King

Ronnie Wright’s Lucas looks after a vast ranch in the middle of Roatan. Ronnie’s cattle herd of 22 cows and bulls navigate the steep terrain of Brick Bay with the skill of acrobats. They descend down steep slopes of the narrow valleys to a smaller area with a trough adjacent to Roatan’s main road. Ronnie does a head count and comes up with 17. There are five cows missing, but “they stayed behind in the other valley,” says Ronnie.

The Litrico Ranch starts on the island’s southern seashore in Brick Bay and extends into the hills. The land resembles large areas of Roatan from 50 to 100 years ago, with dozens of cattle grazing on grass and resting in the shade of jobo trees. Shade is also provided by cohune palms and madreado trees.

Goats instinctively know what is good for them.

At this point the cattle herd serves the purpose of keeping the property clean. The cows are walking and pooping grass trimmers. The cattle eat grass and some bushes. “If you let them go onto a farm, they will eat the whole farm too,” says Ronnie. The Litrico ranch is large. The property has 700 cashew trees, 600 coconut trees and 43,000 plantains.

Raising cattle on the island can be a good business. The intrepid islander sells the meat to local restaurants and residents, as a 2-year-old calf can yield around 250 to 300 pounds of meat. A big bull can cost Lps. 60,000, and a cow can bring Lps. 30,000.

The price depends on the size and the breed. “The best breed is Pardo Suizo,” says Ronnie. Brown Swiss cattle have become a world brand and can be seen all over Roatan. The Holstein breed produces better milk, and the Charolais variety is known for its meat.

There are four bulls in the herd. One, a black Pardo bull, is the alpha of the group. He is more aggressive. “Come! Come! Come!” shouts Ronnie to the cattle. “If you don’t mess with them, they become wild,” says Ronnie, who comes and checks on them every week or two. “I call them, and they come.”

When Ronnie doesn’t show up for his visit for a few weeks, it shows. The cattle become less responsive to his call and whistle. They are not feral, but they are stubborn. The alpha bull of the herd was born on another ranch and knows Ronnie less well.

The dominant bull scrapes its rear hoof and lowers its head as it stands ground in front of his heard. Ronnie calmly picks up a branch, raises his hand and swings at the bull. The Alfa bull makes a ballet like pirouette move pivoting 180 degrees and trots away. The showdown is over. After two weeks away from the ranch, Ronnie re-establishes control of the heard.

Once a year, Ronnie injects each cow with Dectomax, an antiparasitic used for both internal and external parasites. A 700-pound bull gets 7 cc. “It’s expensive, but it is really good,” says Ronnie. The pregnant females only receive the vitamin injection.

When you are in the cattle business, you have to be your own sheriff. You can’t count on the Preventiva Police to help you. During the COVID operation, the herd numbers maxed out at 52.
The government-imposed lockdowns and desperation drove some island residents to extreme measures. In an effort to get food, several men came from Los Fuertes to the Litrico Ranch and stole two of its cows. “Three of them had guns, and they shot at us, and we shot back,” remembers Ronnie. “From then on, we did not have any more problems. We ran them out, and they didn’t come back.”

The ranch also has deer and agoutis and the large property attracts hunters. “We don’t hunt them, and people who want to hunt them, we run off.”

The Litrico Ranch has been supporting island families for many generations. According to Ronnie the land’s documents date back to Queen Elizabeth. Ronnie is family with the Litricos and for 19 years has been in charge of the Brick Bay ranch. “I used to do carpentry work, but I gave that up. I like farming and dealing with cattle,” he is in charge of the property.

One of the Most Popular Dive Wrecks
off Roatan in a 200 foot Cargo Boat

El Águila ran aground near Utila, where it remained partially submerged for several years. Rocky Jones, an Utilian, salvaged the ship and towed it into the island’s harbor. A passing storm pushed the ship onto the reef, and Jones salvaged it again and sank it in the harbor so El Águila would not be vulnerable to future storms.

