Competition of Bringing in Maritime Passengers to Roatan is Heating Up

The daily maritime transport of several hundred passengers, sometimes as many as two to three thousand, between Roatan and the mainland is a multimillion-dollar business. Paya Magazine estimates that the annual gross revenue from moving such passengers is well over $10 million. The customer base for the island-to-mainland ferry market is plentiful as Roatan has well over 100,000 residents, Utila around 7,000, Guanaja about 14,000, and there are typically an additional 4,000 visitors staying in the archipelago at any given time.

On October 3, 2023, Dream Ferries inaugurated its Roatan to La Ceiba passenger ferry service. “The island has grown 10x [times] over the last ten years, but the ferry service hasn’t really improved,” said Kenny McNab, founder and CEO of Dream Ferries. A young, driven Roatan entrepreneur, McNab also owns several key island businesses, including a chain of BIP (Bay Island Petroleum) petrol stations, BIP Gas distributors and Dream Ferries.

The Roatan Dream catamaran that services the Roatan to La Ceiba route is the company’s newer, larger vessel. Measuring 140 feet and weighing 186 tons, it can seat 300 passengers and has a total capacity of 520. “We see the need for better connectivity between the islands,” says Kenny McNab. “Our next goal is to connect the islands.”

Until October, Galaxy Wave practically monopolized maritime passenger transportation to and from Roatan for three decades. The only brief period of competition took place 1998-1999, when a boat named The Nautica, owned by Ervin Dixon, competed with Galaxy on the Roatan to La Ceiba route.

Galaxy launched in May 1994 when their boat Tropical undertook its initial voyage between Roatan and La Ceiba. The captain of the boat was the company’s founder, John McNab, Kenny McNab’s older cousin. Today Galaxy is run by John McNab’s two children, Jennifer and Ron. Jennifer McNab serves as the company’s general manager. Ron McNab, who is also the current mayor of Roatan Municipality, serves as the operations manager.

Customer base for the island-to-mainland ferry market is plentiful.

Galaxy has been playing things very close to the chest when it comes to their next moves. Based in Dixon Cove, the company operates two catamarans that run twice daily to La Ceiba and on weekly schedule to Guanaja: the 2006-built 160-foot Galaxy Wave, with a passenger capacity of 450, and the 150-foot Tropical Wave, capable of seating 350. It seems a logical next step for Galaxy to introduce a bigger, faster, and more efficient boat for their Roatan to La Ceiba route. “Safeway has been serving our community and clients for 30 years, innovating and evolving right along,” said Jennifer McNab. “We plan to continue to do so while providing the best service we know how.”

In mid December 2023, Galaxy made a strategic shift, evolving from a maritime passenger company to encompassing both maritime and air travel. Galaxy acquired a substantial stake in CM [Cielo Maya] Airlines, an airline that boasts a fleet of six airplanes. CM Airlines serves eight destinations within Honduras and, in partnership with TAG [Transportes Aéreos Guatemaltecos], offers international flights to Guatemala, El Salvador, and Belize.

CM Airlines, with a hub in San Pedro Sula, now considers Roatan as its secondary hub. Following this acquisition, Dream Ferries faces competition not only from Galaxy Ferries but also CM Airlines for its Roatan, La Ceiba, and Utila routes.

The Galaxy Roatan to La Ceiba ticket is priced at $35, or around Lps. 860, subject to dollar fluctuation. Dream Ferries offers a competitive edge by pricing their tickets for the same route at Lps. 800 per passenger, and Lps. 720 if purchased online. “We have to compete with the airlines. It has to be cheaper for you to take the ferry than to fly,” says Kenny McNab.

The increased competition has greatly benefited Roatan residents. The options for travel to the mainland have doubled, and now there’s even the option to transport two cars to and from Roatan on the larger Utila ferry. “We saw an opportunity to come in with newer, more efficient boats, and with a different schedule,” said Kenny McNab. “There are a lot more options [now] for locals and for tourists.”

