Stranded in Honduras: Our Utila Escape

Stuck on Utila with Honduras shut down to protect itself against the coronavirus, Undercurrent subscribers Beth Rosenzweig and her husband Ray Bahr knew they had to take the effort in their own hands if, with disappearing airline flights, they were ever to get home. While methodically working every angle to get out, much of their strategy was based on seeking government assistance and generating media coverage to get help, a very creative effort that clearly helped their plight. Beth chronicled their efforts and shared them with Undercurrent.

March 20th

Ray and I continue to be stranded in Honduras at the Lodge Utila without a clear escape plan. There's a curfew, and people are not allowed out on the roads, and most stores are closed. We still have food, though there have been some electricity outages. There's no real medical care available on Utila, so we really hope not to get sick here.

We are spending almost all our waking hours online and communicating with fellow stranded Americans (more than 500 Americans on Utila and Roatan islands were trying to get back to the States) on any and all possible means of escape. There have been Honduran-based efforts to get a charter plane to get us home, but so far, the local permits to enable such flights have not been approved. Commercial airlines have been less than helpful. We currently have allegedly confirmed tickets on United, American, and Delta for the end of the month, since we were told to hedge our bets and secure tickets on all airlines in case one of them comes through and others do not.

Through the generosity of family and friends, we've had contact with the Director of Constituent Services in Lori Trahan's and Ed Markey's congressional offices, Elizabeth Warren's office, the U.S. Embassy in Honduras, the Ministry of Tourism in Honduras, as well as many media outlets: Foreign Policy Magazine (which had coverage of related situations), NY Times, Boston Globe, WBUR, and other public broadcasting outlets. We're being told that pressure has been exerted on the Department of State/Pompeo to address this crisis.

While the U.S. government has been of little help to us yet, the Canadian government has managed to get three planeloads of Canadians off the islands and home safely. They have their act much more together.

For anyone who has asked how they can help us, I'm imploring friends to contact their government officials and media to let them know about the 500-plus Americans stranded in Honduras and request more pressure on the U.S. government to get us out of here safely.

March 21

Delta Airlines canceled our confirmed flight that was scheduled for March 28. All attempts to get them to reschedule via another means/alternate airline fell on deaf ears. They will not be bringing any flights to Honduras for the foreseeable future.

The entire island of Utila is now under 24-hour curfew - we are only allowed out during a few hours per day for critical needs such as medical or required food supplies. Nearby Roatan island is now under martial law.

The Honduran government has stated that U.S. planes can land here only if they arrive empty. As you can imagine, commercial carriers are loathe to do this as it means they lose $$. There seem to be some disconnects between the mainland Honduran government officials and the local Honduran island government officials about approval processes/permission for any planes to land here in Utila. We are awaiting an update on private charter options as they, too, are contending with the government's red tape from all directions.

We continue to hold allegedly confirmed tickets on American Airlines and United for the end of the month. United is reporting that their final flight will be on March 25 (our tickets are for March 29) but that all planned flights are fully booked, and none have yet to show up.

March 22

American Airlines have canceled all their Honduran departures for the foreseeable future. We were told that United Airlines was engaged with the Honduran government to get flights to Roatan for transporting Americans home, but no such flights showed up. So we became more laser-focused on the likely scenario that we were only going to get home if we could secure a private charter that was capable of managing the bureaucracy created by the ongoing travel ban.

We pursued multiple simultaneous private charter options through a dozen active WhatsApp chat groups with fellow Americans trying to escape. One such effort was being spearheaded by the Mayor of Utila with the help of locals familiar with the bureaucracy of the Honduran government. At the end of the day, we were fortunate that an American film crew from a large U.S. media company was staying at our dive lodge (they were sent to Utila to produce a film that had to be postponed). By virtue of this company's U.S. connections, they identified a charter company -- Global Guardians -- staffed by ex-military types that ordinarily contracts with private organizations -- not rescue missions that involve a bunch of disparate (and desperate?) citizens looking to get home during a global pandemic.

