The Lucky Starfish: Utila, Honduras 2009

Our dive trip to Utila, Honduras was my first trip to Central America. It was so different from our previous vacations to other islands in the Caribbean Sea.

I feel in love with the Island the moment we stepped off the plane. Getting off the plane in Utila consists of you stepping off the plane and them tossing your luggage to the side of the runway. Our cab driver was a lady in a little two seated supped-up golf cart. We threw our luggage in back and we took off! Michael and I enjoyed the view from atop our bags. We hadn’t gone five minutes down the dirt road when we were passed by a man on a motorcycle. As he passed, the lady turned and yelled over her shoulder, “And that’s our mayor!”

**This was our ‘cab’ picking us up at the airport. The pavement behind us is the runway.

The Boat house that we rented was amazing. Most beach houses are set further back on the beach. This little place was built out over the water on pilings. A dock ran from the land to the front door and out over the water, so we had our own private dock.

The tourist crowd was very different there from the typical crowd on a Caribbean ‘dive island’. There were so many Europeans and most were in their early twenties. They were reminiscent of American Hippies, flying from island to island, staying weeks and even months at a time. Some of them picked up jobs at the local restaurants in order to earn just enough money to rent a room shared by three other people (and to pay for their diving, of course).

**Shopping at the local grocery store

**The 3 divers getting ready for our ‘shake-down-dive’ (making sure all of our equipment works properly and that we remember how to use said equipment)

One of the really fun things we got to experience on this trip was setting foot on the Utila Aggressor. It is one ship from a whole fleet of Live-Aboards. These ships are designed to be a resort, dive operation, and dive boat all rolled into one. I have read advertisements for these ships in diving magazines, but it was a whole different thing to see it in person. And we even got a picture.

It was pretty awesome.

We chose to dive with Utila Dive Centre instead. Something about being forced to co-habitat with a dozen other people we’d never met before in close quarters……. um, yah.

And this was our dive boat—“Old Tom”. Not nearly as fancy as the Aggressor, but we couldn’t have asked for a nicer crew. Anthony always got us to the whale sharks first, Chico lent Dwaine his own fins with Dwaine forgot his, and Lukas was a kind, social soul who made diving a pleasant experience. I am sad that I never did get a photo with them.

Dining was an unusual experience on Utila. Being in Central America makes one nervous when eating out. They don’t have Agencies like the FDA that make sure your food is safe to eat and the kitchens sanitary. But, we did have our favorite places. Cafe’ Mariposa tops my list. They had the most delicious nachos, quesadillas, pasta, and seafood.

Then there was a local BBQ just down and across the street from our boat house. The owner was a guy who didn’t want to work more than three nights a week, so we could only eat there Wednesday, Friday, or Saturday nights. They always had a huge plate of food for a great price.

I did get sick on this trip too. I still don’t know if it was something that I ate/drank on the island or if I just came down with a bug I brought with me (I’d been feeling queasy during our travel time down to Utila). It was not a pleasant experience. I won’t go into details, but the stomach flu is not fun in the humid tropics of Central America (see also bullet #4 under things I love about the U.S.)

I went to the local medical center and the dr there said that I had an inflamed colon and that she wanted to give me an injection of anti-inflammatories. Okay, we are talking about needles (which I hate anyway) in a foriegn country (oiy) that does not seem to have any kind of drug administration to verify the safety of said needle or drug. YIKES!!! I said yes to the injection and got a shot right in the buttocks (yet another first for me, folks). I was desperate to try anything to alleviate the sickness in my body. It was a truly scary time in my life and I am very lucky that I lived through it without contracting some kind of virus or hepatitis or something!

Fortunately, We bumped into the Elders only a few days before and had also seen the location of the local chapel. Michael tracked them down and they were able to give me a blessing for the sick. I was feeling better 30 mins later. Thanks again Elders Russ, Beach, and Valle. In gratitude for rescuing me from debilitating illness, we took them out for dinner to Cafe’ Mariposa. Yep, the Elders love it there too.

**Local meeting house

I saw a seahorse on this dive trip, another first for me. I didn’t get a picture of the little guy, just video. It surprised me how colorful he wasn’t. Overall, the diving was good. Not great, but good.

Here is a list of the dive sites we dove:

The Great Wall
Rebecca’s Garden
La Parada (where we saw a grouper in a cleaning station (another 1st for me)
Rugged Key
Blackish Point (sighted VERY LARGE Midnight Parrotfish)
Lighthouse Reef (where we were stung by Jellys! **really really tiny ones)
Labrynth (Full of swim throughs and sighted 3 Peacock Flounders)
The Pinnacle
The Aquarium (VERY SURGEY—told to stay deeper underwater to prevent us from being tossed against the jagged lava rocks that line this section of the coast. Saw Puffer fish with a head as big as a basketball)

But perhaps the funniest stories are the ones that happened when we were leaving Utila for home. First off, we had to take the ferry to the mainland before catching a flight. The two little boys seated next to me began throwing up. The Utila Princess isn’t nick-named the ‘Vomit Express’ for nothing!

Once we did reach the mainland, we had to take a taxi to the airport. The guy was only driving a sedan and we had five large suitcases between the four of us. Not wanting to lose a fare, this cabbie came up with some creative solutions, one of which resulted in one of my favorite photos of the whole trip: