Island Paradise Day 32

Today’s post is short as we have our first -and probably only- guest arriving this afternoon and we need to head to town to pick her up at the ferry. And after that we will be far too busy making (and drinking) mango margaritas to be writing blog posts.

It is too bad that there is a weather system related to the first named tropical storm of the season, (Alberto, which incidentally formed just a few hundred kilometers east of the Bay Islands) that is clouding the skies and bringing unstable air to the area. Last night we got to enjoy our first tropical thunderstorm. We were awakened by a barrage of "marbles" on our metal roof. It was quite a clamor as the strong winds blew in the storm and brought down hundreds of tropical pine seed pods. The lightening was spectacular, though the storm never got closer than a few miles from here. As much as I like storms, we really wanted Natalie to see how beautiful the water and snorkeling are here, and they are never as nice when the water is rough and there is no sunshine to lighten the water. Stephane is hopeful we will have a sunny spell to show off "our" beach.

Our guest, Stephane’s sister Natalie, was able to get a good price on an all- inclusive in Roatan for this week. Roatan is the largest of the Bay Islands, and is an hour ferry ride from Utila (or a short small plane ride of 15 minutes). Most major cities in the U.S. and Canada have direct charter flights to Roatan as it is a major tourist hub in the Caribbean with an international airport and a large new cruise port. While that makes Roatan a little more accessible than Utila – it also makes it far busier and more expensive. The main beach there – West Bay – is inundated with tourist every time the cruise ships come in.

Having said that, being somewhere easy to get to is an important factor to consider when choosing a place to retire (or winter): especially if having family and friends come to visit is a priority for you – which it is for us. Getting to Utila was not easy for us last month as we were coming from Mexico, but had we been coming from Calgary or Montreal, we could have been here in a day – and for us, that is a pretty important factor.

Island living on Utila has its drawbacks for sure, and getting on and off the island is one of them – but that extra ferry ride or plane ride, in my opinion, is worth the added value here of deserted beaches, few tourists, and affordable island living.