The Travel Chica

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A Weird Little Island

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There is something about small islands that make people a little crazy.

I spent a week on Utila, the smaller of the two main Bay Islands that draw in the tourists for scuba diving.  Utila is cheaper, dirtier, more claustrophobic, and less pretty than the island of Roatán.  The cheapness and the quality of the scuba diving schools is what draws in many backpackers from Europe, Australia, and North America.  What makes Utila so strange is the mixture of locals and the foreigners who are obsessed with scuba diving and have come to live there for months or even years.

Sure, I was only there for a week, so you could say I’m stereotyping and making quick judgments and listening to unsubstantiated facts from other travelers, but it makes for a more interesting story.

Utila 440First, I’ll try to orient you a bit with the geography of the island.

There is one small (probably not even a mile long) stretch of concrete road where all of the dive shops, housing, stores, and restaurants are crammed together.  There is no sidewalk, and the 10-foot wide road is shared by pedestrians, stray dogs, motorcycles, bicycles, mini-taxis, golf carts, and pickup trucks.  Parents would have multiple small children holding on to the back of their motorcycles as they zipped through town. 

I was always scared for my life when walking on this road.

On the side of the road opposite the ocean, there are wooden walkways built that go several meters back where you will find small houses (shacks really) built around the mangrove swampy area.  Beyond this one mile stretch of road, there are other less crowded areas of the island where people with money own land and nice homes with ocean views.  There is also a good bit of jungle you can explore.  This is the quiet part of the island, the part I enjoyed on my morning runs.

Next, I’ll introduce you to the locals.

Almost everyone speaks English, but it’s a weird dialect of English that I can best describe as hillbilly meets Caribbean.  In many cases, I couldn’t understand the locals speaking with each other.

Then you have some Spanish-speaking locals.  And I was told that the Spanish and the Utilians dislike each other.  There are a few “Spanish ghettos” on the island that I was told never to wander into.  Supposedly, criminals from the mainland go to the Spanish quarters on Utila to “hide” because nobody will come looking for them.

There is also a lot of poverty among the locals.  If you weren’t lucky enough to own a store or restaurant or diving-related business that caters to the tourist dollar, what are you going to do to support yourself?

There is not much to do in Utila besides diving, and it is such a small town that everyone knows everybody’s business. I met some locals who had left the island and seen a bit of the world and others who had never left the island except maybe to go to mainland Honduras.  Often you have to go days without decent vegetables and fruit because you have to wait for a shipment from the mainland.   There are two main bars that everyone ends up at on the big party nights.

I cannot imagine growing up in such a place.  But I guess I wouldn’t want to live for an extended period of time in such a small town anywhere in the world.  A matter of preference I guess.

Utila 293I did meet and hear about some interesting locals.

There was Gunther, a pioneer of diving and somewhat of a legend on Utila, who started diving before the organization PADI even existed.  The morning I met Gunther, he was having his breakfast after an early dive to 220 feet (70 meters) which is well beyond the allowable limit by PADI standards. 

He went out alone on his boat; no buddy diver, no boat driver, nobody to help or even be able to tell anyone if something went wrong at that depth.

There was another local I heard about who was obsessed with breaking the world record for fastest human moving through water without a motor. Apparently, if you run into this guy, this is all he will talk to you about.  He has already built one human-fin prototype and was working on his next prototype.  He keeps contacting Guinness, but they won’t come out to the island.

And finally, let’s talk about the foreigners who have relocated temporarily to Utila to work on their dive master, dive specialties, and trainer certifications.  You get a wide age range, but it’s mostly people in their 20s and early 30s.  These are the type of people that think being 20-30 meters below the surface of the ocean is the greatest feeling in the world.

They live to dive. They are not afraid of the creatures that may sting or bite them.  What seems to happen with a lot of these foreigners is they fall into the partying trap.  You’re on an island where it’s always sunny and warm, you look at a gorgeous clear blue ocean every day, and your main wardrobe consists of a bathing suit, a pair of shorts, and flip-flops.  You’re also on an island that seems to have no law, and there are a lot of drugs.  And I’m not just talking about the shipments passing through from Colombia.

Utila 324For me, Utila was a place to spend a week scuba diving.

I would quickly get bored and irritated in a place like Utila.  But then again, there are others, both locals and expats, who love it there.  I think it’s a matter of your perspective. 

I met some really friendly and laid-back people from all over the world at the dive shop I stayed at. You’ve never met a happier and more fun-loving group of people.  A foreigner named Mark who’d been living on the island for several months said something that gave me some insight into his perspective and why he enjoyed Utila so much.  We were sitting on the dock bar of Babalu’s watching the sunset.  Mark was asked how much longer he planned to stay in Utila and where he planned to go next.

His response:  “I don’t make plans anymore.”

Check out my photos from Utila, including boats, dolphins, and my new favorite food, the “super baleada.”

Check out the Honduras Travel Tips page for info on how to get there, where to stay, and more.

Comments

  2. Definitely not. I spent 3 nights in Roatan. It’s basically just like any touristy beach resort town that Americans flock to, which means you also pay the same prices you would pay in the US. Yes, Roatan is more beautiful and has better diving (I didn’t actually dive there though). But the character of Utila is a more interesting experience; plus it can fit a backpacker’s budget.

  3. Hey Steph,

    I haven’t said much on your blog, but I’ve been watching closely. You’ve already surpassed my book idea… I’ve enjoyed ready about your adventures.

    Curious… when does it come to an end?

    • Glad you’re following along.

      The plan is to be gone for a year. Basically when my money runs out or I’m ready to go home, that’s when it will end. But I hope it’s the latter :-)

    • I think I was there for just over a week (too long for me), and I was ready to move on.

      But I really did enjoy the company of the dive instructors at my school. Although I didn’t understand them and how they lived that lifestyle, I appreciated their passion and dedication and the fact that they made their dream lifestyle a reality.
      The Travel Chica recently posted..The Cruella Conclusion: Lawyers, Lies, and Taxes

      • There have been British settlements in the Bay Islands since the late 1600’s, so it really isn’t strange that most of the inhabitants speak some form of English. In fact,
        It wasn’t until 1859 that the British officially relinquished the Bay Islands to the country of Honduras and the “departamento de Islas de la Bahia” came to exist.
        I lived in Roatan for 4 years, working as one of the few network administrators on the island. I enjoyed it very much :)

  8. I went diving in Roatan three years ago and wasn’t wild about it–then again, it monsoon-like poured the entire week we were there so I didn’t see much of the island except for the underwater landscape. I hear Utila has a lot more to do.
    Camels & Chocolate recently posted..Santa Fe to Memphis

  9. Sounds like a really interesting visit to me! I never made it to many small island on my RTW, just one in Laos. I wish I could have gone island hopping in Thailand but never made it there at all.
    Hogga recently posted..Pubes

  13. Well, I have to say you summed up the quirks of Utila pretty well. And it is definitely a matter of perspective. I’ve been on Utila for 4 months so far, but I’m also one of those people you mentioned who think life underwater is the best thing there is. If I didn’t dive, I’m not sure I could handle life here.
    Talon recently posted..Why Does Honduras Hate Me?

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