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Discover the small island of Guanaja located in the pristine waters of the Caribbean forty miles off the northern coast of Honduras. This Bay Island paradise is just two hours from many of the major southern airports in the US. Bordering Guatemala, Nicaragua and El Salvador it is smack dab in the middle of Central America. Several of the major airlines service that area including TACA, American and Southwest Airlines.

The Bay Islands are made up of three large islands, Utila, Roatan and Guanaja. Utila is famous for the number of whale sharks that reside there. You can even dive with them! Roatan has several cruise ship docks and is strongly tourist oriented, while Guanaja has not enjoyed the same popularity, probably due to the fact there are no roads on the island and all travel must be done by boat or foot. Guanaja has the tallest peak, at fourteen hundred feet, several waterfalls and freshwater streams.

How the heck do you pronounce Guanaja, does it really matter? I began researching the possibilities of affordable retirement there about five years ago. Face it, the worst case scenario, is to not have enough money to live in the way you have become accustomed to, while working the old nine to five!

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!

An average pension of $1,000 to 1,500 a month can allow a retiree to live in comfort in Guanaja. How would you like a cook or someone to help with chores? You can hire this type of help for about $150 a month. Would that make your retired life easier?

Savannah Bight located on the island has a walk in clinic as well as Bonacco Town a short boat ride away if you need medical care. If you have a major medical issue, there is a hospital in La Ceiba on the mainland, forty miles away. Many of the doctors that practice in Honduras 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.

Tags: Travel