On nearby Roatan, dive industry professionals were searching for attractions for the island’s growing clientele of recreational scuba divers. In the late 1990s, the only dive wrecks accessible on the island’s north shore were two wooden-hulled vessels, which were quickly disintegrating. The AKR resort had been looking for a ship to convert into a wreck dive site, and El Águila proved to be the perfect opportunity.

About five weeks passed between the purchase of El Águila by AKR and the completion of a cleanup operation. Salvageable steel was removed from the boat, and many tons of now-hardened concrete were off loaded before the sinking operation.

Initially, all went as planned. “When we sank it, it started going down sideways but righted itself on the way down,” said Kevin Brewer, dive operations manager at Anthony’s Key Resort. El Águila sank to 110 feet in one piece.

This all changed in October 1998, when Hurricane Mitch battered the north shore of Roatan and strong currents broke the boat’s metal hull into three pieces, juxtaposed at 45-degree angles. “The wheelhouse fell over on its side, but the bow stayed upright,” said Brewer. With much of the salvageable metal removed, the hull was not able to withstand the unyielding currents created by the Category 5 hurricane.

For the diving community, this change was actually a service, making the wreck more attractive for divers. The three pieces created swim-through opportunities, and crannies became an ideal space for experienced divers ready to investigate the submerged wreck.

Today, El Águila rests at 105 to 110 feet in the middle of an eel garden. The boat’s dual-deck metal hull is now covered in sponges and coral, creating a thriving habitat for groupers, parrot fish, moray eels and snappers. El Águila has been a part of Roatan history for the past 28 years.

Roatan Muni is Setting Up a “Smart City” Monitoring Infrastructure

The new surveillance system is designed so that an individual can request a recording through an office at the municipal building. In cases of traffic accidents or robberies, a party involved can request video from the location and time the incident occurred. “It has to follow the legal chain of custody,” said Ing. Castillo.

The CCTV cameras are monitored from Monitoring Center and Municipal Police building located 50 meters behind the Roatan municipal building. The building is named after Joseph Solomon, a longtime Roatan Municipal Police chief. “We don’t know what we are going to see on these cameras,” said Solomon. “The idea is to respond when somebody is in need of help. If a woman has a broken-down car and needs to change a tire, we will come out and assist.”

Solomon doesn’t foresee any unintended consequences besides people trying to destroy the cameras. “People will feel more secure moving around, knowing that ‘Big Daddy’ is watching, you know,” said Solomon. Yet, as in all large surveillance projects, there are always unintended consequences.

One unintended consequence that could likely occur is that people may become more hesitant to assist a driver in distress, preferring for the municipality to take action. Another issue is the loss of a sense of privacy — something that is impossible to assign a monetary value to. “The negative is that the population feels their privacy is being violated,” said Johnny Suazo, project manager for Innova Solutions, which installed the cameras and trained camera operators.

The plan is for the CCTV system to be supervised 24/7 by six operators and two supervisors working in three shifts. Around 25 people will be employed in the monitoring center and likely more municipal police will be hired. Currently, the CCTV video is stored for 30 days, but that duration of storage can be changed. The system has been set up to store information from 400 cameras, with the potential to add up to 350 more.
The Roatan Municipality plans to fund the monitoring system through fines collected from residents. Infractions would include parking cars in the bike lane, littering, leaving trash by the dump outside of allowed hours, and pouring concrete on the road—all punishable by monetary fines. “At some point, we are going to be able to recognize the cars, identify the owners and send the bills online,” said Ing. Castillo.

Population feels their privacy is being violated.

The exact cost to run this operation is not known, but Paya Magazine estimates that with 25 salaried employees, the monthly cost will easily surpass $25,000. In addition, maintenance and technical fees could easily double that number, so it will probably cost over $500,000 a year to maintain this surveillance system.

