Update 45

November 2009

Since there is no real beginning to this story I will begin with a second riot that took place on Roatan in the spring. The first riot last year kind of made since in that rising fuel costs had affected the lives of everyone. That altercation was solved by president Zelaya flying to Roatan, telling the rioters they were right and restricting the electrical companies ability to pass on costs to consumers.

Round two. Protesters concerned about Roatans new tourism board, Zolitur, gathered in Mt Pleasant to voice their opinion over islander registration cards. Basically Zolitur was deciding who qualified to be a real islander, and who did not. Not to far into this about 15 individuals started some very un-island activity that resulted in the burning of the Zolitur building and destruction of computers and files.

These 15 individuals were arrested and sent to the mainland, where they were immediately released by presidential appeal and the conspiracy theories began, but first….

An earthquake measuring 7.3 with an epicenter less than 30 miles from Roatan woke us up Thursday, May 28, 2009 at 02:24:45 AM Possibly because we were so close to the epicenter, or possibly because it happened 10 kilometers underwater there was startling little damage here. People we knew were thrown out of bed, and we lost a lot of glass things off shelves but structurally nada. The trauma to the dog however remained for weeks and she nearly turned inside out every time a little aftershock came through.

By summer the effects of the world recession started to effect the island. My favorite restaurant Mavis & Dixies closed down. Several others are also gone due to rent increases combined with reduced traffic. Dian’s Garden of Eat’n is also closed but due entirely to sciatica. Then Eldon’s new grocery store opened up with lots of American products, followed by a new mainland chain grocery store and a Wendy’s all in the new mall in French Harbor.

The way the story is reported here in Honduras, Mel Zelaya was trying to push ahead a referendum. The details of which change depending on what side you are on. The courts challenged the legality of the referendum, found it to be unconstitutional and advised Mel to desist. Mel ordered the ballots from Venezuela and ordered the army to distribute them. The army refused and in keeping with the court ruling, took the ballots into safekeeping. Mel fired Army General Romeo Vasquez and rounded up a mob to break into the army base to retrieve his ballots.

The subsequent court ruling reinstated Vasquez, and ruled that Mel Zelaya had acted with seditious intent unbecoming a President, which automatically terminated his office. The army acting under direction of the Supreme court with unanimous backing from congress arrested Mel Zelaya on June 28th, and in the interest of public security escorted him out of the country.

All should have gone well after that. Mel Zelaya however was not done yet. Jetting around the world in a borrowed Venezuelan jet, Mel quickly depicted himself a victim of a military coup, forced to flee in his pajamas at gunpoint. Inexplicably to Hondurans, the world bought it hook line and sinker and world condemnation was swift.

On September 21st Mel Zelaya mysteriously reappeared at the Brazilian Embassy seeking asylum. One can only assume that his plan was to quickly rally his supporters, fly some influential friends in from the OAS and with the army throwing down their weapons in his exalted presence, march proudly to regain his presidency. Unfortunately for him, only a few hundred supporters showed up. Michelletti was able to surround them immediately and closed the airport to cut off international support.

Two weeks later there was talk of talks. But those two weeks of refuge in the Brazilian embassy had taken their toll on Mel and his Credibility. Wild claims of Israeli mercenaries using toxic gasses and radiation on the Embassy circulated. Then came the calls of “Restitution or Death” and “Take what is yours from the imperials”

Mel Zelaya's adopted a strategy of sending out messages to his remaining supporters, 180 degrees different from what he tells the international press. This is a policy that has worked in the past with local politics, but backfires when people are actually paying attention.

In late October Thomas Shannon flew in to “facilitate” talks. Taking elements of the San Jose Accord, Shannon strong armed through an agreement that both Michelletti and Zelaya agreed to. In signing the accord both sides agreed to recognize upcoming elections, abstain from even discussing constitutional change, give up any right to amnesty and leave the question of Mel’s restitution in the hands of congress.

Congress was not about to be pushed into anything and passed the accord on to the Legislative Branch for a ruling. As expected, Mel cried foul, telling his supporters he was tricked into signing the “Gringo” accord. The accord it turns out had no time deadlines, or specific clause of restitution. Thomas Shannon has since acknowledged that because the accord was signed and is in play, the US will recognize and lend support to the November 29th elections.

Elections are moving forward and we expect that even with some initial reluctance from the international community (OAS) they will ultimately be recognized and everyone can move on.

Soooo. Business is slow. Enough to pay the bills but slow. In the interim, I have been able to re-shingle the roof, overhaul our office, change some walls in our living room and move and enlarge the reception building so that we could add more sitting and parking space down there.

Update 46

April 2010

January 27th marked the inauguration of President Profiro Pepe Lobo. Lobo was elected by Honduras’s largest voter turn out of 67%, yet managed to get booed by the audience in attendance during his inauguration. Despite chants of “THANK MICHELETTI” from the crowd, Lobo did not give recognition to the man most Hondurans believe saved us from becoming a socialist dictatorship and in fact stood up the international community enabling the elections to be held, and Lobo to be elected.

