Island Fauna Strikes a Delicate Balance between the Original and Invasive Species

Roatan as we experience it today is much different than it was 500 years ago when the first Europeans set foot on the Bay Islands archipelago. Many trees have been imported, land cleared and the animals, especially mammals, living on the island are not the same as they were even just two centuries ago.
Originally the island had only three native land mammals and four flying mammals.

Most land mammals living on the island today have been introduced to Roatan by Spanish or Cayman Islander settlers. Several mammals like wild hogs and manatees have disappeared from the island.
Currently, there are an estimated 22 land and sea mammal species on Roatan or in waters around the island.

THE NATIVES

Agouti

The animal is shiny brown and orange with a white spot on its chin and a yellowish patch on its belly. Ruatan Island agouti species bare a few dark hairs as opposed to their mainland cousins.
The agoutis are shy and won’t let humans approach them. They are active mostly in the daytime. The animals thrive on patches of brush across the island, foraging on almonds, coconuts, hibiscus, and Pentaclethra pods.
Hunting the Ruatan Island agouti has been a right of passage for the island youth for 200 years. The island rabbit is recognized as a culinary delicacy for its sweet meat. “You could stew it, you could bake it, and how you wanted to do it,” says Mr. Truman Jones, from Brick Bay. “Their meat is very good.” While human hunting has kept the agouti population down, an even bigger threat is the loss of habitat from developments and houses that are multiplying all over the island. Also, the young ones are attacked by opossums.

Mouse Opossum

The smallest mammal on the island grows no larger than eight ounces in weight. The Linnaeus’s mouse opossum (Marmosa Murina) is also known as the common or murine mouse opossum. Like his bigger cousin, the mouse opossum will play dead as a form of defense behavior.

This tiny mammal is a nocturnal creature that shelters in a mesh of twigs on branches, inside cavities of trees or even old birds’ nests. On Roatan the Cohune Palms are particularly suitable habitat for the mouse opossum. “They go into the coconut tree and eat the cap out,” says Mr. Truman. “In the summer, that little animal, he wants water.”

The mouse opossum feeds on fruits, but also on insects, spiders, lizards, bird’s eggs and small chicks. It reproduces quickly after a 13-day gestation giving life to as many as 10 young.

It has prominent, popping eyes framed by black colored fur reminiscent of a mask. Its large, longer than the body itself, rat-like tail is used to carry leaves to its place of nesting. While it is only four to six inches long, its tail is five to eight inches long.

Deer

White-tailed deer (Odocoileus Virginianus) have been on Roatan since the days of Paya Indians. In 1930s and 1940s deer could be found all over Roatan and were especially plentiful in West End and on the East End. Usually, 60 to 80 pounds, was a typical buck, but there were some larger specimens, as big as 120 pounds.

The white tailed deer has many sub species, but the one spread on Roatan most likely belongs to the smaller variety known as nemoralis, or Nicaraguan white-tailed deer. “My dad shot them by the hundreds,” says Mr. Truman Jones. His father would shoot with a 30-30 rifle from 40 meters aiming almost always for the buck. The deer would be a prized source of meat and islanders would use deer skin to make deer slippers and belts.

Island hunters had worked out a few hunting techniques to score the deer. By burning the grass, some hunters would attract the deer that would come to feed on the newly sprouted grass a few weeks later. Some hunters would take up a shooting position in the trees and waited for the deer to show.

As the deer became scarce the Roatan deer hunters would change their technique. They would hunt at night using carbon lights that were used by miners. While the deer would not always be visible, their eyes would light up. “A cow’s eyes stay more dull, but the deer eyes are sharp.”

The island deer love to graze on Cissampelos Pareira leaves. “The deer eats with the moon and the tide,” explains Mr. Truman. “When the tide is coming up the deer would be sleeping in all of them trees.” His father would hunt the deer two times in the day: as the daylight was breaking and, in the evening, late.

When a family of deer is spotted it is usually a buck with one or two females. Larger herds have also been seen on the island. A heard of 20 deer was once spotted by Mr. Truman’s father near Brick Bay point.

While scarce, the deer survives on Roatan in the wild. The deer sometime venture on Mr. Truman’s property in Brick Bay and there are still some wild deer in West Bay. Hondurans have looked at their deer with much respect and admiration. In 1993 the white-tailed deer was declared with executive decree 36-93 as the national mammal of Honduras.

