Roatán, located between the islands of Utila and Guanaja is one of the Bay Islands of Honduras, and is in the Caribbean. One of the quay off Guanaja, also called Guanaja or Bonaca, is just off the main island, and contains most of the 5,000 or so people who live in Guanaja. The quay has been described... Guanaja, is the largest of Honduras is a country in northern Central America, bordered to the west by Guatemala and El Salvador, to the south by Nicaragua and the Pacific Ocean and to the north by the Gulf of Honduras and the Caribbean Sea. Belize (formerly British Honduras) is 75 km away across the Bay... Honduras' Islas de la Bahía (Bay Islands) is one of the 18 departments (departamentos) into which the Central American nation of Honduras is divided. The departmental capital is Roatán. The department covers a total surface area of 261 km² and, in 1991, had an estimated population... Bay Islands. It is approximately 60 A kilometre (American spelling: kilometer) (symbol: km) is a unit of length equal to 1000 metres (from the Greek words khilia = thousand and metro = count/measure). It is approximately equal to 0.621 miles, 1094 yards or 3281 feet. Slang terms for kilometre include klick (sometimes spelt click or klik... kilometres long, and less than 8 kilometres wide at its widest point.

The capital and most populated town is Coxen Hole, located in the Southwest of the island. Other important towns include French Harbor and Oak Ridge.

Located near the largest barrier reef in the Central America and the Caribbean The Caribbean Sea is a body of water adjacent to the Atlantic Ocean, south of the Gulf of Mexico. It is bounded on the south by Venezuela, Colombia, and Panama, to the west by Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, and the Yucatan peninsula of... Caribbean Sea (second largest worldwide after Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is the sixth-largest country in the world, the only one to occupy an entire continent, and the largest in the region of Australasia/ Oceania. It also includes a number of secondary islands, the largest of which is Tasmania, an Australian State. Australia is... Australia's Satellite image of a part of the Great Barrier Reef. Photo courtesy of NASA. The Great Barrier Reef is the worlds largest coral reef. The reef is located in the Coral Sea off the coast of Queensland in north-east Australia. It stretches over 2000 kilometres in length and... Great Barrier Reef), it has become an important cruising and Diving has several meanings:- Plunging deliberately, often acrobatically, into water. This, and also completely unequipped swimming underwater, is described on this page. See also Underwater swimming. Going underwater with or without breathing apparatus. When done for sport, this is sometimes called subaquatics. See:- snorkelling and free diving: swimming underwater without... diving destination in Honduras. A tourist boat travels the River Seine in Paris, France Tourism can be defined as the act of travel for the purpose of recreation, and the provision of services for this act. A tourist is someone who travels at least fifty miles from home, as defined by the World Tourism... Tourism is its most important economic sector, though fishing is also an important source of income for islanders.

In 1998 is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean. Events January January 1998 - A massive ice storm, caused by El Niño, strikes New England, southern Ontario and Quebec, resulting in widespread power failures, severe damage to... 1998, the island suffered considerable damage from Hurricane Mitch was one of the most powerful tropical cyclones ever observed, with maximum sustained winds of 180 mph or 290 km/h. Mitch battered Central America from October 22, 1998 to November 5, 1998, killing about 11,000 people. It was the deadliest hurricane in over 200 years, and... Hurricane Mitch, temporarily paralyzing most commercial activity.

Tourism and environmental impact

Even though tourism has strongly contributed towards the economic development of the island, it has also altered Roatan's fragile ecosystem. Land clearing for the construction of residential complexes, as well as improper sewage and garbage disposal methods have inflicted considerable damage to the island in a time span of less than a decade.

Several efforts by environmental organizations have contributed to reducing the impact. Still, the long-term success of these efforts is uncertain, as the inflow of tourism is likely to increase in the future, with the completion of a new international airport in the neighboring island of Utila.

Language

The main language on the island is ( A Pidgin, or contact language, is the name given to any language created, usually spontaneously, out of a mixture of other languages as a means of communication between speakers of different tongues. Pidgins have rudimentary grammars and restricted vocabulary, serving as auxiliary contact languages. They are improvised rather than learned... pidgin) The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. It is the third most common first language (native speakers), with around 402 million people in 2002. English has lingua franca status in many parts of the world, due to the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence... English, contrary to the This article is about the international language known as Spanish. For other languages spoken in Spain see Languages of Spain. Spanish or Castilian is an Iberian Romance language, and the third or fourth most spoken language in the world. It is spoken as a first language by about 352 million... Spanish of mainland Honduras.