It had to be Jimmy Carter.

The rumor had swept the island for weeks: Former U.S. President Carter had plans to visit the Caribbean island with some friends on a fly-fishing vacation. Like many rumors before, few islanders believed it would happen. The coconut telegraph, like the child’s game of Telephone, twists truth and fiction into a story almost unrecognizable from the original. But I had an inside source – a local friend who was helping on the trip – and I believed him.

You can tell a lot about a place based on what – and who – impresses the locals.

Guanaja had brushes with fame before. For years, “Highlander” star Christopher Lambert intended to build an upscale resort on a beach that still stands empty today. John Malkovich once owned property near the spot where I’m now building a home. Locals treated both episodes with a nonchalance that convinced me they couldn’t care less about celebrity. But this time was different.

Continue article by Jill K. Robinson here.