Roatan started out as a self-sufficient island around 5,000-7,000 BC. There were no industries to speak of and the Paya Indians grew their own food and had enough fish to never worry about hunger. The Mayan traders would sail in their canoes to bring them cacao beans and some metal tools to trade for dried fish, shells, and pottery.

Then in the 1580s the island become a hub of the ‘pillage industry.’ Hundreds of pirates lived here and careened their boats in preparation for raids on the Spanish ships carrying silver and goods from nearby Trujillo and Puerto Bello. That industry came crashing down in 1650, and the Paya were deported by the Spanish to Rio Dulce, leaving the island unpopulated for almost a century-and-a-half.

As slavery was abolished in the British Empire, hundreds of Cayman islanders came to Roatan to begin their lives anew. It took another 140 years of quiet, self-sustaining life before the coconut and banana fruit industry motivated islanders to plant thousands of trees and to sell the fruit to Standard Fruit company ships visiting the island. As that banana boom wound down in the 1960s, the shrimp and lobster industry arrived on Roatan. There were lucrative contracts with Red Lobster plenty of jobs and stressful shrimp-boat loans from Honduran banks to pay.

That fishing industry lasted until about the early 2010s when cheaper, farmed raised shrimp drove down the price of wild shrimp and the lobsters “got smaller” and harder to catch.

The tourism industry on the island began with dive resorts such as Anthony’s Key Resort and Coco View springing up in the 1970s. The sailing industry, created courtesy to Reagan era tax shelters, discovered the island in 1980s. Brick Bay Resort or CSY (Caribbean Sailing Yacht) was hopping and bopping with beautiful sailing vessels. The tax shelters went away and so did the sailboats.

Drug smuggling industry had discovered Roatan in early 1980’s.

The construction industry has been a growing employer on the island since the first bulldozer was shipped to the island in 1970s. There are now a dozen construction companies tearing down hills, filling in gullies, and constructing metal and cement buildings all over the island. The construction industry is perhaps the main driver of migration to the island form mainland Honduras. If you have a heart beat and two hands you can get a job on a Roatan construction site.

The drug smuggling industry had discovered Roatan in early 1980s, just as the Iran Contra cocaine smuggling operation was winding up to the deep state kabaal dispatched CIA Et al to move cocaine to the waterfront condos of Miami and street corners of south LA. The industry brought employment, money, addiction and violence to Roatan.

The smuggling spiked in 2009 right after the coup against president Mel Zelaya. While the ‘War on drugs’ continues, so do the smuggling operations that supply millions of US and Canadian cocaine addicts. At least Roatan’s international airport has gotten too busy to bring in drug planes as it did six or seven years ago.

After the first cruise ship visited Roatan on September 5, 1989, there was no turning back. The Ocean Spirit was the biggest cruise ship in the world: it was nearly 500 feet long, weighed 20,000 tons and brought in 360 passengers, a fraction of the 7,000 passenger behemoths that are bound for Roatan visits currently. On the horizon there is the possibility of a third cruise ship dock in Port Royal.

There is yet another industry player eyeing the island: all-inclusive hotels, much less focused on diving. Sandals, Wyndham, Hilton, and Inter Continental are all said to be exploring possibilities on the island and development is inevitable. This growth will likely require expansion of the Roatan’s international airport leading to additional filling in of the reef. Roatan appears to be, yet again, meeting the supply for others’ addictions at its own expense: European addiction to gold, American addiction to cocaine, and American addiction to cheap, all-you can-eat, holidaying.

A Place that Welcomes Everyone

Camponado is one of the most overlooked, underappreciated and misunderstood corners of Utila. While its reputation is one thing, its soul is quite the other. The reputation is that of loud, unwelcoming, foreign. The reality is that this quirky, safe and curious, but the only way to witness it is by taking a step into its street.

The old Utilans who remember when Camponado was just an area of flat, low lying land covered by mangroves are still around. The land was behind that of Jacksons and Parsons. They used the land that stretched all the way to the lagoon. “We used to play football there, stickball,” remembers the swamp land where Camponado begun Rusty Eldon Carson. “There were many trees and it would flood in the rain season.”

According to Jackson it was Mayor Fulton Jackson in his 12-year mayorship that begun selling municipal lots to the Camponado. Around 1985 land records were destroyed in a fire of the Municipal Building, and according some original cause of Camponados existence.
The only way mainlanders could afford a piece of Utila was not if the islanders sold them a piece, but if the Utila Municipality did. “They would cost Lps. 500,” says Carson about the 30 by 30-foot house lots sold by the municipality. Now about half of these lots have been build up. Many other ones are for sale at 40,000-50,000 Lps. Or more. Camponado had experienced the greatest percentage wise appreciation on any land on Utila.

