Back in May, I spent three weeks on Honduras’ Bay Islands. I spent the first 2 weeks becoming a PADI scuba instructor, but after the course and exams were over, I needed a break! Fortunately, I was already in paradise so all I needed to do was get underwater.
In this post, I’ll recap my fun dive portion of the trip, which included 1 day of diving in Utila and 3 days of diving in Roatan.
Utila
Since I had already spent 2 weeks in Utila, I knew I wanted to make my way to the next island over, Roatan, before I went home. Still, I hadn’t had much opportunity during the instructor course to enjoy Utila’s reefs. So before I left Utila, I did one big day of diving – 4 dives total!
In the morning, we dove Black Coral Wall and Bando Beach. Both dives were about 55 minutes long. I saw lots of small filefish, a big nurse shark hanging out on top of the wall, and a sea turtle.
Tiny filefish blending in with the coral.
Spotted trunkfish.
Nurse shark resting on top of the wall.
Golden crinoid.
After lunch, we went out to Big Bight Bank, a seamount, where I tagged along on a lionfish hunt. Lionfish are invasive in the Caribbean, and apparently tasty too, so Utila Dive Center offers a specialty course called “Caribbean Lionfish Containment Diver.” Divers learn about the threat lionfish pose to Caribbean reefs, learn how to capture lionfish, and even enjoy lionfish ceviche following a successful catch. Since this was a deeper dive in order to get to the lionfish, we only stayed under for 35 minutes.
One less lionfish in the Caribbean.
Yellow stingray. I love the pattern on its back!
Our final dive of the day was at Rocky Point. We looked for more lionfish, but to no avail. We did, however, find a tiny lettuce leaf sea slug and plenty of reef fish during the 45 minute dive.
Trumpetfish blending in with the coral.
Roatan days 1 and 2
Travel between Utila and Roatan is simple; there are two ferries a day each way. I took the morning ferry, and an hour later found myself on a larger and very different island. A 30-minute taxi ride later, I was in West Bay, the town I stayed in. The dive shop I used, Reef Gliders, is based in West Bay as well.
I planned to dive that afternoon, but unfortunately the winds were too strong to safely go out in the boat. So instead, I had a lovely nap and walk around town.
The winds were still blowing in the wrong direction the next morning, but we were able to dive from the south side of the island, which was more protected. This isn’t the side that dive shops typically take guests to, but I thought the diving was amazing!
We did 2 dives, at Angie’s and Keyhole. Both were a bit over an hour (no problem since the water was a balmy 84F), and were wall dives. I found a bunch of crustaceans, including banded coral shrimp, arrow crabs, and Pederson cleaner shrimp. I also spotted several scrawled cowfish, squid, a whitespotted filefish, and a scrawled filefish.
Bearded fireworm – about 1.5 inches long.
Batwing coral crab – about the size of a dinner plate!
Scrawled cowfish.
Roatan day 3
The winds had calmed down overnight, so on my third day in Roatan we dove on the north side of the island near West Bay. We did two dives in the morning and a third in the afternoon: Fish Den, Trinity/Sea Quest Deep, and Aquarium (shallow). Each was about an hour long.
We saw several spotted eagle rays, arrow blennies, jawfish, cowfish, filefish, bridled burrfish, and more.
My favorite find of the day, and maybe the whole trip, was a dark mantis shrimp, my first ever mantis shrimp in the wild! I wasn’t able to get any photos since it was scurrying in and out of a coral head, but I did watch it in wonder for about 10 minutes. What a treat!
Arrow blenny; about 1 inch long.
A blenny about the size of my pinky finger.
A conch having a meal.
Spotted eagle ray – one of three on the same dive!
Roatan day 4
My birthday! We did two morning dives – Jumpin Jack and Blue Channel. We were treated to a sea turtle, a spotted moray, a purplemouth moray, and an eagle ray, among others. After, I found the best chocolate cake in town to celebrate 🙂
Whitespotted filefish on high alert.
Pedersen cleaner shrimp – you can even see the eggs in its abdominal area!
Roatan day 5 and returning to Arizona
Since you shouldn’t dive for 24 hours before flying, on my last full day in Honduras I stuck to snorkeling. I wasn’t let down though; I found a spotted moray and also saw a houndfish eating another houndfish! Check out the pics below. I couldn’t believe my eyes as I watched the 10-minute life or death struggle between the two houndfish. It took me 8 or 9 of those minutes to figure out what in the world was going on.
The bigger houndfish spent about 10 minutes trying to position the smaller one so that it could swallow it.
Check out those teeth.
Properly positioned now – going down the hatch!
The trip back to Arizona was much more straightforward than the trip to Honduras. I had a quick flight from Roatan to San Pedro, then a flight to Houston before my final leg back to Tucson. One fewer flight and no ferry certainly simplified things.
Summary and Utila vs. Roatan thoughts
I had a blast diving in Honduras. Utila and Roatan are very different islands; Utila caters more to youth and backpackers while Roatan’s visitors are generally older and want more comfort and service on their travels. Personality-wise, Roatan was a better fit for me because it’s a bit quieter. At the same time, Utila was the perfect place for me to do my instructor course because of the experience Utila Dive Center brings to the table.
Underwater, you see a lot of similar things at both islands; tons of reef fish, some bigger things like eagle rays, a few eels, and some sea turtles when you’re lucky. Utila does have the whale sharks, but I came too late in the season to see them. If you want to see all of my favorite underwater photos from the trip, have a look at my photo gallery.
If you’re trying to decide which island to visit, I say do both! They’re only a short ferry ride away, so decide which is better by experiencing them both for yourself rather than taking anybody’s word for it.
Dives this trip: 17
Total dives: 122
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