The Dream Ferries features newer catamarans with more efficient designs. The Roatan Dream and the 104-foot, 295-passenger Utila Dream are powered by two propellers, in contrast to Galaxy’s catamarans, which are driven by four motor jets. “I have been all over the world and I have seen what they are doing and what we are not doing,” says Kenny McNab. “Step up your game or cease to exist. (…) It’s good for us and it’s good for clients.”

Roatan passengers have certainly taken notice. “It’s super clean, and there is great attention from the staff,” said Paola Dolmo from Coxen Hole, commenting on her first voyage with Dream Ferries. “They even bring umbrellas to you so you don’t get wet getting out.”

Kenny McNab has made strategic land purchases for the Dream Ferries terminal, located directly adjacent to Galaxy terminal in Dixon Cove. He plans to build a hotel for business travelers right next to the terminal. Dixon Cove is on track to becoming a central hub for passenger travel, cargo, and business accommodations in the Bay Islands. In the future, passengers might be able to walk just a few yards from a Dream Ferry to the Galaxy facility to the east.

The design of the Dream Ferries terminal stands out for its minimal use of walls or barriers, embodying a different concept of how a ferry terminal should look and feel. Similar to their setup in Utila, passengers on Roatan can now purchase a Dream Ferry ticket and proceed directly to the boat. Dream Ferries opts not to spend time scanning for weapons or drugs, resulting in cost savings for the company and time savings for passengers. “It’s an open concept design, access is more free. If you want to come up to the ferry and take a photo, you can,” said Omar Martínez, manager of operations at Dream Ferries.

Kenny McNab launched the Dream Ferries project in 2013 with his friend Richard Watler. “He saw the need for improved service from Utila to La Ceiba,” said Kenny McNab. Watler, a Utila native who had lived in New Orleans for most of his life, was also a golf buddy of Kenny’s. “It took us six months to design and 18 months to build,” said Kenny McNab. The inaugural service started on October 29, 2015, with the route from Roatan to Utila via the Utila Dream ferry beginning in early 2016. The company launched its ferry service with a brand new 104 foot Utila Dream, capable of accommodating as many as 240 passengers. “It was a struggle at first. I remember days we had one or two passengers,” Kenny McNab recalled. Watler sold his share to Kenny McNab about a year after the launch of the Utila Dream ferries. “The competition was heated when we started,” Kenny McNab remarked.

The company responsible for building the two Dream Ferries catamarans is also a partner in the business. Midship Marine, based in New Orleans, operates a yard specializing in the design and construction of lightweight aluminum watercraft up to 225 feet long. Midship Marine has a track record of notable projects, including the construction of the 118-foot Utila Aggressor II and a ferry servicing the route between Puerto Juaréz, Mexico, and the islands of Isla Mujeres and Cozumel.

There is plenty of room for growth for ferry services in the Bay Islands. “The long term mainland [goal] is car passenger [ferries],” said Kenny McNab. “Roatan has a lot better roads now than before. (…) We are already moving cars on Roatan Dream.” The Roatan Dream catamaran can carry two cars, charging Lps. 9,000 per car, with the driver traveling for free. It’s an attractive option for tourists coming with a luxury vehicle to Roatan. According to Martínez the ferry moves around three vehicles a week.

Kenny McNab is exploring using Puerto Cortés port as a base for reaching Roatan. “The car passenger ferry would have to operate out of Puerto Cortés,” he said. “It would be a five hour run, compared to an hour and a half.” While Puerto Cortés is an extra 47 miles farther from Roatan than La Ceiba, its port ties in to a brand-new road network in Honduras and offers much better port facilities.

He plans to build a hotel for business travelers right next to the terminal.

The Roatan to Puerto Cortés route would circumvent the congestion and delays of travelling to La Ceiba, and makes travel to Roatan more feasible for visitors from San Pedro Sula, Tegucigalpa, and even Guatemala. The La Ceiba port has faced challenges with inconsistent dredging of the port entrance, leading to issues with vessels scraping the bottom, needing to turn around, or even sinking. “If it wasn’t for that, we would have even bigger boats,” said Kenny McNab.

