The Bay Islands of Honduras are east of Belize and north of mainland Honduras in the Caribbean Sea. The islands exist peacefully like a country of their own, void of mainland issues and violence. Tourism is not only embraced, it’s their only hope. Guanaja is slowly developing a sustainable tourist industry and Fly Fish Guanaja is leading the way.
Guanaja
The crown Jewel
Guanaja is the most remote Bay Island located 43 miles off the north coast of Honduras and 8 miles from Roatan.
It is know as the “Green Island” of Honduras, the most mountainous and lush of all the Bay Islands with unlimited natural spring water.
Population is only 5,500 people and spread out in a few local fishing villages.
It is know as the “Green Island” of Honduras, the most mountainous and lush of all the Bay Islands with unlimited natural spring water.
Population is only 5,500 people and spread out in a few local fishing villages.
LITTLE HAS CHANGED ON THIS UNSPOILED REFUGE.......
Little has changed on this unspoiled refuge since Christopher Columbus sailed here in 1503. Swaying pines, dense rain forests, lush mountains, sandy beaches and blossoming orchids welcome minimalists to the “Island of Pines.”
The island of Guanaja is jaw dropping gorgeous. Lush green mountains of jungle tower over the crystalline Caribbean in its most glorious blues and greens imaginable. It is paradise beyond common knowledge, a mountainous Caribbean Island, with mostly zero development, miles and miles of untouched beach and wilderness, a rarity in a developing world. It’s closest neighbor Roatan has the same terrain, but littered with development.
Hopefully you are able to visit many places on this Earth during your life, if you are one of the lucky ones, then Guanaja should be on your list. The fishing is phenomenal, we have hosted the cherished memories of countless new saltwater anglers mixed with countless veterans. Our permit and bones are bigger than average and we compete with any Caribbean fishing experience.
Wether you are brand new at fly fishing, or combing the Earth for every spot permit and bonefish live, we are a highlighted experience on anyone’s journey. The fishing is on the surface, literally and metaphorically. We cast to tailing fish, yes, but it’s just the activity that brings us to one of the most beautiful places on Earth, sharing it with some of the most genuine people you will every meet.
The diving around Guanaja is one of the Bay Islands best kept secrets. The reef is part of the Meso- American Reef which is the second largest reef in the world and is one of the best places to learn, explore and advance your diving skills. Unlike Roatan and Utila, Guanaja is almost void of tourists and the dive sites truly are your own. From exploring wrecks like the Jado Trader and Don Enrique, to wall dives like the Gorgonian and Black Rock Canyon, you’ll find Guanaja diving is an amazing experience.There are 50+ named dive sites in Guanaja, a few secret and more being discovered daily. Explore the lesser visited protected coral reef which is home to critters like nudibranchs, crustaceans and seahorses. The area offers sublime diving and snorkeling with a good number of pelagics - sharks and sea turtles are most prevalent in this part of the Bay Islands.
Never has having so much fun helped so many people. By visiting and booking with Fly Fish Guanaja; you are supporting the best jobs in the history of Guanaja. You become part of a bigger purpose that has brought Guanaja’s first hospital, computer labs in schools, and regrown a devastated mangrove forest.
The island of Guanaja is jaw dropping gorgeous. Lush green mountains of jungle tower over the crystalline Caribbean in its most glorious blues and greens imaginable. It is paradise beyond common knowledge, a mountainous Caribbean Island, with mostly zero development, miles and miles of untouched beach and wilderness, a rarity in a developing world. It’s closest neighbor Roatan has the same terrain, but littered with development.
Hopefully you are able to visit many places on this Earth during your life, if you are one of the lucky ones, then Guanaja should be on your list. The fishing is phenomenal, we have hosted the cherished memories of countless new saltwater anglers mixed with countless veterans. Our permit and bones are bigger than average and we compete with any Caribbean fishing experience.
Wether you are brand new at fly fishing, or combing the Earth for every spot permit and bonefish live, we are a highlighted experience on anyone’s journey. The fishing is on the surface, literally and metaphorically. We cast to tailing fish, yes, but it’s just the activity that brings us to one of the most beautiful places on Earth, sharing it with some of the most genuine people you will every meet.
