Utila

I am currently writing from the computer at the Mango Inn in Utila, one of the Bay Islands off the northern coast of Honduras. There are three Bay Islands, Roatan, Utila, and Guanaja. Roatan is the most popular and the most expensive. I arrived at the ferry dock yesterday around 2:30p after a long seven hour bus ride from Tegucigalpa.

Not going to lie, this trip marks the first solo voyage I have undertaken. During the past few weeks, it's been difficult to tell the difference between nerves and excitement. Luckily, the trip did not require a lot of bus-switching, maps, or complicated navigating. Yesterday, at around 5:30am I called a taxi to take me to the bus station around 5:30am. I then took the bus all the way to La ceiba (right on the north coast). From there, I took a taxi to the ferry with some nice Danish people I met. Finally, I rode the ferry to Utila, and hurray! I reached my destination.

Utila itself is less tourist-oriented than Roatan and more affordable. As my fellow North Americans in Tegus called it, Utila is very "chill." Locals live and hang out here. I find that I am able to strike up a conversation pretty easily so there doesn't seem to exist much resentment towards foreigners. I do get all manner of cat-calls; one muchacho naturally took it upon himself to simply meow at me. The buildings are colorful, clever, and makeshift all at the same time. No one cares what you wear. As far as cuisine goes, there are countless cheap, quaint diners with names like "Munchie's" and "Bambino's," and numerous bed-and-breakfast places, too. The menu includes fried chicken, typical food, milkshakes, burgers, and here at the Mango Inn, stone-oven pizza and calamari rings.

When I got to the ferry dock, I was somewhat wide-eyed. I parted ways with the Danish people and then I was alone. What do I do? Sit and wait, obviously. But should I change clothes? Should I buy food? Should I save my money? When you travel alone there are many, many options and only one person to make the call. As it turns out, I had my third mini-scare of the morning when I tried the ATM to pay in cash for my ferry ticket and it wouldn't take my card. The first scare happened when the taxi driver took me to the wrong bus station in a very shady part of town. Luckily, Julienne had described the correct station to me and I told the driver that this was definitely not it. The second occured when I arrived at the correct bus station and read a sign which said that the bus company required the use of a passport. I panicked because, of course, I didn't bring my passport (being in Honduras already). The ticket-seller called a few numbers for me and said I would be fine. Back at the ferry, I discovered a second cajero (ATM) and I was able to purchase my ticket without any more trouble.

While waiting to board the boat, I met a couple of Englishmen with serious cockney accents on their way to Utila. They had been traveling for few months in California, Nevada, Mexico and Guatemala, Utila is the last stop for them. While in Guatemala, they met up with Ilona and Caroline (from Switzerland and Belgium, respectively) and the group has been traveling together since. The guys knew some friends at the Mango Inn so we all stayed the night in the bunk-style lodging, the girls in one room and the boys in the other. For dinner, we enjoyed our vegetarian and apple/blue cheese pizzas in the open cafe. I have enjoyed getting to know these fellow travelers immensely. I am especially eager to hear backpacking stories. For example, the guys attended Burning Man (a crazy-loco arts festival in the Nevada desert) for a week, but the 1970's camper they purchased for the festival is still parked at a friend's house in San Francisco. Iona and Caroline are just fresh out of secondary school (maybe 20 years old?) and yet they began traveling as lone women in Central America. All of them carry huge backpacks twice the size of mine. James explained to me that he has also explored southern Asia and India in this same way. He actually completed his diving certification in Thailand, so he will continue on with an advanced certification here in Utila.

Hopfully, the rest of the crew will do their basic certification with me this week so I will know some people in the class. If not, I suppose I can meet up more people along the way.

Pictures next week!