There are still additional passenger and car passenger ferry routes that could be developed. One such route is Roatan to La Mosquitia. With thousands of Misquito natives living on Roatan, a passenger service to the less accessible Gracias a Dios Department is in demand. Island Shipping, based in Brick Bay, is another player in maritime transport along Honduras’ north shore. It’s possible that this company could expand to passenger services on their already existing services between Roatan and Puerto Cortés, or even Puerto Lempira and Cauquira.

She married Hamilton James and they had a son together named Robert. Mrs. Clara is the mother of two other children, Candia and Liliana.

She was a very social person, and travelled to many places around Bay Islands and all over Honduras. She was a housekeeper and a cook in many places on the mainland –San Pedro, Tegucigalpa, and La Ceiba.– “I worked like a man,” says Mrs. Clara. “I worked hard.”

She used to farm vegetables late into her life. The numbness in her fingers prevented her from continuing to do so.

Since the mid 1980s Mrs. Clara has lived in the home of her daughter Candia, in a concrete, blue hose perched on a hill in Diamond Rock. Her home is just west of the Czech development in Diamond Rock looking at Roatan’s highest hill, Mount Picacho.

I worked hard.

Funeral Businesses on Roatan are Looking at a Bright Future

For a-century-and-a-half, Roatan’s caskets were made to order by local carpenters. Even today some people still choose to have a carpenter make their casket.

In 2023 there are three places to purchase your caskets on Roatan. The first one opened by Samuel Alexander Ebanks, 79 and his wife Patricia Elaine Bennett, 78, on the main street of Coxen Hole. Their forty-year-old business, Islander’s Funeral Home, is the oldest such one in the Bay Islands.

Mr. Samuel remembers a voice speaking to him: “When you stay home you got to sell caskets”

When he retired from his sea fearing career, Mr. Samuel remembers a voice speaking to him: “When you stay home you got to sell caskets.” It was 1983 and Roatan had no casket stores. When someone died a carpenter would have to make a simple casket right there and then. The island custom until them was that men would build the casket at night during the wake and bury the deceased the next day.

He had an employee making caskets, another man painting the caskets and then another man would fix the inside. If the family wished a viewing glass, it was installed on the top of the casket.

Eventually Mr. Sam began buying caskets in San Pedro, in Copán, in Tegucigalpa, in Olanchito and in La Ceiba. Islanders from Utila and even Guanaja would travel to their funeral home to purchase a casket for their deceased family member.

In 1980s and 1990s mahogany was still inexpensive and majority of caskets then were made on the island used this hardwood as the main material. “The first casket I made was a mahogany casket,” remembers Mr. Samuel.

Samuel remembers the best cabinet maker he ever had. Edmundo Ponce was from the coast, and he could make the finest casket even if all he had was scrap wood. He once made a Copa de France design casket using throw away pieces of wood. “The foot is round, and the head is round,” says Mr. Patrick. “DV Woods bought that casket for his daddy.”

Not every deceased is shaped the same and Mr. Patrick has to be ready to make caskets for smaller and bigger deceased. “Sometime I have to make a big casket.… I had to buy one inch plywood and had to make 36 inch wide casket. She was big,” remembering one such client Mr. Patrick says “It took 10 men to put her in that house.”

His caskets range from Lps. 25,000 to Lps. 35,000, but he has some economical models for Lps. 12,000. While on a typical month his funeral home would sell one, or two caskets, they sold 15 caskets in one month. “When the Covid 19 came to the island, it was the most we sell,” says Mr. Patrick. He has a network of casket makers.

In 2012 a second Roatan based funeral home opened its doors just 200 meters down the road from Islander’s Funeral Home. Divino Paraíso is one of 12 funeral homes opened in Honduras by Salvador Laro from La Ceiba. Laro opened his first store in 2009 and the Roatan operation in La Punta in Coxen Hole begun two years later.

The funeral home serves the entire spectrum of caskets, from Lps. 8,000 to Lps. 38,000. The Wood composite caskets are the most economical option, while the painted and varnished wood caskets at Lps. 38,000 are the ultimate luxury.