Dogs

Paya Indians brought dogs (Canis Familiaris) to Roatan when they crossed to the Bay Islands archipelago from the mainland, about 1000 AD. Mayas traded with Payas and Mayas are known to have used domesticated dogs for hunting, as food and in religious ceremonies.

Island dogs hail their origin from dozens of breeds that were brought to the islands over the last 200 years. Some deer hunters brought Rhodesian Ridgebacks to the island. Other islanders brought Rottweilers and pitbulls to protect their households.
Dogs have been used on Roatan to guard property and serve as companions. Island men had used dogs for hunting wild animals such as deer, wild hog and guatuza. While most of the big game hunting has stopped, dogs are still used by islanders to spot and fetch green iguanas. These are mostly mutts with some hound blood running in their veins. “We always had dogs. We call them ‘Roatan hound dogs,” said Mr. Truman.

Jamaican Fruit Bat

Roatan is home to four species of flying mammals. One of these bat species is widely spread over the island pollinator – the Jamaican fruit bat (Artibeus Jamaicensis).This bat is native to Mexico, Central America and Caribbean.

They are most active at midnight. The females give birth twice a year after four to seven months’ gestation. One baby is typically born each time. The baby bats are weaned at around 15 days and gain permanent set of teeth at 40 days. By around 50 days the young bats can fly.

Pallas’s long-tongued

Roatan’s Pallas’s long-tongued bat (Glossophaga Soricina) has the fastest recorded metabolism of any mammal, comparable to that of a hummingbird. It processes half of its stored fat over the course of the day. Then replenishes its supplies by consuming nectar, pollen, flowers, fruits and insects.

Velvety Free-Tailed

Also known as Pallas’s mastiff bat (Molossus Molossus), this bat species forges across Roatan’s open areas and above tree canopies. It is most commonly seen at dusk, where it will fly solo hunting moths, beetles and flying ants. It is four inches long and has a wingspan of 13 inches.

Greater sac-winged

The greater sac-winged bat (Saccopteryx Bilineata) is common to rain forests of Central America and makes Roatan its home as well. It roosts under large trees and under buildings. The sac-winged bat hunts flies, moths and beetles using echolocation. The males store urine in its wing sacks and shake it to mark the territory belonging to its harem.

SEA MAMMALS

Dolphins

The common bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops Truncatus) is a frequent visitor to waters of the Bay Islands. “There are plenty of them here,” said Mr. Truman. “At any [reef] channel boat they would be running, [dolphins would be] chasing in front of her.”

There is also a permanent bottlenose dolphin population at Anthony’s Key Resort off Sandy Bay’s Bailey’s Key. AKR has been keeping and showing dolphins since 1989. These trained dolphins perform acrobatics and exhibit their skills to tourists jumping as high as 20 feet into the air.

The common bottlenose dolphin can live for over 40 years, and females of the species live even longer – around 60 years. The bottlenose dolphin’s weight range form from 330 to 1,400 pounds and the largest specimens can reach 13 feet in length.

These highly intelligent animals don’t only perform for tourists. They have been known to exhibit an extraordinary rescue behavior to humans in need. Common bottlenose dolphin can also cooperate with humans in driving fish into fishermen’s nets. Both US and Russian military train bottlenose dolphins for military tasks such as locating mines and detecting enemy divers.

Orcas

Orca (Orcinus Orca) is an apex predator sometimes found in waters around Roatan. This whale has a distinctive black and white body so large that some islanders have confused it with a submarine at a first glance. The old islanders call orcas “Black fish.” Edison Brown from French Harbour recalls seeing one, single orca in 1980s on a passage between Barbarat and Bonacca. A fellow ship crew member mistook the giant sea mammal for a submarine.

Orcas have a diverse diet and in waters around Bay Islands they pray on fish and likely on bottlenose dolphins. “It looked like a dory turned bottom up,” says Mr. Truman Jones remembering seeing an orca in early 2000s.

Orcas have been spotted off Roatan as recently as July 2022. A pod of four Orcas were spotted. The four orcas were swimming underneath the dive boat and surfacing within half a mile from the island.

Manatees

West Indian manatees, lived on the Caribbean coast of Honduras, it is one of three types of manatees found around the globe. The West Indian manatee has a low metabolic rate and cannot survive in cold water. The mammal moves easily between fresh and saltwater.

