.... avoid rental cars (read diatribes where several of us Roatan fans agree that driving any vehicle there is ill advised).
That was me saying that.
While not as seasoned as some I have been driving around Roatan for over ten years, .... so I do not know where all this horse**** about renting comes from...
I'm pretty sure
RTB is a very well seasoned driver- and he has a great advantage... he pretty-well lives there. The road surface is undergoing constant change, but after a while you learn where the bumps and holes are, where the highest concentration of other drivers are who are trying to get you- you begin to anticipate the jabberwocky world of
Roatan's Rules of the Road.
I have frolicked through the lower level legal system of Honduras for 3x as many years, with only a couple of higher crimes on the mainland. Those results may vary~ in that there is very limited predictability in the adjudicated outcome of any similar given set of facts.
What makes driving in Roatan especially a bad idea:
1) the roads and
2) the other drivers.
That would be about it.
These roads are unlighted, unstriped, not reflectored, have speed bumps that could flip an H1 Hummer, craters that could swallow same. The guard rails are amusing in that most are rotted and covered in vines... makes em slippery.
Consider the typical rental vehicle in the Caribbean. The Sun has destroyed the wiper blades, the headlights are misaligned (why is that?) and they are tippy. Now take that typical Caribbean vehicle and think about it having lived the last 3 years in Honduras. Delightful. Sure, you may get a fairly new one, but really now- how's your luck been running so far? Win the lottery have you?
The other drivers are really more an issue of other moving objects (animal, vegetable, mineral, indeterminate) which you are very likely to see with alarming frequency along these increasingly busy street.
None of these other objects (people, vehicles, chickens) have ever read "Rules of the Road" and simply do not see how their actions might have any effect on what might happen to someone else.
A beautiful story.... My pal is heading SW along the Roatan Autobahn and he is now turning left at the intersection to go into French Harbour. He's flashers are working and activated. He's even got one of those flashers in the side mirror. Quite the hi-tech system.
He's not ready to make that left turn- still oncoming traffic, but there's the break, he slowly makes the left turn. He sees a flash on his left. A motorcycle was passing on the left (could never have made a left turn at his speed) and smashed into the truck's left hand mirror. Before the motorcyclist smacked a power pole (they will put them in the most gosh-darn places: including on the pavement), before that, he hit and killed a dog.
He had enough island experience to know that he was going to have to pay, no matter what. Best to keep the middleman out of this (the court structure) so he got the motorcycle fixed by giving him $350 for what prolly cost him $75, gave the guy $50 for medical expenses. And then he got to understand what a $350 dog looked like.
Can you imagine what it cost to replace that pickup truck side mirror with the flashing arrow in it? In Honduras?
A hired driver might not suit your needs depending on where you are staying, but if it is an option, you really can't have more fun letting someone else deal with this craziness.
