The Crimmins point out that it is not uncommon to see police and members of La Fiscalía come and go from the Wesley’s hotel at odd hours with, what they presume to be, mistresses and prostitutes. This is a claim backed up by infamous local attorney Melvin Rosales, who said that it is well known that members of these groups get “special rates”.

At just past noon on Friday, August 19, Sam Wesley — a West End business owner (Crystal Beach Cabins) with roots on Roatán Island dating back to the 1840’s — came out of his house, pulled out a silver revolver, pressed it into Joe O’Donnell’s back, pulled the trigger and then walked back to his house without saying a word. There were at least five witnesses to the incident. As Mr. O’Donnell collapsed in the street, concerned shop owners Shannon and Christian ran to his aid, Mr. Wesley’s wife, Rosita, wagged a finger at them indicating her desire for them to leave the 40-year-old Australian dive instructor to bleed to death in the street. As a large crowd gathered, it seemed that Mrs. Wesley might get her wish. People took photos, screamed and gawked… but no one took action.

Fortunately, Paul Cleveland — an 18-year Roatán resident was on the scene, and his military training kicked in. He stuffed one of his fingers in the bullet hole, sent someone to retrieve a bag of ice, and secured a truck to transport Mr. O’Donnell to the local hospital. Mr. Cleveland, who describes himself as a long-time good friend of Mr. Wesley, was also the first to make a statement against him. He said the crime had “no motive” other than Mr. Wesley was acting “completely on his wife’s inclination”.

Mr. Cleveland also expressed amazement that Mr. Wesley could be out of jail in 24 hours. He said, “The law seems to be more concerned with cocaine possession, If Sam had been caught with a kilo they would not need anyone to make an accusation and he would still be in jail.”

You can read more of this article at Honduras Weekly: http://hondurasweekly.com/wild-and-crazy-justice-on-roat%C3%A1n-island-201108244034/

It’s time to break out your underwater cameras: the Roatan Marine Park is holding its Third Annual Marine Photography Contest!

Winning images will be printed in the 2011 Roatan Marine Park Calendar in order to showcase the natural beauty of Roatan’s coral reefs and highlight threats to their future survival.

Entries accepted for six categories:

• macro
• reef inhabitants
• black and white
• divers
• reefs at risk
• invertebrates

Deadline for submission:
31 July 2010

Details:

• All images must be from Roatan
• Images should be in .jpg format. Please include your full name, entry category, where image was taken, and a title
• Photos may be under or above water, but must maintain a marine context
• 1st and 2nd place in each category will be featured in the calendar with small images for runners-up
• Submission of images constitutes your permission for the Roatan Marine Park (RMP) to use these images free of charge for the 2011 RMP Calendar and other RMP publications. All images will be credited to their owners when used.

For more details of the competition, visit www.roatanmarinepark.com.

Email images to: info@roatanmarinepark.net

Luca Pagliaro, an Italian native, has disappeared in Roatan, Honduras last week, probably on 16th March 2010, with Mauriliuo Mirabella, owner of a diveshop who has also disappeared. Everybody who has useful news about him please contact me and my mother without hesitation.

Please let me know also when is the last time you have seen him. Thanks.

Licia and Francesca

liciapagliaro@hotmail.com
francesca.vcr@libero.it

The goal of TiR is to promote tourism and support local businesses on the Caribbean island of Roatan in the Bay Islands of Honduras through online marketing. TiR aims to be Roatan’s premier information service for travel, living, and island news. The site combines a clean modern design, advanced web technologies, and the power of Google Maps to present the beauty of Roatan to the outside world as never before seen.

The Story of TiR

Steve was sick of computer programming.

After wrapping up his Master’s Degree in Computer Science, Steve sold most of his belongings, packed his bags, and moved to the small Caribbean island of Roatan to teach scuba diving, drink rum, and live the beach bum lifestyle. He fell in love with the island’s jaw-dropping coral reef, friendly locals, sweeping white sand beaches, and laid-back attitude. His original plan to stay for three months was postponed… and postponed again… and again… until a year and a half of living the good life had passed by.

Steve returned to the so-called ‘real world’ to program professionally for a video game company in North Carolina. The job was good, the pay was fine, but something was missing. Staring at the photo of scuba divers on Roatan’s reef adorning the background of his computer, he knew he had to go back.

Meanwhile, a few websites Steve had made for Roatan businesses were starting to generate real results. A crazy little idea crept into his head: he could make a genuine impact on local businesses by driving tourism to the island through online marketing. Once again, he sold his stuff, packed his bags, and returned to the island he loved.

