Roatán

The first people of the Bay Islands are thought to have been related to the Pech or other mainland peoples. After Columbus reached neighbouring Guanaja on his fourth voyage, the Spanish began trading in the islands for slave labour, and disease did still more damage. Between 1550 and 1700 the English occupied the islands on and off, and English, French and Dutch pirates made settlements from which they raided Spanish treasure ships; Coxen Hole is named after the pirate captain John Coxen. A British garrison held the island from 1742 to 1749, rebuilding the old fort at Port Royal.

In 1797, after defeating the Garífuna on St Vincent, the British deported them to Roatán. Most moved on to Trujillo on the mainland, but some founded Punta Gorda, the first permanent settlement on the island since Columbus's time. In the 1830s settlers came from the Cayman Islands after Britain abolished slavery, first former slaveholders and then, in larger numbers, freed people; Coxen Hole was founded in 1835, and the Caymanians became the island's largest group. Britain declared the Bay Islands a colony in the 1850s but ceded them to Honduras within a decade, and in 1860 the American filibuster William Walker, invited by British settlers, was captured and executed.

From the late twentieth century migrants from the mainland tripled the population, and fishing and then diving brought foreign settlers and visitors. Hurricane Mitch damaged the island in 1998. Since about 2005 cruise ships and large hotels have transformed the west. The private zone of Próspera, set up under a 2013 constitutional amendment allowing such zones, continues to operate after the zone law was repealed in 2022 and the Supreme Court declared the zones unconstitutional in 2024.

Roatán is culturally Caribbean and looks as much to the English-speaking Caribbean as to mainland Honduras. Islanders of British and African Caribbean descent speak Bay Island English, a form of English with many older words and its own accent. They call themselves Islanders; mainland Hondurans have long called them "caracoles", snails, a name Islanders find offensive, and the two communities have a long-standing rivalry rooted in differences of language and custom.

Punta Gorda on the north coast is the oldest Garífuna community in Honduras, with its own language, drumming and dances, and Honduras marks the Garífuna landing there on 12 April 1797. Spanish-speaking migrants from the mainland now make up the largest share of the population, especially in Coxen Hole and around French Harbour, and Spanish is the language of the schools.

Life is tied to the sea. Diving shaped the modern island, and conservation is a local cause: a community-based organisation, the Roatán Marine Park, was founded by dive operators and local businesses in 2005 to protect the reefs, beach clean-ups are a regular event, and in 2019 the island banned plastic bags, bottles and styrofoam. West Bay hosts an international freediving competition each May, and an international sport-fishing tournament is held every September.

The island is split into two municipalities, Roatán in the west and José Santos Guardiola in the east. The Roatán municipality had about 41,800 people at the 2013 census, and Coxen Hole, the largest town, about 8,300 in 2021. Most of the infrastructure is on the western half of the island, in Coxen Hole, West End, Sandy Bay and French Harbour.

Tourism and fishing drive the economy: dive shops, hotels, restaurants, taxis and the cruise ports serve the visitors, while the fishing fleet works from French Harbour and Oak Ridge. When cruise ships are in, thousands of extra visitors fill the beaches and towns for the day, and prices rise.

Rapid growth has put pressure on the island. Deforestation, run-off, poorly managed waste and pollution threaten the reef and the land, and Coxen Hole and West End have had new water and sewer systems built since the 2000s. The main roads on both coasts were repaved and widened by 2020, and buses, taxis and water taxis carry most daily journeys.

Island cooking is Caribbean, and coconut and coconut milk turn up in both sweet and savoury dishes, from coconut bread and coconut flan to seafood cooked in coconut milk. Sopa de caracol, conch soup made with coconut milk, cassava and green bananas, is one of the most representative dishes of Honduran cuisine, and fried fish comes straight off the boats. Rice and beans is a popular side dish, and roadside baleadas — flour tortillas folded over refried beans with fresh cheese or cream — are as popular on the island as on the mainland.

In Punta Gorda, the island's Garífuna village, Garífuna dishes add to the mix. West End has the island's widest choice of restaurants and bars, many of them on the water, and West Bay and French Harbour have restaurants of their own, while in Coxen Hole the market sells food to local households.

Sport fishing off the reef brings in marlin, tuna, wahoo and mahi-mahi among others, and a cold Honduran beer is the usual drink in the beach bars of West End and West Bay.