My School Project on Roatan

32 Questions about Roatan
By Katie Gray


1. What is the name of the country and where is it located?

33 miles off the coast of Honduras is a small island called Roatan.
Rotan is located, in central America just below Mexico.

2. How much rainfall occurs annually, is there a rainy season?

The rain season is from the middle of October to the middle of February. During the year an average of 80 inches of rain falls.

3. Are there distinct seasons? During your stay what season was it?

There are 3 different seasons. The seasons are…
Dry season is from May to November. Rainy season is from the middle of October to the middle of February. June to November is hurricane season. We were there during the rainy season.

4. What was the average temperature while you were there? What is it on an annual basis?

During our visit the temperature was around 80°-85°f or 26°-30°C.
The average annual temperature was about the same.

5. Ethnic Groups - does the community look homogenous or does it have lots of diversity?

In Rotan there is a lot of diversity. All different kinds of people live there.

6. Do most people live in small and rural towns or in big cities?

There are no big cities so they live in small and rural towns.

7. What is the average income?

The average income is about $1000 a year. 60% of the people live below the poverty line.

8. Is the Island known for a specific type of art or craft?

In the shops I see a lot of pottery and jewellery. They do Very detailed Work.

9. What kind of food are they known for?

There “top” dish is iguana. I haven’t tried it and I think it sounds gross. Almost on every menu there is lobster.


10. What are the primary industries?

The main industries are Tourism, Mining, and manufacturing.

11. How many people live in the region and country?

70, 000 people live in Roatan, Honduras.

12. What does a typical house of a local person look like?

The houses are usually on stilts. (To stay away from the sand flies and floods.) I would not want to live in the houses they look to me like they are always going to fall down.

13. Wealth Distribution - Do you see examples of very rich and very poor people, or does it look like most people have the same standard of living?

It seems like all native islanders have no money but all the people that come to live here have more money and live in big places

14. What kind of music do you hear playing

At the bars I hear mostly the same music we would hear at home. We sometimes hear Spanish music.

15. What kind of sports do the kids play?

We have only seen the kids play one sport, soccer. We have also seen the kids helping in shops and playing in the ocean.

16. Television - did they have satellite with lots of choice or not?

They had satellite where we were staying. They didn’t have a lot of choice. All the shows were in English and ones we would have back home.

17. How does the food compare to Canada?

It’s hard to find the food you are looking for in a grocery store but the restaurants have food from home.

18. What kind of Meat do you see in the grocery stores

There is 2 meters of meat counter filled with cold cuts. There is also frozen fish out of the cooler.

19. What new food did you try that you never had before

I tried chicken, french-fries, calamari, and Thai rice noodles

20. Does Dad like the wine in the country or does he drink something else?

It was very hard to find wine he liked. If he did not have wine he had rum and coke or beer.

21. What is the currency name? Do they also use $U.S.?

They use Money called lempira. They sometimes use $U.S.

22. What is the conversion to $U.S.

1 Lempira = 5 cents (U.S.)
1 $US = 19 Lempira

23. How much does it cost to buy fish and chips?

150 lempira or 7.50 U.S.

24. What are Honduras’s primary Industries?

The primary industries are Mining, Manufacturing and Tourism

25. Americanization - do you see examples of things from home?

The television we watched was satellite and it had all the same shows as we watch at home. We also had many similar foods.

26. Are there any unique animals, birds and or marine life that you saw?

While snorkelling we saw a Spotted Golden Sting ray and some Squid. We also saw a lot of tropical fish and some very colourful coral. Some of the coral looks like a big brain. While scuba diving I saw Puffer fish (not puffed up), a clam, a lobster and a crab. At Gumbalimba park we also so some iguanas and monkeys.

27. Describe the most interesting thing you saw or did.

It had to be our visit to Gumbalimba Park where we went zip-lining and saw some monkeys and some colourful but noisy macaws. I also really enjoyed snorkelling and scuba diving :)

28. What is the main language spoken?

The main language spoken is Spanish, but English and Garifuna are also used.

29. List a few key phrases and their meaning of words that you learned.

Hola- hello
Adios- good bye
Gracias – thank you
De nada – you’re welcome

30. What is the thing you will remember most about this part of the trip?

I think I will always remember when the evil monkey stole my headband breaking it and then trying to eat it!!!

31. What was the favourite activity you did on this part of the trip?

It was when we visited the monkeys and went Zip-lining.

32. Would you want to come back here again?

Definitely, I want to revisit the monkeys.