Why you should go to Utila to dive.

I dive now and then.  I mean with tanks and stuff.  I usually prefer to free-dive which is like snorkeling but for super awesome badass people like me.  If you want to see what it’s like, you should check out this video of Guillaume Néry. He’s pretty much the most badass of all the free divers and not just because I can’t pronounce his name.   Free diving is totally unencumbered, unlike SCUBA diving with all of its bubbles and silly tanks of air.  I like free diving because it actually does feel free and in deep water it feels so much like flying.  It does have one small problem though – you have to come all the way back to the surface to get another breath of air.  I guess that sucks a little bit so I’ll reluctantly admit that it’s good to don some gear and take your breath down with you now and then.


Utila Honduras is a really, really good place to do that.  If you already know how to SCUBA dive, you can get a 10-dive package for about $200.  That includes incredible dive masters, boat rides, tanks and all the other gear.  It’s really a good deal but it’s nothing compared to what you see under there. I’ve seen the reefs in the Florida keys, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico, and I can tell you that the reef off the coast of Honduras makes them all wish they could crank up the saturation of their reef like in Photoshop.  It’s awesome.  I saw all the usual creature suspects like angels, triggers, lobster, shrimp, conch, moray eels (one monster that made me gulp air like it was beer), and huge schools of fish. I got to see an Eagle Ray like the ones that Beth and I saw the night before from the dock of our hotel.  There was a sloping, sandy sea floor starting at about 30 feet and ending about 60 that was carpeted in these cute little eels that live in the sand and poke their curious heads up into the current like grass until some bumbling diver comes along and stinks up the place with bubbles.  They shyly disappear and cautiously reemerge after the monstrosities pass. Utila is also a great place to swim with whale sharks but they weren’t around while I was there so I missed out.

The dive masters in Utila (and Roatan) are really experienced and friendly because they have to be.  If you’re a dive master or a dive instructor, it’s probably just because you’re really into diving and you just keep getting more instruction and hours under water for the fun of it.  Then you think: “Hey, maybe I can make money with this and travel to the world’s best dive sites for free!”  When you show up on the dock in Utila with all the other dive masters who had the same stroke of brilliance, you realize it ain’t that easy.  Since the competition is so steep, you pretty much have to be the best diver in the world, speak a few languages, and be willing to work for tanks full of really pressurized air and street food.  That’s how I got a SCUBA refresher course with an excellent trainer and 3 hours of personal instruction for $15. 
Utila is also a really laid back and inexpensive island.  If you’re the backpacker type, you can bunk up in one of the dorms provided free of charge by the dive companies with your lessons (basic open water certs for around $250). If you want your own shower and only like smelling your own feet, you can get private accommodations for between $20 and $75.  If your tastes run nicer than that, check out Roatan – I hear it’s a lot more fancy pants than Utila but with reefs that are just as good.

It was pretty hard to leave Utila which explains the number of Nitrox-sipping, leather-skinned, baggies-wearing, golf-cart-driving, round house-building, expatriate gringos that have taken up residence on the island.