Osiris Zambrano and her husband Ronald Rojas have been managing Divino Paraíso for 11 years. They are the biggest vendor of caskets on Roatan and typically have about twenty caskets on hand.

According to Zambrano there was a spike of caskets purchases in 2020 when the funeral home was selling 15-20 caskets a month. Now they are back to pre 2020 levels with sales of two to three caskets a month.

Funeral traditions on the island are different then of those on the mainland.

One reason allowing the funeral home to grow is funebre, a contractual payment option where clients are contacted to begin paying off their caskets in monthly installments. “It is an option for the most humble families,” says Zambrano. These monthly payment vary from Lps. 300 up to Lps. 2,000 and the family has up to eight months to pay off the casket after the death of the client.

Mrs. Zambrano says that the island’s security companies are one of the Divino Paraíso’s best clients. “They pay up front in any of their employees dies,” says Zambrano.

The funeral home can move the body in a vehicle and have 25 chairs, casket stretcher, candelabras, altar that can be used during funeral services.

The funeral home also offers Embalming services. The Embalming is an option taken by all, but the most modest of their clients. The embalming costs Lps. 2,000 and Lps. 4,000. The service is more expensive if the person was overweight or if there was disfigurement at time of the death as with “people who died in motorcycle accidents,” for example.

The funeral traditions on the island are different then of those on the mainland. “I don’t think the islanders would want a funeral room like the store has in La Ceiba,” says Zambrano. “There are hundreds of people that show to funerals here, and there just wouldn’t be enough space.”

The funeral home works with importing of human remains to the island form abroad. The remains are typically flown in to San Pedro Sula and then transported by road to La Ceiba and to the island via Galaxy Ferry.

Cemetery burial is one of several options for the deceased on the island. Jardines del Recuerdo in San Pedro Sula offers cremation services in Honduras. According to Zambrano this option is typically taken by foreigners. Burial at sea, usually three miles out to sea, is sometimes an option taken by foreigners with few economic means.

Honduras and Roatan are Filling with US Cars Given a Second Chance at Life

Honduras imports several thousand automotive vehicles a year from auctions across the US. These used, damaged or salvaged vehicles are given a chance at a second life in Honduras and some of them end up on Roatan. The Honduran motor vehicle reconstruction industry is a growing sector of the Honduran economy and it has plenty of rooms to grow.

Over a hundred US vehicles brought to Honduras and fixed up are finding their way to Roatan every year. While some of these vehicles are badly damaged in accidents or floods, others just suffered minor damage before being shipped to Central America for a chance at second life.

Occasionally vehicles damaged in floods and hurricanes are written off by insurance companies and make their way to Honduras. Major disasters in US like hurricanes and floods are a source of vehicles for junker car markets all over Central America. According to CARFAX around 358,000 vehicles were damaged during Hurricane Ian and many of these vehicles are making their way to a Honduran car market.

Practically all vehicles are imported to Honduras via Puerto Cortés on cargo ships. Importing cars and fixing them up has become a boom industry in Puerto Cortés and San Pedro Sula, but intrepid dealers have been opening showrooms across the country.

Honduran motor vehicle reconstruction industry is a growing sector.

While you can purchase a US restored car pretty much anywhere in Honduras, the best place with the biggest selection and lowest prices is still San Pedro Sula. The city is the hub for purchasing these revived to life cars. From there the cars are shipped to use car lots all over the country.

While for over a decade one couldn’t import US cars older than seven years, now that number has increased to 10 years. Since three hurricanes have battered Honduras in the fall of 2021 the is no limit on the age of cars that are imported to Honduras. One such importer is Anthony Hamilton Webster, owner of Hamilton Car Rentals in West End. Webster says that the sweet spot at getting, moving, importing and fixing a damaged vehicle from US to Honduras is right at $7,000.

The most popular brand in Honduras is Toyota Hilux fallowed by Nissan Frontier. Since 2002 Honduras restricts import of vehicles to those seven years old or less. Passenger busses can be as old as thirteen years old and classic cars can be imported as well.

