The Resort That Wasn’t, but Soon Could Be

One of the older examples of projects that showed great promise, was created by a well known and well-funded individual, that went nowhere, is “Big Bight Resort and Villas.” The 78 acre site, located right at the Roatan and José Santos Guardiola border has a two acre marina and about 1000 feet of beachfront.

In 1996 Ricardo Maduro, a future Honduran president, and a couple of his friends got involved in this project that was on a similar scale as Parrot Tree Plantation, that project was just breaking ground a couple kilometers south. From 1990 to 1994, Maduro was the president of Central Bank of Honduras. From his mothers side, Maduro comes from a banking family that founded Banco de Honduras, the entity that emitted Lempiras before the creation of Central Bank.

In many respects the Big Bight project was a first of its kind on Roatan. It was first to have an asphalt tennis court, and a first to have a marina on the north side of the island. The project even had its own first artificial beach named – Tahiti Beach. There was a model home built and J. Edwards Real Estate was named the broker for the development.
Lot prices were affordable and ranged in size from one-quarter acre to two acre lots. They were marketed at $35,000 and came with running water, underground electric and telephone cable connection. “It [the project] just kind of pooped out,” remembers Erick Anderson, American businessman who has been living in José Santos Guardiola since late 1960s. “The manager of the project spend more time at the Yacht Club bar than at the project.” A restaurant and club building that was open to visitors.

Big Bight project was a first of its kind.

Anderson says that the project had some fundamental flaws. “The lots were ill conceived. They never followed the contours of the land. That is not going to work,” said Anderson who was looking at the development taking shape in the late 90s. Still, that did not prevent buyers, and 11 lots were indeed sold.

The success or failure of Big Bight project depended on lot placement, prices and management. The late 1990s was a difficult time for the Maduro family. Ricardo Maduro’s son, Ricardo Ernesto was kidnapped and killed by Honduran gangs in April 1997. It was the murder of his son that inspired Maduro to run for presidential office despite the existing ban on candidates not born on Honduran soil.

While Maduro did become president of Honduras in 2002 his interest in the Big Bight project waned. Eventually the lender in the project Banco Financiera Comercial Hondureña, S.A. [FICOHSA] got the property back.

For a few years there were watchmen looking after the restaurant building and wooden, two story tall model home. In the early 2000s both the harbor restaurant and the one house were still standing. After a few years all the wood was carried away by the locals to construct homes in the nearby areas.

Some people used to play tennis at the tennis court on the site. Others would come to look around. “As a boy I would come here to hunt iguanas before [Hurricane] Mitch,” says Rigoberto Matute, an island resident who still visits the site. “It was all very beautiful.”

Today a family lives right next to the huge concrete gate leading from the island’s main road to the resort. Three cars are parked abandoned at the entrance of the resort. All underground cable has been stolen, but a network of concrete roads does still exist. The gate to the resort is particularly impressive; it is still the largest entry gate on Roatan.

11 lots were indeed sold.

The unfinished project does attract attention from time to time. In late 2010s, a prominent Guatemalan family was interested in purchasing the development and even prepared a master plan for the project. The idea was to sell lots and build a hotel and a marina. That did not take place and again FICOHSA took control of the site. Still, there might be a future in cards for this large, forgotten property as real estate agent, Henrik Jensen, took interest in it.

A Coffee Table book Presents Fashionable and Complex Perspective on the Bay Islands

Some of the book contributors are less known, others are very well known. The forward for the book was written by Ricardo Maduro, former Honduran president. The vibrant, colorful and engaging photographs were taken by some of Roatan’s best photographers: Ronald Pozzi, Shawn Jackson, Tim Blanton and Chris Bergler.

The book is divided into three chapters. The first chapter “Roatan Today” is the most ample with photos and is a capsule of Roatan from 2010s. The book’s pages are filled with rich and marvelous photographs, providing a look at Roatan and the Bay Islands through the eyes of great photographers.

Roatan is full of models and stunning landscapes. The book’s pages are interspersed with nuggets of introspection, and knowledge from entrepreneurs, islanders, educators, and artists. There are fascinating underwater photographs and exquisite landscape photos. There are portraits of islanders and fashion models with Roatan being their runway.

Chapter two “Introduction” is a historical analysis of the Bay Islands. “Roatan and the History of the Bay Islands” documents the history of the Bay Islands dating back to 600 AD and Paya settlements on the archipelago. The book presents photos of Paya yaba-ding-dings, beautifully crafted Paya vases, vessels and stele.

Roatan is in stride to keep the memory of the Bay Islands on our minds.

The island history is presented in words, through reprints of original documents, etchings and maps. There is the striking etchings from Columbus’ fourth voyage to the Americas, and the story of William Claiborne who funded a colony on Roatan in the 1630s.

The third chapter “Old Maps of the Bay Islands” presents a complete overview of Bay Islands in European maps. These are the virtually unknown 1506 maps by Alejandro Zorzi.

The maps generously displayed in the book are a delight to study. The Spanish, Dutch, French and English explorers portrayed the mysterious Bay Islands on the edges of the western Caribbean with expertise, imagination and increasing accuracy over centuries.

In the book’s 294 pages, the authors created a time capsule of Roatan that will serve as a reference point for generations to come. Sometimes it takes a visitor, or a transplant to tell us how rich a culture truly is.

People who don’t appreciate their history are bound to lose it. With books like that being published, Roatan is in stride to keep the memory of Bay Islands on our minds. The book is not only a venture into the island’s colorful, vibrant and diverse presence, but also offers a critical analysis of centuries of human presence in the archipelago.

“Roatan and the History of the Bay Islands” is available for purchase at the Buccaneer in French Harbour.