Welcome to Utila

April 30th - May 1st

We did not stay in San Pedro for long... only about 7 hrs. At 9:15am we were off to La Ceiba to catch a boat to the island of Utila.

Now when people think of the Bay Islands of Honduras they mostly think of Roatan.  Probably because Roatan is much bigger, and some days up to 3 or 4 cruise ships dock there. People who visit Utila are mostly backpackers and scuba divers. So not only did Blake serve on Utila for 6 months but this little island is right where we wanted to be.

You can see the difference in tourism just by the boat size.

We took the Utila Princess, yes the little boat to the left. The larger boat to the right will soon be on it's way to Roatan. So we said good-bye to the mountainous port of La Ceiba for the beauty of Utila.

Welcome to Utila

On the island people don't really drive cars. We saw maybe 2 work trucks while we were there.  Most everyone has a dirt bike, scooter, four wheeler, motorcycle, a normal bike, or you can pretty much walk anywhere you need to go. As you can see the roads would be to small to have cars driving up and down, which makes this place even more enchanting.

While on the island we stayed with the wonderful family of Alex Ebanks. Alex and his family were so welcoming and made us feel like part of the family.  While Blake was serving on the island Alex was not a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints, but he was happy to inform us that last August he was baptized.  They also had a new addition to their family 4 months ago.  

Elder Beach, Alex, Sanik, Alexia, Elder Russ

The first two days on Utila Sanik let us use her scooter to visit members and old friends.  Now I am sorry to say while in Honduras we were really bad in taking pictures with the families we visited. We just spent the time we had with them talking and eating. But of course we did take pictures of all the random things we saw.


This was the first (out of the many) crab we saw this trip,

and this little guy tried to stay the night in our room, but Blake kindly let him back outside. 

The next day was Sunday, we drove the scooter to church. 

The members used to meet in this old house.  Now they have a newer and nicer little place located on top of the bank.

After church the island was having a big fish fry or derby.  And out of all things Lion fish was on the menu.

They had lion fish cooked in too many ways to count.

Now the reason for the 400+ lion fish that were killed, was they are not native to the Utila reef. They came to the island a few years ago and where eating all the native fish. So we got a free lunch.

After the fish fry we went back to Alex's house.  There we played monopoly with Sanik, her sister Annie, and Annie's husband Calvin. 

Now, on the Bay Islands most everyone speaks English and Spanish. There is a very long history but we do know they were an English colony for a number of years, and have a history of pirating. And if you have ever heard these islanders talk, you would know they sound just like they came out of the movie Pirates of the Caribbean. It was fun and different calling the play money lempiras rather then dollars as well as getting to hear all the different words and sayings they use.  Here is just a few we can remember. 

what among you doin... what are you guys doing

where among you goin... where are you guys going

dont be gettin waxed bra... don't get mad man

and all the rrRR's (they were subtle but still there)