These gentle underwater giants can swim at speeds of up to 20 miles an hour for short distances. They are very smart animals capable of task learning just as easily as dolphins, or orcas. The manatees give birth to one calf once every two years. The young gill takes a year to a year-and-a-half before it is weaned.

The manatees are herbivores feeding on both freshwater and saltwater plants. Sea grass and turtle grass. They graze seven hours a day and they consume as much as 120 pounds of nutrients or 15% of their weight a day. They scoop the plants they find with their flippers and then use their lips to move them into their mouth.

Guanaja and Utila are known to have had a bigger population of manatees. “They would get washed out in the rain from Ulua river by Aguan and brought by current to Bonacca,” said Mr. Truman. “The Bonacca guys would kill them and sell the meat. The manatee meat is a delicacy, and one manatee could provide 1,000 pounds of nourishment. The meat has three different colors: very red, light red and almost a color of my skin,” says Mr. Truman. “The old people used to say it had pork, cow and fish.”

In Jonesville, manatees could still be seen in the 1940s. Boats travelling at night had to take care as not to flip over if they ware to hit the large mammal feeding. While the Manatees have not been seen in Roatan waters for the last 80 years, the manatees are migrating creatures and they have recently been seen in waters around Utila. Utopia’s Utopia Village underwater camera has caught glimpses of a manatee a couple years back.

Manatees feed on sea grass that grows at shallow depths all around Roatan. The two main seagrass pastures off Roatan are the Tortoise Grass (Thalassia Testudinum) and Manatee Pastures (Syringodium Filiforme). The Indian Manatee can be found in lagoons and near mangroves. With sandy and muddy bottoms Roatan has the perfect environment for manatees and likely they will one day return to the island.

IMPORTED

Wild Boar

The wild boar (Sus Scrofa), also known as the wild swine comes from Euroasia and North Africa. It was introduced to the Americas by Europeans. “In 1836-1840 my people came to Jonesville, and they came through the mangroves,” says Mr. Truman. “There was so much wild hog out there they had to keep fire in the night to keep them away so they could rest.”

Wild hogs are aggressive, and a powerful rifle had to be used to take one down. His father, Archie Jones, used 30/30 rifle and later a 12 gage shotgun to hunt the wild swine. “He could put a 20 penny nail in this tree,” says Mr. Truman pointing to an enormous mango tree on his property in Brick Bay.

Mr. Truman remembers that there were still a few wild boars around in Port Royal when he was a small boy in 1950s. Eventually they were finally hunted down completely. “The farmers had to kill them because they were destroying the fields,” says Mr. Truman.

Cats

The cat (Felis Catus) had come with the settlers to Roatan from the Cayman Islands. Feral, but castrated Cats can be found in several places on the island. At Parrot Tree Plantation they are taken care of by homeowners who bring daily food and water to the animals.

Horses

Spanish horses (E. caballus) were first introduced to the Caribbean islands in 1493. On the continent, in Mexico, the first horses were brought in 1519 by Hernán Cortés. The man who introduced horses to Honduras was Cristobal de Olid who came to this part of Central America in 1523.

Olid came with around 400 soldiers and colonists to establish a proper colony. He landed on the coast and founded Honduras’ first settlement of Tela, then called Triunfo de la Cruz.

A year later Hernán Cortés came to Honduras to challenge Olid’s ambitions of cessation in Honduras. When Cortés began unloading his horses several horses drowned and thus the spot was given the name of Puerto Caballos later renamed Puerto Cortés.

The Cayman Island settlers to Roatan needed horses capable of work in a tropical climate. By accounts of old islanders, the first horses were shipped to Roatan from the Honduran mainland in 1830 or 1840s.

Donkeys

Donkeys (Equus Africanus Asinus) came to the New World with Christopher Columbus in 1495. The Spanish used donkeys to breed with horses to produce a bigger animal- the mule. Roatan donkeys trace its roots to Cayman Islanders who brought some from the Honduran Mainland.

Mules

The Mules presence in the American mainland date back to 1521. Mules, equine hybrid between a donkey and a horse, were bred for work with males preferred for pack animals and the females preferred for riding. In Honduras the silver mining industry and banana companies used mules extensively.

Probably some of the first mules arriving on Roatan got here in late XIX century. SS Snyg was a cargo boat that carried mules from Cuba to Punta Castilla. It crashed and sunk in a storm on a reef off Crawfish Rock in August of 1899. “She was coming from Cuba to Castilla. These mules had to jump and come onshore,” says Mr. Truman about a steamship that sunk off Crawfish Rock.