This monthly municipal cost must come from local taxes or fines. Either way, island residents will have to pay for the project. In a growing economy and with a growing tax base, this type of project is one thing, but once the economy slows down—like it did during the 2008–09 financial crisis, the 2009–10 Honduran presidential coup, and again during the 2020–21 COVID-19 lockdowns—a cost of half a million dollars a year during an economic downturn will be a heavy burden to bear.

For the island it is no small-budget item, as the project was 100% funded by Roatan Municipality taxpayers. The idea is for it to become part of a national security and monitoring system. “If, by mandate, the central government someday wants to implement general 911 systems throughout the country, they could integrate this investment into what they already operate,” said Ing. Castillo.

While on Roatan so far around 90 million Lempiras had already been spent on the surveillance program, the Honduran central government spent 500 million Lempiras on the mainland. San Pedro Sula, Tegucigalpa, Santa Rosa, Tela and Choluteca already have such monitoring centers.

Recording video is just the beginning in a process that will turn Roatan municipalities’ public and semi-public spaces into surveillance zones. Of the 400 cameras, 370 are equipped with microphones, which can be activated. “This project will never end, as it is a smart city,” said Ing. Suazo. Several aspects of the surveillance system have not been set up, but can be completed fairly easily. According to Ing. Suazo, the CCTV cameras can also be configured to recognize the face of a person previously identified as a “person of interest” and scan other cameras across the entire surveillance system for that individual.

The high-resolution cameras are equipped with 40x zoom that can capture detail from a couple of hundred meters away. The cameras feature infrared capability for night operation. They can also activate a speaker function to alert someone visible on camera that they are being recorded and alert them that they may be committing an infraction.

Two of the cameras are located in front of Booty Bar, a popular tourist hangout in West End. “We think the cameras are a great idea. We all feel safer,” said Cherry Sorto, who has been the general manager of Booty Bar for 10 years. “Crime is growing on the island. We have our own cameras—many of them—and we have never been robbed.”

The camera system is just the first step in much bigger surveillance plans for the island. “Smart city” is a code term for mass surveillance programs, and its implementation depends on a never-ending stream of data, data storage, and data analysis. The idea of a ‘smart city’ is to collect data from cameras, electric meters, smartphones and smart appliances, and use that data to manage people.

This surveillance beast’s thirst will never be quenched, as there can always be more data to mine and analyze. If we want to be like the Dominican Republic or Cancun, we need to implement these types of systems,” said Ing. Castillo. “We are trying to catch up to them.”

Roatan Author makes her Book Debut

Roatan’s population needs a way to anchor itself to the history of its Garifuna, English and Spanish settlers. The book “Piece of the Puzzle,” set to launch in July 2025, provides a pivotal perspective on who shaped the Bay Islands and how over the past two centuries.

The book’s author is Keila Rochelle Thompson Gough, a Jonesville-born islander. She embarked on a path to discover her own roots. That path led her down the rabbit hole of family stories, secrets and old photographs. “When I started doing research, it was not to write a book, but then all these stories started coming alive,” Gough said. “It was then I decided to write the book.”

The book-writing process was cathartic for Thompson. “It made me realize how much more confident I am and what my family represents,” says Keila. On the book’s pages, she writes about “lives rich with industry, perseverance, success and sometimes tragedy.” We learn about people who wove the fabric that became the Bay Islands. These stories had a profound effect on how the islands are shaped today. They were fundamental to the history of the Bay Islands but also shaped the character of the Bay Islanders who walk the streets of the island.

The author has relatives throughout the British Western Caribbean—Cayman Islands, Jamaica and Belize. For many of them, and many other islanders, “Piece of the Puzzle” tied the strands of their history together. The book has been a wealth of knowledge and a source of understanding about how they are related across time and archipelagos.

Thompson Gough wrote this book as a tribute to her ancestors, her contemporaries and the children who will now have a reference for knowing where they came from. It is the kind of book you can keep open for reference or dive into to read island stories.

