A 24-hour curfew is currently being enforced for all of Honduras thanks to the surreptitious return of ousted President Mel Zelaya to Tegucigalpa, which has prompted small riots and protests across the country.

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.