Utila - December 2001

Roatan - December 2001

La Ceiba - January 2002

ABOVE:  Winsail, Cobi and Obeth at Gran Vivorillo, with their mud stove.


Here is an addendum to the list of boats we had at the end of the Guatemala page, the rest of the boats we met during our first year out:

Larry & family, "Antigone"
Sherrie, Cliff and Cliff, Jr.; "Aubisque"
Inga & Peter, "Baerne"
Carol & Greg, "Carlin"
Liz, Dale & Jack, "Cowrie Dancer"
Barbara & Peter, "Crazy Horse"
Trish & Tom, "First Lady"
Bernadette & Douglas, "Ithaka"
Sterling, "Joie de Vivre"
Wally & Leon, "Mubuhay"
Marie & Joe, "Odyssey"
Connie & Dick, "Okinnogin"
Marilyn & Greg, "Patience"
Richard, "Polly Von"
Brenda & Gene, "Queen Mary"
Beryl & Derek, "Rotuma"
Carol, Gary and Family, "Ruach"
P'nina & Yoav, "Summer Wind"
Donna & Dave, "Victoria"

We arrived at Utila, an english-speaking enclave in Spanish-speaking Honduras. The currency was the Limpira, and you could buy 16 for a dollar. But since there were quite a few more international travellers here, the prices were a bit higher. We had lunch for two at a local spot for L99 and buffet fish dinner for L350. 

The town of Puerto Este was dominated by dive shops and the maps emblazoning walls through town indicated that Utila was surrounded by named dive sites. We understood that Utila was the backpacker-grade dive destination and we saw rooms advertised for $US10/day, but not at the places with "24-hour electricity and fresh water" - for that you had to pay a little extra. Utila had internet cafes, but quite expensive at L4/minute (double what we paid at the already expensive Rio Dulce internet cafes) so we waited for better prices further on.

12/19/01 - We spent a fine few days in Utila. It taakes a few days to find one's way around a place and the more we found the more we liked. Right on the waterfront was a bar called "Coco Loco" and they rock! Night after night we sat on the boat about 300 yards off, and were amazed by the soundtrack emerging from this nondescript bar. We used their dock to tie up in the days, and the manager told us that he and a couple of partners did the music for their respective nights of operation. We highly complemented his musical selection about 20 minutes after another sailor had said the same thing.

We really liked Utila and are sure to visit again. It was laid back and friendly, there was good snorkeling right outside the harbor; and it was CHEAP. Speaking in Lempiras: bottles of beer during happy hour are L12 ($0.75), then L15 ($0.95) all night. Dinner at the "Mermaid", where we ate several times, ran about L60 or around $3.75. Great food. The town of Puerto Este had a good level of convenience, too -  with airline service, almost full-time electricity, several mediocre grocery stores, running water, a bicycle shop, three hardware stores, and an ice cream shop: they live right at the edge of "Western Civilization" - what a great place to be!

..but, we could not stay. So on the 17th, we sailed east for Roatan. But the wind shifted so we decided to sail for the Cayos Cochino instead (20 miles south of Roatan). But when we arrived it was raining, and we really wanted to get to Roatan because our friend Katie O'Neill was on the way. So, we sailed for Roatan first thing the next morning.

12/20/01 - We arrived at French Harbor on Roatan.&nnbsp; The anchorage is just inside the reef where the water is about 15 feet deep. The reef slopes from sea level down to a depth of about 20 feet within the first 50 to 100 feet as you head off shore, then the bottom drops abruptly to 200 feet. The wall is coral, sponges, sea fans, and lots of fish. The lagoon behind the reef was occupied by a small fleet of sailboats.

12/25/01 - A collection of cruisers and some local expatriates gathered at the Oakridge Marina (search for "Sandy Byrd" if you follow the Oakridge Marina link) on Roatan for a pot-luck Christmas dinner. Lisa organized the whole thing in about two days working the VHF and shortwave radios hard. We and the marina owner, Sandy, split the cost of two large turkeys and Lisa and Katie baked them in the oven at Sandy's house. Everyone brought their favorite Christmas dinner dishes and some cruisers played music for the crowd.

1/13/02 - After visiting with Katie for a few dayss, then visiting with our friend Linda from St. Petersburg, Florida, for a few days after New Year, we sailed south to La Ceiba on the mainland. La Ceiba has a full service shipyard and a nice marina right next door - the Lagoon Marina owned and operated by Tony and Rita. We were in and out of the marina twice, one visit prior to the yard and another afterward. The shipyard was very professional and the crew there were great. We felt we really had friends working with us to get our boat in top condition for continued cruising.

At the marina, we met a very friendly couple, Al and Teresa Jacobs, who worked in La Ceiba for a school operated by the United Fruit Company. She was the school principal and he taught computer classes. They really took us and the crews of "Filia" and "Ithaka" under their wing and made sure we had a great stay in La Ceiba. One weekend they took us to a place near town where the Cangrejal River falls out of the mountains. Lisa had a chance to do some whitewater kayaking, and Cade enjoyed chatting with Guillermo Anderson, a World Music style musician from the town of La Ceiba who has released a few popular CDs and done some world tours. We had never heard of him before, but bought a couple of CDs from him and like them quite well.

Another weekend, Al and Teresa had us out to a friend's beach house and though it rained much of the day, we had a great afternoon sitting and talking or reading, and Cade was able to help Teresa a little bit with some statistical work on her doctoral thesis.

1/22/02 - From La Ceiba, it was a hair-raising sevven hour bus ride through the mountains to the town of Copan Ruins, near the southeastern most of the major Mayan sites in Central America. This is a photo from the Acropolis looking down at the ceremonial ball court (where the losing team in certain important ceremonial games were all sacrificed), and in the distance are some of the ornately carved stellae which record information about the various rulers of this ancient culture.

While we were in the area, Mr. Modera was inaugurated as president of Honduras. He visited Copan ruins a few days after we visited and greeted other Central American leaders and pressed for a Central American Tourism Treaty. We do not know the outcome of his appeal, but we do know that the Honduran government went to great measures to accomodate the event and very artfully lit the ruins at night for the visiting dignitaries. They had a test burn while we were in town and the ruins were open to the public for a few hours in the evening. It was a very beautiful and unusual opportunity to make an extra visit while we were there. Hotels in the town of Copan Ruins, though not air conditioned or much furnished, were still amazingly inexpensive at less than $10 per night many places. There were plenty of nice restaurants and shops to keep us occupied when not at the ruins themselves.

La Ceiba had a modern shopping mall and several well stocked grocery stores and hardware stores. We provisioned and obtained a variety of needed supplies and left to return to the Bay Islands to find some comfortable harbor and work on boat projects. We departed La Ceiba on January 28th. Returning to French Harbor by way of a short stop in Utila.