Guanaja

Guanaja was home to the Pech, called the Paya by the Spanish, when Christopher Columbus landed at Soldado Beach on its north side on 30 July 1502, on his fourth voyage. There he met a large trading canoe carrying goods from the mainland, and it was on this voyage that he first came across cacao. He named the island Isla de los Pinos, the Isle of Pines, although its people called it Guanaca. Spanish slave raids between 1516 and 1526 were followed by the removal of the remaining native people, and in the 16th and 17th centuries buccaneers used the island and its sheltered waters.

English settlers turned Guanaca into Bonacca, a name older islanders still use. Settler families arrived in the 19th century: the first moved onto two small cays about half a kilometre off the south shore to escape the flies that plagued them on calm nights, and by the 1880s a thriving community had grown up there. Families from Olancho founded Savannah Bight, Cayman Islanders settled East End, and others from Belize built Mangrove Bight. The islands became a British colony in 1852 and passed to Honduras in 1861.

In late October 1998 Hurricane Mitch passed over Guanaja, and two days of winds above 200 km/h destroyed most of its buildings and nearly all of its trees, including almost the entire mangrove forest. The islanders rebuilt, and the forests have slowly been recovering. In October 2021 a fire swept through about 200 structures, without loss of life, and the same year the whole island and its cays were declared a protected Ramsar site.

Guanaja's native islanders belong to the Caracol people of the Bay Islands, English-speaking families with roots in the English-speaking Caribbean, established in the islands since the early 19th century. The name is the Spanish word for conch or shell, a nod to their seafaring life. English is the first language of all native islanders, whatever their background, and their form of it keeps many old standard English words; Spanish comes second, though it is spreading as people move in from the mainland.

The island keeps its own calendar of celebrations. Honduran Independence Day on 15 September, Halloween and Christmas are all occasions, and islanders keep the custom of Old Junk, or Junkanoo: groups of people in masks and costumes of old rags run through the streets of the Cay, a custom they consider great fun and one that has gone on for years.

Island identity runs deep. When Honduras took over the Bay Islands it made Guanaja the official name, but the residents kept using Bonacca for as long as they could, and the island's people still see their culture as distinct from the mainland's.

At the 2013 census Guanaja municipality had 5,445 people, most of them on Bonacca, the small cay off the south shore, where houses, shops and walkways crowd together over the water. The other main settlements are Mangrove Bight and Savannah Bight on the main island, with smaller villages such as Pelican Reef, East End and North East Bight. At the census most residents identified as mestizo, with Afro-Honduran, white and Miskito minorities.

Fishing and shrimping are the main sources of income, and tourism is limited to a handful of small resorts that cater to divers, snorkellers and adventure travellers, together with small hotels, restaurants and boat services. The island has piped water, schools, supermarkets, cable television and internet, but its electricity, supplied by a private company, costs several times as much as on the mainland.

Life moves by boat. There is only one road, open since 2006 between Mangrove Bight and Savannah Bight, and there were only about 40 cars on the island by the end of 2011. Boats remain the everyday way to reach school, work and the shops.

Guanaja eats from the sea. Fishing and shrimping are the island's main source of income, shrimping companies are among its employers, and the catch is the base of island cooking.

Island cooking is Caribbean, with coconut running through it: in the coastal areas and the Bay Islands, seafood and some meats are prepared in many ways, including with coconut milk. Sopa de caracol, conch cooked in coconut milk and its own broth with spices, yuca, cilantro and green bananas, is one of the most representative dishes of Honduran cuisine, and rice and beans is a popular side dish along the Caribbean coast.

Mainland food has crossed the water too. Baleadas, flour tortillas filled with refried beans, crumbled hard cheese and cream, are believed to have originated on the north coast. Plato típico, one of Honduras's national dishes, is meat served with refried beans, plantains, chorizo, cheese, chismol salsa and tortillas. Tajadas, fried green bananas, often come with refried beans, and horchata and agua de nance are common drinks with meals.