}
|-
|bgcolor=#e7dcc3|Location:||
Bay IslandsIslas de la Bahía is one of the 18 departments into which the Central American nation of Honduras is divided. The departmental capital is Coxen Hole, on the island of Roatán....
,
HondurasHonduras is a republic in Central America. It was formerly known as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras...
|-
|bgcolor=#e7dcc3|Type:||Pyroclastic cones
|-
|bgcolor=#e7dcc3|Last eruption:||Unknown
|}
Útila (Isla de Útila) is the third largest of
HondurasHonduras is a republic in Central America. It was formerly known as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras...
' Bay Islands, after
RoatánRoatán, located between the islands of Útila and Guanaja , is the largest of Honduras' Bay Islands. The island was formerly known as Ruatan and Rattan...
and
GuanajaGuanaja is one of the Bay Islands of Honduras, and is in the Caribbean. It is located approx. 70 km off the north coast of Honduras, and 12 km from the island of Roatan. One of the cays off Guanaja, also called Guanaja or Bonnaca or Low Cay , is near the main island, and contains most of the...
, in a region that marks the south end of the
Mesoamerican Barrier Reef SystemThe Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System stretches from the tip of the Yucatán Peninsula down to the Bay Islands of Honduras. It includes the Belize Barrier Reef...
, the second-largest in the world. The eastern end of the island is capped by a thin veneer of
basaltBasalt is a common extrusive volcanic rock. It is usually grey to black and fine-grained due to rapid cooling of lava at the surface of a planet. It may be porphyritic containing larger crystals in a fine matrix, or vesicular, or frothy scoria. Unweathered basalt is black or grey.On Earth, most...
ic volcanic rocks, erupted from several pyroclastic cones including Pumpkin Hill which forms the highest point on the island.
| Útila Island |
|
|
ElevationThe elevation of a geographic location is its height above a fixed reference point, often the mean sea level. Elevation, or geometric height, is mainly used when referring to points on the Earth's surface, while altitude or geopotential height is used for points above the surface, such as an...
: |
74 m (243 ft) |
| Coordinates: |
}
|-
|bgcolor=#e7dcc3|Location:||
Bay IslandsIslas de la Bahía is one of the 18 departments into which the Central American nation of Honduras is divided. The departmental capital is Coxen Hole, on the island of Roatán....
,
HondurasHonduras is a republic in Central America. It was formerly known as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras...
|-
|bgcolor=#e7dcc3|Type:||Pyroclastic cones
|-
|bgcolor=#e7dcc3|Last eruption:||Unknown
|}
Útila (Isla de Útila) is the third largest of
HondurasHonduras is a republic in Central America. It was formerly known as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras...
' Bay Islands, after
RoatánRoatán, located between the islands of Útila and Guanaja , is the largest of Honduras' Bay Islands. The island was formerly known as Ruatan and Rattan...
and
GuanajaGuanaja is one of the Bay Islands of Honduras, and is in the Caribbean. It is located approx. 70 km off the north coast of Honduras, and 12 km from the island of Roatan. One of the cays off Guanaja, also called Guanaja or Bonnaca or Low Cay , is near the main island, and contains most of the...
, in a region that marks the south end of the
Mesoamerican Barrier Reef SystemThe Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System stretches from the tip of the Yucatán Peninsula down to the Bay Islands of Honduras. It includes the Belize Barrier Reef...
, the second-largest in the world. The eastern end of the island is capped by a thin veneer of
basaltBasalt is a common extrusive volcanic rock. It is usually grey to black and fine-grained due to rapid cooling of lava at the surface of a planet. It may be porphyritic containing larger crystals in a fine matrix, or vesicular, or frothy scoria. Unweathered basalt is black or grey.On Earth, most...
ic volcanic rocks, erupted from several pyroclastic cones including Pumpkin Hill which forms the highest point on the island. It has been documented in history since Columbus' fourth voyage, and currently enjoys growing tourism with emphasis on recreational diving.
History
Ruins on all three of the Bay Islands indicate that they were inhabited well before the Europeans arrived.
Christopher ColumbusChristopher Columbus was a navigator, colonizer and explorer whose voyages across the Atlantic Ocean led to general European awareness of the American continents in the Western Hemisphere...
, on his fourth voyage to the new world, landed on the island of Guanaja on July 30, 1502. He encountered a fairly large population of indigenous people whom he believed to be cannibals. The Spanish enslaved the islanders and sent them to work on the plantations of Cuba and gold and silver mines of Mexico.
They did not stay uninhabited for long, however. English, French and Dutch pirates established settlements on the islands and raided the Spanish cargo vessels laden with gold and other treasures from the
New WorldThe New World is one of the names used for the non-Afro-Eurasian parts of the Earth, specifically the Americas and possibly Australia. When the term originated in the late 15th century, the Americas were new to the Europeans, who previously thought of the world as consisting only of Europe, Asia,...
