Popular cays include Water Cay, Pigeon Cay and Sandy Cay.
History
Prehistory
Archeological, historical and ethnographic evidence of the Bay Islands indicates that they were inhabited before the European's arrival in 600 AD by a pre-Columbian culture known as the Paya and now known as Pech. The
Paya people may have entered Central America in the great North to South America migration in 5,000 BC, although linguistic studies indicate that the Paya may have been descendants of South American tribes.
16th to 18th centuries
Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus (; between 25 August and 31 October 1451 – 20 May 1506) was an Italians, Italian explorer and navigator from the Republic of Genoa who completed Voyages of Christopher Columbus, four Spanish-based voyages across the At ...
, on his fourth voyage to the new world, landed on the island of Guanaja on 30 July 1502, after encountering a small fleet of dugout canoes destined from the mainland to the Bay Islands. These vessels were filled with cotton cloth, maize, cacao, beans, copper goods and wooden swords with sharp flint edges, and on this meeting one dugout canoe carrying 25 men, women and children was captured. On land, Columbus encountered a fairly large population of Paya whom he believed to be cannibals. In 1516, licensed
slavers were sent to the Islands under the authority of
Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar and captured 300, killing others who put up resistance. The slaving vessel returned to Havana harbour,
Santiago de Cuba
Santiago de Cuba is the second-largest city in Cuba and the capital city of Santiago de Cuba Province. It lies in the southeastern area of the island, some southeast of the Cuban capital of Havana.
The municipality extends over , and contains t ...
, where it was taken over by the Paya who demanded repatriation. On hearing that the Paya had been repatriated, Velasquez commissioned two ships back which then captured 400 Paya on Utila and on one of the other islands, and during this raid 100 Paya were reported to have been killed. After their capture, this and future shipments of Paya slaves were forced to work in mines, farm sugar cane plantations and tend livestock on Santiago de Cuba, and were also sent to work in the gold and silver mines of Mexico.
Later on, 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
The term "New World" is used to describe the majority of lands of Earth's Western Hemisphere, particularly the Americas, and sometimes Oceania."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: ...
. The Welsh buccaneer
Henry Morgan
Sir Henry Morgan (; – 25 August 1688) was a Welsh privateer, plantation owner, and, later, the lieutenant governor of Jamaica. From his base in Port Royal, Jamaica, he and those under his command raided settlements and shipping ports o ...
established his base at Port Royal on Roatán, about 30 kilometers from Utila, in the mid-17th century; at that time as many as 5,000 pirates were living on that island.
Colonisation 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 harbour and transport. 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.
19th century
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
Caymanians are the status holders or born citizens of the Cayman Islands. As a British Overseas Territory, citizens of the Cayman Islands will hold British Overseas Territories Citizenship. There is no record of a native people to the Cayman ...
roots. They remain rich in Caymanian culture and dialect.
Pirate havens
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 harbour, and slave trading. Remains of British forts and towns named after famous pirates remain as their legacy.
Black Caribs
Making a significant impact on Utila's cultural base were the Black Caribs, who originated as the Callinagu in the Orinoco Delta in Brazil. Migrating north to the Lower Antilles the Callinagu subsequently exterminated the Arahuaco men, but kept and bred with their women creating a new ethic subgroup that became known as the Caliponan, or Yellow Caribs. In 1635 African slaves who had been shipwrecked by their own devices began to marry the Caliponan women, adopting their language and culture so as to assimilate locally and thwart their owners attempts to retrieve them. Thus the Garifuna society was born. On 12 April 1797, a total of 2,248 Garifunas were sent to Honduras and the Bay Islands in an attempt by the English to restrain the Garifuna from assisting the French in the English/French dispute over the islands of Martinique, and Saint Lucia. Scattered on the north coast of Honduras and in the Bay Islands, the Garifuna still populate much of the Bay Islands, maintaining their own cultural identity and language. On Roatan the Garifuna maintain a strong presence in the Sandy Bay community, on the westernmost side of East Harbor, a number of them having made the journey to Utila from Cayo Chachahuate, a small nearby island that is a bastion of the Bay Island's Garifuna.
Tourism
With favourable diving conditions, the island increasingly attracts general tourists, along with more traditional international
backpacker visitors. More than eighty
diving sites are located around the island among its extensive reefs teeming with marine life, including the elusive
whale shark
The whale shark (''Rhincodon typus'') is a slow-moving, filter feeder, filter-feeding carpet shark and the largest known Extant taxon, extant fish species. The largest confirmed individual had a length of . The whale shark holds many records for ...
.
Utila was also the home of the annual festival Sunjam. Sunjam was the largest electronic music event in Honduras, and one of the largest and most important in Central America. The date was fixed to the first Saturday of August every year. The event attracted world class international DJs as headliners and invites the best regional talent to perform.
Unique local cuisine includes white bread made with coconut milk, mango jam, conch meat, and crab. Other common dishes on Utila include Sopa de Caracol (a coconut based conch soup), fried whole fish, as well as fried hog.
The island is served by
Utila Airport, and connects to all of Honduras's international larger airports.
Although Utila had minimal COVID-19 cases, the impact of the pandemic on Utila's tourism dependent economy was devastating after 15 March 2020. From 13 September 2020 the ferries and airlines resumed service to the island. During that six-month period, many Utilians were faced with economic hardship caused by the lack of tourists. In response, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization
Support Utila was formed to provide additional food, medication, vitamins and other resources to the residents. Founded by the owner of th
Coral View Beach Resort Heath Miller,
the organization continues it's work today, focusing on education, animal welfare and medical support for the island, along with environmental projects. Support Utila provided over 55,000 pounds of donates food during the pandemic in 2020.
Image gallery
File:Hawksbill Turtle.jpg, Hawksbill turtle at the "Black Hills" dive site
File:Útila Public Beach 2.jpg, The ever calm waters at the public beach
File:Útila beach outhouse.jpg, The outhouse over the water stands on the bay.
File:Blue Water 2.jpg, "Big Rock Beach"
File:Typical_Traffic_Jam.jpg, Typical traffic jam, there are only a handful of old pick-up trucks on the entire island
File:Utila_Hondoras_beach.jpg, The main beach
File:Fan corals surround the Útila island with great snorkeling opportunities.jpg, Coral surrounds the island.
See also
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List of lighthouses in Honduras
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List of volcanoes in Honduras
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References
External links
Map Utila
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Utila
Municipalities of the Bay Islands Department
Caribbean islands of Honduras
Important Bird Areas of Honduras
Important Bird Areas of the Caribbean
Volcanoes of Honduras
Bay Islands Department
Pyroclastic cones
Lighthouses in Honduras
Underwater diving sites in the Caribbean
Ramsar sites in Honduras