The leaders of Global Guardian were true professionals. What they did was to negotiate a humanitarian mission, where they would deliver needed supplies to Honduras, in exchange for permission to extract a group of U.S. citizens back to the States. This all came together at a breakneck pace, and we were engaged in numerous online conference calls with them to sort through the hour-by-hour logistics.

Ray and I were among a small group of Americans who had to make our way from Utila to the island of Roatan during this time when the travel ban precluded all air and boat travel to Roatan. Thirty miles is a long way to swim. On Sunday morning, we were fortunate to line up a private pilot on Utila who knew enough of the locals to get permission to shuttle batches of us over to Roatan once all the paperwork was approved. Alas, Ray's name got dropped from the passenger manifest, which necessitated some quick calls to the Embassy to get that fixed. The five-seater plane (in our case, it was four passengers and one delightful German Shorthaired Pointer) was stuffed with as much luggage as it could hold. But most of us had to leave some luggage behind (scuba divers do not travel light). With practically no notice, it was "pack your bags - it's time to go," and we got shuttled to the local airstrip in a golf cart. We jammed into this tiny plane, and landed in Roatan after a 15-minute flight. That's when more of the fun began.

Upon our arrival at the Roatan airport on Sunday afternoon, we were immediately greeted with boxes of latex gloves and face masks that we were required to don. We four passengers and the dog were taken to an empty hallway passage and told to stand at least three feet apart. They then took our passports and disappeared to process our bags through security. Over the course of the next couple of hours, we waited, wondered, and hoped that we'd be allow to board the awaiting MD-80 charter plane that Global Guardian had arranged on behalf of us and about 140 other Americans looking to get home. Keep in mind that we were all financing this charter (our tickets were $1325 each). This was not a philanthropic endeavor.

After a few hours of being quarantined in the hallway of the Roatan airport, we were finally escorted by airport personnel (all masked and gloved as well) to board the plane. The boarding of the remaining Americans took a couple of hours. When the charter finally took off from Roatan, there was a loud collective cheer among all the passengers. We were not alone in our concerns about being stuck in Honduras for an indefinite period, and, in our case, being stuck on Utila, which has no hospital and virtually no medical care available.

We landed in Miami around 9 p.m. No one checked our temperatures or seemed concerned about where we had come from, and the presence of masks and gloves was incredibly minor compared to what we experienced in Roatan. We breezed through Customs without a hitch.

March 23

This morning we flew home to Boston. In the afternoon, I received the following message from the U.S. Embassy in Honduras:

Health Alert -- U.S. Embassy Tegucigalpa, Honduras (March 23, 2020)

Location: Honduras

Event: Potential Flights for U.S. Citizens - Message 1

On March 22, the U.S. Embassy in Honduras coordinated with the Department of State to provide a flight for U.S. citizens from Ramon Villeda Morales International Airport in San Pedro Sula to the United States. . . .The Embassy is working closely with commercial airlines and the Government of Honduras to facilitate the resumption of commercial flights. U.S. travelers should continue to check with airlines on flight availability.

If you are interested in a U.S. government flight and would like to be added to the list, please email the information requested below to USAHonduras@state.gov. . . . The U.S. Embassy will respond that you have been added to the list and will contact you if confirmed for a flight. . . . Seats on these flights are reserved for U.S. citizens (including those with identified health concerns) and their Legal Permanent Resident immediate family members who are traveling with them.

Under U.S. law, passengers on U.S. government organized flights are responsible for paying the cost of their ticket, which may be higher than standard commercial fares. . . .U.S. travelers will be responsible for any arrangements or costs (lodging, onward destination or local transportation, etc.) related to travel from the initial destination in the United States. Exact departure time and routing are subject to change.

Certainly no such governmental "offer" was made to us during our determined efforts to leave Honduras.

Lessons learned:

• Money talks.

• It's 'who you know' -- not what you know.

• Communication is vital.

• Make friends with the locals, and they will be your allies.

• There's no place like home.

To quote the Grateful Dead, "What a Long Strange Trip It's Been ..."

- Beth & Ray

Undercurrent has edited their letters, and we take all responsibility for errors or omissions.