There are only two roads leading to the Camponado enclave that popped out on the swampy are dotted with white and red mangrove trees. “It all started with the Utila Mayor Monterrey ‘Monti’ Cardenas in 1990’s,” says Kordovsky. “He opened the flood gates and from there on it turned into an avalanche.” For the main-landers who flocked to Utila to take advantage of work opportunities in construction, service the land was too expensive.

Utila Municipality divided the land into house lot parcels and sold them to willing buyers. Today, 25 years later, while there are several hundred homes in Camponado, just as many parcels are empty and many have for sale signs. A parcel that could be purchased for $200 is now worth ten times that. While Utila’s land values have gone up quite a bit, no other land in Utila appreciated at that rate.

Independent neighborhood with spirit and character, lots of character.

There are only two ways of entering Camponado. The older two-meter-wide road enters from the west: Cola de Mico road and the other wider road, narrows down entering from the north at Donkey Trail Road. It’s impressive how a community that is a home to over two thousand people can get by with so little.

At the very end of Camponado’s main road, about 400 meters in, the road becomes just salvaged wood planks. It is raised six inches above the ground. That is where the last house is. It belongs to Mrs. Nolvia Andrade and her husband.

Mrs. Andrade has lived on Utila for 15 years. Her husband is a builder. She occupies the last, most eastern lot in the Camponado. That is where one hers the sea breaking on the beach, the breeze is fresh and the rattling of the noisy Utila tuk-tuks are never heard. “You can have dogs, chickens, even pigs here,” tells Mrs. Nolvia.

Her lot is bordering the Rodney Canal, and someone dug out red mangrove trees to place two boat hulls there. You can own a water frontage in Camponado and have your boat in the Caribbean Sea in 10 minutes. “The tide rises in September,” explains Mrs. Nolvia.

Camponado is not just buildings and lots for sale. There is a children’s playground and a footbolito field for youth. Camponado has one pool hall, one building supplies store, a couple ‘pulperias,’ a fast food restaurant, a barber shop. It’s a semi-independent neighborhood with spirit and character, lots of character. And the entire neighborhood is surrounded by mangroves, its like an island on an island.

There is also one bar in Camponado, and it’s a place to remember. “Give me the real people, give me ‘Barrinche’,” said about the bar Kordovsky. “Only once I was hit by a chair, but this was only an accident.” Barrinche neighborhood bar is full of characters and local flavor. Indeed, Barrinche is a place where Camponado comes to take a break from itself: a beer, a conversation, a chat with a local.

Despite not having a posted sign at the entrance, everyone knows where the bar is. Even the police and Honduran military. The preventive police accompanied by Honduran military does regular searches at the bar. The patrons are told to face the wall, show their IDs, raise their hands and patted down. After a few moments the bar comes back to life: the reggae music goes back on. This is Barrinche.

There are green herons, snowy egrets, night herons.

Outside of the bar there is a flooded, ankle deep flooded by rain and tidal water area where some of the best birdwatching on Utila takes place. There are green herons, snowy egrets, night herons that make their home and hunting grounds. Beer and birdwatching – that is Camponado.

Mexican Multinational Expands Roatan’s Cruise Ship Dock a mid Controversy and Exposes Island’s Double Standards

In 2018 ITM Group has purchased a majority stake in the Port of Roatan cruise ship terminal from Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. ITM begun work on second berth and has planes to open it at the end of 2019. IMT is expanding by 500% the area of attractions “adventure islands” with restaurants, aviary, rays, kayaking, for cruise ship passengers. An investment of around $30 million.

While the money are jobs are attractive to many, some see hidden dangers of the expansion. “The people are for dock expansion, but not for ‘Disney Land’ expansion they are doing,” says Aleynzka Grant Watler, Constellation bight resident. “We contacted SERNA in December and they still haven’t sent an inspector.” Indeed, the people of Roatan and Constellation Bight have been left in the dark. “We don’t know the shape, size positioning of the island,” said Lean about the Port of Roatan non-transparent filling in of land in Constellation Bight.

There are numerous concerns about the damage to the coral, change of tides and currents in Constellation Bight and closing of a public swimming beach. “SERNA should not have issued permit to remove the coral,” says Francis Lean, executive director of the Marine Park. Lean is not alone in seeing the double standard of life on Roatan. “Environmental concerns and agencies are only a front to control which projects get through and which ones don’t,” said Kaveh Lahijani, owner of Little French Key that employs 80 full time people. “There are far greater forces at play than proper permitting, processing and protection of natural resources and environment of Roatán.”