Real Time Development On Island Time

Upon returning, Steve began researching how he could make the biggest impact on the local market. Being relatively undeveloped, the island presented some unique challenges. As roads did not have names, local businesses did not have mailing addresses. There was hardly any news media on the island. Internet access was limited and quite slow by first-world standards.

Steve wanted a website that would do more than just act as a business directory. He saw a website that would show visitors exactly where everything was located on Roatan. He believed that media transparency was essential to promoting good business practices in the developing world. He envisioned a site architecture that would offset the slow internet speeds by incrementally streaming data in such a way that the website would never have to be reloaded. He dreamed of a website that would be sleek, modern, and beautiful—a place where local businesses would be proud to appear.

Steve was as naïve as he was ambitious. He thought the website would take six months to build. Unreliable electricity, crashed computers, political turmoil and personal hardships perpetually delayed the project. Progress was steady but aggravatingly slow. He poured his heart, soul, and personal finances into the project, bankrupting himself in the process.

The Dream Becomes Reality

Two years later, Steve finally published the first live version of TiR.

TiR remains the project of which Steve is the most proud. The website is proof that hard work, determination, and a fair bit of insanity can unite to create something incredible. Steve continues to refine TiR to fit the ever-changing needs of local businesses with emerging web technologies, allowing business owners to reach their online customers.

Steve hopes you enjoy the unique experience of TiR almost as much as you enjoy your stay on Roatan. If you find this website useful, please consider making a donation through PayPal; every buck goes a long way towards keeping the dream alive.

Changes are coming. I’m currently working on an updated layout and structure for the site along with a bevy of new content. The updates will be slowly rolled out over the next two months, but for now here’s a sneak peak at what is under development:

• More Scuba. Dive site reviews, professional tips to improve your diving, fish facts, industry news, and more.
• More Geek. Web design advice, code samples, Photoshop tricks, and general geek talk.
• More Interaction. Improved blog discussion, more pictures and videos, and better maps.
• More Rum. Rum reviews, drink mixing guides, and rum-based recipes.
• More Roatan. How to get there, where to stay, what to do, and how to make the most of your trip.
• More Tales. True stories past and present of my life as a scuba diving instructor.

As 2010 approaches, keep your eyes on TheScubaGeek.com to catch these new updates as they are unveiled!

How far will globalization go? Baleadas at Wendy’s? Surely the Apocalypse is upon us……..

News of Zelaya’s return hit West End, Roatan, around noon yesterday (21 Sept 2009). Phone and internet connections became jammed by the heavy bandwidth load of people logging on to find out the news. The facts were scattered, but one thing loomed certain: Zelaya was indeed back in Honduras.

At 4:00PM, Roatan Municipal Police drove down West were ordering all businesses to close and everyone home. An curfew was in immediate effect until 6AM today. Both Hondutel and TIGO internet connections dropped out by 5:30PM. Digicel phone signals were weak and I was nearly out of credit. Like the RECO riots of last year, I was completely cut off from the outside world.

I arrived in West End this morning to find the town eerily desolate. The reason was soon made apparent: police patrols were ordering everyone to return home for a 24-hour curfew. No time to get food or other living essentials. Go home now.

So I’m stuck at my 90F apartment with ten strips of bacon, a gallon of water, a bag of refried beans, a pound of cat food, my Wii, limited internet connectivity, no phone service, and one orange hairball named Einstein meowing at my feet. Awesome.

Welcome back, Mel.

On June 28, the Honduran military ousted President Manuel Zelaya and sent him out of the country. Though Zelaya’s removal was authorized by the Honduran Supreme Court, approved by the Honduran Congress, and explicitly mandated in the Honduran Constitution, the Department of State staunchly refuses to acknowledge the legitimacy of the interim government. The Obama Administration urges Americans to show their solidarity with Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, Daniel Ortega, and our other socialist comrades by deferring all travel plans to Honduras.

There have reportedly been frequent peace marches at various locations around Honduras, including Tegucigalpa, San Pedro Sula, La Ceiba, and Coxen Hole. However, since none of these peace marches have been shown on CNN, the Department of State advises Americans that these purported marches are most likely propaganda fabricated by Roberto Michelleti’s coup government. Americans are reminded that all peaceful demonstrations will turn violent with little or no warning. The Department of State recommends that Americans continue to watch our sponsor network CNN for unbiased and accurate reports about the Honduran crisis.

