The Bay Islands —Roatán, Útila and Guanaja, plus the smaller islands of Barbareta, Morat, Santa Elena, the distant Swan Islands and more than 60 cays— were Columbus's first contact with Honduras: on July 30, 1502 the admiral touched Guanaja during his fourth voyage, an island he called the Isle of Pines. Originally inhabited by Pech indigenous people, the islands were incorporated into the Captaincy General of Guatemala but lay outside effective Spanish control.
Their strategic location on the route of the Fleet of the Indies made them, from the 17th century, a refuge and base for English, French and Dutch pirates. It is estimated that toward the second half of the 17th century some 5,000 pirates came to live in Roatán, among them legendary figures such as Henry Morgan, Edward Teach 'Blackbeard', Edward Low and John Coxen —from whose name Coxen Hole, the present-day capital of Roatán, would derive.
For generations, Spain and England disputed the islands; the Spanish went so far as to depopulate and recover them, but the English returned again and again, leaving an indelible imprint on the settlement and culture of the archipelago.
In the 19th century, Great Britain went so far as to formally proclaim the Colony of the Bay Islands (1852), in a struggle with the young Honduras and with the United States over control of the Central American Caribbean. The dispute was resolved with the Treaty of Managua, signed on November 28, 1859 by Charles Lennox Wyke, on behalf of the British government, and by Francisco Cruz Castro, for Honduras.
By that treaty, the Bay Islands were definitively recognized as part of Honduras, ending more than two centuries of British presence and influence in the archipelago. The effective transfer was completed in the following years, incorporating the islands into the national territory.
That long English imprint explains why on the islands a Caribbean creole English is still spoken alongside Spanish, and why much of their population professes Protestant religions and preserves Anglo-Saxon surnames and customs, in marked contrast with the rest of Honduras.
The settlement of the islands is a Caribbean mosaic. On April 12, 1797, the Garífuna people, deported by the English from the island of Saint Vincent after the Second Carib War, arrived in Roatán, at the community of Punta Gorda: of the more than 4,000 who were rounded up and shipped, a little over 2,000 survived the crossing. Most later moved to Trujillo, on the mainland, but a portion stayed and founded Punta Gorda, today the oldest Garífuna community in Honduras.
To them were added English-speaking settlers from the Cayman Islands and other Antilles in the mid-19th century, giving rise to the Anglo-Caribbean-rooted 'islanders', many of them Protestant and descended from former slaves and English colonists.
This mix of Garífuna, English-speaking islanders, Pech indigenous people and mainland ladinos makes the Bay Islands a place culturally distinct from the rest of Honduras, with its own music, food —such as coconut bread and seafood soups— and traditions tied to the sea.
The Bay Islands sit on the Mesoamerican Reef System, the world's second-largest barrier reef after Australia's. Their crystalline waters, rich in corals, sponges, tropical fish and even whale sharks, made the islands one of the most famous and affordable diving destinations on the planet, with tens of thousands of visitors a year drawn by their seabeds.
Útila is a world mecca for backpacker divers and for whale-shark watching, with diving certification prices among the lowest in the world, which has made it an obligatory stop on the traveler's route through Central America. Its reefs and its laid-back atmosphere attract young people from all over the planet.
The underwater wealth, added to the pirate and cultural heritage, makes the islands a unique case: a piece of Anglophone, coral Caribbean embedded in the coast of a Central American country.
Roatán, the largest of the islands, combines diving, white-sand beaches such as West Bay and a booming cruise tourism that has transformed it in recent decades: its modern terminals receive hundreds of thousands of cruise passengers each season, making it the main tourist destination in Honduras. Coxen Hole, French Harbour and West End are its liveliest hubs.
The mountainous Guanaja —the island Columbus called the Isle of Pines— preserves a more pristine and tranquil air; its capital is built on cays and is nicknamed the 'Venice of the Caribbean' because it is traveled by boat among canals. Útila, the smallest of the three main islands, keeps its bohemian, diving atmosphere.
Between the pirate fame, the barrier reef, the Garífuna and islander culture and the tourism boom, the Bay Islands are Honduras's great Caribbean destination and one of the most singular corners of the whole country.