Back on the island despite the politics, the cruise ship business is thriving. A second dock opened called Mahogany Bay in the fall capable of berthing two 4,000 passenger ships at a time. The facility includes a shopping concourse, restaurants and a “Sky Chair” ride over to a private beach. While the first dock in Coxen Hole had already undergone a huge makeover last year with shops and services expanded on the dock, the dock itself is now being extended by an additional hundred feet to accommodate the next wave of ships. If you haven’t followed this industry, suffice it to say that the new Oasis of the Sea berths almost 6,000 passengers is 175 feet longer than the Titanic and a hundred feet longer than the US Aircraft Carrier Ronald Regan.

In French Harbor we have Roatan’s first real mall complete with Wendy’s, Applebee’s, five banks, a video arcade, a Hyper Mega Grocery store and all the other trappings including a small Casino! There are also rumors of a movie theater opening soon.

Hyber shipping has moved into the new two story facility they built which incorporates the warehousing and customs office making incoming shipment pickups a lot easier. We allegedly have a new golf course open in Mystic Harbor. Haven’t heard of anyone going there yet! And a zoo? No idea what that’s all about!

Here at the Lodge after a very quiet fall it’s good to have customers returning. Just before Christmas we finally replaced Isabel with Enma. Enma is making us all look lazy not only doing all the housekeeping and laundry, but even taking over the yard work. Enma does not hear or speak, which presents a whole new set of challenges but its all working out great.

Since we registered on Trip Adviser at the beginning of the year we have received some pretty great reviews. Our rooms however were not scoring top marks. So, some cement work, some wood work, fresh paint, fresh varnish and new framed photos have been added. I have to admit we did keep the apartments a bit Spartan partially because we’re cheap, but also for easier cleaning. The customers have spoken however, and hopefully we will be stepping up to the expectations.

Update 47

January 2011


Tropical storm Richard went by on October 24th. Richard was a late bloomer starting as a low pressure zone sitting between Roatan and the Cayman Islands. Held back by upper level winds it sat there and poured intermittent rain in every direction. Then on the 22nd it found a break and started to move south. Projections and computer models went nuts predicting it to go in virtually every direction.

By the 23rd it was clear it would track towards and possibly over the Bay Islands. Amazingly that Saturday was the first clear day in weeks which made for easy hurricane preparations. We all stocked up and battened down. At 3:00 am on the 24th the rain started, at 4:30am the lights went out. 40 Knot winds in West End, 69 Knot winds in Calabash Bight. At 8:30 am it peaked as the storm moved west but once off the island and over open sea it picked up speed to hurricane strength.

By 11:00 am it stopped raining enough for me to check for damage and pick up some small branches, by 2:00 pm the storm was gone and clean up begun in earnest. Cindy and I walked down to the beach to have a look as heads started to emerge from doorways. The power finally came back at 9:30pm after a 17 hour outage caused by falling tree limbs and downed lines.

October 25th felt like another world altogether with gentle breezes and sunshine, Guess it could have been a lot worse. By the following week it was be a distant memory.

In December an expansion project began at the airport to allow all the new carriers to have some indoor booth space. Remember when we only had TACA and SOSA? Now its also Delta, Continental, CM Airlines, Lanhsa, Central American Airways, as well as charter flights to Milan and Canada.

As fall arrived the cruise ship arrivals increased. The Norwegian Epic is among them stopping here every other Tuesday. One Tuesday we ran into some of the ships entertainers hanging out in West Bay. The Blue Man Crew and a few dancers fell in love with Cindy, and she now has a standing invitation to meet up and party whenever the ship is in.

I’ve talked too much about politics in the past, and would like to avoid doing it now, but a recent story is simply too important to ignore. “Local mayors have been asked to persecute witches”! I did not realize how big a problem this really was until I noticed brooms leaning against nearly every house I passed!! I for one, feel much safer today.

Between the politics here and the economics everywhere the past season was slow on Roatan. Several restaurants and hotels have closed, some temporarily, some for good. The owners of Pura Vida resort were forced into bankruptcy. Giachamo and Adriana have returned to the island to reopen the operation as Splash Inn. The owners of the new Mega Mall in French Harbor are still trying to make it work. Shops seem to have a three month life expectancy. Aside from the banks and grocery store most of the space is empty but not to worry, their new Ferris wheel should do the trick!

Mariposa Lodge has now partnered with West End Divers to offer dive and accommodation packages. I think that this will be a fun partnership. I like the new owners at West End Divers and we seem to share a passion for doing things the right way. So with linking to the West End Diver site, placing more emphasis on Trip Adviser customer feedback and tweaking a few other web and social marketing tools we were able to recover sales in the forth quarter, This is not a totally new market for us of course but we will need to adapt to more reservations and less walk in business.