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Short-Term & Long-Term Rental Apartments and houses are available for short-term and long-term rental. They can be very expensive or inexpensive, depending on the location and the amenities provided. If you rent from an individual, there will most likely be no lease signed. People love the freedom of the islands and some of them think nothing of throwing you out without notice. Especially when the high season approaches: a higher revenue can be an irresistible incentive! In any case, some important considerations are:
There are also other considerations if you are planning to rent from private owners, such as:
Faucet water is not proper for consumption. You need to buy bottled water to drink. You can get one or five-gallon water bottles quite easily. For other uses, most houses have cisterns that get filled by some community water pipe, usually from a collective well, often complemented by rain water coming from the gutter on the roof. Make sure that the cistern is large enough for your needs and verify how it is replenished. There are several wells on the island that serve various locations. It sometimes happens that a house at the end of the line does not get its cistern refilled, because there is not enough pressure at the end of the line. This means having to order water from a supplier. There is generally a fixed price for filling a cistern and if the cistern is small, it can become costly. If hot water is important to you, check whether there is hot water or not at the house. Not all houses have hot water. Sometimes, the hot water is provided by an on-demand contraption that may or may not be in working order. Roatan currently has a power problem. Authorities are working hard to solve the problem, but we were still plagued by occasional power failures. If you cannot afford to be without power, a generator is a must. Remember that air conditioning and water pumps do not work without power. Verify whether the electricity is included in the rental price, as it is often not. Cutting the power is one of the two instances where Hondurans are really, really fast! If utilities are not included in the rental price, the electrical bill can be paid at the bank. The lines in the bank are Loooooooong! (see below for more details on Banking) The other problem plaguing the island is brownouts. It is the opposite of a power surge and can be just as damageable for your electronic equipment. It happens is when the voltage provided by the Power company is lower than it should be, below a certain threshold. This is very damageable for anyhthing electronic and a lot of computers and computerized equipment have been damaged this year. Given all the power outages and brownouts, you must protect your equipment against both surge and brownouts. A surge protector does not protect against brownouts. You can protect against low voltage with a back-up system that includes batteries with an inverter/charger. It can be set up to kick in when the voltage is below a certain threshold and it also protects against surges. In any case, avoid plugging your electronic equipment directly in an outlet and use a surge protector. Propane Gas Some appliances work with propane gas and it is not uncommon to find that the tank is stored inside the house or apartment. Some gas tanks are also quite rusty. Living on Roatan can be an ongoing extreme sport adventure! Home Security If you plan to rent a place in an isolated area, you will probably need to hire a watchman. This will significantly increase the cost of your rent. See other critical personal safety and security aspects in the Safety Section. Relocating to the Bay Island with cats or dogs is not a problem if certain steps are carefully followed. Honduras requires the same series of pet inoculations required to enter Canada or the United States. Trying to bring birds is a bad idea because North American countries are on the bird flu list on the Internet. A lot of countries have had at least one (1) case of bird flu. Even when the one case of bird flu was found in the wild, the country’s name gets listed on the Internet as a country with bird flu. If your country is on that list, your bird will not be permitted to enter Honduras. Otherwise, the same regulations as for cats and dogs above apply to birds. Bringing a bird is not easy, but it has been done before... If you want to bring another type of pet, check with Dr Santiago Soto first (see his number in the Vetenerinarian category). He speaks English fluently. Your first step is to contact an office of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency for the latest forms if departing Canada, or the USDA if travel originates in the United States. These can also be obtained from Pet Travel, Inc for $10.00 each; order online at http://www.pettravelstore.com/store-pet-immigration-forms1.html. Be sure to indicate which country’s forms you need. Once you have the forms, take them, with your pet(s) to your veterinary in your home country to have them filled in. Many veterinarians are USDA certified and might already have the forms in their office. You must ask your vet to ensure that all shots are in order and that the animals are certified fit to travel. The forms are then returned to the government agency for signatures and official approval, or that may be done by your vet if he/she is certified by the government to do so. The veterinary examinations must be carried out no more than 10 days prior to the departure date and this will be enforced by the airline company. For your pet to enter Honduras, you must obtain an application for an import permit. Upon arrival, you will be presented with a form by the Agricultural Ministry representative at the airport customs. You will be asked to take this form with your dog or cat to the vet. The vet will sign the papers and they will be returned to the airport officials. The cost for this is $75 USD. You could also obtain the papers from the Direccion General de Ganaderia y Veterinaria (General Department of Cattle Breeding and Veterinary Services) or from the offices of SENASA in Tegucigalpa (+504-232-1096) or in San Pedro (+504-556-7689). Some people choose to have this step completed before leaving their country of origin, but if all of the other documents are in order, an import permit can be negotiated at the airport while clearing customs. All arriving animals must be examined by the local vet and their papers certified within days of their arrival. Customs will assist travelers with this or they will be given instructions on what to do. The vet on Roatan referred by the airport authorities is Dr. Santiago Soto who operates the Animal Kingdom veterinary clinic in Coxen Hole. He speaks English. Dr. Calderone from La Ceiba travels to Roatan every Wednesday and he might be able to do it. His office is in French Harbour and he speaks Spanish only. Each airline establishes its own rules about pet travel. Most will allow two in-cabin, stow-under-the-seat, economy class pets. Each pet must have its own handler