What's it like to live on an island?

[Doc]

It's tempting to move to a place like Roatan but we'll end up moving to Maui I'm sure.

Roatan was more in my price range. I got beat up pretty bad over a deal in Kanapali (sp?) Beach after the Japanese Yen puked and the Hawaiian land values dropped.

I think Roatan may be one of the last bargains. But you can't look with the assistance of an agent. Ask a local, hopefuly someone you have developed a relationship with. I bridled at the exorbitant rates the local Real Estate Sewer Sharks thought they could get away with. ($15k) To sell my last piece. I passed out flyers to the local folk and offered what top them was a kings ransom ($5k) and boy- did I get a lot of calls.

Tobago seemed lovely (plenty of fresh water, electricity piped in from oil wealthy Trinidad) but I couldn't get anything close to clear title. The Honduran govt (Roatan and the Bay Islands) just recently demanded that any and all lines and ownership be declared for ever and all time- and they have done a great job of avoiding murky titles.

There is, however, one well known clown in the Caribbean, an American, that is now on his third island that I know of- merrily reselling the same pieces of land over and over. It's everything that a 1950's Florida Land salesman dreamt of.

 

[RumBum]

I am wondering, is red meat usually hard to get on an island? I don't like fish much. Otherwise, I think Catherine's description of island life sounds like paradise.almtree:

 

[Al Mialkovsky]

Lots of investors are buying up Roatan right now. Prices have doubled in the past couple of years and are likely to double again in the next year or two. It's a sellers market right now.

 

[Doc]

No, Trippled, at least since 1998.

Red Meat? Kind of like shopping in europe, sometimes it's... a bit... runny. You can pay premium prices and get great red meat... somethimes.

 

[freefall2]

Liz we just returned from Roatan and of course like all tourists we looked at real estate. If there ever was an island where I wouldn't get tired of diving the sames sites it would be Roatan. I can't imagine returning to Vancouver Island after that.
Only thing that would keep us from moving there is the lack of civilized things, like McDonalds or movie theaters although I did see a pizza joint and a fried chicken house.
One it goes free port I am sure things will change a lot.

We love it here and every so often consider buying something but we always chicken out.

Vancouver Island is lovely and the cruising up there is extraordinary but the big draw for me is my family. I think our boss may buy the dock here so I'm sure we'll be back to Roatan when they get sick of the PNW and Alaska.

I do miss a movie theater. We had a terrific one when we lived in Cozumel. Modern, great sound and on Monday nights usually just half a dozen people in there. I haven't seen a movie on a big screen in about 3 years!

Every few months we pick up a sack of fried chicken from Bojangles, it's great!

The bad part, is everyone knows your business. if your husband shows up once a month, they know you are having problems, and everybody talks. I think that may be the only downside--there is no anonymity. NONE.

Yes, I forgot to mention that. We keep a very low profile here after some really horrifying experiences in Cozumel so we are always surprised when stories get back to us. Whenever anybody starts a sentence with "I heard that you...." it is guaranteed to be inacurate and most likely funny.

There is, however, one well known clown in the Caribbean, an American, that is now on his third island that I know of- merrily reselling the same pieces of land over and over. It's everything that a 1950's Florida Land salesman dreamt of.

I'm sure! Our favorite place to ride our dirt bikes in Cozumel was an abandoned development like that. They put in some cobblestone roads and sold each lot several times before sneaking off with the deposit money.

I am wondering, is red meat usually hard to get on an island?

Meat is not hard to get on this island. There is a terrific meat store that sells Honduran Beef as well as imported American. I buy the Honduran filet for my husband and he says it's the best he's ever eaten. There is also a restaurant supplier on the island that brings in meat and lots of other goodies and you don't have to buy enormous quantities. That's where I get special yummies like potstickers, rack of lamb, 5lb bags of feta cheese. One of these days I'm going to have my camera with me when they are butchering a cow on the side of the road strung up between two trees just east of CoCoView. When we lived in Cozumel and Isla Mujeres we made trips over to Cancun to buy meat, cheese some produce and fresh milk (the boxed milk makes me gag) at Costco. Cozumel also had a good restaurant supplier that we used. 3 refrigerators and 3 sub zero freezers come in handy sometimes.

I forgot to mention the biggest drawback. The price of power. Our monthly power and water bill runs about $1600 US! The first month it was a lot more but we shut down the 3 deep freezes, one of the refrigerators, 2 ice makers and a bar fridge and it dropped by $600 a month. I'm so glad it's not our money!!

Another huge plus with this island is that gringos can have concealed weapon permits!

We went to a security meeting and were told that we should arm ourselves, shoot to kill intruders and dispose of the bodies. So we have a neighborhood watch program. In fact, one our our neighbors with a telescope may be watching me type this.

 

[cummings66]

Another huge plus with this island is that gringos can have concealed weapon permits!

We went to a security meeting and were told that we should arm ourselves, shoot to kill intruders and dispose of the bodies.

OK, I've got to ask. Are you serious?

Is crime that much of a problem there that this is expected?

 

[freefall2]

I don't think there is any crime against tourists here, I haven't heard of any. There were a number of armed home invasions several months ago, targeting expats. They caught the group that was doing them. The problem is that the island is booming while the majority of the people on the mainland live in poverty. They show up here every day looking for jobs and there aren't enough yet. There has been an overhaul of the police and local prosecutors. It used to be that if you wanted the police you had to go pick them up because they didn't have any money to put fuel in their truck. Now there is more of a presence.

We've always had to be very security conscious on the boat and while a lot of countries expect cruisers to have guns, they also expect them to be locked in a cabinet. This is the first time we've been issued a license to carry in a foreign country.

 

[ItsBruce]

They sent my step-son to Oahu. We enjoyed visiting him there. After about 8 months, he started complaining. He said he was going "island happy." He complained about being surrounded by water. They fixed that. They sent him to Kirkook for 14 months. Now he's back in Oahu. Now, he likes being surrounded by water.

 

[drbill]

The bad part, is everyone knows your business. if your husband shows up once a month, they know you are having problems, and everybody talks. I think that may be the only downside--there is no anonymity. NONE.

It was the same in ST. Thomas. I love islands because you can get to know all the people and all the politics and actually have an effect on things. (Big fish, Little Pond)

Catherine hits the nail on the head, at least for Catalina where I've lived almost all of the last 37 years.

However, the "island experience" will be radically different in different types of islands: US vs elsewhere, large vs small, densely populated vs small population, easy access to mainland vs long distances...

I think it is too hard to generalize about "all" islands, only be specific about certain groups of islands.

 

[Cacia]

Bill, you were living there when I was! we could be talking about wild boars, all kinds of stuff. There are certain things that small islands share in common though, don't you think? It was good in some ways for me, the everyone knowing everything, it kept me "in check".


Oh, since we are sort of talking property and such, I wanted to mention that some one I know is grabbing up property in Guam. he says it has been sort of depressed economically but that the base in Okinawa is moving to Guam and the financial implications are huge. Has anyone heard this? He says hotels that were bought for 3million or so a year ago have tripled in anticipation of the base change.