Bay Islands - Culture

Coral island off the south coast Guanaja, Clark Cay offers unparalleled swimming and among the best permit and bone fishing in the western Caribbean. The shallows surrounding Clark Cay recently appeared on ESPN's Fly Fishing the World, with former US Open golf champion Johnny Miller featured as guest. Other sports available locally include deep sea fishing, scuba diving and instruction, and there are treks to waterfalls and Carib burial grounds on the main island. The Bay Islands are located about 56km off of the north coast of Honduras. The Bay Islands constitute the northern most and sole insular department of the country of Honduras. Of the eight islands and over 60 cays comprising the archipelago, Roatan is by far the largest and most populated.

Honduras is a poor country, only Haiti is poorer in the Western Hemisphere, with a corrupt and ineffectual government. Environmental issues are not high on the national government’s agenda. A system of national parks is a relatively new addition to the Honduran landscape. All economic activity in the Islands depends upon the reef and the sea for its survival. Fish is a principal source of protein for Bay Islanders and lobstering and shrimping are the traditional and dominant form of employment for Islander men. Tourism, based upon SCUBA diving, is the most recent boom. In 1990 the Bay Islands Conservation Association / Asociacion Para La Conservacion Ecologica de Las Islas de La Bahia was founded over concerns about the Islands' fragile natural resources. The Association's long term mission is to create an environment which will provide economic opportunities for Bay Islanders and at the same time maintain the unique flora and fauna of the Bay Islands. BICA implements a variety of programs and engages in a number of activities in order to make progress toward its long-term mission.

The Bay Islands offer a unique experience, and the most interesting facet is that each of the three islands is so very different from the others. Don't even think that if you've been to one you've seen it all, nothing could be further from the truth. Take your time to visit and discover each of these jewels that are reputed to by one of the last true paradise islands in the western Caribbean

Roatan
Of the three islands, the largest, which has the most infrastructure and is more developed for tourism is Roatan. Roatan is a long island, measuring almost 40 miles in length and with a total land mass of 49 Square miles. The island has a mountainous backbone and is totally surrounded by coral reefs, offering superb diving as well as excellent fishing.

Utila
The smallest of the Islands is also the flattest and closest to the mainland, and is famous world wide as one of the most inexpensive places in the world to get certified as a diver.

Guanaja
The tallest of the islands has become the most elite oriented, with many of the better hotels on the Islands located here. Guanaja is a unique island, as it does not have any roads, and the largest community, known as Bonaca is not even on the island itself, but on a small cay a short distance from Guanaja. Guanaja has a paved runway as an airport, and is forested with the unique Caribbean pine that distinguishes it very much from its sister islands.