Roatan’s Oldest and Biggest Private School Looks Back

Back then most parents thinking about a University for their children would end up sending them to boarding schools in La Ceiba, or San Pedro Sula. Three ladies founded the school: Mrs. Cheryl de Galindo, Mrs. Mireya Warren and Jane Austin.

Mrs. Cheryl de Galindo and Mrs. Warren had the initial idea for the school in 1983 and things moved quickly after that. ESBIR received all its necessary approvals in Tegucigalpa and the school open edits doors on February 1, 1983 in a space rented from the Mary Webster family. The small wooden building had previously served as a local bar. In ESBIR’s first year of existence 35 students received classes ranging from kindergarten to third grade.

As more island parents became aware of the school, the enrollment grew. Mrs. Galindo saw a need to expand the school to a location that was not rented but owned. A small property was purchased from Aldin Bennett near a baseball field just north of Coxen Hole.

As more island parents became aware of the school, the enrollment grew.

Architect Bill Brady, who moved to the island as a Peace Core volunteer from North Carolina designed the school free of charge. Mrs. Cheryl’s father, Henry Warren, helped in purchasing the baseball field property.

There were other helpers. A charity funded by now King Charles III, The Prince’s Trust brought in volunteers to build the school building. The charity brought in underemployed or struggling youth that then helped with the construction of the wooden school building.

Operation Raleigh, was another key organization present at the beginning.

Mrs. María del Carmen joined the school as a teacher and became ESBIR’s director a year later. “She has become the backbone of the school,” says Prof. María del Carmen and Mrs. Cheryl de Galindo.

Any school’s success can be measured by the achievements and lives led by its students. Some of ESBIR’s graduates are now doctors, lawyers, and private entrepreneurs. The First of ESBIR’s graduates are now in their fifties and have made some significant contributions to the island. Jenny Serrano took over and expanded her family’s hardware store to be the biggest on the island. Nicole Brady and Trudy Hilton became vice-Mayors of Roatan Municipality. Mario Kevin Rivera Armijo, one of the first to graduate from ESBIR in 1995, went on to finish a master’s degree in computer science, before going to a seminary and becoming a missionary Claretian Brother.

On March 17, 2023 ESBIR celebrated their 40 year anniversary with a tribute to the schools founder. Several speakers spoke about the history of the school and its contribution to the foundation of the island. “This school and Mrs. Cheryl are more important than I am,” said Mrs. Cheryl’s husband Mr. Julio Galindo, twice Roatan Mayor and owner of Anthony’s Key Resort.

In March 2023 ESBIR had 31 employees: 18 teachers, seven administrators and six support staff. The school grew to 360 attending students, before the COVID government imposed lockdowns in March 2020. The attendance fell but has since recovered to around 270 students.

The school’s extensive grounds sit on a 2.2 acre property in the northern part of Coxen Hole. The school has an auditorium, a large meeting room, science laboratories and 37 classrooms.

Children finish their lunch
at the ADLC.

A Kindergarten Assists Kids of Struggling Parents

“You can only leave a child here if you work,” says Nicole Schneider, the center’s director. The parents of the children are taxi drivers, single parents, municipal employees and, as Schneider admits, “even prostitutes.” “The reason that Judith Allred opened the facility was for struggling families to be able to find work and keep working,” says Nicole.

They know only anger and happiness

Judith and Bill Allred, a retired American couple who moved to Roatan in 2003, have left a lasting legacy on the island. In 2004 they helped to open the kindergarten, located right across from the municipal offices in Coxen Hole. ADLC also opened the La Rosa Language Center in Los Fuertes that teaches English to monolingual mainland born island residents. Nine years later Nicole Schneider took over the center’s management. “I found this place and fixed it up,” says Nicole looking to the space at a busy Coxen Hole corner right next to the Stadium Julio Galindo.

Born in Santiago, Chile, Nicole thinks of herself as British-Chilean-Swiss. With a degree in international relations and one in hotel management, she is more than qualified to run a daycare in a small town. Her parents came to Roatan in 1993 and built one of first hotels in West Bay.