The mules were saved and most of them were transported on other, smaller boats to Punta Castilla. However, a few mules stayed behind on Roatan and worked on island farms.

Between 1940 and 1960 a fungus pathogen (Fusarium Oxysporum f. sp. Cubense) commonly called Panama disease devastated the Gros Michel banana plantations on the Honduran coast. Initially Roatan and Utila were isolated by distance and free of the Panama disease. Some blamed a load of mules transported from the coast to the island for bringing the disease from the Honduran coast. “The locals said that the company [Standard Fruit] did it intentionally to kill the bananas over here,” said Mr. Truman. Utila and Roatan were the places where the banana industry began in Honduras.

Cattle

Cattle (Bos Taurus) were imported from the Honduran mainland and provided meat, and sometimes milk for communities throughout Roatan. “I used to milk ten cows every morning. My pay was – one gallon of milk for 50 cents.”

Over time people would bring different cattle breeds to the island. Brahman breed, Texas longhorn, etc. Sidney Griffith, known as Uncle Sid, brought in white faced Hereford cows from Tampa to the island in 1955. “He brought two heifers and a bull,” says Mr. Truman.

The mix of different breeds created a Roatan breed that is recognized locally as “an island cow.” “The meat today is as good as it was originally from the island cow,” says Mr. Truman.

Pigs

Most likely the domesticated pig (Sus Domesticus), or hog was brought to the island by Cayman Island settlers in early 1800s. The pig is considered a subspecies of Sus Scrotfa, the Eurasian boar. The adult pig can weigh from 100 to 800 Lbs. depending on breeding and feeding techniques used.

People would keep pig pens over the French Harbour canal. Some Punta Gorda people would build hog pens right over the salt water. Kitchen scraps and hog coconuts were used as feed for the pigs. “It was not good to export, it was not good to sell,” says about the hog coconut Mr. Truman. The hog coconut was perfect source of feed for the pigs.

Goats

Domestic goat (Capra Hircus) was brought to North America from Europe and on Roatan it most likely was brought from the Honduras mainland. Many Jamaican workers who came to work on banana plantations in early XX century Honduras raised goats. “Anyone from Jamaica loves goat meat,” explains Mr. Truman.

A few Jamaicans came to Roatan via banana companies on the Honduran mainland. “My daddy had plenty of goats,” remembers Edison Brown, whose ancestors came from Jamaica and settled in French Harbour. “We used to drink goat milk.” The goats would not only eat just about anything, but they are also kept for their milk, meat and skins.

Sheep

Roatan is home to several breeds of sheep (Ovis Aries). One of the more popular breeds here is Cubano Rojo also known as Pelibuey sheep. The breed is the larger sheep breed sometimes found grazing on farms throughout Roatan. Pelibüey are raised for meat,

Because it sports a coat of hair, not wool. It shares its roots to West African Dwarf sheep and Barbados Black Belly and Roja Africana of Venezuela. Cubano Rojo easily adapts to tropical environments.

THE INVASIVE

Rats

Americas were rat free before the arrival of the explorer era. The black rat or ship rat (Rattus Rattus) came to the continent 500 years ago as a stowaway and is considered one of world’s worse invasive species. His cousin, the brown rat (Rattus Norvegicus) has also conquered the Americas.

Sailors used to place plywood or metal rat guards on the lines attaching boats to the posts. The rats would run up the line towards the boat but had to turn around when they reached that barrier. Rats are a nuisance pest on the island, but their impact has been limited as the agriculture sector remained on small scale.

Mice

While pre Columbian North America had over 70 native species of rodents, that number did not include the common house mouse (Mus Musculus). The house mouse must have arrived on Roatan with the first explorers. The mouse came aboard ships coming from Europe and found its way to all but the smallest and least inhabited islands in the Caribbean.

While there are islands in the Bay Islands archipelago that are probably mouse free, they are not many. Morat is the one candidate of being an island free of the Mus Musculus.

Tepezcuintle

The recent arrival to Roatan is Tepezcuintle. While Tepezcuintle is the common name for this mammal in Honduras, this lowland paca (Cuniculus Paca) goes by many names. Can be found from Mexico to Argentina and has made its way to Cuba. “The Spanish population brought them here in the last 30-40 years,” says Mr. Truman. The Tepezcuintle can be spotted on the east of the island near Camp Bay and Diamond Rock as far west as Brick Bay.