The diving around Guanaja is one of the Bay Islands best kept secrets. The reef is part of the Meso- American Reef which is the second largest reef in the world and is one of the best places to learn, explore and advance your diving skills. Unlike Roatan and Utila, Guanaja is almost void of tourists and the dive sites truly are your own. From exploring wrecks like the Jado Trader and Don Enrique, to wall dives like the Gorgonian and Black Rock Canyon, you’ll find Guanaja diving is an amazing experience.There are 50+ named dive sites in Guanaja, a few secret and more being discovered daily. Explore the lesser visited protected coral reef which is home to critters like nudibranchs, crustaceans and seahorses. The area offers sublime diving and snorkeling with a good number of pelagics - sharks and sea turtles are most prevalent in this part of the Bay Islands.
Never has having so much fun helped so many people. By visiting and booking with Fly Fish Guanaja; you are supporting the best jobs in the history of Guanaja. You become part of a bigger purpose that has brought Guanaja’s first hospital, computer labs in schools, and regrown a devastated mangrove forest.
There is a way of life and community of people in Guanaja that would challenge any advantage the first world has over the 3rd.
Peaceful, happy, and close to family, whats more important than that? The laid back Caribbean pace mixed with it’s sea faring island people make Guanaja a place that years could slip by like peaceful minutes.
GUANAJA IS FOR EVERYONE
FAMILIES, COUPLES, KIDS, ANGLERS, DIVERS, NATURE ENTHUSIASTS
FAMILIES, COUPLES, KIDS, ANGLERS, DIVERS, NATURE ENTHUSIASTS
BY ASSOCIATION YOU ARE LOVED, and THAT makes a vacation worth taking.
The depth of the Guanaja Experience is life changing, impossible to beat or even describe.
WE YOU TO COME SEE FOR YOURSELF.
The depth of the Guanaja Experience is life changing, impossible to beat or even describe.
WE YOU TO COME SEE FOR YOURSELF.
A brief history
The first inhabitants of the Bay Islands were the Pech, or Paya, relatives of the Maya. They established communities and extensive trade routes in the region. Relics from their time are known as Yaba Ding Dings, which you can find today all over the islands.
Europeans explored westward and in 1502 Christopher Columbus landed on Guanaja, naming it “Island of Pines” because of all the pine trees. He claimed it for Spain and headed toward the mainland.
Shortly after the arrival of Europeans, the Paya were decimated through slave trade and disease. Their communities ravaged, the Bay Islands went through a period of very little human settlement. Over the next few centuries of European involvement in the region, both the English and Spanish claimed the Bay Islands as their own, jockeying for this prime position as an outpost close to the mainland where ships could layover for supplies and safety.
Through centuries of fighting both English and Spanish left their mark on Guanaja, Roatan, and Utila. Between the Spanish, English, and regular visits by pirates, the Bay Islands experienced major cultural variety between the 1500s and the 1800s. In 1852, the English formally claimed the Bay Islands a British colony.
The formal claim was short-lived as the British instead opted to claim British Honduras (Belize) and concede the Bay Islands to Honduras. In 1861, the Bay Islands officially became a department of Honduras.
Europeans explored westward and in 1502 Christopher Columbus landed on Guanaja, naming it “Island of Pines” because of all the pine trees. He claimed it for Spain and headed toward the mainland.
Shortly after the arrival of Europeans, the Paya were decimated through slave trade and disease. Their communities ravaged, the Bay Islands went through a period of very little human settlement. Over the next few centuries of European involvement in the region, both the English and Spanish claimed the Bay Islands as their own, jockeying for this prime position as an outpost close to the mainland where ships could layover for supplies and safety.
Through centuries of fighting both English and Spanish left their mark on Guanaja, Roatan, and Utila. Between the Spanish, English, and regular visits by pirates, the Bay Islands experienced major cultural variety between the 1500s and the 1800s. In 1852, the English formally claimed the Bay Islands a British colony.
The formal claim was short-lived as the British instead opted to claim British Honduras (Belize) and concede the Bay Islands to Honduras. In 1861, the Bay Islands officially became a department of Honduras.
Guanaja Facts:
- Location – 43 miles off the north coast of Honduras and 8 miles from Roatan.
- Size – about 3×11 miles
- Population – about 5,500 total of which the majority lives on Bonacca
- Climate – Year-round temperatures hover around 80 with the rainy season starting in October and usually lasting until December or January
- Where to find the locals – 3 villages called Bonacca, Mangrove Bight, and Savannah Bight
- Vegetation – Lush, mountainous, Open, dry, deciduous woodlands and temperate grasslands are spread throughout the interior highland basins and valleys, low valleys and on lower mountains, are broad belts of dense evergreen broad-leaved forests with many species of large trees, including pine, mahogany, lignum vitae, Spanish cedar, balsa, rosewood, ceiba, sapodilla, and castilloa rubber. Mangroves are very prevalent throughout the island.
