Fish and coral
Trip Start
Sep 28, 2007
1
16
33
Trip End
Ongoing
Utila,
Honduras
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Another early start saw us heading for the budget divers' haven Utile in the Bay Islands, Honduras. We arrived in time to catch the ferry, which provides a pretty bumpy ride even when the sea is not very rough, as we had it. Nobody got particularly sick, although a lot of us got wet from the spray which had a way of finding a route indoors and running down seats until it found something dry to soak it up. Trouser legs and bags were ideal.
When we got off it was raining, as it had been doing for the last week. But, contrary to all reasonable expectation, it eased enough so that those with jackets, or bags to shelter under, did not get too wet.
This is not a particularly attractive place, and it is overrun with people doing dive courses. The main point of interest is probably the numerous land crabs that roam the gutters; and the incredibly irritating motor bikes and buggies that roam the narrow streets blowing their horns incessantly and unnecessarily to get pedestrians to move into the mud.
There is one building of architectural note. Called the Jade Sea Horse, it is a bar/house that has been extensively decorated in an extraordinary manner. Walls shimmer with glass beads that have been built in; others are decorated with beer bottles. Arches have been built and lined with dead coral. The whole effect is stunning in one way, but without ever being what you would call tasteful or beautiful.
The diving was pretty disappointing too: it was very nice, but not what I had expected. But then we went to the worst sites (I think) to fit in people who were getting lessons. I'm a bit disappointed that they didn't split the certified divers off and take us somewhere more interesting. Anyway, I spent almost four hours under water and saw some very nice things.
But the island is utterly missable unless you dive, and not that special even then unless you can get a bit further out than we did. So far diving in the Caribbean is far inferior to the South Pacific.
So what is there to see? In the various dives I did we saw a small hawksbill turtle, a big snake eel buried in the sand, some very pretty fish called banded drummers who have extremely elongated dorsal fins and a belly that tapers into an equally long tail. Also saw quite large pipe fish, a small red seahorse (the first I have seen in the tropics), trumpet fish out hunting and hiding in soft coral, grouper and snapper. The fish life was surprisingly bad. The main difference between the reef here and elsewhere I have dived is the range of sponges, especially in the shape of cones and with some beautiful colours - purple and a very bright quite light blue. Also a great many sea fans. So the reef has a very different shape to those found on the great barrier reef or in Fiji.
Some of the really small things are quite spectacular. There are small transparent shrimp with bright blue markings, some getting to an inch or so long, and I found a little crab like creature very well disguised to look like red/brown weed who had obviously been mowing some soft coral. We also came across what I am told was a fire worm, which looks vaguely like one of those white tufted caterpillars.
