BAY ISLANDS, Honduras (22 Jan 2003) -- By every account, the island resort was once a scuba diver's paradise. But the Bayman Bay Club on remote Guanaja Island in Honduras became a hellhole, according to vacationers who paid a Plantation couple thousands of dollars in what they say was a scam. The Florida Division of Consumer Services is investigating because the company that booked the vacations -- Terra Firma Adventures -- was based in Miami and Fort Lauderdale. Consumer Services has the power to levy $1,000 in fines for each complaint. The Florida attorney general's office is awaiting the outcome of that investigation and may launch its own, spokesman Bob Sparks said. The Honduras Institute of Tourism has sent letters asking the company to stop giving Honduran tourism a bad name. Nearly a dozen people across the United States, and several from other countries, have come forward with complaints that they were hoodwinked by Thomas and Linda Fouke of Plantation. Judy Alexander, 48, a hospital nurse from Cedar Lake, Ind., and her husband, Russell, 51, are among them. Said Judy Alexander: ``We experienced maggot and mold-ridden food, odors of decay permeating the air both day and night, no electricity for most of the day and all of the night, no refrigeration, no cold drinks or ice, no clean towels, filthy mattresses and pillows, no toilet paper, no hot water for showers, army ants and cockroaches parading through the restaurant area, and a staff that was rude and uncaring of our discomforts.'' The Alexanders said they paid a Honduran who owned a boat to get them off the remote island. The Alexanders and other guests cut their stay short, overwhelmed by the conditions. Other guests of the resort who were there before, during or after the Alexanders' visit last August recounted similar experiences. They allege fraud and, at a minimum, want refunds. ''I have lived and worked in Africa and India,'' said Frank Cope of Hungry Horse, Mont. ``The conditions were much worse at Bayman Bay.'' Thomas Fouke, 59, ran the resort in Honduras while his wife, Linda, 56, took bookings through Terra Firma, which she owned. He acknowledges that conditions at the resort were difficult, which he blames in large part on the lingering effects of Hurricane Mitch, a category 5 storm that hammered Honduras in 1998. In e-mail messages with two unhappy customers, Linda Fouke offered her regrets. ''Apologies cannot reduce the disappointment and anger you rightfully feel but I will do everything I can to make amends for this experience,'' she said. ``Please know that this trip went forward on my understanding that the resort was delivering its services to guests. In the meanwhile we are not sending guests there until all is right again. You will get a refund and, once we have refurbished and rehired, we will offer a comp trip on us should you care to ever set foot on the dock again. Again, I am so sorry.'' COMMUNICATION CUT Since that e-mail, the Foukes have shut down Terra Firma and the company's website and have cut off all communication with their former guests. That has only further inflamed the customers. In a conversation with The Herald, Thomas Fouke said the Honduran government has reneged on promises of financial assistance to help him repair damage from Hurricane Mitch and that he has closed the resort until such assistance, from the government and his bank, is forthcoming. | | Welcome to the Bayman Bay Club Tatiana Siercke, director of planning and development for the Honduras Institute of Tourism, and Kenia Lima Zapata, the institute's director of marketing, maintain there was no such promise of aid from the government. And Siercke says it was bank officials, not Fouke, who shut the operation because Fouke defaulted on two loans. Although much is murky about what went wrong at Bayman Bay, this much is clear: Despite what was said in that earlier e-mail, Thomas Fouke is not planning to offer any refunds. ''Not right now,'' he said. ``We'll try to work out some arrangement with the people.'' Bayman Bay Club is on tiny Guanaja Island, part of the Bay Islands chain. The Foukes have owned it since 1974. It is on a sandy beach on 100 acres of private tropical hillside that borders a national forest. The resort features 20 or so wooden cabanas, each with views of the crystal blue Caribbean waters. From Dec. 14, 2001, to Jan. 4, 2002 -- the high season -- nondivers were charged $800 and divers $900 for a seven-night package. In addition to the ocean view cottages, the packages included island airport transfers; breakfast, lunch and dinner buffets; beach barbecue; two boat dive-trips daily; use of ocean kayaks. Air fare from the United States was not included. Former guests of the resort say the problems were evident the minute they arrived on the island. They said they were forced to wait for hours at the airport and to find their own way to the resort, often paying extra to hitch a ride with a local. According to Zapata, the tourism official, one couple from Spain complained they were fed only cereal all day. NO POWER, BAD FOOD Guest Ryan Coovert said a generator supplies power to the resort, but it was turned off frequently because the resort lacked the fuel to run it. Without electricity for refrigeration, food spoiled and conditions became unbearable, he said. Coovert, 26, and his fiancée, Amanda Barber, 23, of Columbus, Ohio, said there were rats in their cabin, little food and no water to drink. They got food poisoning. The nearly $4,000 trip was supposed to be the couple's honeymoon, but Barber's father was in a motorcycle accident, which forced them to postpone the wedding. Barber said she called Linda Fouke to explain the situation and to ask if they could push back the date of their excursion, but she refused. With no alternative, the couple took their honeymoon before their wedding. They plan to marry in July. ''I'd like to see charges pressed against them for suckering people to go down there,'' Coovert said. Word about Bayman is beginning to trickle out. Several magazines and websites devoted to scuba diving now warn people to avoid Bayman Bay and to go to Posada del Sol, a resort on the other side of the island that is operating without problems. It is not run by the Foukes. ''This trip was a waste of our money,'' said Jamie Moon, of Farmington Hills, Mich. She was yet another guest to describe an ordeal similar to an episode of the reality TV show Survivor. |
