Utila

After finally arriving in Utila, we made our way down the dock past all the touts trying to get us to their respective hotels and grabbed a tuk-tuk.  Our hotel was close but our bags were heavy and it had been a long day.  We decided to splurge on a hotel for Christmas so we booked a room at a hotel called the Lighthouse.  We weren't disappointed.  The hotel was built at the end of a short dock so it sat right over the water.  We had an ocean facing room with AC, TV, soft clean beds, a fridge, and a microwave.  After two months of low budget hostels, this place felt like the Ritz!  The owners were descendants of the original English colony settlers and told us a brief history of the island.  We stayed there for three nights then moved to another place on December 26th.
     We went to Utila because it's a great place to get Scuba certified.  Quick and reasonably cheap compared to most other places in the world.  Nicole wanted to get certified and this was a great opportunity to do so while we were down here.  Plus, I had always wanted to check out Utila so it was a win win situation.  Nicole chose the Utila College of Diving as her dive school.  Most dive schools offer free lodging if you get certified through them so we had free lodging for the seven remaining days we were there.  Also, the only gym on the island was located on that property, so I was happy about that.  They didn't have room in the main student housing so we were put in a "suite" in the lodge.  Although we didn't have any AC, the room was very nice with an enclosed deck, beautiful bathroom, and over the water so we fell asleep and woke up to the lapping of the waves on the beach.  In between Nicole's Basic Certification and advanced certification we had to do some room shuffling.  We actually had to move to a flea bag motel for one night then right back to the dive center.  Different room, though.  Not as nice but still thankful we had a room.  Tourist islands like that fill up for the holidays and with the new year happening, we were thankful to even have a room. 
     We didn't see much of the actual island of Utila as it doesn't have roads that go all the way around it.  We ventured a little ways past the edges of the main town but nothing too exciting.  We were there to dive, not explore.  Also, Utila isn't known for it's beaches so we had a lot of dock lounging time.  We did find one "beach" but it was riddled with trash and very shallow with a coral bottom.  Not ideal for swimming.  We mainly stuck to the dock outside of the dive school.
     I went on four dives with Nicole.  She had two free "fun dives" with each course so I joined her on those.  It was good to be back in the water.  One of them was a wreck dive which I had wanted to do for a long time.  However, we couldn't go in the wreck as that's a different certification.  It was an okay dive. 
     The main town on the island isn't much.  It's one long main road running parallel to the water with a couple streets jutting into the island.  It's tolerable when you're not almost getting hit by scooters, motorcycles, four wheelers, golf carts, and tuk-tuks.  There's no sidewalks on the narrow street so pedestrians share the road with all the other vehicles.  It was a nice visit but I can't say I was sad to leave.