Culture dies without someone recording its origins.

The book’s pages not only display the author’s love and passion for her native Roatan, but also represent a work of diligent research that will serve as an invaluable source for other researchers and lovers of Caribbean culture, especially Bay Islands culture.

She searched old island cemeteries, looking at tombstones. Especially the Oak Ridge Cemetery provided a wealth of knowledge. The faded tombstones revealed their secrets to a persistent researcher.

She visited neighbors and sometimes grumpy nonagenarians. She was given treasured family documents, letters and testaments. Often, the greatest wealth of information came from nearby—her great-grandmother Cora Wood.

Thompson described them and sometimes gives them life in print within the pages of her book. “I felt very privileged to be a descendant of such a determined, resolute, and historic ancestry,” writes Thompson, who began in 2008 but had to put the project aside for so many years.

She took on the role of genealogist, contacting and visiting archives in Belize, the Cayman Islands, Jamaica, and the Honduran national archives in Tegucigalpa. “There was no history book in our schools to teach us specifically about the history of the Bay Islands,” writes the author.

“The Piece of the Puzzle” is a well-written, large-format book that serves as a great resource for anyone interested in the history, culture and ethnography of Roatan, the Western Caribbean, or Honduras. The 530-page, large-format “Piece of the Puzzle” is illustrated with numerous photographs of island life and interspersed with historical information and island stories.

The book is a good source for a history lesson on Roatan and the Bay Islands. It creates a record of island families and heritage. The author traces the origins and history of Roatan’s families who arrived on the island in the 1840s: the Goughs, Coopers, Thompsons, Boddens, Abbotts, Woods and many others. It is a book one can get lost in. If you love history, if you are interested in Roatan, if you appreciate a good story, this is your milieu.

Keila has launched her book, “Piece of the Puzzle: The History of My Ancestors on the Bay Island,” at GiLeis Café in Roatan. The book was released on Amazon on July 1 and became available for sale throughout Roatan in August. It is available for purchase in Roatan, on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and as an e-book on Apple Books.

“Trujillo has a great future, and it always will.” The town has always been, on paper at least, a very attractive, well-situated and strategic place. It sits in a large, deep bay; it has access to the fertile Aguán Valley and is a launching point on a natural land route leading to Olancho and Nicaragua.
It is also true that Trujillo has always been a bit out of the way, and other cities in Honduras have been stealing its spotlight. Tela was founded a year before Trujillo. Its status as the capital moved to Comayagua in 1821, soon after independence from Spain.

Trujillo is a time capsule, and that is perhaps why it is so attractive. The town has seen many booms and busts, and today it is quaint, handsome and not overbuilt — a rarity in Honduras. While nearby Tocoa and the Aguán Valley are booming, Trujillo is still a sleepy town where one can stroll safely at any time of day or night. There are no malls, no supermarkets and no Megapacas and the biggest grocery store is still located on the main square. The town’s children play in the streets, unbothered by worries. It is a place that time forgot. 

TRUJILLO AND ROATAN CONNECTION

Columbus was not spared the embarrassment.

PUNTA CASTILLA

Punta Castilla, or Punta Caxinas, just 21 kilometers north of Trujillo, is an extremely important place in the history of the Americas. It is the first place where Christopher Columbus set foot on the North American continent on Aug. 14, 1502. Sadly, neither Hondurans, nor Honduran authorities recognize that fact, let alone celebrate Punta Castilla’s historical importance.

There are interesting parallels with the Venezuelan communist government treatment of Columbus’ legacy in that country. The handsome bronze statue of Columbus that marked the spot where he landed for the first time in South America on August 5, 1498 is no more. Activists destroyed that Paria Peninsula statue in 2004 and all statues dedicated to Christopher Columbus in Venezuela were destroyed in 2009. Sadly Honduras is slowly following the Venezuelan revolutionary example of vandalism and self hatred.

