Utila - Bay Islands

J on dive boat Utila
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After Nicaragua we decided to visit the Bay Islands in Honduras, which would be a long journey from Granada. As we were running out of time, we decided to treat ourselves and instead of taking local buses, get on an international Tica bus.

We left Granada on the evening of July 15th to get to Managua, the capital of Honduras, as our bus was leaving from Managua at 5am the next day. We were warned that the area around the bus station was very unsafe, and that is exactly how we felt when we arrived at the bus terminal.

Fish
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Therefore we checked into the first hostel (opposite the bus station), the worst hostal we have stayed at during this world trip (ok, it did not have cockroaches). We had a very basic room with two double beds, a leak which caused a continuous puddle in the middle of the room, and a window that was missing glass (so easy access for anybody who wanted to get into our room). As we had not had diner, Tal went outside to get some skewers whilst J made sure nobody would get into our room. The skewers turned out to be too expensive for the little Cordobas we had left and so we ended up eating granola that night..

Tal diving at Utila
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Before going to bed J blocked the door with one of the double beds and we used the two spare pillow cases to absorb the puddle of water.. At 9pm we decided there was nothing else to do but to go to sleep. Unfortunately, our neighbour decided not to sleep that night and watch tv instead. Banging on the wall did not seem to stop him from watching and keeping the volume high..

When we woke up the next morning at 4am, he was still watching (we could hear it was a documentary about sharks on National Geopgraphic..). Knackered, we made it to the bus station safely and got on our 5am bus. This time we had aircon (but as we were used to using local buses we forgot to bring a sweater).

Coral at Utila
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From Managua it took 4 hours to get to the border at Los Manos. Here we had to get off and go through the usual formalities (USD 3 to exit the country and USD 3 to enter Honduras). The bus passed through Tegucigalpa (capital of Honduras) about 2 hours later and then continued onto San Pedro Sula, the second largest city in Honduras.

From there we took a local bus to La Ceiba (3 hrs), where we stayed the night after having been on buses for 18 hrs... La Ceiba is a port town from where we were going to catch a ferry to one of the Bay Islands.

J diving at Utila
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We were not quite sure which island to pick: Utila or Roatan. Roatan is a more upmarket island, bigger and has better beaches. Utila seems to have better diving and is more of a backpacker's destination.

The next day we decided to go to Utila as this seemed the place to get our PADI Advanced certificate. We got on the 09:30am ferry, which took 1 hr. Upon arriving we were approached by loads of dive centers and we picked Utila Dive Center, apparently PADI's number one dive school in the world. We checked into their hotel (Mango Inn, incl. swimming pool!) and signed up for a 2-day course which would start the next day.

Water Caye
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Utila is nestled in the Caribbean Sea and located approximately 18 miles (29 km) from the Honduras mainland port of La Ceiba. The island is just 11 km long and 4 km at its widest and surrounded by vast coral reefs with prolific undersea life. It has the 2nd largest reef in the world after the Australian Great Barrier Reef.

It is the smallest of the major islands in The Bay Islands group, and renowned as being one of the least expensive and most beautiful places in the world for a scuba diving vacation.

One of the cayes off Utila
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Utila is a weird place. From the Payan Indians, through the years spent as a British Colony, to the present day as part of Honduras, the island provides a rich and diverse cultural experience with it's unique blend of British, American and Spanish heritages. The accent the locals speak is quite horrible and sounds like some gang language (american/caribbean). Not a very nice language, let's put it this way..

At the south-west end of the Island are the Cays (or Caylitos), a small collection of tiny islands, some just 100 feet across and 1-2 feet above sea level. The 2 main Cays, Suc-Suc (Pigeon) and Jewel Cay, are inhabited by local fisherman and the descendants of the original settlers who arrived here from the Cayman Islands in 1836. Most of the other Cays are privately owned  (one can be rented for USD 100 per night, including acommodation...) but several are open to visitors, especially Water Cay, the definitive deserted tropical island, which is uninhabited and has no buildings or construction on it. We visited this island, which is truly amazing and has some great snorkelling.

During the two day course we saw a huge amount of fish (e.g. a school of 42 squid) and some beautiful coral. The dive course was great and the people at the dive school very professional. All we wanted after our bad experience in the Galapagos!

After 4 nights we were kind of happy to leave the island though. We had seen some really beautiful things whilst diving and enjoyed the seafood here, but the place has a very strange vibe and people do not seem to do much but hang out on the streets and drive around on quads or electric golf carts..