The cars are in their vast majority purchased at online auctions selling damaged or totaled vehicles. Bidders deposit ten percent of the maximum bid they expect to offer and work with a broker to secure a vehicle.

Then the vehicle is shipped to a US port with cargo links to Honduras. The vehicles clear US customs by presenting the original certificate of title. The imported passenger vehicles are charged a 3.4% tariff based upon the CIF calculation based on total cost of cost, insurance and freight, insurance. With trucks that number goes up to 10.2%.

Cito Rich from French Harbor has gotten into the American car import business in the last year as well. He’s Waldina’s Car Wash and car rental business next to Petro Sun in French Harbour and has been operating for five years.

Buyers are about evenly split between islanders and foreigners.

Rich looks over a COPART auction house in US, decides on a vehicle he like and relies on a business acquaintance in US to inspect the car and purchase additional pieces that would need replacing and installing in Honduras with cars that are easy to manage here.

Some cars are more desirable on Roatan than others. Rich focuses on importing the more desirable models like Toyota Corollas, Kia Sorrento and Ford Escapes. As the road system around Roatan improves the necessity for owning a high suspension SUV decrease. In 2022 the most popular car on the island is a sub-compact SUV. In 2022 the Ford Escape is currently a popular choice for importing to the island.

The auctioned cars are shipped from US to Puerto Cortés, Honduras. They clear customs at the port and then they end up in repair shops in San Pedro Sula before being shipped to Roatan. The prices of used cars on Roatan are more expensive and there are several lots on Roatan that sell cars imported and fixed up in San Pedro Sula.

Rich says his buyers are about evenly split between islanders and foreigners living on the island. Rich typically sells two to five cars a month but is looking at his business expanding.

There are things that you need to learn the hard way according to Rich. “You can’t just buy cars because of the looks,” says Rich remembering purchasing a 3 series BMW and a Mazda 6 that cost him much headache and expense. There were expensive to maintain and difficult to get parts for.

“Get your own information [about the vehicles],” says Rich. He checks vehicle VIN numbers to get a record if they were in any accidents. He now has mechanics and bodywork technicians working on site repairing vehicles he has. “I have control of when and how I have my vehicles.”

For the longest 20 kilometers run, nine people registered, all of them islanders. The top finisher comes in at 2 hours and 20 minutes. Sixteen locals participated in the 10 kilometer event. In the 5k run 70 people participated and in the 2k run 60 children signed up.

Logistics and organization of the running trails were organized and set up by the Cacique Trail Runners. Cacique organizes cross country races in four places around Honduras: in Tegucigalpa, San Pedro Sula, Choluteca, La Ceiba, and Roatan. Out of these the Tierra Extrema race in Tegucigalpa – Ojojona is the most extreme, and most difficult of the races organized in Honduras.

The running course took the runners into Marbella, Colonia Smith, Crawfish Rock and finished in Palmetto Bay housing community.

Giselle Brady and BICA were organizers of the event. The logistics of the race and the setup of the running course were done by the Cacique trail runners. Forty volunteers, most of them, Roatan High School and BICA volunteers, helped with the event. Cacique Trail Runners are considering Port Royal Park for the 2023 race venue.

Dark Secrets of Roatan’s Most Photographed Wreck

Marine Traffic records have her listed as a general cargo ship built in 1951 and currently missing. The 107 meters long and 14 meters wide vessel, was built in Germany and integrated into Zim Israel Lines, as part of German war reparations “for lost property taken from Jews persecuted by the Nazis and the cost of resettlement in Israel.”

According to the Ship’s List her name in service for Israel was Rimon, named after pomegranate wine in Israel. She moved cargo to and from the newly created state of Israel until the mid 1960s.

In 1965 she was sold and renamed Kastor then in 1970 renamed Nausika. In 1974 she was renamed Lady Salla and in 1977 the vessel was again sold to Honduras and renamed M Alexand. The ship’s Honduran name traces its origin to brown rat subspecies (M Rattus) common in the English warehouses in the city of Bristol. That rat is sometimes given a different species name of M Alexand.