Cruise ship tourism boom of the last ten years has strained Roatan’s infrastructure to its limits.

Despite numerous requests by Paya Magazine, Port of Roatan management, nor ITM has not answered any questions regarding their port expansion. “The community is against the project,” says Lean, but “this is a done deal unless the community stands up against this right now.”

Locals indeed are speaking up, but no one is listening. “We don’t want this Disneyland,” says Alex Watler, the secretary of the Constellation Bight patronato. Watler feels the community has been sidelined, sacrifices for personal interests of politicians and big companies. “We contacted the governor, fiscalia, minister of tourism, Ministerio Publico, BICA. They didn’t even want to see us, or made empty promises,” says Watler.

Constellation Bight is beautiful bight, but the constant turning of giant cruise ship propellers has damaged much of the coral in the area. While the environment has suffered, people have made profit from property values and excursions offered nearby. Marco Galindo Sr., owner of Gumbalimba Park that caters to cruise shippers, says that the property values have already doubled and “Now they will multiply a thousand percent.”

Watler sees double standards in how islanders and big business like ITM are treated. “A man had three fish pots [traps] here [in Constellation Bight] and Marine Park came in so fast and confiscated the traps. But now when there is so much damage, they don’t do a thing,” says Watler.

“I even told Jerry [Roatan’s Mayor Jerry Hynds]: you guys are going little guys like Little French Cay [for their lack of environmental permit] but do nothing about the damage done here.” While Little French Cay, a tourist destination several miles away from the port, is a fraction of size of Port of Roatan it gathered wrath of Municipal and mainland government in form of inspections, raids and fines. “This area [Port of Roatan] would not be open to general local public and would only really benefit the foreign investors intending to keep the cruise ship passengers and their dollars within the confines of the port,” said about the Port of Roatan expansion Lahijani.

The second Port of Roatan dock is planned to accommodate larger, Oasis size cruise ships like the Allure of the Seas. “These cruise ships are the future,” says Marco Galindo Sr. about the megaship bringing not 3,000-4,000 passengers but 7,000.

Some other businessmen who operate out of the existing Port of Roatan dock also feel that bigger ships and more passengers will leave plenty of cruise-shippers to leave the port and spend money on their attractions on Roatan proper. “I employ 20 people and 20 families are dependent on the cruise ship tourist,” says Vidal Villeda, 53, who owns Chocolate factory stands in two Roatan cruise ship ports and a chocolate factory center in West End.

Villeda is renting a three meter by three-meter stand at the cruise ship dock for $100 a cruses ship day. Villeda says that his rent hasn’t gone up since the Mexican conglomerate took over the Port of Roatan except for the maintenance fee of $50 a month. ‘They are brining bigger boats,” Villeda says about the Mexican conglomerate. “The more cruise ship tourist will come the better.”

The uncontrolled cruise ship tourism boom of the last ten years has strained Roatan’s infrastructure to its limits, attracted tens-of-thousands of mainland labor migrants and caused environmental damage to reef and soil that is impossible to enumerate in dollars. “If we keep destroying trees, it’s a matter of time and we will be like Haiti,” says Galindo Sr. who remains pessimistic about the long-term growth of the island. “In 15-20 years’, time we will be charging islanders Lps. 500 to hug a tree.”

Roatan’s love affair with fast growth and cruise shippers doesn’t only end in Port of Roatan or Mahogany Bay. The Santos Guardiola is financing a study to find out the best location for a cruise ship terminal in New Port Royal. This would bring a third cruise ship terminal to the island. “Santos Guardiola has a lot to offer at the East End of the island,” says Galindo. “It’s going to happen. It [Roatan] will be a cruise ship island,” says Galindo.

Relying on only one industry for the sustainment of the island is like putting all one’s eggs in one basket. Twenty years ago, Roatan was an island with several industries: fishing industry, seafood packing industry, dive industry, construction industry and cruise ship was yet another industry. “If cruise ships leave, we will starve to death,” says Galindo Sr.

Utila NGO takes Care of an Endemic Iguana and Educates

Utila’s endangered and famous Spiny-tailed Iguanas’ Latin name is Ctenosaura bakeri, but they are known to the locals as “swampers”. They are one of five reptilesendemic to Utila including two anoles and two species of gecko. In 1994, Gunther Köhler PhD, a German biologist, came to Utila to study the endemic yet elusive swamper. In 1997 the Ctenosaura bakeri breeding program was launched eventually evolving into an educational and research station.