- Highest Peak – one peak rises to almost 1,400 feet
- Activities – diving (40 + dive sites of Guanaja), snorkeling, deep sea and flats fishing, hiking, waterfall trekking, relaxing on any of the beautiful
HISTORY OF SETTLERS ON GUANAJA
In 1502 Columbus landed on Guanaja at Solado Beach and called it Isla de Los Pinos (Isle of Pines) although it already had a name, Guanaca, used by the natives that inhabited it. This name appears as early as 1511 on a map drawn by Peter Martyr but it later was corrupted by English pirates, privateers and settlers and was pronounced Bonacca. There has been other names for the island over the years before the Bay Islands were turned over to Honduras as the English, the Dutch and the Spaniards modified the name to their liking.
Upon gaining possession of the Bay Islands the Honduran government made Guanaja the official name of the island but the residents kept the old name for as long as they could and older inhabitants throughout the islands still call it Bonacca. The main settlement is called The Cay, an abbreviation of Lower Cays, the original name. It was first settled by the Haylocks who had moved to the two little cays that lay about a half kilometre off the south shore of the main island to get rid of the flies that plagued them during calm nights. They eventually stayed and later deeded the southernmost cay (Hog Cay) to the Kirkconnells. Many other families, among others the Boddens, the Phillips and the Woods, came later and by the 1880s a thriving community had developed.
The village of Savana Bight was founded by families from Olancho; they were the Escalantes, the Peraltas, and the Zunigas. Later the Watlers from the Cayman Islands took up residence there as well. Later on and also from Grand Cayman came the Tatums, the Merrens, the Bennetts, the Forbes and others who set up residence east of Savana Bight, calling the area East End, while the Parchmonts settled in some of the upper Cays.
The first families to settle in North East Bight were the Ebanks, the Hydes and the Greenwoods. Angelo Elwin, son of the first magistrate of the Bay Island who resided in Roatan, was the first person to settle on the upper north side of the island. Elwin's bride was a Moore and three or four of her brothers followed her from Barbarat to Bonacca. The Moores like the Elwins had come to the Bay Islands from Belize. Unlike other settlers, Angelo Elwin was in possession of a deed signed by the authorities in Roatan which granted him the land between Michael's Rock and the lower end of the Bay. The Moores acquired properties from Elvin and built their homes in what is now called Mangrove Bight. They were joined later by the Powerys and much later by the Johnsons and the Jacksons.
Upon gaining possession of the Bay Islands the Honduran government made Guanaja the official name of the island but the residents kept the old name for as long as they could and older inhabitants throughout the islands still call it Bonacca. The main settlement is called The Cay, an abbreviation of Lower Cays, the original name. It was first settled by the Haylocks who had moved to the two little cays that lay about a half kilometre off the south shore of the main island to get rid of the flies that plagued them during calm nights. They eventually stayed and later deeded the southernmost cay (Hog Cay) to the Kirkconnells. Many other families, among others the Boddens, the Phillips and the Woods, came later and by the 1880s a thriving community had developed.
The village of Savana Bight was founded by families from Olancho; they were the Escalantes, the Peraltas, and the Zunigas. Later the Watlers from the Cayman Islands took up residence there as well. Later on and also from Grand Cayman came the Tatums, the Merrens, the Bennetts, the Forbes and others who set up residence east of Savana Bight, calling the area East End, while the Parchmonts settled in some of the upper Cays.
The first families to settle in North East Bight were the Ebanks, the Hydes and the Greenwoods. Angelo Elwin, son of the first magistrate of the Bay Island who resided in Roatan, was the first person to settle on the upper north side of the island. Elwin's bride was a Moore and three or four of her brothers followed her from Barbarat to Bonacca. The Moores like the Elwins had come to the Bay Islands from Belize. Unlike other settlers, Angelo Elwin was in possession of a deed signed by the authorities in Roatan which granted him the land between Michael's Rock and the lower end of the Bay. The Moores acquired properties from Elvin and built their homes in what is now called Mangrove Bight. They were joined later by the Powerys and much later by the Johnsons and the Jacksons.