During her brief service M Alexand was the key in the growth of Honduras’ cement export industry. She was based in Puerto Cortés and moved cement for Cementos Bijao, from San Pedro Sula, then sold cement though out the Caribbean: Belize, Cayman Islands and Mexico. Honduras was a major cement exporter in the region, and M Alexand was a key element in its international distribution chain.

In 1981 M Alexand headed to Ecuador to deliver 300,000 sacks of Honduran cement. The ship carried Honduran cement to Manta, Ecuador, but on its way there she ran into mechanical trouble. Luey McLaughlin, a Roatanian who was managing the ship, flew to Ecuador in March 1981 with spare parts for the ship.

M Alexand was key in the growth of Honduras’ cement export industry.

She had mechanical problems. M Alexand was anchored for several weeks in Cristobal and then she ran into mechanical problems near Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua. She finally limped in to Roatan. “We brought her here [Roatan] as a safe haven,” remembers McLaughlin, adding that the ship was scheduled to continue on her way to Tampa for repairs.

The ship ended up with broken pipes that wet the bottom layer of the cargo – around 2,000 sacks of cement became ballast. That cement was unloaded and used in the construction of the bulkhead in the French Harbour’s A&D Dry Dock. The A&D dry dock was named after Seth Arch and Lindsborg Dixon, the two owners of the dry dock.

“The cement company ended up in financial trouble because the Honduran government was supposed to be guaranteeing a 50-million-dollar expansion program,” said McLaughlin. “We had plans to fix her up nice because she had tremendous potential. We probably had enough cargo to buy a second ship.”

But the timing was awful. The Honduran government changed and Suazo Cordoba, the new president who took over power in 1982, wasn’t keen to helping Cementos Bijao out. President Cordoba was more focused on turning Honduras into “USS Honduras” – a base for US operations in Nicaragua. “President of Cementos ended up in jail because they tried to assassinate [president] Suazo Cordoba because of the same loan,” remembers McLaughlin. “He wouldn’t sign it.” M Alexand was the cause of an attempted Honduran coup.

In early 1980s construction business was booming and Cementos Bijao had many contracts lined up around the Caribbean. However, with M Alexand stranded on Roatan the company couldn’t make deliveries. “She [M Alexand] needed substantial work, but she didn’t have anything that was seaworthy threatening,” says McLaughlin, about the then 30-year-old cargo ship. “She was supposed to be in dry-docking for refurbishing and repairs in Tampa, Florida It was a source of income in case the loan went through.”

On Roatan things followed their own drama. As the threat of hurricane season loomed near, M Alexand was towed to Dixon Cove, then an uninhabited bay surrounded by mangroves. “She was beached and eventually she started bilging. Her rear end sits on the bottom. Where her stern is it’s at least 60-70 feet of water,” says McLaughlin. According to McLaughlin in the late 1980s US Navy Seals, offered to raise her as an exercise, but they never got the approval from Tegucigalpa.

“After that deal fell through, she just sat there all these years,” says McLaughlin. In 1980s and 90s people came at night to cut off metal pieces of the ship’s hull to sell them for scrap. Like the affair of the never built Trans Honduran railway and the missing Honduran army divisions in the 1969 Football War, M Alexand is another skeleton of Honduran history.

World’s Biggest Turtle Sculpture is Moved on top of a Four-Story West End Building

The metal-fiberglass turtle was first build on the ground then dismantled into 16 pieces and, on the back of a lorry, moved to a parking lot in the back of a house in Sandy Bay.The last five pieces: the flippers and the tail were placed on last. The turtle was bigger than the building itself and the extremities are to hang out far onto.

Victor Carbajal and his wife Julie Woods undertook the turtle dram project five years ago. With an assistance of a San Pedro based sculptor Fredin Gomez from the turtle went from an idea to a land-based metal and fiberglass sculpture, to a sculpture sitting on top of four-story building.

The man for the job was found by Mr. Victor on the side of the road in San Pedro Sula where he would made life size sculptures of horses and other animals.Sculptor Fredin Gomez has transformed the Carey Turtle into metal and fiberglass structure 30 times bugger then the live ones.