NOT CELEBRATING

On May 18, 2025, Trujillo should have celebrated 500 years since its founding. Still, there was very little fanfare to mark the city’s half a millennium of existence. Making it this far is quite the feat, as the city—for example—is 40 years older than St. Augustine, Florida.

Before the anniversary, many promises were made by Tegucigalpa ministers, but none were kept. Trujillo’s mayor Hector Mendoza was encouraged to leave it up to the central government. Yet, when the date of the celebrations approached, nothing was finished.

Even Christopher Columbus was not spared embarrassment. His four-foot-tall concrete and diminutive statue, located one block from the main plaza, was neither repaired nor properly disposed of. The great navigator’s “midget” bust remained missing a head and a hand. No one bothered to invest a bit of money to even rudimentarily repair the statue ahead of the town’s anniversary.

Trujillo’s central park paving wasn’t finished, and the park’s gazebo wasn’t constructed. The entrance gate to the city wasn’t built, nor was a new dock on the shore. Xiomara Castro, president of the country, failed to show up— let alone send anyone of consequence to represent the Tegucigalpa authorities. The most important officials were from the local Red Cross and the army. Ironically, perhaps, the guest of honor was Moonup Sung, ambassador of South Korea.

There was a rumor that the King of Spain might show up.

While some might see incompetence in this, others see a hint of malice and even hatred. The lack of appreciation for 500 years of Catholic sacraments, civilization, written language, law and education is beyond perplexing. Sadly, Honduran authorities promote ideologically driven hatred of Christianity, Spain, European culture, and the halfhearted celebrations in Trujillo were yet another example of that phenomenon.

According to Jon Thompson, an English amateur historian and a 30-year resident of Trujillo, at one point there was a rumor that the king of Spain might show up for the occasion. While King Felipe VI had plenty of more enjoyable activities on his calendar, he wisely stayed away from a place where his presence would not be welcome.

500 YEARS EARLIER

On May 3, 1524, the feast day of the holy Cross, Tela became Honduras’ first city. Triunfo de la Cruz, as the settlement was originally called beat Trujillo by almost exactly one year.

In 1525, after declaring his loyalty to Hernán Cortés, Francisco de las Casas decided to return to Mexico but left his deputy, Juan López de Aguirre, to establish a settlement in Honduras. De Aguirre was not happy with Puerto Cortés and traveled east to Trujillo.

Ultimately de Aguirre left the task of founding its first capital, Trujillo, to his deputy, Juan de Medina. On May 18, 1525, the settlement of Trujillo—named after a town in the province of Cáceres, Spain—was founded. Medina became Trujillo’s first mayor.

A few years later, in 1532, Trujillo obtained the status of a town, and in 1539 its church was declared a cathedral by Pope Pius II. Bishop Cristóbal de Pedraza became Honduras’ first bishop.

ROOTLESS PIRATES

In the mid-1500s, Trujillo became a gold and silver depot for mines in Honduras’ interior. There was a security problem, as the lack of sufficient population made the port an easy target for pirates attempting to enrich themselves by raiding Spanish ships and settlements.

The threat of Dutch and English pirates incentivized the Spanish to construct Trujillo’s Santa Bárbara Fort. The pirate raids in the Caribbean were part of the Eighty Years’ War (1568–1648), a primarily religious conflict in Europe. The pirates often made it their life’s work to raid Catholic, be it Spanish or Portuguese, ports and destroy ships.

As part of the war against Spain, the Dutch West India Company instructed pirate Jan Janszoon to sack Trujillo and possibly intercept the Spanish silver fleet there. In July 1633, Janszoon attacked Trujillo and burned two-thirds of the houses covered by palms. The governor of Trujillo paid 20 pounds of silver as ransom for the pirates to leave.

Pirates based on Roatan raided Trujillo several times in fact, causing death, destruction, economic downturns and crisis. English pirate, William Jackson, sacked Trujillo in 1643. He arrived with 16 ships and 1,500 men and took the city without much of a fight.

