BY Canada.com

Roatan: On the edge of discovery
Scuba diving is a popular activity on the beautiful reefs of Honduras' Bay Islands. A: It's tropical with mountains and crystal clear waters. ...

What's it like to live in a far-off place most of us see only on a vacation? Foreign Correspondence is an interview with someone who lives in a spot you may want to visit.

Dino Silvestri, 32, is chef and owner of Bida Restaurant & Bar on Roatan -- an island in the western Caribbean. He was born on mainland Honduras and raised on Roatan, the largest Honduran Bay island.

Q: What does your island look like?
A: It's tropical with mountains and crystal clear waters. There are two gorgeous beaches on the island, which is one of most beautiful places to dive and snorkel. After Australia's Great Barrier Reef, it is rated as one of the best diving places in the world for small coral.

Q: Are there seasons?

A: It's sunny for 300 days of the year; it rains in November and a couple days in December. Toward the end of August, we start getting a little rain, usually in early morning or late at night. The rest of the day, it's sunshine.

The temperature can get up to 90 (32 C) in June and July; 80 to 85 (27 to 30 C) in fall.

There's a lot of humidity.

Q: Is food on the island the same as on the Central American mainland?

A: Completely different. We base our food on seafood -- fish, shrimp and lobster -- instead of rice, beans and that kind of mainland stuff. We use yucca and plantains. The fish is grouper, red snapper and satin eye -- a deepwater fish that's in the grouper family. It has no fat and is really tasty. At Bida we also work with tuna and mackerel when they're in season.

On the island we tend to use a little more spice than on the mainland. We mix things with tropical fruits and hot peppers.

Q: Who visits Roatan?

A: Mostly foreigners. Our economy has been based on diving for many years. Most are from Canada and the United States. Now it's a bit of a mix. There's a direct flight here from Italy, so we have about 150 Italians coming in every week. We also get people from the mainland.

Q: When is diving season?

A: It's pretty much year-round. Even in November and December, when it rains, you still get good visibility.

Q: Where do you like to dive on Roatan?

A: You can see more fish on the west side; on the east, you can see different types of coral, like sponge corals.

The fish and corals are protected; you can't hunt them when diving, though you can troll or deep-water fish.

Q: Should you bring your diving equipment or can you rent it?

A: You can rent it. All the facilities, hotels and dive shops rent. It costs $100 to $150 for the full gear and the dive, including the boat. It's possible to find cheaper deals.

Q: Who originally lived on Roatan?

A: The Payas Indians. The Bay Islands -- three islands and cays -- used to be a British colony. (They were ceded to Honduras in the 1860s.) You can see the ethnic mix of the islands: black people of African descent, British and Indian.

Q: Which is spoken -- English or Spanish?

A: Both. The first language on the island is English.

Q: Are the bay islands different from each other?

A. Guanaja has a variety of rain forests. There are even pine trees and waterfalls there. It's really beautiful. Utila is famous for diving, what with the whale sharks. People who come to Roatan do day trips to Utila.

Q: How do you get from one to another?

A: By boat.

Q: Are there hotels on all the islands?

A: Yes.

Q: Which island is most developed?

A: Roatan. Still, it's really laid-back.

We're just getting on the Caribbean tourism bandwagon; they just started building big hotels. Westin is coming in, for example.

So you can still find untouched nature here. It's a place to have a quiet vacation -- there are no discos, nightclubs or anything like that. Just a couple bars, restaurants and resorts.

It's not overdeveloped yet. We're trying to keep it this way.

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