In one corner of the terrace, sipping a coffee, sits a Honduran architect who hopes to build a city on the moon. In another, a Uruguayan entrepreneur looking to develop a private island. Overseeing events is a German venture capitalist whose company seeks to hack human biology and extend life.

It is just another brunchtime in Próspera, an unusual quasi-independent territory, owned by a group of international financiers, on the northern coast of the Honduran island of Roatán.