Trip Report - Utila

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TEERLKAY

Contributor
Messages
179
Reaction score
29
Location
S. FL
# of dives
500 - 999
We recently completed a 15-day dive trip on Jewel/Pigeon Cay, Utila Honduras.
Here is our trip report
Honduras
Honduras is a small, poor country (second poorest in Western Hemisphere after Haiti) It’s a beautiful country with varied terrain and lots to see and do – Rainforests, Mayan ruins, whitewater rafting, etc. We didn’t partake in any of that – we dived! One of the best things about Honduras is its friendly and gracious people.

Utila is closest of the Bay Islands off the Caribbean coast of Honduras. The Bay Islands consist of Utila, Roatan, Guanaja and quite a few smaller islands. The bay islands were at times under British rule and as such, English is much more widely spoken on the islands than on mainland Honduras although be warned – sometimes it takes the better part of a conversation before you realize the person you are conversing with is speaking English – it’s an interesting mixture of old English, Caribbean dialect and slang. About 6000 people live on Utila, most of them in East Harbor (commonly referred to as Utila). The people of Utila are even friendlier and easy going than mainland Honduras.

We actually stayed on a small island called Jewel Caye off the coast of Utila proper. Jewel Caye is connected to pigeon cay and, together they are home to about 600 “Cayans. These good folks are even more friendly and helpful than the Utilians. We have nothing but good things to say about the Cayes and the people that inhabit them. It should be noted that there is absolutely nothing to do on the cays – there is one bar and three restaurants so if you are looking for nightlife do not stay on the cays!

Getting there
Honduras is served by International flights from Texas and Florida (at least) via TACA and American Airlines. We were able to catch a flight from Miami to Sand Pedro Sula. From there it is an easy matter of catching a local flight to La Ceiba via Sosa, Islena or Atlantic airlines – no need for prior reservations – it seems there is always a flight getting ready to depart. We chose to fly to Utila from La Ceiba but you can also take a very nice ferry. It’s a 10-minute flight or a 1 – 1.5-hour ferry ride. Our round trip airfare – San Pedro Sula-LaCeiba-Utila-LaCeiba-San Pedro Sula was around $120.00 per person. When we were leaving Utila our flight wasn’t flying and we had to scramble at the last minute and take the ferry but no harm done.

Accommodations
Rooms in Utila are fairly basic and cheap. We spent our first and last nights on Utila in $16.00 rooms and they were fine for our needs – clean, with fans, no AC and no hot water. Utila is overrun with ATVs, Motorcycles, Scooters and Bicycles. So even though there is only two roads and one intersection – you are constantly in danger of getting run over. While on the Cays, we stayed at the Kayla hotel, run by Captain Morgan’s Dive shop. It was $5.00 per night per person ($10.00 for a couple). It was nicer than the rooms we got in Utila but still no hot water and no Ac (none needed as there was always a pleasant breeze). Also, the Cays rely 100% on rainwater for freshwater, not a problem as it was the beginning of rainy season but during the dry season it can be an issue. Flying insects on Utila are a big pain – less so on the Cays. Food is cheap throughout Utila – expect to pay 30 – 120 Limperas for a meal (18.5 Limperas = $1.00).

The diving
Utila has a reputation as being the cheapest place in the world to get certified in diving. Prices have recently gone up and we weren’t there to get certified but I believe it is still a fairly cheap place to get certified. At Capt Morgan’s (and I believe other dive shops as well) they do not charge a rental fee for renting any scuba gear. It’s been our experience that that is very unusual. We have all our own gear but if you are certified and don’t have your own gear and want to go diving, keep that in mind. The gear they offer for free seemed on par with other locations rentals – Sherwood regulators and Seaquest BCs.
Capt Morgan’s has a shop on Utila but holds their certification course on the cays and they have exclusive use of the Kayla Hotel on the Cayes. It’s a pretty good setup but again, if you want nightlife it’s not on the Cayes. One of the selling points Capt Morgan’s uses to entice you to stay on the Cayes is that you are already half way to the North side of the island where all the best diving is. Location-wise, that’s true but their boat leaves every morning from Utila and goes to the Cayes to pick you up so the boat isn’t any closer to the north side and, in fact, we weren’t usually the first boat on the water

We thoroughly enjoyed the diving. We did two dives a day for 15 straight days and one night dive for a total of 31 dives. We dived the north side where there were walls and the south side where there was fringing reef. The visibility wasn’t great – 40-70 feet. We were lucky enough to see whale sharks on two different occasions and our boat captains were very good in being patient and getting us right on top of them. We also snorkeled with a pod of dolphins on another surface interval. During our dives we saw nurse sharks, eagle rays, sting rays, turtles, goliath groupers, octopus, squid, moray eels, sand eels, lobsters, crabs, etc. Sponges and Corals seemed to be in great shape, with azul vase sponges being especially abundant. There seemed to be an awful lot of “crap” in the water – flotsam, jetsam, trash and junk. On one dive we pulled a full plastic bag of liquid bleach out of the water – it had perfect neutral buoyancy at 70 feet and was just suspended there – seemed like it had been there a while. On another location we watched them demolish a house on the cay. They took the corrugated tin off on a boat out of sight but the wood they dumped in the ocean.