“For me he
is scientist.
A small man
with a big head”

The moving of the turtle pieces was a challenge. On July 4, 2019 a gusty, rare wind from south east has been blowing during the crane operation. Concerned neighbors were watching the gigantic pieces of turtle anatomy being lifted over their home onto the roof of a fourth story commercial building. “They couldn’t secure a permit from the government to get a helicopter here,” said.

The turtle moving crew would run at the unfinished stairs of the building, onto the rump to land the turtle part onto the roof. Victor personally tied knots around the turtle parts. As the wind would turn the traveling turtle limbs, he skillfully and safely managed to elevate it to the roof.

“For me he is scientist. A small man with a big head,” said about the moving of the turtle Alvaro Flores, a taxi driver from Sandy Bay. “The president will come here for the opening,” expressed his hope Flores.

Since late 2019 The symbol of environmental apocalypse the giant Carey turtle looks north with a somber gaze. “We wanted to bring in focus environmental use on the island,” said Julie Woods. With only support of its giant head and some painting the turtle is almost finished. The construction started in 2014 and the turtle should be completed in early 2020.

Annie Bodden Looks Back at Her Adventurous Life

Mrs. Annie was the oldest of 10 children. John Alons Bodden was her father, her grandmother was Hester Diamond Flynn and her Grandfather was Hester Diamondy Flynn. “We were all family: happy, jolly people,” remembers the 1930s Mrs. Annie. “The people were poor. The clothes you had to sew them yourselves. Everybody walked, or rode horses.”

The island education was basic, but solid and provided a great starting point to a person’s life. “I was told never to forget it: “there are five things to remember. To whom you speak. How you speak. When you speak. Where you speak. What you speak,” remembers her school days Mrs. Annie.

Her subjects were taught by a Belizean. “[Honduran] government didn’t want any English to be taught here,” remembers the 1930s Mrs. Annie. Until the sixth grade the education was all in Spanish and taught by mainland school teachers and there were a few Spanish workers who migrated to the island. Utila counted around 300 souls who spoke and thought in English.

“It almost blew the house down. We were scared to death.”

Mrs. Annie ended up meeting her husband when she was 21. A letter correspondence followed, and the relationship blossomed. “There was no kissing, no courting,” remembers Mrs. Annie. Finally, a marriage date was set for December 30, 1949.

Her husband was US Navy World War two veterans. He was a mechanic and moved to Honduras to work for the Standard Fruit Company as a head mechanic in their “Taller” – workshop. “He was the first Hand radio operator in Honduras,” Mrs. Annie remembers her husband.

Life was simple, and nature was a big part of it. Sometime the biggest part. “It almost blew the house down. We were scared to death,” Mrs. Annie remembers the 1955 hurricane. “The walls were cracking. But the good God has helped us.”

The couple had three children: two boys and a girl. They moved as Standard Fruit Company required her husband’s skills all over Honduras’ northern coast. Mrs. Annie spent seven years in Coyoles, another nine years in La Ceiba and 14 years in San Pedro Sula.

Today Mrs. Annie lives in a modest one-story home in Utila Town. A photo of her great-great grandmother: Merceta Ann Werner, who came to Utila from England via Belize, hangs on a wall less than a foot from a well. That well, part of the sitting room is vital to many homes around her. It’s PVC tubing supplies water to a dozen of nearby homes.

“I am a peaceful person raised in a Christian home,” says Mrs. Annie as she sits in her armchair gazing and smiling out onto a quiet Utila street.

Bukele is a37-year-old man who doesn’t like neck ties, tweets his presidential orders and is cleaning up his country. Crime is way down as he has implemented a no communications policy for prisons and forced the cell companies to block signal to the penitentiaries.He is now talking about self-sustaining prisons where the inmates would produce their own food.

These could be exciting times for our neighbor. He’s reinforcing the country’s military and police in an effort to eradicate gangs. To be honest I wasn’t sure what to expect of him given his family background and previous party.

