WRITTEN by JOHN MORRIS Language is ‘full of surprises’ Though the official language of Honduras is Spanish, Roatan is oddly different. Here you will hear a variety of languages due to the worldly expat population… but English is widely spoken and not surprisingly, varies considerably. The long-time island families speak sort of a Creole English among themselves but are all highly...
WRITTEN by JOHN MORRIS Life just keeps getting better… I’m no stranger to moving. As the son of a DuPont rising star, part of the drill was to pop around the country earning stars in each office – Georgia, Illinois, Connecticut – all before firmly landing in Wilmington, Delaware in 1969. Ten years of security until the inevitable divorce that resulted in the house being sold. This was...
WRITTEN by JOHN MORRIS Roatan's roads are not what they used to be Last year we had to replace four ball joints on our Toyota Land Cruiser Prado. If you do not know what a ball joint is, you are lucky because they are not cheap… but quite necessary for driving and especially steering a vehicle. Toyotas are known for their reliability so this need to replace is unusual unless you know what...
WRITTEN by JOHN MORRIS Happy adventures on the island of Roatan Life on the island never goes in a straight line. Plan as much as you want, but I guarantee your day will likely deviate. I guess the problem is that most of us have too many friends. Tough problem, I know, and of course I am kidding, but when that phone rings, who knows what the next move will be? While some of us cannot let go...
WRITTEN by JOHN MORRIS Opportunities in paradise I love Jason Bourne movies. It’s one of those series that, when channel surfing, you just have to stop and watch until the end, no matter where you jump in. My favorite is The Bourne Identity. I especially like the ending, when Jason shows up in Mykonos, Greece, surprising Marie who is running a shop that rents scooters to tourists. If you...
WRITTEN by JOHN MORRIS Bringing your pet to Roatan Let's face it, animals are a big part of our lives. Many who are moving to Roatan or considering it, wonder if they can bring their beloved pets. After all, our pets are part of the family, right? Basically you need to figure it out with the airlines and it is fairly easy to “import” your pet here. Contact a veterinarian on the island,...
WRITTEN by JOHN MORRIS How to make your island dreams a reality Real estate on Roatan is booming… Dating back to the 1960s, the island has been a draw for scuba divers due to the fantastic array of marine life found here on this hemisphere’s largest barrier reef… the second largest in the world. Today with more and more cruise ships adding Roatan to their ports of call… and...
WRITTEN by JOHN MORRIS How to buy a car on Roatan When I lived in the States, I detested TV commercials, except of course, for the ones during Super Bowl. Then the ability to freeze live TV became possible and I relished taking a break, grabbing a snack and returning to fast forward through all the dumb ads. Now after living on the island for 10 years, I have to admit I find the adverts...
WRITTEN by JOHN MORRIS Last year, my wife Barbara and I were looking for a new series to watch on Netflix. Yes, we do get Netflix here along with Hulu and Amazon Prime thanks to VPNs and smart DNS proxy. If you do not know what I am talking about, move to Roatan and you will quickly learn! Nothing new appealed to us – we must be the only two on the planet that have not watched Game of Thrones...
Written by John Morris One of the things I love the most about Roatan is the diversity of the expat community on the island. I have no idea how many countries are represented here, but certainly most of the Americas, a good chunk of Europe as well as our friends from down under have made Roatan their home. So why is this good? Obviously, it is educational to learn about other countries and their...