Capt Morgan’s allowed us to dive our own profile and we averaged just over 60 minutes a dive. We would have liked to do more night dives but they charge double what they charge for a day dive (I believe that is standard on Utila) and we couldn’t justify it. Sometimes we were the only “fun” divers on the boat, other times there would be a few others – never more than six total. We’d go out with students but they were always very good at finding a location that we would enjoy. We saw some short fills and leaking tanks but spares were always on hand.

Prices for diving are pretty much fixed with most of the dive shops belonging to an “association”. A 10-dive package cost $175.00 – a pretty good deal, especially if you don’t own your own gear. There is also a $1.00 a day charge per diver for a “chamber fee” and a $2.00 a day charge per diver for a “reef cleanup fee” – we have no idea what that is going towards because these were some of the “dirtiest” reefs we’ve seen.

Summary – The good, the bad, and the ugly
The good – friendly people, good diving, cheap prices
The bad – flying insects, poor viz, too many motorized vehicles on Utila
The ugly – Trash in the water
 
Great review...thanks for taking the time to put it together.
rich
 
TEERLKAY:
Here is our trip report

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

So many people come to ScubaBoard and ask and probe and worry.

Few bother to post their thanks- in the form of a trip report.

Bravo.
 
Great report. Thanks for the information. And you got to see the whale sharks too!!! Man what a wonderful trip.

Brown Mermaid

TEERLKAY:
We recently completed a 15-day dive trip on Jewel/Pigeon Cay, Utila Honduras.
Here is our trip report
Honduras
Honduras is a small, poor country (second poorest in Western Hemisphere after Haiti) It’s a beautiful country with varied terrain and lots to see and do – Rainforests, Mayan ruins, whitewater rafting, etc. We didn’t partake in any of that – we dived! One of the best things about Honduras is its friendly and gracious people.

Utila is closest of the Bay Islands off the Caribbean coast of Honduras. The Bay Islands consist of Utila, Roatan, Guanaja and quite a few smaller islands. The bay islands were at times under British rule and as such, English is much more widely spoken on the islands than on mainland Honduras although be warned – sometimes it takes the better part of a conversation before you realize the person you are conversing with is speaking English – it’s an interesting mixture of old English, Caribbean dialect and slang. About 6000 people live on Utila, most of them in East Harbor (commonly referred to as Utila). The people of Utila are even friendlier and easy going than mainland Honduras.

We actually stayed on a small island called Jewel Caye off the coast of Utila proper. Jewel Caye is connected to pigeon cay and, together they are home to about 600 “Cayans. These good folks are even more friendly and helpful than the Utilians. We have nothing but good things to say about the Cayes and the people that inhabit them. It should be noted that there is absolutely nothing to do on the cays – there is one bar and three restaurants so if you are looking for nightlife do not stay on the cays!

Getting there
Honduras is served by International flights from Texas and Florida (at least) via TACA and American Airlines. We were able to catch a flight from Miami to Sand Pedro Sula. From there it is an easy matter of catching a local flight to La Ceiba via Sosa, Islena or Atlantic airlines – no need for prior reservations – it seems there is always a flight getting ready to depart. We chose to fly to Utila from La Ceiba but you can also take a very nice ferry. It’s a 10-minute flight or a 1 – 1.5-hour ferry ride. Our round trip airfare – San Pedro Sula-LaCeiba-Utila-LaCeiba-San Pedro Sula was around $120.00 per person. When we were leaving Utila our flight wasn’t flying and we had to scramble at the last minute and take the ferry but no harm done.

