Utila and Roatan, Bay Islands of Honduras

Sorry, I am having trouble uploading images with the text.

After leaving Puerto Escondido, we sailed the 45 miles to Utila which is the westernmost of Honduras' Bay Islands. The three main islands, Utila, Roatan and Guanaja lie about 30 miles north of the mainland and run in a roughly southwest to northeast orientation.

Utila, is known as "party central" of the northwest caribbean. Lots of young people, backpackers and divers come here. Apparently this is one of the least-expensive places to come to become certified as a diver.It is a fun place with some nice restauarants and the cays southwest of here offer some great snorkliing and diving. After about three days we moved on to French Harbor, Roatan which is about 26 miles NW of Utila. ( We have come some 175 miles from our starting point in the Rio Dulce and it has taken a week.....such is the pace on a sailboat!)

Roatan is about 30 miles long and 2 -3 miles wide. It is quite hilly and green. There is a paved road that runs about 2/3 the length of the island along the hilly spine. It is surrounded by a barrier reef that provides spectacular snorkling and diving. The depth drops from 30 ft to 1000ft in about a hundred yards in many places.

We anchored in French Harbor which is a short dinghy ride away from access to Eldon's grocery store, ATM machines etc.It is also adjacent to Fantasy Island resort, which offers wifi access, beach ,pool etc.

The people of Roatan are a mixture of the Spanish and English influences that held sway here in the 17th and 18th centuries. Most people are bilingual but there are some mainly black ( the Garifuna people who came here from St Vincent 200 years ago) communities who only speak English. The English controlled the Bay Islands for much of their colonial life. This included a period of time in the mid to late 17th century when the English pirates ruled here. Henry Morgan had a hideout here at Port Royal.

From here we are going to the small island of Barbareta 16 miles east of here. More later.