One of five reptilesendemic to Utila
including two anoles and two species of gecko.

In 2008 the center changed its name to ‘Bay Islands Foundation,’ a self-sustaining organization recognized by the Honduran government. “We have biology students form UNAH (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras) coming to do their master’s programs here,” says Geyvy Delarca, the foundation’s coordinator.

Today the center welcomes visitors, runs a breeding program, organizes workshops & provides educational programs. Thirty-two volunteers, all but three of them foreign, stayed there in 2018. The foreign volunteers pay 80 Euro a week to stay and work at the center where they care for the swampers, feed them a closely monitored diet, and get rid of their parasites.

Swampers live on a complex diet of hibiscus flowers, leaves, carrots, beets, oat meal and vitamins delivered to their cages twice daily. Two to three times a week the adult swampers are fed a violin crab, while their small offspring are given termites. “It’s to supplement their source of fiber,” says Silvia Núñez, foundation’s coordinator.

The life of the captive swampers, while not exciting, it is relaxing. The center’s 17 reproducing iguanas are housed in tall hexagonal wooden enclosures. Some swampers run away from human contact, while others jump forward in expectation of feeding or simply out of curiosity. Other than eating and sleeping, the swampers are only required to reproduce. As the resident swampers age, the research center catches their replacements. In 2019 the NGO intends to capture two males and six females. “The three to four-year-old iguanas lay between six and 24 eggs,” says Núñez. The breeding period takes place in February and March and incubation takes place in July and August.

Once-a-year the yearling swampers hatched the previous year are released onto a 4-acreblack mangrove forest where the swampers can begin their new life. About 200 are released each year after they grow to the size of a couple inches. No studies have been made on the survival rates of those specimens released into the wild, “The number of swampers has decreased, [over the years], but it’s holding steady [now],” says Nunez. “The young ones are vulnerable to ants, to brown hawks,” explains Núñez, but by far the biggest predator on Utila is humans. “Some locals hunt them for food,” says Núñez. “While rare, the swampers do become victims of local mischief. It tastes like bony chicken,” says Gunther Kordovsky, who has lived on Utila since 1970 and once tried the swampers cooked. “Times have changed, most Utilans respect the swamper and understand that it’s an element in attracting tourists to the island”, shares Kordovsky. “I have saved one. It was in a mouth of a snake, a big snake. I squeezed him out and he limped away,” continues Kordovsky, recalling the 6-8-foot snake that caught the swamper on the Utila’s north side a few years ago.

A New Microbrewery Opens on Roatan’s North Side

The idea of the brewery is that of Ilias Maier, Canadian entrepreneur, resort manager, and beer aficionado who moved to the island in 2003.

Maier’s 23-acre property sits atop a natural fresh water aquifer that gently and patiently filters the island’s rains providing one of the most critical ingredients to successful beer-making- fresh water. Add to that a passion for craft brewing, expertise in navigating the ins and outs of setting up and running a business on Roatan, endless patience, back-breaking work, and an injection of capital, and you get Roatan’s only microbrewery – though not the first.

That honor goes to Jiri Maska, a Czech businessman who built and opened the now defunct, Bay Islands Brewery in 2004 on a hilltop overlooking Punta Gorda. Maska begun brewing Bay Islands Pilsner run into problems from the start.

Distributing kegs of his beer to West End and West Bay were a logistical nightmare. The frequent power outages on the island would ruin batches of beer and the rather heavy taste of the Czech Pilsner didn’t always fit well with the hot Caribbean climate.

Tough, legal challenges from Honduras’ biggest beer maker trying to preserve its monopoly didn’t help either. In 2001 Cervecería Hondureña, makers or Salva Vida, Imperial, Port Royal, and Barena was bought up by SAB Miller and the Honduran beermaker tried everything not to lose any ground in its growing Roatan market.

Fifteen years later Honduras has five microbreweries. There is the D&D Brewery in Lake Yojoa, Sol de Copan in Copan Ruinas, Durnoff in Ceiba, and Honduras Brewing Company in Tegucigalpa.

Roatan also stepped back into the microbrewery business. Ilias Maier and his business partner Mark Flanagan began making small batches and testing out RIBC’s equipment in 2018. “Ilias ad I had always known that we wanted to do something together, but the timing just never seemed to work out,” said Flanagan.

The entire brewing process takes several weeks from start to finish.