In the 1600s, the nearby Bay Islands had no Spanish settlers whatsoever, and the Paya Indians living there were coerced into helping the pirates with provisions, careening their ships, and logistics. As a result, Spanish authorities made the decision to resettle the Paya Indians who lived in the Bay Islands to Trujillo and later to Río Dulce, Guatemala.

GARIFUNA AND WALKER

For Trujillo, the best part of 1700s were largely uneventful. That changed in 1797, when three ships departed the island of Saint Vincent carrying thousands of Garifuna as cargo. The Black Caribs had just lost a war with the British and were considered too rebellious to manage in the eastern Caribbean. Only half of the roughly 5,000 Garifuna survived the voyage across the Caribbean.

Trujillo found itself as a constant target of attacks.

The ships with the conquered Garifuna stopped in Jamaica and eventually arrived on Roatan to abandon the Black Caribs there. The Spanish quickly found out about the British actions, and as Roatan was not able to support such a number of new arrivals, the vast majority of the Garifuna were transported to Trujillo.

Trujillo became the epicenter for the dissemination of the Garifuna and their culture along the coasts of Central America. In the 1840s, Garifuna communities that allied themselves with Spanish loyalists, moved east and west of Trujillo. They eventually settled as far as Belize to the west and to the east in Pearl Lagoon, Nicaragua.

In 1821 Trujillo lost its status as the capital of Honduras. The capital of the newly formed republic was transferred to Comayagua, and eventually to Tegucigalpa. This date marked yet another period of decline for the town.

In 1860, Trujillo had a bout with another troublemaker, this time an American. As Great Britain was preparing to surrender the Bay Islands back to Honduras, a group of Roatanians invited buccaneer William Walker to come to the island and help them preserve their independence from Honduras.

Representing some anti-Honduran Bay Islanders, Roatan resident Uwins Elwyn traveled to New Orleans in March 1860 to look for Walker and invite him to come to the island. Elwyn essentially asked for his help in reversing the upcoming transfer of the archipelago from Great Britain to Honduras. As Walker was absent, Elwyn met with his deputy, Callender Fayssoux.

Elwyn proposed that Walker’s filibusters would travel to Roatan at their own expense, but once there, their expenses would be covered by the islanders. The subsequent plan was to help Walker with his invasion of Nicaragua

The proposal quickly materialized into concrete action. Walker sent some of his filibusters —essentially soldiers of fortune— to Roatan in June. He even stayed on the island from June 16 to 21, 1860. As the British caught wind of the possible damage his actions could cause to the U.S.-British agreement on returning the islands to Honduras, tensions rose.

As British authorities realized that the American was up to no good, Walker left Roatan for Cozumel. One way to look at it is that it was Roatanians who brought about Walker’s ultimate demise in Trujillo just a few months later.

On Aug. 5, 1860, Walker landed his ship with 91 filibusters near Trujillo and attempted to take the city. He failed and, after a chase, was eventually arrested by British navy officer Nowell Salomon.

The British surrendered Walker to Honduran authorities and he was tried by Honduran military court on charges of piracy and “filibusterism.” Walker, 36, was executed on September 12, 1860 by order of president José Santos Guardiola. William Walker, a prominent freemason, was buried in Trujillo’s Catholic cemetery.

BANANAS AND CABBAGES

When bananas became a booming industry in Central America in the 1890s, Trujillo also began to thrive. It became a refuge for American criminals fleeing justice in the North. Some were famous, others infamous.

In 1896, Trujillo hosted William Sydney Porter, known by his pen name O. Henry, when he fled justice in Texas, where he was charged with embezzlement. He was not the only American taking advantage of the lack of an extradition treaty between Honduras and the United States. His drinking companion in town was Al “Alphonso” Jennings, an Oklahoma lawyer turned train robber. They both hid in Trujillo, spending their time drinking and adventuring.