This whole thing makes me very happy for El Salvadorians as compared where I live. I would love to see these measures implemented in Honduras. Bukele’s new Motto is “El dinero alcanza cuando nadie roba,” roughly translated: Money reaches when nobody steals. That is a motto we could use here in Honduras.

He has also fired all government employees who were related to the previous president and he vows to end nepotism wich is endemic in El Salvador.

The transparency with which he is governing is impressive; it’s all on tweets that can be followed by his fellow countrymen and to those observers around the globe. He is charismatic and I’m looking forward to seeing how far he will go.

Decentralize government, make it smaller and more efficient.

It’s difficult not to make comparisons with our country. Our system is also broken and corrupt and we need a new leader, and perhaps a millennial. It could be said that San Pedro Sula is the industrial capital of Honduras, but the islands live from fishing and tourism and Tegucigalpa just produces politicians.

We absolutely need to decentralize government, make it smaller and more efficient. I remember under a previous Honduran president each municipality was independent and most government offices were also decentralized. Nowadays you can’t go to the bathroom without permission from bureaucrats.

The new cabinet members in the Salvadoran government spend their time in the field. These officials are out in the towns that need help and work with the people there no matter whether they voted for President Bukele or not.

The government is not there to offend them, to give them a handout, but to empower them. It is there to build needed infrastructure, repair schools and supply Hospitals with medications. If they can do it; so can we.

Campaigning will soon start in our beautiful country, I really hope we can find a candidate worthy of this country, who will love and respect its people. I hope that candidate will battle corruption and impunity to their final breath.

 I’m tired of watching my fellow Hondurans risk their lives in migrant caravans fleeing the crime and corruption in our country. Let’s make our country a better place to live.

Roatan’s road traffic is worse than on the mainland and I have no idea where we are going to put all these vehicles in a couple of years. Maybe we just ship back the ones that are no longer road worthy. These rust buckets are not only dangerous but a time waster as just one car accident or breakdown can and does paralyze the entire section of the island where it occurs. In my humble opinion no vehicle that can’t do 45 mph should be allowed on the main highway.

I understand that people do need to get around, but not by endangering other citizens and themselves. The main road is not currently designed to accommodate slow moving scooters. Maybe a bike lane would be a good plan for future road work. Or perhaps we could follow Bermuda’s lead and institute restrictions on the size and number of vehicles allowed per household.

Currently we have quite a collection of vehicles travelling our roads: 18 wheelers, dump trucks, heavy equipment with no restrictions whatsoever. Essentially, if you can afford to ship it over here, you can drive it anywhere. The population is exploding out of control and, as a result, so are the number of vehicles. We need decent public transport and minimal regulations that ensure that vehicles are road worthy so that we no longer must-read news reports where buses slide down hills due to maintenance failures.

It’s unfortunate that my tax goes to San Pedro and not Roatan.

Nobody keeps track how many cars and motorcycles arrive daily on the freight boats from the mainland and how many more are imported directly from the US. I am also curious as to the how many pay the municipal tax locally. Let me pause here. Every year we pay registration on our vehicles. This payment includes an automatically collected municipal but, by way of example, my car that was purchased at a dealership in San Pedro Sula, so the tax goes to SPS municipality.

Now, my car is polluting the air in Roatan, using the roads here, oil changes and old tires stay here. It’s unfortunate that my tax goes to San Pedro and not Roatan municipality. When I questioned this, the previous mayor stated he would investigate it and the then DEI now SAR offices stated that Roatan municipality would have to petition the tax offices to collect the tax locally.

Years ago, I remember having to get a sticker from the local DMV offices to certify my vehicle was road worthy and my local taxes were paid. That program is long gone.

In order to get a driver’s license in Honduras there are plenty of hurdles to jump. You must present your identification card if Honduran and residency card if a foreigner. You have to pass a medical exam and eye test, present a blood type card, you must attend drivers education class at the training facility from 8:00am to 3:00 pm, pass the written and practical test, take a psychological test and finally, reserve an appointment with banco Atlántida where you will pay for the license depending on the type and duration.

After all that you can drive out with a brand-new driver’s license and no freaking clue how to drive. Stay safe out there and only drive defensively my friends.