Making beer is a craft and the entire brewing process takes several weeks from start to finish. RIBC imports its main ingredients; grain and hops, but many of the added infusions like watermelon, hibiscus, and pineapple are local.

The process begins with grinding the malted grain and soaking it in hot water in a phase referred to as mashing. The mash is then separated into a clear, sweet broth called wort, leaving behind the residual grain. The wort is then boiled in a brew kettle along with the hops and other flavoring ingredients. Once cooled, the wort is transferred to a temperature-controlled fermentation tank where the yeast is added and allowed to do its work. It converts the wort’s sugary goodness into alcohol and carbonation, a process that can take a week or more.

The brew then matures and mellows and, at just the right time, is filtered and kegged. “We decided that once we could successfully produce two consistent batches of the same beer, we would feel confident to scale up to the 10-keg batch. The large batch uses upward of 400Lbs. of grain and carried a much bigger risk that than a three-keg small batch that only uses about 100Lbs. of grain,” said Flanagan.

The first beer brewed were the Paradise Ale and Sunny Haze. The recipes have been tweaked, perfected, and scaled up to the larger tanks. RIBC is filling kegs and delivering them to various tap rooms around the island. There is IPAs, pale ales, wheat beers, reds, ambers, and even a porter. All-in-all eight beers are brewed.

On top of several places RIBC distributes its beer in West End, West Bay and French Harbour RIBC plans to add distribution points like Bananarama, San Simon, Larry & Luey’s, Jonesville Point Marina, and Frank’s Irish Pub. Roatan’s second adventure with micro beer brewing is just beginning.

Saint Helena and Barbareta get connected to Roatan’s Electrical Grid

The three power cables and a fiberoptic cable were fitted inside a cable and protected with an armor coating. “You still don’t want to put a boat propeller across it,” but it’s pretty strong, very rugged,” says Ing. Phil Michael of Alliance Power. “It’s designed to be a submarine cable.” Ing. Michael has worked on project development for 28-Megawatt propane powered power plant brought by RECO on line in 2017.

The 5′ diameter cable is rated for 15 KW and Kerite company of Massachusetts fabricated the cable brought in on two cable spools winning a contract bid of $2.5 million dollars. Most of the submarine cable will lie in around 20 feet of water. The challenge of the 120 feet will come at the Morat channel where currents and depth of 120 feet will make the operation more difficult.

Cable was unwound, floated on the surface and sunk in areas with no coral.

A 3D map of the terrain was composed by Columbian Company Geomares in preparation of the estimating the length and laying of the cable. According to Ing. Michael three echosounders with multiple beams scanned the underwater topography and allowed for the more precise planning of the cable’s route.

The cable was unwound, floated on the surface and sunk in areas with no coral. According to Matt Harper, RECO’s operations manager, Tegucigalpa based biologist relocated 400 soft corals to make room for the cable.

The first phase of the project begun on March 7 and involved laying of the 1.5-kilometer cable between the eastern edge of Port Royal to the western shore of Saint Helene island. The cable enters the water at the very last portion of elevated piece of Roatan, on the edge of the mangroves, on the western Port Royal. The overall cost of installation is $1.8 million.

While Ing. Michael originally estimated the work to last four-five days, it took twice that long. There were delays due to high wind and difficulty of fitting the cable. “We were not able to lay it int a small, shallow creek,” explained Harper. The installers had to adopt on the go to weather conditions and topography.

The first portion of the operation was much simpler as the cable was to be laid at a dept of only 3 to 12 feet. Subway watersports and local Saint Helene divers helped in making sure the cable was lowered in place. “Its heavy enough to not be covered,” explained Harper, “If we were to cover the cable it would stir up the bottom.”

The cable has the enough current capacity for 6 megawatts and fiberglass poles and above ground wire has already been installed on Santa Helena and on Barbareta cable will be laid underground. RECO estimates that currently only 50 of the 250 homes on the island have any sort of electric power, usually generators.

The second phase of the project is due to begin in early April and it will connect Santa Helena and Barbareta island developed by billionaire Kelcy Warren. Warren purchased 52% shares of RECO in 2008 and is developing Barbareta as a holiday residence. Dallas based Warren has who made his fortune in oil and gas pipelines, according to Forbes magazine, is valued at 4.3 Billion dollars. Warren in the richest man in Honduras and the 478th richest man on the planet.

Mr. Nelson Has Wisdom for All Ages

According to family records, Joseph Cromwell Jackson, Nelson’s grandfather and the founder of the Jackson families on Roatan came from Charleston, South Carolina just after the Civil War. One can sense the history looking into the eyes of Mr. Nelson. He is weathered, but nimble and he is full of energy.

