I spent the last few days in Utila, Honduras with a group of biker dudes that I met in Semuc Champay a month ago.
They rented a little house on Jewel Caye and it was an absurdly nice spot. A little rocky beach right in the “front yard” and unreal snorkeling directly in front of the house. The house is owned by a German lady named Anka. I believe they found it on Airbnb, but I’m not really sure.
I probably went snorkeling 3 times every day and loved swimming around with the fish. The other guys couldn’t swim so I was always swimming alone. I still always get a little fear around the deep parts that there will just be some shark lurking there. It freaks me out when I find myself swimming in the channel and can’t see the end.
One day we took a boat with Herman to “Water Caye.” Some of the backpackers in Utila will camp on it once in a while. The boat can drop you off at night and pick you up in the morning for around $25. I highly recommend it. Easily the nicest spot I have snorkeled in my entire life. All you have to do is swim out for 1 minute and you will see thousands of fish interacting with each other.
But hanging out with the other biker guys, while they were unbelievably nice guys, I felt a little disconnected and I would come to realize that we just didn’t have much in common. They loved to call each other homos as is common in Latin America and I just wanted to go out and swim and meet new people. After 2 nights I was socially exhausted.
So after 2 nights I heartily thanked them and left them there where they were staying for 1 more night. There was a little local boat that leaves at 8am every morning to Utila for $3.
Upon arriving in Utila I had about 5 hours to burn before the ferry to La Ceiba so walked around and explored some of the sights I remember from being there many years ago. I especially wanted to head to this little bar right in front of Coral View Beach Resort.
I sat there and soaked in some happy old memories while I talked with a couple other guys hanging out there. One of the diving instructors had just been stung by a lionfish while trying to kill it. I sat and listened to a long testosterone-induced brag session amongst the instructors about killing Lionfish while he showed off his swollen finger.
Apparently it is encouraged to kill them as lionfish are an, “alien,” species. It makes me a little sick. They are just bragging about killing things and at what point do you just admit that the alien species won and that it is now their home as well? Nature will take its course and find adequate predators for the fish eventually.
After finishing my coke I said goodbye to my new friends and took the ferry again($30) to La Ceiba and then drove out at night to Jungle River Lodge, where I have stayed previously. I absolutely love this spot and it’s essentially the first place in my life that I loved so much I actually went back to stay there again. Usually I would try to find something new to experience something else. It’s $15 for the dorm which is a steep price for a dorm, but I am usually the only one there. This time there were a couple other travelers, but I still got a room to myself.
The other travelers were a really nice German couple, a really nice Dutch couple, a Spanish guy, and a Canadian girl. We sat around a fire, burned stuff, and talked until around 11pm when I finally peaced out.