. The Welsh buccaneer
Henry MorganAdmiral Sir Henry Morgan , was a Welsh privateer, who made a name in the Caribbean...
established his base at Port Royal on Roatán, about 30 kilometers from Útila, in the mid-17th century; at that time as many as 5,000 pirates were living on that island.
Colonization by the Spanish began in the early 1500s. Over the next century, the Spanish plundered the island for its slave trade and eliminated the island of its natives by the early 1600s. Britain, in its aggressive attempt to colonize the Caribbean from the Spanish, occupied the Bay Islands on and off between 1550 and 1700. During this time, the buccaneers found the vacated, mostly unprotected islands a haven for safe harbor and transport. Útila is rich in pirate lore that, and even presently, scuba divers look for sunken treasure from Captain Morgan's lost booty from his raid on Panama in 1671.
The British were forced to give back the Bay Islands to the Honduran government in the mid 1800s. It was at this time that the nearly uninhabited islands were being populated by its now
CaymanianCaymanian may refer to:* Something of, from, or related to the Cayman Islands, a British overseas territory located in the western Caribbean Sea, comprising the islands of Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac, and Little Cayman....
roots. They remain rich in Caymanian culture and dialect.
Útila has been a part of Honduras for approximately 150 years. For nearly 200 years Spanish
conquistadores and British pirates battled for control of these islands, ignoring the native people for the most part. During this period, the Islands were used for food and wood supplies, safe harbor, and slave trading. Remains of British forts and towns named after famous pirates remain as their legacy. One group of slaves was "parked" here during this time during the heat of a battle. When the winners came to collect them, the slaves refused to go. These are the
GarifunaThe Garinagu are an ethnic group of mixed ancestry who live primarily in Central America. They live along the Caribbean Coast in Belize, Guatemala, St. Vincent, Nicaragua and Honduras including the mainland, and on the island of Roatán...
s who still populate much of the Bay Islands, maintaining their own cultural identity and language. Punta Gorda on Roatán is one of many villages where they live.
Tourism
The Bay Islands have faced many major changes in recent years. Fishing has always been the mainstay of this former British Colony, but tourism is seen as the future. Environmental changes and an increased population on the islands has caused a decrease in fish stocks and now sustenance fishing is in conflict with the Bay Islands' number one tourist draw, diving. This has caused many problems between the fishermen and dive conservation and ecological groups, as areas that were once prime fishing grounds are now marine reserves.
Útila is now starting to undergo the same commercialization that neighbour island
RoatánRoatán, located between the islands of Útila and Guanaja , is the largest of Honduras' Bay Islands. The island was formerly known as Ruatan and Rattan...
experienced in the mid to late 1990s. With favourable diving conditions, the island increasingly attracts general tourists, along with more traditional international
backpackerBackpacking is a term that has historically been used to denote a form of low-cost, independent international travel. Terms such as independent travel and/or budget travel are often used interchangeably with backpacking...
visitors. More than sixty diving sites are located around the island among its extensive reefs teeming with marine life, including the elusive
whale sharkThe whale shark, Rhincodon typus, is a slow moving filter feeding shark that is the largest living fish species. The largest confirmed individual had a length of and a weight of more than , but there are unconfirmed claims of considerably larger whale sharks...
.
Unique local cuisine includes white bread made with coconut milk, mango jam, conch meat, and crab. Hunting of iguanas and sea turtles is illegal and should be reported to the
Bay Islands Conservation Association (BICA)The Bay Islands Conservation Association is a non-profit, non-governmental organization founded in 1991 by the people living in the Bay Islands in order to initiate and coordinate efforts in protecting the Islands’ fragile natural resources. BICA’s operation and projects are funded through the...
. Interestingly, grated coconut, such as is used to decorate pastries in many countries is considered not fit for human consumption and fed to chickens and hogs.
On the 29th of November, 2006 The National Congress signed the Zona Libre Touristica del Departamanto de las Islas de la Bahia (ZOLITUR) law declaring the Bay Islands a Tax Free Zone. The spirit of this law is to promote the touristic development on the Bay Islands and to create an environmentally sustainable socioeconomic framework for the future.
With the creation of the Tax Free Zone, Islanders will have a greater chance of making a successful transition to the Bay Islands Future by removing tax barriers and creating a business environment that will promote national and foreign tourism and investment. The Municipalities will benefit through the collection of entry fees. Each visitor to The Islands will now pay a fee to enter. Foreigners will pay a fee of US$6 if arriving by air, US$2 if arriving by sea, and Hondurans will pay US$1. These fees, combined with the 2% property certification fee already in effect, will provide the Municipality the finances needed to improve the quality of education and life of the Bay Islanders. The island also collects a $3 dive fee that goes to the municipality and
BICAThe Bay Islands Conservation Association is a non-profit, non-governmental organization founded in 1991 by the people living in the Bay Islands in order to initiate and coordinate efforts in protecting the Islands’ fragile natural resources. BICA’s operation and projects are funded through the...
to aid in conservation programs and medical help for divers. A 4% capital gains tax on the profits made from any immovable assets is also collected by the municipalities.
External links