ADLC’s rooms are filled with the chatter and laughter of giggly kids. Two to six-year-olds come to the center every day from 7:30 am till 5:30 pm. The parents can drop off and pick up their kids anytime they need to. Their children learn to wash their hands three times a day, brush their teeth after meals and develop their social skills. They have interactions in English and Spanish and also receive education in basic math and science. Here they are develop their first motor skills.

Children play at the ADLC.

“80%-90% of our brain is formed in the zero to six years of age,” says Nicole. “This is when our temperament is also formed.” The children here come from working, but troubled homes in Coxen Hole. “They know only anger and happiness; this is what they see at home.”

The center has capacity of 38, but 29 children are enrolled at this point. The parents pay monthly Lps. 1,000 per child and a matching amount is raised through donors and donations. There are six part time teachers, there is also an administrator, and a guard.

With solar panels donated by Vegas Electric the electric bill is kept below Lps. 1,500. There is a difficulty in finding and keeping ADLC’s sponsors. Anthony’s Key Resort, Paradise Beach Club and Markawasi Foundation have been helping, but several other sponsors have crumbled away and Nicole is always looking for new sponsors.

A teacher reads a story to the Allred Daycare’s children.

Sink boat at Tulum.

Dixon Cove Is Home To Two Most Photographs Wrecks In The Caribbean

Tulum rests in the channel entrance to Dixon Cove, the biggest tonnage harbor in Honduras, just a stone’s throw from Harris Stamp Cay, a hundred meters west of Mahogany Bay Cruise Ship Terminal, and two hundred meters from Galaxy Wave Ferry Terminal.

Tulum’s story goes back to 1979 when Roatan was a little known luscious green island.  Islander Luey McLaughlin was at work as one of the managers at Anthony’s Key Resort [AKR] when he spotted a vessel in distress. Tulum was on her way from Puerto Cortez to the Dominican Republic, she was loaded top to bottom with pine lumber and leaning heavy to her side. “The locals were jumping in, fishing out all the lumber that was floating,” says Julio Galindo, who was also an AKR manager at the time.

“I drove to Allan Hyde as he had a boat capable of towing such a big vessel,” said McLaughlin. There were no phones on the island and driving to deliver a message was the quickest way to communicate in a situation like this.

“She was leaning very heavy,” remembers Shawn Hyde who was a teenager at the time of the incident. Shawn is a son of Allan Hyde, who ended up salvaging Tulum. Capt. Denny Jones went out with one of Allan Hyde’s shrimp boats and towed Tulum to Coxen Hole harbor. There she remained for many months before being towed to French Harbour.

In the 1980s and 1990s most of the paint rusted away

Tulum’s cargo of Honduran pine lumber was unloaded in French Harbour and sold on the mainland. The money was put into an escrow account to pay for salvage and other claims. Some people say that the Tulum’s owners botched an insurance scam and that the captain just opened the wrong ballast valves.

“A bad storm was on its way and it was decided to tow Tulum to a safe harbor in Dixon Cove,” said McLaughlin. Back then Dixon Cove was a secluded place, filled with mangrove with almost no one living there. “There was nothing here, just mangroves.”  The towing operation got complicated and the boat drifted onto the reef. “The way she sunk caused no hazard as far as entrance to the harbor,” said McLaughlin. “The Honduran Naval came and discharged the bunker fuel in her tank.” Once the bunker fuel was drained the ship no longer caused a danger to the reef or waters.

A couple of years later, US Navy special forces came to see if it was worth it for them to practice salvage operations on Tulum. The early 1980s was the time of the Nicaraguan Contra war and the US military was running many covert operations out of Honduras. “The hull was already fractured and they decided against it,” said McLaughlin. Ultimately, the Navy Seals did  their training with a boat named Wendy that was floated from Coxen Hole and towed away into deep waters south of the island.

In the 1980s and 1990s most of the paint rusted away and by the early 2000s a hull was still visible and its metal crane still standing high. One could swim inside the hull like it was a gothic cathedral. The hull bent and collapsed under its own weight around 2006. “If people didn’t cut the hull up for scrap metal she would still be there,” said Shawn Hyde. A few times over the years locals boarded Tulum to salvage scrap metal for resale.

The strongest part of the ship, and the part most resistant to salt water, storms, and scavengers,  was the engine.  It remains intact, still visible to passengers entering Dixon Cove.