and travel in a pet carrier. The best is a soft carrier and it must fit under the seat. Reserve in advance to make sure that your reservation will be withing the 2-pet per flight allowance. Get a confirmation number from the airline for your in-cabin pet reservation. You will have to pay a $100 transportation fee at the airport for your pet. The in-cabin pet is in lieu of your carry-on baggage so take that into account. Some airlines have banned in-cabin pets all together. Flights into both La Ceiba and Roatan have embargoes on animal cargo between April and September because of the heat. Be sure to check with your air carrier. The two airlines flying from North America to Roatan which seem to provide the most consistent animal travel are Delta, departing from Atlanta and Continental, flying from Houston. They have excellent information about pet traveling on their Web sites. TACA has also started to allow in-cabin pets. Because live animal cargo is always restricted by space availability, book your own and your pet's tickets well in advance of your departure date. Arrive early at the airport. Service is on a first-come, first-serve basis if the flight is overbooked. Do not try to stuff your pet into a smaller case in the hopes that airline staff will overlook the pet’s discomfort. They will not. We recommend a soft Sherpa bag for in-cabin travel. Maximum soft case carrier dimensions are: 22" L x 14" W x 9" H (56 cm L x 36 cm W x 23 cm H). Your pet has to comfortbly fit into the carrier. Animals traveling cargo should be in a crate one size larger than they normally use, with a strong door and excellent ventilation. Airlines sell special hard carriers for that purpose. Other useful information can be found at: www.travel-to-Honduras.com and www.pettravel.com. You can have some merchandise shipped with shipping companies (see the Shipping Companies section). Unless you come here as a "Pensionado", you will have to pay duties on what you bring into the country. Retired people can bring a one-time shipment duty-fee after they have obtained their residency (see the Legal Aspects section section for more details). It should be noted that books are exempt from duties, but little else. Vehicles must be no older than 7 years old to be allowed in Honduras. There are several shipping companies that ship between the United States and Honduras and some have affiliates in other countries as well, for instance Canada. They are:
There is a public postal service in Honduras, but it is not recommended for mail other than postcards. On the islands, there are no addresses as we know them. Only general directions and landmarks are used to designate a house or a business. It happens that landmarks disappear but people keep using them. This can be confusing for newcomers. We have been told that markers may be installed along the main road to make it easier for people to find locations, but no confirmation has been received to that effect. Private postal services exist to receive mail and packages from abroad. The mail and packages transit via Florida. It is also possible to send mail out through some of these services. Please see the Mail and Parcels category for more information. There are 2 courrier services that come to Roatan from international destinations. Fedex has an office in Coxen Hole on Thicket Road in the Colby's Plaza. UPS is represented by RAS XPress and their office is in the Mango Tree Center, on the main road in Coxen Hole. The other international courrier services go to the mainland only. RAS XPress and Naviera Hybur/Hyde Shipping (French harbour) in offer a mailing service with a Miami-based address where you can have your mail and magazines delivered. They will then be put on a ship (Hyde) or a plane (RAS) and brought to Roatan and delivered in the mailbox you are renting with them. RAS now offers home delivery as well. Banking on Roatan is a particular experience. After going to the bank a few times, you are awarded a Master's Degree in Patience, CUM LAUDE! When I go to the bank, I like to bring a book because it makes the 1 or 2 or 3 hour wait seem shorter. The average time is between 1.5 and 2 hours. Tip: if you go to the bank on cruise ship days, the line is a lot shorter and it shouldn't take more than an hour. There seems to be some gimmick going on with waiting lines in banks. All of a sudden, out of the blue, you see these island persons cut in front of you in various places in the line, saying that they (islander women do it most of the time) were there a while ago. You wonder where they was gone in the meantime, but that is one of the great mysteries of life (on the island). Trick: If you have to do an international wire transfer, you can cut ahead of the line and go directly to the "International Ventana", i.e. the teller taking care of wire transfers (in the HSBC Bank, formerly known as BGA). That is because there is a time limit to do wire transfers (1:00 PM). Some people in the regular line will still try to come before you thinking that you cut the line (you actually did!), but waving your transfer paper to the teller while saying that you have a wire transfer to do will make the teller tell the person to go back in line. Revenge is sweet! In order to open a bank account, you need 2 letters of recommendation from business people in the island. You can open accounts in US Dollars and Lempiras, the local currency. The USD account does not allow you to write checks and you cannot get an ATM card for it, but the Lempiras account does. There are 100 centavos per Lempira, but they are rarely used. ATM cards can be used for withdrawals only, no deposits are possible in your local accounts. If you need to withdraw money from your foreign account with your ATM, in Coxen Hole, only the Credomatic ATM machine will work with your foreign card. There are a couple of ATMs in West End, one in Coconut Tree and the other in the Dolphin Hotel, that also work with your foreign ATM card, and there are no ATMs in West Bay. Moving is an interesting experience and very inexpensive. Moving the content of a small house costs about $50. There are no moving companies per se, only hauling companies (see the Hauling Services category). These companies have mostly open flat-bed trucks with a crew, although there is at least one that has a closed truck (very useful during the rainy season!). You wonder sometimes how they will make the pile of all your household belongings stand high and upright on the open flat-bed, all the way to your new location, but they manage to do it! However, beware of the rain and pick your moving date very carefully! In order to work in Honduras, you need a work permit and to obtain a work permit, you need a residency. It should be noted that employee wages are not very high and gringos rarely get more than the local people so if you need to earn a living, it is advisable to purchase an existing business or start on. You will find more details about this in the Doing Business part of the Legal Aspects section. |
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