Expatriates Bar & Grill: Fine Food, Cigars, and Environmental Espionage
by Jon Kohl

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HONDURAS -- While it may look like just another pretty bar with a burly blue-eyed Canadian distributing beers, Expatriates Bar & Grill harbors the deal-making subterfuge of Geneva, Berlin, or Cairo. But the figures haunting these halls are not so dark, nor are they spies. They are likely members of the international development and business communities in La Ceiba.

While it may be no secret for those stationed in Ceiba, for newcomers who want to talk with international tourism or agricultural development experts, brush elbows with Honduran conservationists, spot executives of major businesses in town, visiting government officials, or just North American retirees, they go to Expats.

Visually the bar's image smacks of whatever drinking facility decorated by someone with a good sense of interior design, aside from the over-indulgence in neon beer signs. The lighting is dispersed but effective, two televisions allow cross-viewing from all sides, an open air section and a section under a great thatch champa promote interaction beneath either rainy or starry nights, and in good North American fashion a dart board installed at the back of the restaurant; but it is the bar at the center of the establishment that draws the attention and emanates the energy. Behind that bar is Expats's heart and founder, Mark Fluellon.

While the bar's style does not extend to Mark's personal wardrobe, his ability to muster the troops and keep the bar moving is one of his great strengths. But "lively" marks many a great bartender -- thus, something else lures the socially conscious to Expats. It is perhaps that Mark is one of them, and he has infiltrated their circles and their friends' circles in town.

In 1995, Mark was an avid bird rehabilitator for AMARAS, the wild animal rehabilitation center in La Ceiba. He used to bring disadvantaged young parrots back to his home and feed and water them. "They brought me babies and that was my specialty," he attests, referring to his strong desire to see captured birds nursed to adulthood and set free.

One of his early contacts into the environmental community was Fito Steiner. At that time Fito was a waiter at Expats as well as a volunteer at AMARAS and Vice President of Pico Bonito National Park. Fito, Mark remembers, always asked for breaks when environmentalist types entered, saying "I got to talk to these people!" But by 1995, Fito had become president of the park, AMARAS, and REHDES, a consortium of conservation groups -- all three of which are based in La Ceiba. That kind of person taps into a wide network.

With respect to his success with the conservation community Mark admits, "I owe it all to four people." Fito Steiner (and you can be sure that Expats is a member of the park's membership), Pepe Herrero (president of Cuero y Salado Wildlife Refuge), Kent "Ronny Rainforest" Forte (worked on developing the Lodge at Pico Bonito), and Bob Lehman (founder of the Museum of Insects and Butterflies in La Ceiba). Most of all, however, he owes his success to his wife and fellow Canadian Maureen McNamara, who both tends the bar when Mark is off and masterminds the backroom kitchen, specializing in, among other things, veggy dishes, popular among greens and crunchies.

Whatever the historical roots, Expats provides the amphitheatre for a wide range of socially conscious performances. Consider this: if you are not Honduran and in Ceiba more than a day, there is a very good chance you will end up there. If you are Ceibeņo middle or upper class, then chances are you have been there. If you are involved in social or environmental work, you can hardly operate without ascending the walkway to the rooftop bar and grill. If you are anyone attached to the international community, you're there. And that includes a lot of Hondurans. During the interview, Neto Castillo gets up and pats Mark on the back as he leaves. Neto was the first president of Cuero y Salado Wildlife Refuge.

In 1997, the executive director of the same refuge signed an agreement in Expatriates with an international non-profit to carry out tourism development programs. After Hurricane Mitch, Canadian troops and American marines came in regularly. Pico Bonito National Park has held board meetings there. The Adelante Foundation, specializing in micro-lending, has had planning sessions there. Mark has been interviewed by National Geographic Traveler as part of a great weekend getaway along with the Lodge at Pico Bonito and by Jim Gollin and Ron Mader for their environmental travel book on Honduras. And there have been many innumerable high-end talks about issues too delicate (and dangerous) to repeat here.

The variety of argy-bargies that take place might give one the impression that this locale is more a happening think tank than a hangout for environmental spies. But fear not as Mark has united both the socially conscious with the sports-minded. Mark is a Canadian hockey intellectual. He is also an NFL intellectual, an NBA intellectual, a Major Leagues intellectual, a sport fishing intellectual ("catch and release," of course) and a sports history intellectual fanatic. While he hides a Sports Illustrated Almanac under the bar, he hardly ever encounters a challenger worthy of the draw. It's only for people who don't believe his sportive triviality. I called him once on a 1970s Superbowl quarterback reference, only to discover upon facing the judgment of the Book, that I had no defense against his well planned offensive drive.

If you like fine cigars, great grilled food, darts, the latest conservation T-shirts, Superbowl pools, the inner-workings of the development community, or just overdone neon beer signs, Expats is the place to go. But don't expect Mark or Maureen to talk about the darker side. Mark will tell you, "Whenever anyone tells me they work for the CIA, I never believe them -- you hear all kinds of strange stuff here." Expats is a cool place, so just indicate to your driver that you are bound for Barrio Iman, the restaurant on top of Refricon, the distributor of refrigerators. And always double check that no one is following you.

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