Where I Roam

Roatan, Bay Islands, Honduras

So I was a lucky somebody:  I got to take my family away for the Christmas holidays.  There isn’t much to tell you, except my family had an amazing time staying in this tropical paradise, and I got a chance to talk to some local people for this blog.

Envious yet?

White sands; warm water…wait..warm clear blue water; snorkeling; dolphins; lush canopies for ziplining; warm nights for night-time sea bathing and exotic drinks.

Not ready to come yet?  How about live Caribbean music; not too many tourists (though they are starting to come); and reasonably priced food?

Ah heck, if you’re not already booking a trip it is only because the Caribbean does not appeal to you.  Well, since I’m lucky enough to live in La Ceiba, it gives me access to the Bay Islands which are approximately an hour’s ferry ride away.

The Bay Islands is an island chain made up of three prominent islands; five other smaller islands; and several little cays, some of which are inhabited.  Roatan is by far the largest, with a population of roughly 100,000 people. The other two important islands are Utila and Guanaja: to be covered in other blog posts.  All three islands share a similar history, which set them apart from the Spanish dominated mainland.  On the islands they speak English, albeit with a heavy accent that sometimes cannot readily be understood.

THIS IS A BAREBONES HISTORY LESSON, and if you are really interested and motivated to learn more about the islands, I shall provide a few links at the end of this article.

Although Las Islas de la Bahia (The Bay Islands) now pertain to Honduras, at one point in their political history they were a colony of the British crown (1850.) It is as reported, that Christopher Columbus discovered these islands on his 4th (and last) voyage to the New World (1502.)  Due to the islanders (predominantly Pech Indians)  labeled as hostile cannibals, they were captured and sold off to other islands as a part of the Indian slave trade.  Repeated attacks occurred especially by Cuban Spaniards, but still the islands remained under Spanish rule until the mid 1600’s when various European (Dutch, English and French,) began raids on the Spanish shipping settlements in the Bay Islands.

There were many skirmishes that allowed the Bay Islands to change hands from Spanish to English to Spanish over time.  Notably,  in 1650 the Spanish were successful in fighting off a group of English buccaneers, who had settled in Port Royal, Roatan (an official English colony since 1638,) to take full control of the islands.

It was then in 1742, that Port Royal was once against occupied by the British, but this was short-lived, and in 1782 the Spanish attacked the English. ( I promise my history lesson will be very brief, so bear with me.) The Spanish were successful, and eventually the British surrendered.  Six years later in 1788, the British surrendered all of its settlements in the Bay Islands and along the coasts of the mainland.  But dear reader do not think that the British involvement ended there. The British repatriated by force, roughly 5,000 black Caribs (black and Arawak indians) to the islands from St. Vincent (1797), and though the islands remained undisturbed by the British for some time, it was not until 1821 when the Central American provinces received their independence (ah hem, from Spain), thereby making them part of the Republic of Central America, that the British once again descended on the previously owned colony.

Now during 1844, the Republic of Central American had been dissolved, and the Republic of Honduras as a fledgling state was unable to defend the Bay Island territory, so that, in 1850 when the British marched into the islands and declared them under the sovereignty of Britain very little could have been done.  It was not until after two years of occupation, the British officially declared the Bay Islands as a colony of the British crown.

In taking possession of the islands, the British were going against an international treaty called the Clayton Bulwer treaty,  which in essence stated that neither Britain nor the United States could occupy; fortify or colonise any part of Central America.  The British didn’t back down immediately, but Honduras recognised her advantage (with both Britain and the United States at loggerheads), and demanded surrender of the islands.

After 5 years of occupation in 1859 England surrendered the islands to Honduras.  To this day, many of the citizens of the Bay Islands do not consider themselves Honduran, or at most see themselves as unique and distinct from mainlanders.  It is my hope that in my blog you will get to understand some of the reasons for this, and perhaps applaud them (or not), as they seek cultural cessation.

PHEW, are you still with me?  As a wannabe cultural anthropologist, I got a chance to visit some of the distinct neighbourhoods on my trip to Roatan.  I promise you, that as whimsy hits me, I will highlight some of the things I saw there.  For now, I’ll leave you with some pictures of anywhere paradise…more to follow soon.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this read.

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