O. Henry began writing his book of short stories, “Cabbages and Kings,” while in Trujillo. His most well-known contribution to Honduras was coining the phrase “banana republic,” which is still used to describe the country and, in fact, many other countries around the world.

“It was upon this hint that the minister of war acted, executing a rare piece of drollery that so enlivened the tedium of executive session. In the constitution of this small, maritime banana republic was a forgotten section that provided for the maintenance of a navy,” O. Henry wrote in “Cabbages and Kings.”

From the 1890s onward, Trujillo was a banana town. The boom lasted about half of a century, but come to an abrupt stop. Banana operations were scaled down there in the 1930s, as United Fruit’s Castilla Division, which grew Gros Michel bananas, closed down operations due to Panama disease that decimated the region’s banana crops.

World War II came to Trujillo’s rescue when the U.S. built a small Navy base at nearby Punta Castilla. The Americans also established a seaplane base there. As the war subsided, Trujillo lingered on into the second half of the 20th century.

The 21st century for Trujillo was a roller coaster of emotions, expectations and, ultimately, disappointments. In 2001, the government approved the Honduran construction of the world’s largest vessel—a one-mile-long floating city for 90,000 residents. The 25-story-tall Freedom Ship was estimated to cost $8.5 billion. Its construction in the deep bay was expected to change Trujillo forever.

That project eventually fizzled out.
Around 2009, there were plans for Trujillo to become Honduras’ first charter city. President Porfirio “Pepe” Lobo Sosa, the country’s leader at the time and a native of Trujillo, strongly promoted the idea. However the concept of a charter city was not realized in Trujillo during the 2010s, but instead on Roatan with the implementation of Economic Development and Employment Zone (ZEDE) laws and the establishment of Próspera in the 2020s.

There were attempts to turn Trujillo into a minor cruise ship destination in the mid-2010s. The town was marketed as “Banana Coast” and promoted to cruise ships with a planned $50,000 seafront shopping center. The project ultimately faded.

In 1890s bananas became the boom industry.

Then there is the idea of building a housing community for retired Canadians looking for tranquility and warm weather. The project is called Alta Vista and is the brainchild of Randy Jorgensen, who made his fortune in the pornographic industry and promoting vice in Canada. Jorgensen has been in conflict, in and out of court, with the Garifuna, who claim that the land he acquired for his project was sold illegally.

The land owned by Canada’s so-called porn king was occupied by Garifuna activists, some armed with machetes and allegedly bused in from outside the area. The situation grows more complex from there. The Garifuna activists are affiliated with the Organización Fraternal Negra Hondureña, or OFRANEH, and are believed to be supported by more powerful interests often overlooked. OFRANEH receives funding and training from organizations such as the Open Society Foundations. Larger global players also appear to be connected to developments in the small town of Trujillo.

“Trujillo has a great future, and it always will.” That potential is different from what many people think it is or would like it to be. It is a beautiful, quiet place soaked in history and contradictions. It is a place that time almost forgot. There are certainly more booms and busts ahead for the 500-year-old city by Trujillo Bay.

Businesses Assist Home Owners in Managing Their Dreams

The Airbnb database shows around 200 rental properties on Roatan, but the majority of island homeowners who want to rent out their properties rely on intermediaries. These are medium- and small-sized, island-based home management companies that usually trace their beginnings to the early 2000s, in the early days of the internet and before online credit card processing. While some homeowners try to rent out their Roatan homes independently, doing so remotely and profitably with just one property is not easy.

The oldest property management company —Roatan Property Management (RPM)— belongs to Stella and Fran Marazzito. Stella and Fran launched their property management business in 2001 after a realtor mentioned the need for such a service at Hole in the Wall, a then-popular East End restaurant. The couple started with just a few homes in Gibson Bight. “Through word of mouth, the business grew from there,” says Fran.

