Finally, Roatan and the Garifuna

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On the way from the Roatan airport to our hotel, we passed Coxen Hole which has great ocean front property without the nice properties. They are shanty houses made of wood and metal sheeting. This area is dominated by the Garifuna* people. We arrived late (obviously) to our hotel, the Kefeito’s Inn, run by Phillip, a Central American Chong (from Cheech and Chong) clone. Since there was no food available at the hotel, we walked, starving, with flashlights on the dark beach to the nearest restaurant. Crabs blanketed the beach and there were so many, you had to watch where you stepped. When we came near, they either retreated to near-by holes or were frozen in fear by us. Much like the grasshoppers, some of the crabs had death wishes. We made it to a restaurant called the Lobster Pot. Food was bad, electricity was out, but the stars were nice and it was good to finally get here.

*GARIFUNA - I noticed that there were a lot of black people in Honduras which was strange. Not because I am some raging racist, but you expect when you go to a Central American country, you’d see plenty of Latinos. In China, you’ll see plenty of Asians. The San Fernando Valley, plenty of Jews. The black people of Honduras are called the Garifuna (there’s an accent over the I, but my computer is not accent friendly). The Garifuna (originally called the Black Caribs) began to populate many areas of Central America in 1797, but mostly in Honduras. They have maintained their own language and culture over the centuries.

The original Black Caribs were an Indian tribe on an island San Vicente in the Caribbean. African slaves that either arrived after being shipwrecked or were able to escape from plantations on nearby islands would meet the Black Caribs. The two societies, (slaves and Indians) that were shunned or persecuted by everyone else, led to their sharing of each other’s culture. This created the hybrid, known as the Garifuna.

After a battle with England in the late 1700’s, the English moved many of the remaining Garifuna to Roatan island off of Honduras (Roatan is a derivation of rattan which is a common vine found in the Caribbean). This is where many of them are living today, especially on the coastline. But now that Roatan has become a pretty hot tourist destination, their properties have become extremely valuable to hotels wanting primo waterfront resorts. There are these dilapidated houses on the shore of this beautiful beach. As always, you assume that the hotels will eventually be able to buy the Garifuna off the shore, but as an idealist, I hope not.

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