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I don't think your friend can get to Utila in less than 24hrs. You'll even find it difficult from NYC. We had a routing last year that started at 6AM in Newark, changed planes somewhere then onto an early afternoon arrival in San Pedro Sula. A puddlejumper from there would've put us on Utila about 4PM. For about $1200.
If you miss it, it's either overnight there or a bus to the coast for the morning ferry direct to Utila.
Or if you can get to Roatan by around noon, you can take the ferries(2) over and be there by 5PM. Utila airport is small, no terminal, no tower, no night flights.
Bonaire is probably slightly clearer but there's more variety on Utila. A couple of seamounts on the south side, some shallow shore dives off the AI Resorts (not in town afaik) and the north side has a deep drop with some good dives. We almost always saw something interesting, one of the seamounts (Black Hills) I filmed about 100 barracuda, 6-8 huge Oceanic Triggers and 1/2 dozen 3-4' Grouper - in 40+'. Plus all the usual fish and several turtles. All on the same dive. At another site - not great vis - we saw multiple seahorses, a red-lipped batfish and an electric/torpedo ray - no one wanted to try to get him out of the sand to find out which.
Of course the big draw will be the Whalesharks - you'd be there during the tail end of prime season. Several of the resorts - we stayed at Deep Blue Resort Utila - have programs optimized for spotting them during the peak season. It's snorkeling only though - we went looking for them daily after our AM dives. We saw 6 over two days then nothing all week as the weather/water was hot and calm - good for diving bad for spotting them.
All of the civilization is either in town or at the A/I's, there's nothing on the north side - not even a road. And the AI's are across a lagoon channel so town is accessible via their boat(s) only. Where we stayed - on the beach but in the rainforest with a mangrove lagoon behind us - there were a lot of bugs. I must've had over 100 bites on my arms/legs - forgot the Deet more than once. Our Whaleshark researcher went birdwatching one afternoon - she looked like she had a bad case of chickenpox all week after that.
If you miss it, it's either overnight there or a bus to the coast for the morning ferry direct to Utila.
Or if you can get to Roatan by around noon, you can take the ferries(2) over and be there by 5PM. Utila airport is small, no terminal, no tower, no night flights.
Bonaire is probably slightly clearer but there's more variety on Utila. A couple of seamounts on the south side, some shallow shore dives off the AI Resorts (not in town afaik) and the north side has a deep drop with some good dives. We almost always saw something interesting, one of the seamounts (Black Hills) I filmed about 100 barracuda, 6-8 huge Oceanic Triggers and 1/2 dozen 3-4' Grouper - in 40+'. Plus all the usual fish and several turtles. All on the same dive. At another site - not great vis - we saw multiple seahorses, a red-lipped batfish and an electric/torpedo ray - no one wanted to try to get him out of the sand to find out which.
Of course the big draw will be the Whalesharks - you'd be there during the tail end of prime season. Several of the resorts - we stayed at Deep Blue Resort Utila - have programs optimized for spotting them during the peak season. It's snorkeling only though - we went looking for them daily after our AM dives. We saw 6 over two days then nothing all week as the weather/water was hot and calm - good for diving bad for spotting them.
All of the civilization is either in town or at the A/I's, there's nothing on the north side - not even a road. And the AI's are across a lagoon channel so town is accessible via their boat(s) only. Where we stayed - on the beach but in the rainforest with a mangrove lagoon behind us - there were a lot of bugs. I must've had over 100 bites on my arms/legs - forgot the Deet more than once. Our Whaleshark researcher went birdwatching one afternoon - she looked like she had a bad case of chickenpox all week after that.
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