Tepezcuintles feed on low growing and fallen fruits and are known for their tasty meat. They also feed on leaves, flowers, mushrooms and insects. Unlike agoutis they can use fat to store energy. They do compete with native agoutis for the same resources.

Armadillos

Another invasive species now commonly found all over Roatan is the nine-banded armadillo (Dasypus Novemcinctus). Also known as common long-nosed armadillo, it is the most commonly found armadillo.

These armadillos are nocturnal and mostly solitary. They love foraging and feeding on ants, termites and small bugs. They use their scent glands located on their feet, nose and eyelids to mark their territory. A single armadillo maintains as many as a dozen 25 foot deep borrows. They can be occasionally seen sniffing air for signs of danger.

Opossum

The black-eared opossum, or common opossum (Didelphis Marsupialis) is yet another foreign arrival on the island. This marsupial is able to feed on a variety of diets: from insects, earthworms, snakes, birds, small mammals, to fruits, vegetables and even carrion. It is an opportunistic animal and because of its versatility and lack of natural predators on Roatan it has made the opossum very destructive. It can digest almost anything that is eatable, thus it has put itself at a conflict with agoutis, black iguanas and even bird species.

A Perspective at Many Centuries of the Changing Roatan Inhabitant

The last 500 years on Roatan have been especially interesting as far as movement of populations. It has been a roller coaster of different people coming and going from Roatan. There were expulsions, migrations and conflicts. There were dreams, plans and schemes. There were booms and busts.

In the XVI century Roatan evolved from being a self-sufficient island, to a place supporting pirates and vagabonds. It was a base for pirates in religious wars that tore Europe apart for over 200 years.

Strategically located, just off the Spanish mainland and wedged in the gulf of Honduras, Roatan has been a pawn in a geopolitical game for centuries. Spain used it as a place to get slaves for its mining operations in Cuba. Pirates acting in the interest of Protestant Europe religious wars used Roatan and its Paya inhabitants to careen and service its boats before raiding the Spanish armada.

The island changed hands several times between the Spanish and English.

The island changed hands several time between the Spanish and English. Neither power having enough interest, motivation, or resources to build up the Bay Islands archipelago into a viable, lasting out post for their culture, military and economy.

For the past 200 years Roatan was a place where families and individuals escaped oppression and fear. They launched themselves with vigor to begin new enterprises, new ventures and new life. They often replicated and tweaked businesses that were already running elsewhere. Roatanians were skillful ship builders, resourceful coconut farmers and intrepid shrimpers.

‘Homo Roataniens’ keep evolving. They are always looking out for what is the new trend and how to survive in the sea of change and interest. They launched businesses that required much red tape and sometime weren’t feasible elsewhere.

While the Bay Islands has seen influxes of populations in its history it has also seen massive expulsions. There were two expulsions of Paya Indians by the Spanish. The first one in 1642 and the final one in 1650. The expulsion of Spanish military by the British in 1779. Finally, the dumping of the rebellious and inconvenient Garifuna by the British in 1797.

The history of the island is filled with government schemes, religious colonization, wars, raids and flights to safety. Some people have come to the island with great plans and disappeared with little trace. Others came without many ambitions and left a path that has paved a way for others. This is the Roatan history for the uninitiated in a nutshell.

PAYA INDIANS
AD 600 – 1650

According to Spanish records the original Paya called Roatan island Manaua. While there has been certainly accounts of Payas interacting and fighting with Lenca and Maya, that history is unwritten and forgotten. We can only guess, deduct and assume that these events took place glancing at the scattered relics left behind by the Paya through the Bay Islands, and there are quite a few.

According to José Carlos Cardona, a Honduran historian, the Bay Islands became populated by Paya Indians around 600 AD. Around 50 archeological sites have been located in the Bay Islands. What remains of the Paya today are just buried objects of daily life.

There are refuse heaps full of broken pottery shards, yaba-ding-dings, fish bones and stone tools. There are also less common Paya sites – offertories located on hilltops, and a burial site overlooking French Harbour. There is a major Paya residential site on Pulpit Rock on the east side of the Roatan.
The Bay Islands Paya traded with the Mayas who paddled to the islands in large canoes from what now is Belize. Europeans had the first interaction with a New World civilization, that of Mayas, just off the coast of Guanaja in 1504.

