Utila

Located just west of Roatan, the largest of the three islands with Guanaja being the most easterly and second in size, Utila is reached by flying into San Pedro Sula, La Cieba, or Tegucigalpa and taking a commuter over to the island. Tegucigalpa is by far the most exciting as you come in to land flying just below the houses on the approach. Most of the commuters are reasonably modern 9 to 20 passenger prop aircraft, however the more exciting are the vintage Russian twin turboprop aircraft which have no frills such as interior walls, etc.

The smallest of the Honduran Bay Islands, Utila is blessed with a beautiful surrounding reef. With somewhere around 60 dive sites ( depends on which source you choose ) there is certainly plenty to keep any avid diver occupied. With the exception of the whale shark experience, there are basically two types of diving around the island. There are many shallow near shore dives which have their own flora and fauna separate from the deeper areas. The reason there appear to be so many dive sites comes down to the fact that the majority of the deeper sites ( 40 to 120 feet ) are individual seamounts which fall in a line along the coast. While they are for the most part very similar, each is a separate little ecosystem unto itself and hence a separate dive site. Unless you have very current sightings of whale sharks reliably reported, I would recommend not wasting your time with the whale shark diving. It is seasonal and exceptionally sporadic. Save that for your next trip to Cancun. You very likely will waste a day’s diving chasing something you won’t get. For detailed tourist info go to www.aboututila.com

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