After 24 years, the Sandy Bay-based RPM has a staff of seven full-time employees and manages 52 properties. “With more people buying second homes in the last few years, the property rental sector will likely continue to grow,” says Fran.

Home management companies trace their beginnings to the early 2000s.

Roatan is part of a worldwide phenomenon in which property rentals for tourists have grown at a higher rate than hotel rooms. A growing segment of travelers prefers renting a property that is bigger than a hotel room, offers a kitchen and provides a level of autonomy that a hotel stay typically cannot. “They have ‘live-like-a-local’ type of freedom,” said Mike Carter of Roatan Life Vacation Rentals (RLVR).

RLVR traces its roots to 2006, when Steve Hasz, Mike Carter, Gene DeMarco and Mark Harvey bought Roatan Life Real Estate from Phil Weir, a Realtor and longtime island resident.

Already in 2006 Carter felt that the island needed a property management rental company that offered the convenience of accepting credit cards. “It was a pain to rent homes. It was the early days, and you had to wire the money to rent the house,” Carter said. “We brought in a lot of technology and different types of banking and credit card options.”

There was an obvious niche in a growing market, and RLVR took off. “We started with zero and got one property at a time — Coral Vista and Half Moon Bay in West End, Turrets and West Bay, and the West Bay Mall condos,” Carter said.

In 2026, RLVR will celebrate 20 years of operating out of its base in Lawson Rock. The company is currently owned by Mike Carter and Steve Hasz, another longtime island resident and real estate broker. RLVR employs 27 people and manages about 100 properties. The company has the largest pool of homes and condominiums under management on the island.

About 70 of these 100 properties are available for rent year-round. Some are owned by individuals; others are part of homeowners associations. Some properties are managed for owners who don’t want to rent them out but appreciate the convenience of having them maintained and ready when they decide to visit.

Potential profitability of a rental house depends on its location and amenities.

The company focuses its rentals on the west side of the island, from CocoView in the east to West Bay in the west. RLVR properties are available for booking via the company’s website, but to stay competitive and accessible to potential clients, nearly all the properties are also listed on other hosting platforms, including Airbnb, Vrbo and Expedia.

According to Carter, the potential profitability of a rental house depends on its location and amenities. “If you don’t owe anything on the house —mortgage or loan— typically they break even or do a little bit better,” Carter said. “You have to be as good as, or better than, your neighbors at a similar price. If it’s not in a desirable location, it doesn’t compete well.”

The early starters in the island’s property rental sector continue to grow and evolve. According to Carter, all of the Roatan house management companies help each other. Most of them focus on different parts of the island, so the competitive spirit is centered on promoting Roatan as a destination, not on fighting over potential clients.

Another company with a long track record is Island House Vacation Rentals in West Bay. The company traces its origin to an Italian couple who lived on Roatan and rented houses out of Las Cúpulas in West Bay.

In 2005, Ruth Elmore bought it with a partner. “We were both working in the diving industry in West End and looking for something a little more sustainable,” says Ruth, who renamed the business Island House. Roatan in the mid-2000s was a much quieter place than it is today. “When we started, it was in a small studio office underneath one of our vacation rentals in West Bay Village,” says Elmore, who started with just four properties in West Bay Village and three in Turtle Crossing.

In 2007, Brad Volk joined Ruth as a partner, and Island House Vacation Rentals (IHVR) was born. Today, IHVR manages 45 properties, has a staff of six, and contracts 25 part-time housekeepers, gardeners and repair workers.

Home rental prices have been climbing at 3% to 5% a year, slightly ahead of inflation. Part of the expense —and a challenge— of owning a Roatan property is the upkeep. Owners have to deal with termites, bee infestations, hurricane warnings and relentless, corrosive salt. It’s definitely not for everyone and is more expensive than most people expect.

The high electricity costs make renting a house on Roatan pricey compared to its regional competitors. While Mexico or the Dominican Republic might still have cheaper rental properties than Roatan, the island offers better value than Belize or the Cayman Islands.