Island Paradise - Blogabond

At 9am the following morning I was on a ferry to Utila (one of the Bay Islands off the Caribbean coast of Honduras) with Jana and some others we had met in Livingston, and eagerly awaiting the next stage of the trip. As we approached the port and the smell of salty air arrived on a damp breeze that battled with the sun to keep us cool, and I felt deeply nostalgic and recognised that our annual family holidays in Rhosneigr are one of my deepest and happiest memories,

so it was in a cheerful mood that I disembarked and battled through the wall of reps from the Utila Dive Centre (a bit too polished, a bit too smarmy) to find someone representing Alton's Dive Centre - another excellent recommendation from the same source as the Semuc Champey tip, thank you Rob. Duly accompanied by a couple of really friendly dive shop staff we wandered down the road past brightly painted, typically Caribbean wooden chattel houses - all riddled with evidence of Utila's string marine heritage - to our accommodation, right on the dive centre's private dock, with a room which quite literally opened on to the sea. I booked an advanced course to start the next morning, and so began a week of blissful happiness and great fun, diving, sunning, drinking and enjoying the island lifestyle.

The reef in Utila is truly beautiful, healthy and varied, and the diverse underwater topography around the island makes for really, really enjoyable diving. Regrettably we didn't spot a whale shark, but amongst other things we saw a huge pod of 50 or more spinner dolphins, a few turtles, baby spotted drums and my absolute favourite - juvenile damsel fish, which are almost impossible to photograph as they are very shy and love hiding in the treacherous fire coral, but are tiny, inky blue/black, and covered in irridescent electric blue spots. Adorable. I did a deep dive to 40m and a wreck dive which were both great fun, but best of all was exploring in the light and warmth of 12-18m where there is an abundance of life. I should also mention my night dive which was a real highlight - it is impossible to capture, but the overriding impression was of utter peace - the silence and privacy of being suspended in complete blackness, your only reality the little patch of reef illuminated by your torch.

You totally forget that you are underwater, and it feels like the only other creatures in the world are the various shrimps and squirrel fish caught in the spotlight before you. The odd glimpse out from the reef wall into the deep sees flashes of blue phosphorescence punctuating the darkness and when we sat on the bottom and turned off our torches completely, you could see that every movement is followed by a trail of light as the plankton is disturbed.

Up on the surface too, Utila had a lot to offer. Geoff, the crazy Texan who ran the bar at Alton's was a constant source of entertainment and good company, and was always cooking up some delicious treat which he would spend half the day talking about so that by the time it was actually prepared, it was all you could do not to order several. He was rivalled by some other great eateries though, from RJs grill, which cooked up FABULOUS fish steaks on the barbeque every Wednesday, Friday and Sunday (yes, I did go three times in my week) to the local street stands whose specialities were balleadas - a big soft tortilla, folded over and filled with refried beans, cheese, sour cream and, joy of joys, at our favourite stand ..... avocado! Mouth watering. Incidentally, RJs was directly across the road from Alton's and run almost exclusively by Alton's staff who would take pre-orders if you were doing a night dive and serve up a sizzling plate the second you got out of the shower after coming off the boat - genius.

It's low season in the whole of Central America because of the rains, but so far that has only proved a massive positive - lower prices, smaller groups and generally a much less touristy vibe, and Utila was no exception. There were enough great people to make a couple of bars really sociable and fun by night but by day the atmosphere remained very laid back and quiet which suits me perfectly.

Before I move on from Honduras I must just mention one bar - 'Treetanic' - 15 years of work have gone in to building it so far and it is exquisite - utterly magical. Built into a network of treehouses, platforms, walkways, steps, arches, tunnels and patios, every surface is decorated with an intricate mosaic of mirrors, tiles, glass stones, shells, miniature sculptures and almost anything else you can think of - prancing around with my mai tai cocktail I truly felt like I was in some kind of fairy kingdom.

Basically, it was with great difficulty that seven days after arriving I dragged myself onto the 6.20am ferry to make the journey overland to Tegucigapla, the capital, en route to Nicaragua. Utila, I will be back.

written by

Alex Kent on September 17, 2007 from Utila, Honduras

from the travel blog: On the Varieties of Nature

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