Woke up at 0430 with a loooong day ahead of me. I got started riding at 5am to try to make the 9am ferry in La Ceiba to cross over to Utila to meet up with the motorcycle guys I met in Guatemala that invited me to join them there. It was pretty awful planning but I made it to the hotel right around 830, waited a couple of minutes and got a call from Mike, one of the motorcycle guys.
I thought I was meeting them at the hotel but they were already at the ferry so I was stressed. I packed my stuff, left it at the hotel for 60 lempiras per day and got going. I walked out of the hotel at 0852 and into a taxi. The driver said we wouldn’t make it but I said let’s give it a shot.
We arrived and I could still see the ferry there. For once the lateness of Latin America saved my ass. They rushed me in, bought me a ticket for 750 HNL and pushed me through the door onto the ferry at 910.
By sheer luck I made it. I often let the universe decide. If it had already left I would have gone to the jungle on my own and done some kayaking instead.
https://utilaferry.com/schedule/ – This is the ferry schedule if anyone needs it. It goes between La Ceiba, Utila, and Roatan. It’s a huge boat but when the seas get choppy it can be incredibly sickening. They literally have people to go around handing out puke bags.
Ferry ride
Loaded up to go to the Caye
Anyways, I hung out with the biker guys on the boat and met the Vice President of Utila tourism on the way who told us there would be a celebration in Utila later that day. It was basically Utila’s carnival.
After 45 mins we were in Utila. Once we got to Utila we were met by an old dude named Herman who drove us in his boat to an island near Utila called Jewel Cay where we would be staying for the night. On the way he was telling us about the local culture. Interestingly there are white people that are now “native” to the area that speak a veeeeeery interesting form of English. Usually I can’t quite understand them but I can make out some English words. He told us they were endearingly called, “caracols,” which means snails.
Utilia (2 of 20)
Since the VP of tourism had told us about the carnival that would be happening in Utila that day we decided to head into town to check it out realizing that we would have to head home before dark, as the boat skipper made us aware there was no possible way he could drive us back at night. So we got into town around 1pm or so planning to head back around 530pm or so.
The ride there was horribly bumpy ride and due to a growing storm we got sprayed and soaked all the way there. It was kind of fun at first but then got exhausting.
The looming storm
We all chose different methods to deal with the storm
Protection from the storm
Utilia (13 of 20)
Once we got into town we walked around and there was almost nothing going on. But we walked around to explore Utila and saw people starting to gather outside bit by bit. It was trippy seeing how much had been built there since the last time I had been there about 4 or 5 years ago. A lot of new buildings had been built in that time.
Utilia (19 of 20)
Utilia (20 of 20)
The parade started around 4pm and we watched the parade and then walked around with the people partying at the back of the parade collecting beads that people were throwing out. We didn’t have much time so we started heading back and took a nice bumpy ride back to the Caye where we were staying. Exhausting day. Tomorrow I will snorkel!