I lived from when I was 9 years to 13 on Utila, an island 20 miles off of the coast of Honduras, this was from 1970 to 1974. This island is roughly 20 square miles in area and mostly flat with swamps and only 3 very low hills that I remember, the highest is only about 250 ft above sea level. It also has a few cays a few miles from the main town, these are very pretty and a few are inhabited. The town when I was there had a population of about 2000 and also a floating population I guess of about 300 or 400 men who would ship out or go to the US for a living. The shipping out part was mostly eliminated once Filipinos started getting these jobs as they accepted lower wages.
The only Honduras government employees to be seen was the police force which consisted of 3 men, the telegraph operator and about 7 teachers at the public school and also a guy who did customs work but I don’t know if he was paid.. The main law enforcement was the municipal chief of police, on week days there was a curfew at 9:30 pm, the municipality had a guy who served as municipal policeman his only duty was to blow a whistle at 9:15 pm and the other one at 9:30, after that time the 3 policemen would take a walk around town, if they found anyone on the streets he was put in jail.
But the real power here was religion; there were 4 churches, Church of God, Baptist, Adventist and Methodist which was the largest. The older people were the ones who made sure moral codes were followed and nearly all of them went to one of the churches on Sunday. The children had to go to Sunday school. I had my own ideas even back then, but I still went to Sunday school sometimes as it was kind of nice. You will notice that even though Honduras at that time was mostly Catholic they had no presence in this island. This is due to the fact that the local people were either black and had come from the West Indies islands, like Jamaica, or they were white, descended from Britain, only a few Latinos from the coast lived there at the time, so they had more or less a protestant background. The language spoken was English with a Caribbean accent, currency was Honduras Lempira or US Dollar, both were accepted. There clearly was some racism as I remember, dance halls were segregated and you could perceive some tension but nothing scary it was just something you knew existed and you lived with it.
Photo Source: www.aboututila.com
Life was really great here for a kid, the island has literally hundreds of fruit trees most of them on public land, all types of tropical fruit like mangoes, coconuts, papayas, and lots of other fruits., There were hundreds of mango trees and during mango season the place was full of mosquitoes and sand flies, and worst of all one called Doctor Fly which was like a fly only black and yellow and when it stung you, the stung part would go numb. I used to hate the mango season, because of the insects and also because it implied my brother and I had to clean the yard, it had 2 mango trees and you wouldn’t believe how many mangoes they produced.
Jobs were scarce on the island mainly people who had general stores, a bank, a credit union,a couple of private schools, a few hotels, fishing, a couple of guys who planted yucca, plantains and tomatoes and that was about it, and when there was a house being built they used a couple of carpenters, most of the money came from the people who were shipped out or living in the US. A few shrimp boats and cargo vessels also produced some jobs. But it really was a very healthy place, fresh air, about 2 cars and a few motorcycles, , basic fare was plantains, fish, rice, beans, coconut bread, eggs, mortadela, ham and meat , most of this food was brought from the coast on cargo vessels, the general stores sold cake, papaya pickles and other baked goods, a lot of men and most children walked around bare foot, when I first got there I found it funny but you get used to that and the streets weren’t paved but the earth was soft so it was OK, this wasn’t reflecting poverty, if you compared the lifestyle with the coast, quality of life was way better on the island, it was just part of the life style, also there are no rivers on the island so water is obtained from wells. Local wildlife is not much, iguanas, birds and luckily a few non poisonous small snakes.
The sea was beautiful, the beaches in reality are kind of small but it is a great place for diving, somehow I never learned how to swim too good, I can barely float, I did go out in motor dories or a few trips to the coast on cargo boats. The other way to travel was by plane it was very cheap you could even rent a one motor aircraft for a few dollars. Nowadays the island is well connected with 2 or 3 ferry vessels every day and there are still flights and the island now boasts a paved runway.
Most of the houses were made of wood and on stilts, mainly I was told and I’m not sure if this is true but when bad weather hits the empty space under the house gives the wind a place to go without hitting the house so hard, I don’t know if I explained this right. During the time I was there, tourists were not so common, but there was a diving outfit from the US who were looking for underwater treasure, I have no idea if they ever found anything.
Nowadays the island is famous worldwide because it is one of the cheapest places where you can obtain a PADI (diving) certificate, so now the place is full of tourists and the town is much bigger with way more attractions. But I think, even though the last time I was there was 15 years ago, the place was much better 40 years ago, it was actually a great place, you could sleep with your doors open, there was only one thief and he was always caught (remember it’s a small island there’s not much you can do about hiding) and while I was there, there was only one crime and it was a policeman who was diagnosed with some incurable disease and he killed his wife and committed suicide. Now it is open for tourism, and as it is relatively cheap, and English is spoken by practically everyone, many Europeans and North Americans go there, it is a fun place. I hope you liked this article and who knows maybe you will decide to visit this island, it is completely different to the rest of the country.
