Where the heck is that, you ask? Well, Guanaja is a small island in Central America, located about forty miles off the Honduran coast in the Caribbean Sea. Honduras shares its borders with Guatemala, Nicaragua and El Salvador. To make things even simpler, hop on a plane in Miami and in 1 hour 55 minutes you will be there! COOL! If you go via TACA airlines they even serve food and drinks! My kind of travel!
Actually, there are three main islands that make up the Bay Islands of Honduras, Roatan, the largest and currently very popular on the cruise ship circuit, Utila, the smallest, known for its whale sharks and Guanaja, which is the tallest of the three, has its own fresh water source from the mountain streams and no roads for cars. There are dozens of other, smaller cays that dot the Caribbean in this island chain and many privately owned.
Guanaja, pronounced Gwa-nah-ha. I first heard of this Bay Island about five years ago. Recently I began researching the possibilities of retirement there. Let's face it folks, you do not want to outlive your money!
The Baby Boom generation, born between 1946 and 1964, are a new generation of retirees. The Boomers want adventure, they want bang for their retirement buck and many are willing to seek out retirement in a country other than the United States to find it.
If you want to lead a fairly active lifestyle you might want to go white water rafting, hiking, fishing, scuba diving or snorkeling. The Bay Islands are surrounded by the world's second largest coral reef and the pristine water of the Caribbean Sea. Maybe you want to slow down a bit, Honduran beaches, waterfalls, lakes, and cloud forests provide beautiful settings for spas and retreats.
Prices are quite reasonable for property on Guanaja, it seems that this little tropical gem has not yet been discovered by the masses, so much the better for us! Property taxes are so low that it is almost embarrassing. A two hundred thousand dollar home will run you less than two hundred dollars a year, YIKES! Sign me up!
Need a little help at your hacienda so you can enjoy your retirement years? Have you considered a cook or a gardener? This type of worker will only set you back about eight dollars a day US. The average American can live "large" with a small pension of $1,000-1,500 a month!
Medical care is located in Savannah Bight located on the island or a clinic is a five minute boat ride to Bonacca Town. For Emergencies, you have a state of the art hospital in La Ceiba on the mainland, forty miles away; most of the doctors there have been trained in the United States or Cuba.
As the Baby Boom generation reaches retirement, social security is uncertain and we know that our new "fixed" incomes will not really cover the increasing costs to live in the US in the style to which we have become accustomed. The more I research, the more I think that Guanaja Honduras, truly is a Bay Island Paradise.