Utila

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Utila
Beach on Utila
Beach on Utila
Waters Caribbean Sea
Archipelago Islas de la Bahía
Geographical location 16 ° 6 ′  N , 86 ° 56 ′  W Coordinates: 16 ° 6 ′  N , 86 ° 56 ′  W
Utila (Honduras)
Utila
length 11 km
width 4 km
surface 42 km²
Highest elevation Pumpkin Hill
74  m
Residents 3000
71 inhabitants / km²
main place Utila Town
Utila iguana
A whale shark near Utila

Utila is a 42 km² island about 32 km off the Caribbean coast of Honduras ; to the northeast is the neighboring island of Roatán . Utila belongs to the Islas de la Bahía ( Bay Islands ) chain of islands .

geography

Utila is split into an eastern part and a western part by a canal built by hand in the 1950s . The western part is uninhabited and consists of a wet savannah landscape and mangrove forest . The eastern part is also home to mangrove forest, Caribbean dry forest and cultivated land.

The island is relatively flat and has only two major elevations: Stewart Hill in the middle of the East Island and Pumpkin Hill on the north side of the East Island. Both are ancient volcanic cinder cones .

East Harbor or Utila Town is located in the south of the East Island . The village has about 4000 inhabitants.

biology

The small and flat island is nevertheless very rich in species and habitats. It is home to numerous endemic species, such as the Utila iguana ( Ctenosaura bakeri ), which lives in the mangrove forest. A conservation project has been running a field station for the conservation of the threatened species since 1998. The field station was supported by the Frankfurt Zoological Society and the Senckenberg Society for Nature Research .

The Bay Islands are located in the Belize Barrier Reef , which extends from the Yucatán Peninsula past Belize (formerly British Honduras ) to the east of the Honduran north coast. The reef is considered the second largest barrier reef after the great Great Barrier Reef in northeast Australia.

The combination of mangrove and coral reef make the Gulf of Honduras the nursery of the West Caribbean Sea. The protected habitats are used by many fish and invertebrates for reproduction. This explains the plankton-rich waters around the Bay Islands, in which whale sharks and manta rays , as well as other plankton eaters, can often be found at certain times of the year .

tourism

There are numerous hotels and hostels in different price categories in Utila Town . So far, backpackers have made up the majority of tourists on Útila . But the island's government is striving to increase the proportion of wealthy tourists without scaring off backpackers. The current mayor, who owns a diving school and a hotel, is aware of the importance of backpackers for the island and sees it as an enrichment that they integrate into island life and not just come to Utila as consumers.

There are currently no luxury hotels on Utila. Overall, Honduras is not yet very well developed for tourism, the Bay Islands and especially Roatan are the boom center of tourism in Honduras. For travelers, the Bay Islands are a good entry point into the fascinating country due to their English-speaking population.

Diving area

Divers are drawn to the large variety of corals around Utila, typical of the Belize Barrier Reef. There are currently twelve diving schools or diving centers located in Utila Town . The diving areas are also visited by liveaboards .

Individual evidence

  1. Bay Islands Voice Interview with Mayor Alton Cooper-Bush
  2. Carolyn McCarthy, Greg Benchwick, John Hecht, Tom Spurling, Lucas Vidgen, Iain Stewart, Mara Vorhees, Joshua Samuel Brown: Lonely Planet travel guide Central America for little money. Mair Dumont, 2015, ISBN 978-3-8297-2318-3 , pp. 455-458.

Web links