Februari 2022 - Honduras - Utila

 From El Salvador we had a long journey to make in order to get to the Caribbean Coast and to Utila, one of the Islas de la Bahía. A twelve hour bus ride took us across the border and all the way to San Pedro Sula, an industrial town that we had hoped to only pass through. However, the weather gods had other plans for us. Heacy rains had flooded the roads, and as we ran around the bus station trying to find an ATM that would accept our credit card, they decided to cancel all remaining buses, and so we saw the last bus to La Ceiba (the town from where the ferries go) leave as we were still standing in line to buy tickets. Among the deep sighs of the people who had to remain at the bus station, we met a guy from Poland who was also heading to Utila. The three of us shared an overpriced taxi to a hostel, where we shared the only room they had left. As San Pedro Sula is considered an unsafe city, we only left the hostel to walk to a mall nearby where we eventually found a working ATM and some fast food for dinner. 

As we were discussing how to best get to La Ceiba the next day, it seemed that only one of the two ferries per day would depart - the one in the morning at 9am. Not knowing how early we would be able to get a bus, we decided to share a taxi. Considering the distance and the early morning, we got a pretty good price but it definitely cost us. After four hours in the taxi we were at the docks well in time for the ferry - only to find out the ferry was cancelled due to the weather. We also found out that the latest information regarding ferry departures was posted on their instagram, not their website...

Heading back to the center of La Ceiba, we checked in at a hostel where everyone seemed to be waiting for the Utila ferry. We didn't care much for La Ceiba as a city either, so we were relieved the next morning when we found out the ferries were running according to schedule again, and we could catch the early one out to the island. In the end, after all the srtess and headaches we only "lost" 24 hours and some money, which was not too bad. 

On Utila we spent one week scuba diving, reading and relaxing, usually doing two dives in the morning and spending a few hours in a hammock in the afternoon. Many of the other guests at our dive shop were young backpackers doing their dive certificates, as Utila is one of the cheapest places for that. A big portion of the fun divers seemed to be Americans in their 50s and 60s who would fly down for just a week or two of diving.

filefish

trunkfish - similar to boxfish, but triangular rather than square!

"discofish"

While we didn't find the diving spectacular, we did see plenty of things that were new to uss, such as the "discofish" (juvenile yellowtail damselfish), cryptic teardrop crab, arrow shrimp, trunkfish and more. The absolute best experience though was the night dive we did. At the end of the hour-long dive, where we had spotted a giant lobster, octopus, squid, pygmy squid, shrimps and more, we placed ourselves on the sandy ocean floor and turned off our torches. After a few seconds, small things started to light up in luminescent green - the "string of pearls" that the Honduran Bay Islands are famous for. It was truly magnificent, seeing all of these green "pearls" in the pitch black water, it felt like being in a three-dimensional starry night sky.

cryptic teardrop crab

scorpionfish

pipefish

The only downside of spending a whole week on the island was the lack of local food. While we found a few restaurants and the occasional food stand that we liked, many of the restaurants in the town felt touristy and were quite expensive. One of the evenings we cooked our own dinner in the sparsely equipped kitchen, which was quite nice. We did enjoy having baleadas, the national dish of Honduras, at least once per day. A big tortilla, usually filled with bean paste, cheese and eggs, and folded, could be served for any meal of the day. On the island, they were huge and well filled, compared to the ones on the mainland (which I think are the more traditional version) where we often had to eat three or four to feel full.

a baleada for breakfast

View from our terrace

exploring the island

A very good craft beer we enjoyed on Utila