At age ten, young Nelson started attending a local one-room school in French Cay run by Mrs. Minor Woods. She used “The Royal Readers” set of schoolbooks to teach the local children basic skills in reading and writing. “Who really taught me how to read and write was Mrs. Ora Webster,” remembers Mr. Nelson. Young Nelson only attended three grades of schooling, but “This is equivalent of what you get at graduation today.”

There were manatees living all over Roatan feeding on turtle grass

While most French Cay people gathered fresh water to drink from rooftops, when there was no rain, they had to walk a kilometer to the gully to fetch water. “We had a lot of hard work we were doing. We were very poor,” Mr. Nelson recalls about life in the 1930s. The only food stuffs brought in from the mainland was rice and people would gather coconuts to sell to La Ceiba where Standard Fruit Company reigned supreme. “We got [US] 60 cents for every 100 coconuts,” he remembers.

The island was full of large mammals: deer and sea cows were all around. There were manatees living all over Roatan feeding on turtle grass. “There was one living around Fantasy Island and another one by Jonesville,” remembers Mr. Nelson. “He nearly turned one boat over.”

In the 1940s there were two houses on the Little French Cay, five on the Big French Cay and five on Roatan proper across from the cays. There were just a handful of families living here: the Jacksons, Johnsons, Dixons, Woods and Lowells. In 1941 Mr. Nelson said goodbye to his older brother Roswell Jackson who enlisted in US navy and went off to fight the Germans in World War II. Young Nelson was too young and stayed behind. He only listened to the stories of his brother’s adventures on the beaches of Normandy.

At 22 Mr. Nelson married Nelly Dixon and devoted his time to farming and raising cattle. The couple had 11 children. In 1961 he went off to work on a tugboat in Jacksonville, Florida. He would go back and forth between his family and US for seven long years. Eventually he came back to Roatan and farmed some more. In 1971 Mr. Nelson picked another contract to run a boat between Palm Beach and the Bahamas.

After returning to the island Mr. Nelson for 33 years worked with Seth Arch at the French harbor dry dock as the dry dock supervisor. Mr. Nelson has a spiritual attitude about his long life. “[I live] with the mercy and the blessing of the Lord. Without Him you couldn’t live,” says Mr. Nelson.

Today Mr. Neslon is a valued family patriarch. He still farms and raises cattle on his French Cay property. He also cultivates banana plants, plantains, watermelon, tomatoes, beans, yams, cassavas, chickens. Mr. Nelson also looks after his 90 foot shrimp fishing boat ‘Cabo II’ and always ready to chat about the past.

The Island Provides Honduran Team’s Core Players

In 2013 Harper, who learned how to play rugby at school, thought it would be a good thing to introduce his electrical business employees and Roatan Electric Company employees to the game. “Rugby teaches you discipline, courage and teamwork,” said Harper who thought the sport might appeal to the macho ethics in Honduras and he was right. Roatanians and Hondurans answered the call to Rugby in droves. So much so that today 40 percent of the Honduras’ national team comes from Roatan. “It’s the most successful team in Honduras rugby. We are unbeaten in fifteens, we only lost one game in sevens,” said Harper about his Roatan Pirates team.

In 2013 two teams were formed: the Roatan Pirates and a team in La Esperanza put together by Jason Turner, a Canadian expat. The rugby team in Tegucigalpa came together in 2016 and teams were formed in San Pedro Sula and in La Ceiba. All-in-all, there are now six amateur rugby teams in Honduras.

The Roatan Pirates practice once-a-week at the Kix sports facility and 50-60 men and women show up to practice. A lot of the rugby training is focused on building stamina and weight training. The island athletes practice for both quick and regular forms of the game. Rugby Sevens is a quick, high energy form of the sport in which seven player teams play seven minute halves, instead of the usual 15 players playing 40 minute halves.

Taking the Roatan rugby team to a tournament game is a pricy affair. It costs at least Lps. 40,000 every time a team goes to the mainland to play. Honduras needs to maintain a certain number of players, and must play a minimum number of games to be qualified to join World Rugby, the sport’s organizing body. “It wasn’t ‘til January of 2018 that Honduras was accepted into World Rugby,” said Harper.

