UTILA

A few months ago I took a “sabbatical” from work.  Notice how I avoid the 6 letter “R” word. For the most part it has been great.  A few problems I have encountered during this “hiatus” is I never know what day of the week it is, they all look alike. Monday feels like Friday, and weekends no longer have the same meaning they use to.  I wake up with nothing on my ”to do” list and by evening only accomplish half of it.

My new career is “professional vagabond.” I put all my belongings in storage and plan to travel until at least next August. Don’t be alarmed if you hear a late night knock on your door begging for a bed to sleep, in exchange for some house cleaning and cooking on my end.  After driving through a few states meeting with new and old friends I head south and plant myself on an island I know very well- Utila. Getting there is almost as crazy as taking all the back roads through eight states I visited the previous month.  I can backpack through Europe alone, but won’t drive on a highway- go figure.

I look out the window of the plane while approaching the island and see a large whale shark, common to this area, surfacing just above that deep blue water only to disappear again. It is hard to contain my excitement, this sight brings back a flood of memories.

Utila is the most western  of the Bay islands and was a safe haven for English  pirates.  You will find the names Morgan, Bush, and Coopers on the island and they speak  English not Spanish.  Utila has been a part of Honduras for approximately 150 years. For nearly 200 years prior Spanish conquistadores and British pirates battled for control of these islands, By the mid-17th century; as many as 5,000 pirates were living on this island.^[

 Utila is rich in pirate lore, and even presently, scuba divers look for sunken treasure from Captain Morgan’s lost booty from his raid on Panama in 1671.

I have a “gig” on the island for the next month working  at “Trudys” hotel and their dive shop, “Underwater Vision” in exchange for a place to sleep. I will plan to help cook, clean dive equipment and mostly entertain guest with stories of what Utila was like back in the 1980’ s when I first discovered this paradise.

The trip to Utila in 1980 consisted of a grueling 7 hour drive on the Pan American highway from the capital of Honduras to the coast. The small airstrip was nothing but a few benches, a desk and a bar. We would first go into the bar and order a drink. Drink slowly and listen to the chatter of the pilots hanging out waiting for a customer. Then we would pick out the least drunk pilot at the bar and haggle a fare to fly us in a small Cessna to the island.  Sometimes squeezing 3 people and luggage in a two-seater Cessna – ahh to be so young and fearless again!! 

The airstrip was surrounded by water on three sides and was so short that if the pilot was not sober enough, he could over shoot and you ended up nose first in the ocean.  From the airstrip you walked the mile into town to the only hotel-“Trudy’s”. It was not only the single place for a bed but the sole place for food. Today I fly into a sister island Roatan from Miami and catch a ferry over to Utila.

The island then, as now, always had many foreign visitors- mostly German, English, Australians.  Today there is a group of Israeli young adult and I enjoy hearing them speak in Hebrew – such a melodic sound.  I go out to dive with them one day and they break out in a Rap song – all in Hebrew – dancing and gyrating to the music.  A most beautiful sound, but then I don’t understand a word.

I decide to take Hebrew lessons from them while I am here to learn how to say “Good Morning, A cup of coffee, please. – Thank You”  I can already say this in 5 languages – it is the only thing I need to know while traveling, how to get a cup of coffee.

Some old songs with new titles to consider re-writing on my sabbatical.

“You’re So Varicose Vein” by Carly Simon.

“How Can You Mend A Broken Hip?” by the BeeGees.

“I Can’t See Clearly Now” by Johnny Nash.

“Once, Twice, Three Trips to the Bathroom” by the Commodores.

“I Get By with a Little Help from Depends” by the Beatles

Quote/Thought for the Day

It’s a reality that many places defy description. Utila for instance, seems to demand silence, like a love affair you can never talk about. For a while after, you try vainly to assemble a narrative, an explanation, a comfortable way to frame where you’ve been and what has happened. In the end, you’re just happy you were there – with your eyes open – and lived to see it.” Anthony Bourdain