Guanaja’s Fierce Fervor to Remain: Modern Day War for the Bay Islands

Guanaja Defense Book Two offered by owner, Lance Starr of Star Resort, Guanaja, a Bay Island

Vanna and I were co-owners of the resort, seconded as needed by Roberto Fernandez, a Honduran I had first met in the University Dorm. I had gone to Honduras with him for Spring break while others went to Miami. He’d had enough beer with me and my roommate to know my dreams, and his. On this trip with his father supervising, he bought a reef shrimp farm and dolphin riding show.

They also had scouted this island, Guanaja, for the Lance Starr Resort for advanced Scuba Diving. A foreigner buying land in a country faces a momentous challenge. The fact that Roberto’s Dad had been in government service for years before the cartels gave me the good luck to buy it all. Roberto had power of attorney for any window dressing in the ownership documents. It was not the enterprise’s operating understanding. He was a diver, shrimp, not a tourist. He backed me in a short-term emergency, or when I had to go to Frankfurt for Mercedes. It was the genius of my college roommate, Greg, along with my degree in metals and plastics allowed me to develop the resort. A patent payout from Mercedes for a futuristic dashboard saved me from bankrupting my parents. Greg imagined I designed. Little did we know of the life-and-death struggle against the cartel required to keep the resort viable. Before finalizing the purchase I spoke with the resort on the south side of the island. They had been open for three years before I started construction. They played down the reality of the Cartel. A year after we finished the bungalows, and the restaurant, and bought a ramp boat, the first raid erupted. This book shows the skirmishes, the organization of a push-back group, and the blow that sent Vanna and I to Croatia and Rab Island in the Adriatic. A floating suburb captain, a local fisherman and tour operator, a Nepali retired military officer, Roberto, and the nude owner of Unclad.com came together with Vanna and me and fought intermittently for months, then years. The chance that Vanna and I would actually live to the end of this fell with the probability below comfort. We sold to Roberto and his new Peruvian wife and moved on to the Adriatic where there is no Cartel but other breathtaking journeys to face.

Lance Starr