It’s now Saturday, Nov. 9, and there continues to be entirely too much rain for us in Útila. There has been torrential rain and a few squalls, and the anchorage has become very rocky. If we weren’t used to living on a boat, we might get seasick just being at anchor here.
We snorkeled on the afternoon of Thursday, Nov. 7, and it was great, but we have not had another opportunity because of the depressing overcast skies and rain falling in buckets. It is not hot, but we have had to use the air-conditioning just to get some of the ambient moisture out of the boat.
A friend of Peter’s brother Rob’s nextdoor neighbor in England has lived here for 25 years, and we got in touch with Tara and met her for frozen lemonade on Thursday and again for dinner last night at Chez Pancho, where she, a friend of hers and Peter enjoyed Argentinian steak and I had an omelet with yummy fresh mushrooms.
There is one main street paralleling the waterfront in the town of Utila. It is lined with dive shops, hostels and a few restaurants as well as little stores selling random pieces of clothing and an assortment of toys and household goods, the clothes and other things looking like merchandise found in a thrift shop or a dollar store. I have no idea where the proprietors source there miscellaneous wares. The main grocery store, Bush’s, stocks a lot of American brands of packaged food, including ramen noodles and the type of food we would take camping, obviously catering to the many young people who come here from the States and other parts of the world to get certified in various levels of diving. They live in rooms let by local homeowners or in rather squalid looking apartment buildings. There are no cars although quite a few motorcycles and four-wheelers share the narrow paved streets with pedestrian traffic, weaving in and out around parked vehicles on whichever side of the road is free.
The expats whom we have met here came to dive and never left. It’s not a place I would choose, but I can see that the laid-back, slow pace of life and tight community of people would be appealing to some people.
Peter and I hope to leave for Guatemala tomorrow. We got ready to take the dinghy in to shore during a brief respite in the rain, and then peals of thunder and flashes of lightning appeared before we could cast off, so we have not left the boat all day. It has been really boring and a bit miserable. We have our fingers crossed for a passage tomorrow.
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