Very robust people who adore idols and live mostly from a certain white grain.

The description of the original Bay Islanders came very early in the history of European discovery of the Americas. “Very robust people who adore idols and live mostly from a certain white grain from which they make fine bread and the most perfect beer,” wrote Bartholomew Columbus, about the Paya. Thus he described inhabitants on “Pine Island” or Guanaja island, were not much different than Roatan inhabitants, in 1504.

FRENCH, ENGLISH AND DUTCH PIRATES
1536 – 1741

From 1536 on wards the Protestant French pirates were already raiding Spanish settlements and ships in Western Caribbean. The Bay Islands were located near the sailing route of the Spanish Caribbean fleet carrying valuable goods from Panama and from Santo Domingo. As an additional benefit both Roatan’s Port Royal Bay and Fort Cay offered a good place to careen the pirate boats and restack them with water and provisions.

Roatan offered both shelter and provisions to the pirates and by 1642, the inconvenience to the Spanish became unbearable. The Spanish had to deal with such notorious pirates as Van Horn, Morgan and Tutila.

While the Pirate settlements on Roatan’s Port Royal were ephemeral and non-lasting, they left a legacy of their presence that lingers on today.

One pirate adventure that became a book was written by Philip Ashton. He was a Massachusetts fisherman, Ashton escaped from capture by the pirate Edward Low when he went looking for water in Port Royal. After spending 16 months on then deserted Roatan in 1723 he was rescued and ended up publishing a book about his island adventures.

PROVIDENCE PURITAN SETTLERS
1638 – 1642

After centuries of pillaging and atrocious pirates Roatan had its encounter with a stricter group of people – the Puritanical colonists. In Old Port Royal a settlement of Puritans from Providence Company broke ground in 1638.

Entrepreneur William Claiborne brought Scottish and English settlers form Maryland and Virginia to Roatan and renamed its Rich Island in a marketing effort. The goal of the settlers was “to subvert Spanish tyranny and plant the Gospel” and the settlers planted vegetables and traded with Paya Indians nearby.

The settler relationship with Paya didn’t go off with a good start. In 1639 the Dutch pirates burned the four Paya island towns on the Bay Islands, churches first. The Puritan settlement lasted four years and the settlers were pushed out by the Spanish.

The Paya however were caught between a rock and a hard place. They had to relate to the Spanish who had few resources to defend the islands or develop its economy. On top of that the Paya had to deal with Dutch, French and English pirates who exploited them during their careening sojourns. By 1650 all the Bay Islands Paya were shipped out by the Spanish to Río Dulce in Guatemala rendering the islands desolate.

To subvert Spanish tyranny and plant the Gospel.

BRITISH MILITARY SETTLEMENT
1742 – 1749

In early 1700s, the British authorities in the Caribbean identified Roatan to have the best harbor in the Bay of Honduras and good potential for agriculture. The geopolitical interest of the British crown in the islands was the extension of the war of Jenkins’ Ear. Their presence in the Bay Islands checked the expansion of Spanish logging undertakings in the Miskito coast.

The British sent a mixture of British military, loggers, slaves and Miskito settlers to form a settlement on Roatan. Their settlement at New Port Royal was named Augusta and eventually consisted of around 30 buildings spread across 30 acres. The population of the settlement reached as many as 800 to 1,000 people.

More towns were planned in the Bay Islands and even in the Hog Islands. The seven-year adventure ended with a political check mate when the Britain and Spain signed an agreement that also included relinquishing of Roatan. Treaty of Aix-La-Chapelle of 1748 forced the Brits to abandon Roatan. Only stone foundations of the buildings and wine bottle glass can be found today as testimony to this enterprise.

THE ABANDONED ISLAND
1650 – 1742
1749 – 1797

While the British left, the Spanish failed to move in or even resettle the Bay Islands. Thus the saga of governments treating Roatan with carelessness and semi competence added another chapter.

Englishman Thomas Jeffrerys (1762) described the Spanish inability to settle or develop the islands in a following fashion: “the Spaniards issued several placards, inviting people to come and settle on the island, yet it is uninhabited; and the reason given by the Spaniard of great sense and very large property on the continent… (…) That they would never expect any assistance or protection from the unwieldy government.”

While the British left, the Spanish failed to move in or even resettle the Bay Islands.