Accommodations
Rooms in Utila are fairly basic and cheap. We spent our first and last nights on Utila in $16.00 rooms and they were fine for our needs – clean, with fans, no AC and no hot water. Utila is overrun with ATVs, Motorcycles, Scooters and Bicycles. So even though there is only two roads and one intersection – you are constantly in danger of getting run over. While on the Cays, we stayed at the Kayla hotel, run by Captain Morgan’s Dive shop. It was $5.00 per night per person ($10.00 for a couple). It was nicer than the rooms we got in Utila but still no hot water and no Ac (none needed as there was always a pleasant breeze). Also, the Cays rely 100% on rainwater for freshwater, not a problem as it was the beginning of rainy season but during the dry season it can be an issue. Flying insects on Utila are a big pain – less so on the Cays. Food is cheap throughout Utila – expect to pay 30 – 120 Limperas for a meal (18.5 Limperas = $1.00).

The diving
Utila has a reputation as being the cheapest place in the world to get certified in diving. Prices have recently gone up and we weren’t there to get certified but I believe it is still a fairly cheap place to get certified. At Capt Morgan’s (and I believe other dive shops as well) they do not charge a rental fee for renting any scuba gear. It’s been our experience that that is very unusual. We have all our own gear but if you are certified and don’t have your own gear and want to go diving, keep that in mind. The gear they offer for free seemed on par with other locations rentals – Sherwood regulators and Seaquest BCs.
Capt Morgan’s has a shop on Utila but holds their certification course on the cays and they have exclusive use of the Kayla Hotel on the Cayes. It’s a pretty good setup but again, if you want nightlife it’s not on the Cayes. One of the selling points Capt Morgan’s uses to entice you to stay on the Cayes is that you are already half way to the North side of the island where all the best diving is. Location-wise, that’s true but their boat leaves every morning from Utila and goes to the Cayes to pick you up so the boat isn’t any closer to the north side and, in fact, we weren’t usually the first boat on the water

We thoroughly enjoyed the diving. We did two dives a day for 15 straight days and one night dive for a total of 31 dives. We dived the north side where there were walls and the south side where there was fringing reef. The visibility wasn’t great – 40-70 feet. We were lucky enough to see whale sharks on two different occasions and our boat captains were very good in being patient and getting us right on top of them. We also snorkeled with a pod of dolphins on another surface interval. During our dives we saw nurse sharks, eagle rays, sting rays, turtles, goliath groupers, octopus, squid, moray eels, sand eels, lobsters, crabs, etc. Sponges and Corals seemed to be in great shape, with azul vase sponges being especially abundant. There seemed to be an awful lot of “crap” in the water – flotsam, jetsam, trash and junk. On one dive we pulled a full plastic bag of liquid bleach out of the water – it had perfect neutral buoyancy at 70 feet and was just suspended there – seemed like it had been there a while. On another location we watched them demolish a house on the cay. They took the corrugated tin off on a boat out of sight but the wood they dumped in the ocean.

Capt Morgan’s allowed us to dive our own profile and we averaged just over 60 minutes a dive. We would have liked to do more night dives but they charge double what they charge for a day dive (I believe that is standard on Utila) and we couldn’t justify it. Sometimes we were the only “fun” divers on the boat, other times there would be a few others – never more than six total. We’d go out with students but they were always very good at finding a location that we would enjoy. We saw some short fills and leaking tanks but spares were always on hand.

Prices for diving are pretty much fixed with most of the dive shops belonging to an “association”. A 10-dive package cost $175.00 – a pretty good deal, especially if you don’t own your own gear. There is also a $1.00 a day charge per diver for a “chamber fee” and a $2.00 a day charge per diver for a “reef cleanup fee” – we have no idea what that is going towards because these were some of the “dirtiest” reefs we’ve seen.

Summary – The good, the bad, and the ugly
The good – friendly people, good diving, cheap prices
The bad – flying insects, poor viz, too many motorized vehicles on Utila
The ugly – Trash in the water
 
Really nice trip report and I am sorry about your trash part.

I have dived many many times in Utila and most of the reefs have been cleared of trash. Unfortunately if you dive around the west end which is where the main Cays are, and most of the local fishing people live, there is a lot of trash. These people have not yet learned not to throw there trash into the sea. A lot of trash from the mainland also gets washed there particularly in rainy season. I have not dived with Captain Morgans but I know that they use the hotel on the main inhabited Cay for their dive operation and therefore do most of their diving on the west end.

Whoever told you that $2 from the Utila Reef Tax went to reef clean up did not know what they were talking about. $1 goes to the Utila Hyperbaric Chamber as a service fee, $1 goes to maintaining the buoy system around the island so that boats do not anchor and destroy the reef and $1 goes to the municipality to help with town garbage collection and clean up from the large numbers of back packers who come to the island all year round. Any reef clean up is done by the dive schools on a voluntary basis. The mayor has done a lot on the island to remove trash and keep the town clean and I know many times has tried to clean up the Cays without too much success.
 
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