Our Family Travels: scuba diving in Utila

The second week that we were in Honduras we travelled by boat to a very small island called Utila. We wanted to do some scuba Diving and snorkeling. We also heard that Utila is where the Whale Sharks migrate this time of year. Our first trip out we were told by the captain of the boat that there had been some sightings recently and he hoped to spot them. We dove our first tank and when we stopped for our first tank interval the boat captain said that Whale Sharks had been spotted and we took off on the hunt. A few miles out we came to the first one. They briefed us on the procedure to enter the water and how to approach the great beauties. Whe made a pass in front of the first one and we all slipped into the water with our snorkel gear and swam as fast as possible to get a glimpse. The first half were lucky and had a great look. The back half of of us entering the water were to far back to get a good look. So the captain took off once we were all back in the boat to get another look. This time I scooted to the back with Colton in front of me. I wanted to make sure Colton had a chance to swim with the next one.
A few minutes later we found another big one. About 25 feet long and beautiful. What a sight! We once again silently slipped into the water and there it was, right in front of us. Slowly gliding through the water, in no hurry to get away from us. It actually looked like it wanted us to get a good look. Apparently when they realize there are people near they often dive down, but this one swam slowly away from us giving us a great look! Wow what an adventure. There are people who have worked these waters for years as scuba instructors and have never seen a Whale Shark. There were a lot of happy people on our boat that day.

During our dives we met a guy with a camera that dove in our group. Genrally I don't like diving with photographers because they often don't watch where they are going as they are so into taking pictures. I have been kicked and bumped from them trying to get a great shot. But this guy was great. He stayed back and was very respectful of the rest of us. At the end of our dive he asked if he could take a picture of us and we said that that would be great. So he sent us a link to his picture account.