Utila I

I’ve been asked to describe the island more.

Use this map.

My apartment is the red dot. The dive shop is the blue dot. I have dived (dove?) about half the sites in the oval but also one up north. The northern sites are harder to get to obviously (time, fuel) and are in rougher water. The more local dive sites are better for training because of the use of time.

You can get an idea of the development in Utila from a geographic perspective on this Google Earth Image. Mostly on the East End.

There is a large expat community here, and tourists and if I had to guess I would say it’s 20-25% of the population. Divers are about half of that and mostly Europeans, Aussies, more interestingly…Canadians. The non-diving tourists appear to me to be Honduran from the mainland. Just an assumption.

The citizens of Utila primarily speak Spanish but there is also a Caribbean patois, especially among the residents with the deepest roots here. Again an assumption.

Utila was British till mid 19th Century and there is apparently a long history of pirates. Will try to learn more local lore.

The food has not been especially notable and there are some reasons. Utila and Roatan are either totally or mostly surrounded by Marine Reserves. As a result extensive harvesting is difficult. That means most of the non-fruit, vegetables produce is shipped in. This is all my general impression based on conversations with locals and expats.

And to be honest, I am on a bit of a budget and have been kind of busy to do a lot of exploring.

Energy is expensive here (I am guessing that it will be $4 per day to run the AC at 77F for 8 hours for my 10×10 bedroom…plus a mini fridge, minimal hot water and ceiling fans). and the water out of the tap is not drinkable. All drinkable water is from 5G water bottles like at the office. Old water cooler style.

So fridges are small, and expensive to run. That makes food storage difficult as does the heat and humidity.

So stores are loaded with cans goods and some dry stores. Lots of rice, lots of baked beans. Lots of stands selling super fresh local fruit and selected veggies.

The first notable local food is a baleada. It’s like an empanada but a bit larger and softer. Fried. Has a variety of fills. Eggs are plentiful…tons of free range chickens.

I’ve been to a lot of islands in life, just moved from one. And it shouldn’t be a surprise to note that its hard life. You don’t have a lot of space, you can’t grow everything or make everything you need locally and most everything needs to come by boat or plane. Boats are slow and planes are expensive.