Diving in the Bay Islands
Trip Start
Dec 2007
1
21
30
Trip End
Feb 2008
Utila, Bay Islands,
Honduras
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
We met up with Bodie (our man in the jungle) at the ferry terminal as he wanted to get his diving qualifications.
The ferry was quite fun as they handed out sick bags as soon as we were seated and had two staff running around with handi towels. One staff memberīs job seemed to be to help the women to the front of the boat, the blokes just had to make their own way. He seemed to enjoy his job.
Once we got outside the harbou walls we found out why they were handing out bags, the ferry is a catamaran and it bounced over the waves with everyone ohhing and arhhhing. Fortunately the waves were too bad although some people were very pale and many went outside.
Utila is a fab little island with one main street and everyone speaking english or creole english. It is a diving mecca and the backpackers version of the larger Bay Island, Roatan. As soon as we got off the boat, we were samped by touts for all the dive shops, they were very pleasant and helpful. Bodie went off with a couple to sort out his dive course which included accomodation and Jus and I headed off to the Bavaria Hotel which we had chosen from the Lonely Planet Guide.
the Bavaria was a very small room but with a nice balconey and we opted to pay a couple of dollars more for hot water (which i couldnt get to work until Jus worked out that we had to have the tap hardly turned on and with no pressure!). Nice place to stay and great hosts.
After a leisurely lunch i headed to Utilia Divers to book diving for the next day but they were full so we ended up at Cave Creek on an afternoon dive session. Cave Creek had lots of young aussies and brits working there, most of whom had arrived within the last month or so and had progressed from non divers to dive masters or instructors in that time.
Most dive courses took 3.5 days although Bodie managed to get his qualification in 2 days, his reasoning is that he is just talented and did all the drills perfectly! My obervation of both the dive master and those on our boat on courses was that anyone could pass easily.
Justine decided to come snorkelling although when we set out to the dive boat there was torrential rain and she didnt fancy the idea of being wet on the boat. I figured we were wet anyway and anyway the rain doesnt last long in Utila.
We went out to a dive site called the Aquarium and most of the best coral and fish were at 20-40 feet. The divermaster cracked along at a furious pace and i lagged behind looking at the corals and hence saw the 5 barracudaa, sharks and eels which the others missed as they were a long way off the coral face and basically swimming.
I got one of the new divemasters to come with me for the next dive and we spend over an hour rummaging around coral and seeing the most fantastic sea life including a puffer fish that looked a little like a flat soccer ball until i got too closed and then it swelled and dared me to come closer.... i didnīt!
The diving is very good but my recommendation is that most of the coral and fish life is in 20Ą40 feet.
After so many days in the jungle we were up for a big night but Jus and Di strike again and after dinner we found the town was closed. This is supposed to be a party island but they must have been hiding the parties that night. Howver given everyone is on courses and getting up early for diving, maybe it wasnt such a party town.
So it was rum and orange on the deck!
