Lazy Island Days

Our days in Utila so far have been a mixture of outdoor garden work and lazy days hanging around. The closest beach to our apartment happens to be Chepes Beach. This public beach is small but its a pretty white sand stretch that is stunning when empty.

Chepes Beach.

The white sand at the far side of Chepes Beach.

Beyond Chepes beach is a platform built across the road from Coral View Hotel. It is not a long walk. The pathway just winds through some really pretty wooden kampung-style houses next to the sea and usually this platform is empty. It is built just meters away from an underwater garden filled with healthy coral and lots of bright, colourful fish going about their business. The sunset from here was pretty spectacular, even though it set on the island and not the sea.

On the way to snorkel.

A pretty circular wooden house right on the beach.

Lovely kampung-style house.

The platform near the reef was almost always empty when we went there.

Rick and Jesus snorkeling over the reef opposite Coral View Hotel.

Sunset over Utila.

Some mornings we head to the Paradise Divers jetty to wait for the fishermen to come in with their catches. So far we haven’t been able to catch Begonia and Jesus’ regular guy, Zorro, but the other day, we bought half a huge barracuda for 250 lempiras (equivalent to 40 ringgit or 10 euros), and it really was massive. Its in our freezer now, fileted and ready for cooking!

Zorro, fileting barracuda the morning we arrived on Utila.

… and the sign on the jetty says…

If you can get past the oily patches on the surface of some parts, and a fishy odor sometimes, you can also snorkel from the jetty. You will be surprised at just how many fish live in that small area of water. It is close enough to home for us to be able to run home for a cool shower if the sun starts to get a bit too much.

The clear water near the Paradise Divers jetty are perfect for snorkeling. Lots of fish feed on the fishermen’s leftovers.

Me and Begonia making big splash!

Rick the acrobat!

So that’s a snapshot of some of the activities that we have been indulging in over the past couple of weeks. We have still yet to make it to Pumpkin Hill, which has been on the agenda since our first week here on Utila. The days are passing by incredibly fast as we indulge ourselves in lazy island days.