The Trashing of Roatan


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The Trashing of Roatan
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From: Lorenzo Dee Belveal
To: Stephen Goodfellow
Subject: The trashing of Roatan

Date: Wed, 20 Nov 1996

Hi, Stephen:

As an old Roatan hand, I take harsh exception to the rose-colored glasses which people bent on selling Honduras tourism are always wearing. Roatan, which used to be one of the most beautiful, unspoiled, pristine islands in the entire caribbean - and I know most of them - is going down the tubes and it might be too late, even now, to save it.

I "discovered" Roatan in 1967. I stayed on to enjoy, to build Spyglass Hill resort, to bring the first SCUBA equipment to the island, and to operate Spyglass Hill Resort until 1981. I personally built the first roads connecting French Harbor with Oak Ridge, Punta Gorda and Diamond Rock. I know what I'm talking about.

Roatan supported its 1970 population of 8- to 10,000 people quite comfortably. But influx of north coast Hondurans has swelled the island population to some 25,000 people today. Too many people in too small a space is a recipe for big trouble, and Roatan has big trouble.

The need for building sites, roads and firewood has resulted in most of the trees being cut down. The loss of trees and other ground cover has destroyed the potable water aquifer. The water table has dropped like a rock. Wells that used to provide an abundance of fresh water for 10M people are now - faced with the demands of two or three times that number - either dry or contaminated by surface or sub-surface infusion due to low water levels and over-pumping. Smart people now buy their drinking water in plastic bottles.

Resort developers with absolutely no understanding or appreciation for the natural treasures they were destroying, have ruined vast areas of the shoreline and the tidal plain by dredging. The south side of the island from Port Royal to West End has been wrecked by blankets of the sand and silt put into the water by indiscriminate dredging activities.

Raw sewage is still going directly into the sea, as it has forever, but with the vast increase in population the damage to submarine life via pollution has multiplied exponentially. As a result, divers and snorkelers get to share the sea with kitchen garbage and human excrement.

And getting there is not "half the fun." On my last trip to the island, I had three (3) immigration and customs inspections; all in Honduras, and all in the course of about two hours. The first was in San Pedro Sula, which was our "official'" port of entry. Then we flew to LaCeiba, for another immigration and customs procedure. Then we boarded our plane to Roatan, where the island customs and immigration representatives had another go at us. I understand they want the tips, but this is really just too much!

The big game on Roatan these days is land. Arnold F. Morris, an international fugitive fleeing from a 26-count federal indictment handed down in Tampa, Florida, first ran to Belize, then to Roatan. He met and married an island widow, bought a Honduras passport (to avoid capture and extradition) and went into the real-estate business. Morris is the biggest real-estate operator in the Bay Islands, and he has burned a bunch of foreign visitors who did business with him. Roatan has had some pirates before, if we can believe the history books, but none of them could be
compared with Morris and his Southwind Properties. Incidentally, his son, Scott, is doing time in the Florida State Penitentiary. He wasn't able to get out of the country ahead of the law. Meanwhile, his father is finding true happiness - and lots of suckers - on Roatan.

My essential point is that Roatan, for all of its bucolic charms, is a dangerous place for the unwary traveler. People who puff the place as some kind of latter-day Garden of Eden are doing a major disservice to those trusting souls who lack experience traveling and tend to believe everything they see in print.

In short, the people who check your PAGE to get the "skinny" on Honduras
generally, and Roatan in particular, deserve to be told the truth. But let me say again, I enjoy your stuff.

Very truly yours,

Lorenzo Dee Belveal
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