UNWANTED GARIFUNA – THE BLACK CARIBS
1797 – Present

The odyssey of Garifuna begun in Saint Vincent where a slave ship from We st Africa run onto a reef and the crew released the slaves who swam to shore and freedom. The Africans received help and soon made alliance with Carib Indians living on Saint Vincent and married their women.

In 1797, British decided to dispose of the Garifuna that were considered troublemakers and on top of that were baptized Catholic by French priests active on the island. Garifuna were not a slave material for the British who waged two wars against them on the island of Saint Vincent.

Eventually a peace treaty was signed between the British and the Black Caribs. More than 5,000 Garifuna were deported from Saint Vincent, but only 2,500 survived the crossing to Roatan.

The island wasn’t considered big enough or fertile enough to support such a large population so most of the Garifuna asked the Spanish to be transferred to the mainland. The commonality between the Garifuna and Spanish wasn’t common race, or language, but the fact that the two were Catholic and their enemy were the British. While most of the Garifuna were given passage to Trujillo a few stayed behind and established a community of Punta Gorda.

INFLUX OF CAYMAN ISLANDERS SETTLERS
1830 – 1859

When the British Government ended slavery in Cayman Islands on August 1, 1834 the White employers could hold their ex-slaves in a four year apprentice ship preventing them from leaving the islands.

Bay Islands and especially Roatan became an option to start anew in a post slavery economy for both White and later Black Cayman Islanders. The Cooper family was the first one to settle in Bay Islands and they chose Suc-suc cay off Utila. Later Coxen Hole attracted many of the families. The first twenty-four White Cayman Island families came to Bay Islands and had the pick at the best land.

The White Caymanians not only came to Bay Islands seeking new opportunities, but also fled the potential upheaval after the abolition of slavery and potential revenge of their ex slaves. They had fresh on their minds the 1804 complete and systematic genocide of White French colonists in Haiti after France emancipated their slaves in 1794.

Just a couple years later the Black Caymanians followed their former masters to the Bay Islands. They usually settled in less desirable, less accessible areas like Flowers Bay, Sandy Bay and the Roatan’s north shore.

Roatan island was divided on racial lines and on religious lines. The White arrived first and claimed the better, more accessible land. Their ex-slaves that fallowed were able to get second best land. The Garifuna who were Catholic preceded the Protestant arrival were pretty much ignored by the British Crown on the east side of Roatan.

Land disputes began to take place and in 1844 and a general meeting took place to resolve those disagreements. The emigration culminated in creation of the Bay Islands colony that lasted for seven years: from 1852 to 1859.

ENTREPRENEURS AND ECCENTRICS
1960 – 2010

As Roatan became a Department in Honduras the Bay Islands attracted an intermittent trickle of eccentrics, vagabonds and entrepreneurs off all sorts. As fishing, seafood packing and eventually tourist industries grew on Roatan in the 1960s, a steady flow of foreigners found their way to the island. Some bought land, others started dive shops, or built their retirement homes.

By the early XXI century the island became an amalgam of eclectic, cosmopolitan mix of Honduran, American, Canadian, British, German and Czech business owners. There were Americans with money, the awkward but hardworking Germans and the melancholic Brits. There were both men and women looking for adventure, second chances and recovering from addictions and starting anew.

In early 1990s several US and Canadian developers came to Roatan via Ambergris Cay in Belize. While they were no longer welcome in Belize they saw opportunities on Roatan. The island still had cheap land, a beautiful reef and an international airport. They created the first gated communities on the island: Parrot Tree Plantation and Lawson Rock. Others bought tracks of land that were still affordable and resold it. The number of Real Estate companies in 2003 went from three to 13 in 10 years.

While they were no longer welcome in Belize they saw opportunities on Roatan.

MAINLAND MIGRANTS
1980 – present

With tourism, seafood packing and construction industries needing skilled and unskilled cheap labor many mainland Hondurans made their way to Roatan. Land remained scarce and several land invasions like Los Fuertes in 1980s and Las Colonias in Sandy Bay in 1990s became their home. The shortage of affordable land or inexpensive housing is still producing new land invasion in Colonia Aldin, Spanish Town and Oak Ridge.

While Roatan has attracted Hondurans from all over the country they also attracted numerous arrivals from the Miskitos from Gracias a Dios department. Also numerous were migrants from Olanchito, Yoro. There were there are many from Balfate and professionals from Tegucigalpa, and San Pedro Sula.