Over the last couple years Honduran rugby has grown and developed enough to challenge rugby teams from the Central American division. In September 2018 Honduras played its first international match, in Tegucigalpa, against Panama. “We were winning; we had it in the bag. We were up by 20 points in the first half,” said Harper. “And of course the Honduran psyche like even with the football started getting over confident.” The players were becoming complacent, laughing and joking and they took the foot off the gas, they made some mistakes, they panicked. Honduras ended up losing in the first international match to Panama. “It’s disappointing because we were winning and we were better than them,” said Harper.

Then the national team travelled to San Salvador to face their other division competitor. “Same thing happened. We were winning the game, but through ill discipline we had three players in ‘sin bin’ for personal fault and the Salvadorians beat the visitors by one point in the last moment. This was a crushing defeat for Hondurans. We were very disappointed because we were outside favorite to win it,” said Harper.

The Pan-American Games and Olympics linger as a prize for Honduran Rugby but Harper is realistic: “We are not at the level to qualify, yet,” said Harper. The top tier America countries that qualify for the world cup are Argentina, Uruguay, United States and Canada. “Central American countries are the last ones to catch up,” said Harper who is the Honduras National Rugby Team coach.

The players are starting to get noticed. One Honduran born player has started for a team in England. William Harper, 29 Matthew’s son, started playing rugby in La Ceiba and played two seasons in Swanage & Wareham RFC Rugby Union club in England’s county league. “He is the first Honduran player to play outside of the country in a rugby club,” said Mathew Harper about his son.

The Bay Islands are the Bitcoin Pioneers in Honduras

There are over 14,100 places all over the world that’s accept Bitcoin as payment – all tracked on-line. While Guatemala City, Managua, and San Salvador are all small hubs of Bitcoin activity, San Pedro Sula has only one location accepting Bitcoin and the Bay Islands have four.

“I knew about Bitcoin back in 2009. I embraced it immediately,” says John Willms a Canadian who is “looking after” Turtle Grass Marina in Calabash Bight while his friends take a break in the US. Back in 2017, only one transaction was done in Bitcoin- it was a purchase of a pizza. “Wallet-ed [cryptocurrency] transactions took 10-15 seconds. Perfect,” says John. The opportunity to spend some Satoshis or Bitcoin presented itself on Thursday and Saturday pizza days and that is when the Turtle Grass Marina gets really busy: 1 pm till closing to be exact.

They treat us like kings and queens

Willms, not only accepts Bitcoin, but also supports businesses that take Bitcoin. “When we go to Utila we use Ecomarine because they accept Bitcoin,” says John. “They treat us like kings and queens because of that.” Gunther’s Ecomarine dive shop and another small hotel accept Bitcoin as payment on Utila. “[Bitcoin] is just another way of paying, and the money emitted by central banks… well they are just a bunch of crooks,” saysWillms.

Sometimes it is Bitcoin that finds Roatan not other way around. Three years ago the president of the microstate of Liberland was visiting a friend on Roatan and run up a bill in the Jonesville Point Marina. “He offered to pay the $120 in Bitcoin and said I can set up a wallet in seconds,” remembers Sheri Visker, manager of the marina. Her Bitcoin customer was VitJedlička, a Czech activist and politician who founded the river island country of “Free Republic of Liberland” on an unclaimed river island between Serbia and Croatia in 2015. “President” Jedlička took a liking to land on Roatan and has made several visits here looking to buy property here… in Bitcoin. One thing still missing is the Bitcoin sale sticker next to Diners Club, Visa and AMEX stickers prominently displayed at the Marina’s bar. “It’s hard to get the sticker off,” explainsVisker. “Both my sons got into Bitcoin early. I think it’s a good investment.”

Pizza and a place to stay are not the only things a few Bitcoins will buy you on Roatan. Roatan Real Estate deals in Bitcoin are in the making. Currently a home in Pristine Bay, a lot at Lawson Rock, and an estate in Sandy Bay are all offered for sale in Bitcoin.

In 2015 the Honduran government had conversations with US based Epigraph company to develop “a permanent and secure land title record system” using the Bitcoin block chain. Mismanagement and corruption of land records in Honduras has caused many conflicts over property rights. Over 80 percent of land titles accumulated over two centuries are either untitled or improperly titled. The deal was called off, however, as not even the most sophisticated blockchain could handle this Honduran land record mess.

A Nonprofit Helps Kids in Crisis Neighborhood

It all started in 2006 on some old, unused, but well lit courts belonging to Anthony’s Key Resort (AKR).With support from the Galindo Family, Elmore and friend &co-founder, Brandon Raab, began encouraging the neighborhood kids to come gather on the courts in the late afternoon and play sports. “That’s the only thing I really knew how to do,” remembers Elmore. Today, the courts still serve as a gathering and play space in the early evening and as a place for skateboarding lessons after school.

