ST. HELENE ISLAND
the island of Saint Helene, Saint Helene is located on the eastern tip of roatan, bay island, Honduras. it is known as Santa Elena in Spanish, and to it inhabitants it is mostly known as {Helene}. Helene is an island belonging to the municipality of José Santos Guardiola in the department of Islas de la Bahía in the Caribbean Sea in the north of the Central American country of Honduras. It is located west of Barbareta Island, Morat island and Guanaja and east of Roatán Island, just north of Diamond rock. SAINT HELENE is separated by a 15 meters wide mangroves canal from roatan (which is why it is only accessible by boat)..
St. Helena Island, although very small, is a natural beauty. Surrounded by turquoise blue waters, white sand beaches, unrivalled tropical climate, virgin forest with exotic plants and birds, mangrove forest, history and living culture, coral reefs and stunning sites for diving and snorkeling.It is the perfect place to escape the hustle and bustle of the city, be in direct contact with nature and do outdoor activities or practice water sports.
Some of its local lil (barrios) are separated by names like rocky point - bentleybay - bottom bight - top bight - the point - sico - mangrove bight, bob bay & red cleff. everyone on Helene knows eachother very well, the people here are very nice and friendly. there are 4 churches on Helene/ adventist, - pentecostal - methodist - and church of god. and there is two spanish school. one on the north side, and one on the south side, and one English belingual school.
The Island population
the population is aprox 1500 people
the island is populated by 800 to 900 people and they are Creole, English-speaking islanders.
The first settlers on Helene were the Alvanzer, Bonner and Warren families from Jamaica, Ross,
Bowman, Kelly (Alphonso),Forbes and Rich from Grand Cayman. Bapti
LIFE ON HELENE
Lifestyle
If you are interested in the local life on Roatan, make sure to pay a visit to the lovely SAINT HELENE. Helene is more like the old Carribean lifestyle the way the islander usto live before the BAY ISLAND become a top tourism destination a treasury destination you'll still find people baking bush cake in old outdoor mud stove today, like cassava cake, banana, pumking, corn cake , coconut bread. and making our islander usefull Coconut oil enjoying the making of the amazing mango jam.
Helene didn't never have that much, good business, no good job or alot of places to go but helenians still live a joyfull live with entertaiment like.. playing dominoes, sit down and night, guest riddle, eat boil crabs, eat mango and talks jokes..
The people of Helene retained there income of fishing farming, and growing crops such as plantains, apple bananas, sweet potatoes, cassava, water melon, sweet corns, and wongla ( and baking. Raising Cow, Hog etc.
Harvest
THE MAYPOLE
&
THE PLAT POLE DANCE
Holiday times are when the real celebrations of the West Indian culture of Helene begins. The maypole and platpole are popular activities in the summer as we know the maypole was an invention from the british countries as a celebration. it was a celebration for the beggining of the spring,
The maypole is a tradition going back to the 16th century. It traditionally appears in Germanic countries..but in the modern days it is more popular in countries such as: Germany; Sweden; Austria; England; the Czech Republic; Hungary; Slovakia; Slovenia; and Finland. where they usually do maypole dancing in the spring!
in Helene we does this every year during the month of may. we cut a pole and tie a bunch of snacks on it, candie,chips,fruit,etc and then we dig a hole and plants the tree into that hole then we get together with friends make a circle play games and start to move around the tree singing and dancing some of the famouse maypole sound like (london bridge is fallig down)
THE CAVE SYSTEM
THE PAYA INDIANS CAVES
THERE IS TUNS OF CAVES ON THE ISLAND OF ST HELENE
WHEN CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS DISCOVER THE BAY ISLAND IN 1502
THE PAYA INDIANS WERE HERE IN THAT TIME.
WE KNOW THAT THE PAYA INDIANS WHO WERE HERE WHEN CHRISTOPHER COLOMBUS ARRIVED IN 1502 THEY USE THESE CAVES FOR SHELTER AND WE ALSO KNOW THAT THE PIRATE USED THEM BCUZ WE FIND ARTIFACT IN THE CAVES ALSO, pirate bottle, jade beads,jar,,clay pipes, these things are still being discover on Helene today
you can still find in the Bay Islands many pirate artifacts like an ancient rhum bottle from the 17th century. pottery jar from the 16th, jade beans, many of these things are still being discover in St Helene today.
Mitchell Hedges was archaeologist. he was one of the famous explorer in the bay island. he was One of the first people to ever find buried treasure on Roatan
he did alot of exploring around the Bay Islands back in the 1920s and 30s.
Mitchell Hedges made several other discoveries which could be more important in the archaeological world then the discover of pirate treasure. One of Hedges' favourite places on the earth was the Island of St Helene Island