The mainland migrants provide skills, cheap labor and vitality the island needs. The mainland migration was so great that by around 2010 there were more mainland born island residents than native born islanders. The mainland culture overwhelmed the traditional island culture. Baseball gave way to soccer, maypole dancing gave way to Spanish folkloric dances. The Methodist and Baptist Church buildings became outnumbered by Evangelical and Catholic prayer halls and churches.

Mainland migrants provide skills, cheap labor and vitality the island needs.

BABY BOOMER AMERICANS
2010 – present

The baby boomer retirees from US and Canada have been building their dream homes on Roatan in large numbers since the mid-2010s. Oftentimes they worked their entire life to afford to finally retire so he could build a dream house on Roatan.

They move considerable resources here and build houses an average Honduran, or islander could never afford. Their physical and economic impact on the island is considerable. They also bring skills and sometime a will to contribute some of their know how, or ideals to the island.

Since 2018 the infrastructure of Roatan has improved tremendously making the option of living on the island more appealing to much larger portion of retired Americans not willing to give up their creature comforts. The roads, healthcare, power grid and the internet reliability improved dramatically. The private security companies also multiplied in number.

While Honduran have been immigrating to US by the hundreds of thousands, there is a reverse trend as well and Roatan has become an example of just that. American digital nomads are increasingly embracing Roatan as a place to work remotely. They are employed by US businesses while doing their work remotely from Honduras. Some even work remotely without telling their US companies that they are now living in another country.

Roatan fire fighters practice high point ladder rescue from a multi store building.

Roatan Bomberos Improve their Skills

Brent Fulmek and Phillip Tufford from Grande Praire Fire Deparment were teaching the Roatanians high point ladder rescue techniques. “Even when we train them we learn from them. They are very skilled,” said Kris Robins, a Roatan resident who coordinated the training, about the Roatan firefighters. Eight years ago Robins and Joe Petterkind began bringing in firefighters from the Grande Praire, Alberta fire department to teach Roatan firefighters.

This cooperation saved many lives on the island. “We’ve learned to extract people from vehicles,” said sergeant Edil Lanza, a 12-year veteran of the Roatan firefighters. Roatan firefighters saved more lives by properly and safely extracting people from crushed vehicles than in any other way. “We often use one ‘jaws of life,’ and it’s in great shape,” said Lanza.

Roatan offers plenty of other challenges to firefighters. According to Lanza some of the more complicated fires of the last two years were at the dump. “It took us a week to get the first out, and there were four more after that,” said Lanza.

Roatan Municipality has 22 firefighters with 19 on Municipal salaries and the other three paid by the central government. There is an additional station and nine more firefighters in Santo Guardiola.

Roatan firefighters will soon have an additional valuable piece of equipment. According to Tufford a pump truck will soon be on its way from Alberta to Roatan, paid for Grande Praire Roatary Club. “The truck has been refurbished and is in great shape,” said Tufford.

The fifth annual Concert for the Angels at Lawson Rock was the place to listen to great music, run into friends and donate to local charities: Clinica Esperanza & SOL International Foundation. Feeling like angels: Cara Lenz, Fiona Barnett, Helen Murphy, Wyonna Mckay and Lesly Yolany Maldonado.

Ladies In Paya

The February Roatan Ladies Luncheon took place on the east end of the island at the Paya Bay Resort. The get together takes place every Tuesday of the month and this one was organized by Michelle Router on February 6. “We socialized and chatted about ups & downs, struggles and enjoyment of life here on the Island,” wrote Majelle Thompson, reflecting on the meeting. After lunch: Patricia Bathgate, Martina Stanclova, Majelle Thompson, Rosmarie Dalton.

Firemen At Parrot Tree

Parrot Tree Plantation was the perfect place to hone rescue skills for the Roatan firefighters and their brethren from Grande Prairie Fire Department in Canada. As the hotel temporarily shut its doors, the unfinished, three story seaside condominium served just the purpose. After the training: Alexis Cruz, Mario Melendez, Emerson Diaz, Mairon Castro, Jonny Mejia, Daniel Castillo, Edil Lanza, Angel Collin, Elber Martinez, Celio Nuñez, Cesar Martinez, Jairo Flores, Brent Fulmek, Jose Paz, Rocky Dixon, Kevin Cooper, Jorge Velasquez, Phillip Tufford, Osly Nolasco.