The Obama Administration has also expressed concern about an alarming number of Americans vanishing in the Bay Islands of Honduras, particularly Roatan. Over the last decade numerous American citizens have traveled to Roatan and never returned home to the USSA. Since the coup, the Department of State has received reports from Roatan of tanks rolling down the street, locals getting loaded, and a submarine patrolling the bay. Americans are strongly urged to avoid all travel to Roatan.

The Department of State reminds all citizens that their patriotic duty to Buy American extends beyond America’s borders. Spending American dollars in a rogue state such as Honduras undermines the American Collective, impedes our economic recovery, and constitutes an act of treason punishable by gulag. The Department of State also advises citizen to remain within America’s border in order to ensure compliance with President Obama’s tax code.

The Department of State especially urges the following citizens to avoid all travel to Roatan, the Bay Islands, and Honduras:

• Citizens who hate beautiful beaches and Caribbean seas
• Citizens without a sense of humor
• Citizens afraid of water or fish
• Citizens who worship Our Messiah Barack Obama
• Citizens who prefer rush hour traffic to boat rides
• Citizens incapable of rest and/or relaxation
• Citizens who trust everything on CNN
• Citizens frightened by Hispanics, the Spanish language, and/or baleadas
• Citizens who believe that all of life is misery and suffering
• Citizens who don’t get satire
• Canadians

In these difficult times, the Department of State urges all Americans to remain patriotic: stay in your cubicle, max out your credit card, and chase the American Dream. Why would you want to go to Roatan anyway? They don’t even have a McDonalds.

You can read more about the massive quake here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090528/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_honduras_earthquake

I would love to breathlessly recount the terror of being awoken at 2:30 in the morning by the cacophony of howling dogs and buckling earth, but unfortunately for my readers (but fortunately for me) I am in the States at this time attending my little sister’s wedding. I have no stories to share. Thankfully, word is that no one in West End was seriously hurt and properties damages were minimal. Business and life continues as usual in our sleepy little diving town.

Earthquakes are not unusual for the island; I’ve experienced a handful of minor shakes over the last four-plus years, but nothing even remotely the magnitude of a 7.1. Given that Roatan sits atop the Bonacca Ridge, a deep sea mountain range created by the collision of the Caribbean and Central America tectonic plates, it’s not surprising that the earth gives the occasional rumble.

Please keep the Honduran families on the mainland in your thoughts and prayers. These people, already living in impoverished conditions, have very few means with which to rebuild their shanty homes. As much as people in the US love to bitch and moan about FEMA’s inadequate response to Hurricane Katrina, they have no idea what it’s like to live in a country where the government has almost no means to provide care to its citizens when disaster strikes— and certainly no idea what it is like to endure a disaster when the rest of the world hardly takes notice.

The bell rings. My arms pump in rapid yet rhythmic alternation, delivering haymakers and uppercuts to the facial region of my foe. He ducks, weaves, and wallops a low kidney-shot to my torso, simultaneously crumbling my defenses and body with a single emphatic blow. I twitch on the ground in agony. Despite the fervent shaking of my arms, I remain unconscious on the floor. The time ticks away—eight, nine, ten—and it’s finished. I’ve lost.

And yet another fourth grader has kicked my butt at Wii Boxing.

Tonight was the Coconut Tree Carnival for the Kids, a fundraiser supporting the SOL International Foundation. Whether it be ring tosses, football throws, darts and balloons, coconut throws, or the aforementioned Wii Boxing, games abounded as kids of all ages turned out to win prizes of candy and inflatable baseball bats. Hot dogs off the grill and freshly-popped popcorn rounded the carnival affair.

And fun was indeed had by all ages.

Personally, I lost 100 lempiras in challenging a fourteen-year-old in a stupid parlor trip— and yes, I must admit to being outsmarted (or at least out-shenaniganned). Then I lost successive rounds in Wii Boxing to kids half my age and a third my body-weight. Hey, it’s for the kids, eh?

(I truly am a few years away from being obsolete. A three-year-old— yes, three years of age— corrected me on how to unpause the Wii Sports menu. I might as well retire now while I’m still ahead.)

At the end of the day, the Coconut Tree Carnival was a rousing success. It was such a genuine pleasure to see kids of all social background playing together in lighthearted competition. I am proud of our contribution to the local community and particularly SOL International Foundation— Dave and Brandon, you guys are doing a fantastic job with these children!