Útila
Encyclopedia
| Útila Island | |
|---|---|
| Elevation Elevation The elevation of a geographic location is its height above a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface .... : |
74 m (243 ft) |
| Coordinates: | 16°06′N 86°56′W |
| Location: | Bay Islands Bay Islands (department) Islas de la Bahía is one of the 18 departments into which the Central American nation of Honduras is divided. The departmental capital is Roatan, on the island of Roatán.... , Honduras Honduras Honduras is a republic in Central America. It was previously known as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras, which became the modern-day state of Belize... |
| Type: | Pyroclastic cones |
| Last eruption: | Unknown |
Utila (Isla de Utila)http://www.utilaguide.com is the third largest of Honduras
Honduras
Honduras is a republic in Central America. It was previously known as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras, which became the modern-day state of Belize...
' Bay Islands, after Roatán
Roatán
Roatán, located between the islands of Útila and Guanaja, is the largest of Honduras' Bay Islands. The island was formerly known as Ruatan and Rattan...
and Guanaja
Guanaja
Guanaja is one of the Bay Islands of Honduras, and is in the Caribbean. It is about 70 km off the north coast of Honduras, and 12 km from the island of Roatan. One of the cays off Guanaja, also called Guanaja or Bonnaca or Low Cay , is near the main island, and contains most of the...
, in a region that marks the south end of the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System
Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System
The Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System stretches over 1000 km from Isla Contoy at the tip of the Yucatán Peninsula down to the Bay Islands of Honduras...
, the second-largest in the world. The eastern end of the island is capped by a thin veneer of basalt
Basalt
Basalt is a common extrusive volcanic rock. It is usually grey to black and fine-grained due to rapid cooling of lava at the surface of a planet. It may be porphyritic containing larger crystals in a fine matrix, or vesicular, or frothy scoria. Unweathered basalt is black or grey...
ic volcanic rocks, erupted from several pyroclastic cones including 74 m (243 ft) Pumpkin Hill which forms the highest point on the island. It has been documented in history since Columbus' fourth voyage, and currently enjoys growing tourism with emphasis on recreational diving.
History
Ruins on all three of the Bay Islands indicate that they were inhabited well before the Europeans arrived. Christopher ColumbusChristopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus was an explorer, colonizer, and navigator, born in the Republic of Genoa, in northwestern Italy. Under the auspices of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, he completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean that led to general European awareness of the American continents in the...
, on his fourth voyage to the new world, landed on the island of Guanaja on July 30, 1502. He encountered a fairly large population of indigenous people whom he believed to be cannibals. The Spanish enslaved the islanders and sent them to work on the plantations of Cuba and gold and silver mines of Mexico.
They did not stay uninhabited for long, however. English, French, and Dutch pirates established settlements on the islands and raided the Spanish cargo vessels laden with gold and other treasures from the New World
New World
The New World is one of the names used for the Western Hemisphere, specifically America and sometimes Oceania . The term originated in the late 15th century, when America had been recently discovered by European explorers, expanding the geographical horizon of the people of the European middle...
. The Welsh buccaneer Henry Morgan
Henry Morgan
Admiral Sir Henry Morgan was an Admiral of the Royal Navy, a privateer, and a pirate who made a name for himself during activities in the Caribbean, primarily raiding Spanish settlements...
established his base at Port Royal on Roatán, about 30 kilometers from Útila, in the mid-17th century; at that time as many as 5,000 pirates were living on that island.
Colonization by the Spanish began in the early 16th century. Over the next century, the Spanish plundered the island for its slave trade and eliminated the island of its natives by the early 17th century. Britain, in its aggressive attempt to out-colonize the Spanish in the Caribbean, occupied the Bay Islands on and off between 1550 and 1700. During this time, the buccaneers found the vacated, mostly unprotected islands a haven for safe harbor and transport. Útila 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.
The British were forced to give the Bay Islands to the Honduran government in the mid 19th century. It was at this time that the nearly uninhabited islands were being populated by its now Caymanian
Caymanian
Caymanian may refer to:* Something of, from, or related to the Cayman Islands, a British overseas territory located in the western Caribbean Sea, comprising the islands of Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac, and Little Cayman....
roots. They remain rich in Caymanian culture and dialect.
Utila has been a part of Honduras for approximately 150 years. For nearly 200 years Spanish conquistadores and British pirates battled for control of these islands, ignoring the native people for the most part. During this period, the Islands were used for food and wood supplies, safe harbor, and slave trading. Remains of British forts and towns named after famous pirates remain as their legacy. One group of slaves was "parked" here during this time during the heat of a battle. When the winners came to collect them, the slaves refused to go. These are the Garifunas who still populate much of the Bay Islands, maintaining their own cultural identity and language. Punta Gorda on Roatán is one of many villages where they live.
Tourism
Utila is now starting to undergo the same commercialization that neighbour island Roatán
Roatán
Roatán, located between the islands of Útila and Guanaja, is the largest of Honduras' Bay Islands. The island was formerly known as Ruatan and Rattan...
experienced in the mid to late 1990s. With favourable diving conditions, the island increasingly attracts general tourists, along with more traditional international backpacker
Backpacking (travel)
Backpacking is a term that has historically been used to denote a form of low-cost, independent international travel. Terms such as independent travel and/or budget travel are often used...
visitors. More than sixty diving sites are located around the island among its extensive reefs teeming with marine life, including the elusive whale shark
Whale shark
The whale shark, Rhincodon typus, is a slow-moving filter feeding shark, the largest extant fish species. The largest confirmed individual had a length of and a weight of more than , but unconfirmed claims report considerably larger whale sharks...
.
Unique local cuisine includes white bread made with coconut milk, mango jam, conch meat, and crab. Interestingly, grated coconut, such as is used to decorate pastries in many countries is considered not fit for human consumption and fed to chickens and hogs.
On the 29th of November, 2006 The National Congress signed the Zona Libre Touristica del Departamanto de las Islas de la Bahia (ZOLITUR) law declaring the Bay Islands a Tax Free Zone. The spirit of this law is to promote the touristic development on the Bay Islands and to create an environmentally sustainable socioeconomic framework for the future.
With the creation of the Tax Free Zone, Islanders will have a greater chance of making a successful transition to the Bay Islands Future by removing tax barriers and creating a business environment that will promote national and foreign tourism and investment. The Municipalities will benefit through the collection of entry fees. Each visitor to The Islands will now pay a fee to enter. Foreigners (Americans) will pay a fee of US$6 if arriving by air, US$2 if arriving by sea, and Hondurans (read: any Hispanic person, regardless of nationality) will pay US$1. These fees, combined with the 2% property certification fee already in effect, will provide the Municipality the finances needed to improve the quality of education and life of the Bay Islanders. The island also collects a $3 dive fee that goes to the municipality and BICA
BICA Honduras
The Bay Islands Conservation Association is a non-profit, non-governmental organization founded in 1991 by the people living in the Bay Islands in order to initiate and coordinate efforts in protecting the Islands’ fragile natural resources. BICA’s operation and projects are funded through the...
to aid in conservation programs and medical help for divers. A 4% capital gains tax on the profits made from any immovable assets is also collected by the municipalities.
Utila is also home to the yearly party known as Sunjam. Sunjam has a set date every year, the first Saturday in August. 2011 will mark the fifteenth anniversary of the party. Party-goers from around the world descend on Utila the week before in the build up to the big party which is held on a private island off the coast of Utila. The top DJs in Central America are joined by headliners from around the world to bring a unique party experience to those attending, exemplified by the motto "Pure Party Pleasure".