One Day Tour of Utila and Then Away West
25 March 2014 | East Harbour, Utila, Honduras
Beth / hot
Utila is the smallest of Honduras’ Bay Islands, extremely popular with the younger set because of its many dive shops with relatively inexpensive courses and excursions. It’s also home to whale sharks in the spring and if we had been a couple of weeks later, we’d have had a better chance of seeing them.
Our main reason for stopping here was to check out of the country. We left the dinghy at the Bush’s supermarket dock and went off to find the Immigration and Port captain’s offices. We took the directions given by the young man at the dock literally so we walked a little farther “down that way” than necessary, giving us a nice look at the town and a welcome stretch of our legs. After asking again, we returned back along the main street, turned toward the water on the ting street opposite the Banco Atlantida and discovered the offices side by side. First stop, Immigration. We had an extra copy of the vessel registration for him, but we didn’t have photo copies of our passports so I followed his instruction to go to the pharmacia. It turned out to be a tiny little place with a sign, “Medical Store” in big letters and “copias” is small ones, and sure enough, the gentleman was able to make copies for me. Back to Immigration – hand over the papers, a quick stamp of our passports and we were out of there and in the next door. We handed over another copy of the vessel registration, the officer typed up our exit permit (Zarpe) in triplicate on an old fashioned typewriter, wished us a good trip and we were finished there too. No fees! No fuss, no muss.
The rest of the day was devoted to fun. We met Vibeke and Poul at buccaneer grill for iced teas and then moved over to the much quieter El Picante for lunch. This Mexican restaurant on the second floor of the bright yellow building on the water was a fine place for lunch. Jean welcomes visitors to leave their dinghies on his dock if they buy drinks or a meal (seems only fair to me!) Poul arranged a golf cart rental for the afternoon so we trooped off to pay $30 US for 3 hours of joyriding! We all took turns driving – out along the sandy road to the beach, back through town and then on the bumpy dirt road that circles the eastern end of the island. We bumped our way past iron rock and scrub trees and some lovely homes to the airport and back into town. We took our dusty selves to the shady porch of Munchies for afternoon coffee before heading back to the boats. We’ll have to wait till next year to try out the snorkeling opportunities because we are off in the morning to Tres Puntas, Guatemala.