Coons in Helene: Some of my New Favorite Things

Friday, July 15, 2011

Some of my New Favorite Things

*BUTTPACK: The buttpack is sadly out of fashion at this moment, but it is one of mankind's great inventions. I can throw a half gallon of water (a juice bottle, nothing fancy), my netbook, food, and other whatsits to keep me self contained for a full day. No strain on shoulders, no nothing. Its like a super-powered utility belt!
*DEET: I buy Off! in lotion form by the case. It is expensive but without it the sand flies make life hell at night.
*GLACIER GLASSES: These mothers are the real deal glacier glasses. Dark as night, leather siding, and wraparound ear jobbies. Glass polarized lenses. I thought they would be too dark, but out on the water they are perfect. And they don't make you look like a snowboarder.
*ARMY SURPLUS SUN HAT, TYPE II: I use the neck strap to tie up the sides most of the time. But its great to have the 360 degree brim when you need it. I only do that when necessary, as having the sides up makes me look like I just walked out of the Louisiana Bayou.
*DOC MARTEN LOW TOP STEEL TOE BOOTS: They are just plain old thick leather with a giant sole. I don't care how hot it is, when I've got serious work to do, flip flops (thongs, we used to call them), just don't cut it.

On a side note, there are lots of thrift shops on the island now. Whatever doesn't get sold at Goodwill in the U.S. ends up in third world countries at for-profit used goods stores. Normally I would say that would be bad for the Honduran economy, but since almost nothing is produced in Honduras for Hondurans, I don't think it hurts. But that is for another post.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...: Love that you are bringing the fanny pack back to the scene!! Sweet mustache as well. Kind of a Helene Village People ensemble medley thingy. Dig the whole thing!!!

Jon's little sis and beau are landing on the 7/25. Gunna try and hit BJs for a 7/27 (noonish) pick-up. Expect a phone call.

Later,
Z; July 20, 2011 at 4:55 PM
peeeps said...: I hope more than anything that is your real mustache.; August 18, 2011 at 2:15 PM

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Basic Helene/Roatan Information

Information on the Paya Indians: Link Length 60 km (37 mi) Width 8 km (5 mi) Largest city Coxen Hole (pop. 5,100) Demographics Population 30,000 Ethnic groups Caracoles, Garifuna Roatán, located between the islands of Útila and Guanaja, is the largest of Honduras' Bay Islands. It is approximately37 miles long, and less than 5 miles across at its widest point. Located near the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef, the largest barrier reef in the Caribbean Sea, second largest worldwide after Australia's Great Barrier Reef. The easternmost quarter of the island is separated by a convoluted channel through the mangroves that is 15 meters wide on the average. This section is called Helene, or Santa Elena in Spanish. Satellite islands at the eastern end are Morat, Barbaretta, and Pigeon Cay. The most populous town of the island is Coxen Hole, capital of Roatán municipality, located in the southwest. Other important towns include French Harbour, West End, and Oak Ridge, the capital of Jose Santos Guardiola municipality. The pre-Columbian indigenous peoples of the Bay Islands are believed to have been related to Paya, Maya, Lenca or Jicaque, which were the cultures present on the mainland. Christopher Columbus on his fourth voyage (1502–1504) came to the islands as he visited the neighboring Bay Island of Guanaja. Soon after the Spanish began raiding the islands for slave labor. More devastating for Native American communities was exposure to Eurasian infectious diseases to which they had no immunity, such as smallpox and measles. Diseases ran in epidemics, and no indigenous people survived. Throughout European colonial times, the Bay of Honduras attracted a diverse array of individual settlers, pirates, traders and military forces, engaged in various economic activities and playing out political struggles between the European powers, chiefly Britain and Spain. In contesting with the Spanish for colonization of the Caribbean, the English occupied the Bay Islands on and off between 1550 and 1700. During this time, buccaneers found the vacated, mostly unprotected islands a haven for safe harbor and transport. English, French and Dutch pirates established settlements on the islands. They frequently raided the cumbersome Spanish cargo vessels carrying gold and other treasures from the New World to Spain. In 1797, the British defeated the Black Carib, who had been supported by the French, in a battle for control of the Windward Caribbean island of St. Vincent. Weary of their resistance to British plans for sugar plantations, the British rounded up the St. Vincent Black Carib and deported them to Roatán. The majority of Black Carib migrated to Trujillo on mainland Honduras, but a portion remained to found the community of Punta Gorda on the northern coast of Roatán. The Black Carib, whose ancestry includes Arawak and African Maroons, remained in Punta Gorda, becoming the Bay Island's first permanent post-Columbian settlers. The majority permanent population of Roatán originated from the Cayman Islands near Jamaica. They arrived in the 1830s shortly after Britain's abolition of slavery in 1838. The changes in labor force disrupted the economic structure of Caymanian culture. Caymanians were largely a seafaring culture and were familiar with the area from turtle fishing and other activities. Former Caymanian slaveholders were among the first to settle in the seaside locations throughout primarily western Roatán. Former slaves also migrated from the Cayman Islands, in larger number than planters, during the late 1830s and 1840s. Altogether, the former Caymanians became the largest cultural group on the island. For a brief period in the 1850s, Britain declared the Bay Islands its colony. In the latter half of the 19th century, the island populations grew steadily and established new settlements all over Roatán and the other islands. Settlers came from all over the world and played a part in shaping the cultural face of the island. Islanders started a fruit trade industry which became profitable. By the 1870s it was purchased by American interests, most notably the New Orleans and Bay Islands Fruit Company. Later companies, the Standard Fruit and United Fruit Companies became the foundation for modern-day fruit companies, the industry which gave Honduras the sobriquet "banana republic". The region of the Bay Islands encompasses the three major islands of Roatan, Utila, and Guanaja, and the smaller islands or keys. These people are also called "Islanders," especially locally. Over time the form of English spoken by the islanders has changed. The language differs mostly in morphology but also in pronunciation and accent and, to a lesser extent, in syntax and vocabulary, from the English of the other British Caribbean colonies. They are similar enough to be mutually intelligible. Information from Wikipedia

Coons in Helene

Friday, July 15, 2011

Some of my New Favorite Things

2 comments:

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