Elmore come to Roatan from North Carolina where he had been working with children with emotional challenges. In 2004 he came to Roatan while backpacking in Central America. “I got really seasick on the ferry and postponed leaving. I started meeting people and fell in love with the island and decide that is where I wanted to be,” remembers Elmore. “I wanted to find something that would be fulfilling for my life and that is how SOL came about.”

“I had more than a couple friends die [from opioids],” says Elmore about the West Virginia town where he grew up and worked. “In the town I grew up in, Huntington, you have areas that fell into decay.” In US helping others is not an easy business. One needs insurance, certifications, approvals, training. “You can’t just have a playground and have kids start coming in there,’’ says Elmore. “There are programs in the States, but to get something going like we have here, you have to jump trough so many hoops and so many regulations that we could never do what we are doing here,” said Elmore. “It would almost have to be founded by the government. Here it’s much more organic.” In SOL, Elmore has recreated a place from his youth where one was free to roam through the neighborhood. “To me this place is a bit like where I grew up in 70s, carefree. In the US everything is really organized in structured programs.” Roatan is much more easy going, and kids life is much less structured. “Here you have your cousins and your brothers looking after you, it’s more of a sense of community,” continues Elmore.

The parents know that this is a safe spot for their kids to be at.

Over the years SOL has grown in leaps and bounds expanding its programs and broadening the community it serves. “It hasn’t been planned. It’s been an organic thing,” says Elmore. In keeping with its sports-based beginnings, SOL constructed a youth baseball field in West End aptly named the John J, Woods Field of Dreams. The facility now provides a home for several Little League baseball teams. In 2015, a beach volleyball court was added to support a growing volleyball program. “We are able to do a lot more with our sports teams there,” explains Elmore.

In October 2016 SOL opened its Havey Learning Center housed within the Center for Community growth in partnership with the Bay Islands Conservation Association (BICA) in a building just west of AKR. A year later a West End home was donated and the materials from the home were used to expand the building. “All the wood, sinks, toilets were donated form a West End home that was about to be torn down,” says Elmore. At the Havey Learning Center, SOL offers tutoring along with English, art, and science classes for the 40 to 70 kids that come in to take part in the programs each day. “They can come and they can go at any time, as long as they are getting along,” said Elmore. “We are not a bunch of expats, but a community,” says Kristy Doig, a New Zealander who came to the island in 2001 and is SOL’s Program Director. SOL estimates that in 2017 around 60 volunteers put in at least four hours of work each at the foundation. Over 1,000 children from all around Sandy Bay participated in some program throughout the year. “The community looks after us too,” says Elmore. “The parents know that this is a safe spot for their kids to be at.”

The “Happy Tummies Active Minds Program” began in May 2017. Two chefs: Brittany from Roatan Oasis and Ed from Blue Marlin kick started the program and stepped in to help. “It’s Pizza, Pasta, they learn how to cook and how to cook healthy. So the kids have a better understanding of the food that is going in their belly and how to prepare it themselves,” said Doig.

Most recently SOL purchased a piece of land behind the Center for Community Growth with financial help of some Canadian donors. Now a green space is planned that will eventually include an edible garden and playground space. “After 12-13 years people understand that what you are doing is with their best interest at heart,” shares Elmore.

In addition to the localized impact that SOL has had in Sandy Bay and West End, the organization also distributes school supplies and backpacks at the beginning of each school year throughout the Roatan Municipality. Approximately 800 backpacks should be distributed in the winter of 2019.

One of the countless individual success stories is Keylin, a young woman who attended SOL programs regularly when she was younger. Today she looks after the kids that come to learn, read, or play. “She has really taken ownership of everything. She organizes all the classes, knows which kids are sick, which kids are not going to school. She is our eyes and ears and knows what’s going on with them,” says Elmore.

SOL provides academic scholarships for students to bilingual private schools and also transportation scholarships because, as Doing explains, “transportation is the only thing preventing them from going to high school.” In 2018 the foundation gave out 42 scholarships.

Monthly donations, one-time donations, and in-kind contributions from individuals coupled with three yearly fundraisers help to keep SOL, a 501 (c)(3)U.S. registered nonprofit, running. “We don’t really solicit. It’s mostly people who recognize what we are doing,” said Elmore. In the beginning SOL started with an annual budget of $7,000. Today the annual operating budget is roughly $180,000. “A large portion of the budget is scholarships here and overseas,” says Elmore.