Utila

My Trip to Face One of My Biggest Fears

So a couple of days ago, I decided to finally face one of my biggest fears: the ocean. More specifically, the open waters. I don’t know, haha — there’s just something terrifying about being in the middle of nowhere and imagining something suddenly eating me from below.

To do this, I decided to go to Utila, an island off the coast of La Ceiba in Honduras.

Getting to the Island

I took a flight from the US, landed in San Pedro Sula, took a bus through the jungle to La Ceiba, and then a ferry to the island. Pretty easy.

The island itself was super cool. It had this unique vibe, almost like something you’d see in a National Geographic documentary. The place was clean, full of colorful houses, everything well organized — completely the opposite of what I was expecting lol.

The food was great too. They had this thing called baleada, which was super nice because it was cheap and delicious. Other than that, I’d just get a bunch of tropical fruit.

Exploring Utila

On the island you can rent scooters, ATVs, bicycles… but honestly, you can walk everywhere. I rented a scooter and just took myself on an adventure around the whole island.

The beaches were beautiful. Empty. You could feel they were basically virgin beaches.

I stayed at a nice boutique hotel called Manurii for the first couple of days. Then, for my PADI scuba certification, I moved to another hotel that had an agreement with the dive school. Met a lot of cool people in both places.

Getting Certified

The certification took about 3–4 days. We had to learn the basics out of the water and take some theoretical exams before jumping into open water.

I passed the theory exam, did all the equipment checks, and then we started practicing right in front of the school in a shallow 2-meter area. That’s where we learned basic skills and got comfortable with the gear. They made us take off the mask, remove the regulator underwater, swim a bit, and practice emergency procedures with our team. I did great.

Then came the real thing: our first open-water dive at around 8–10 meters so we could get a feel for it.

The first day we did two dive sessions, and we even got to swim with a massive group of dolphins that happened to pass by — maybe like 200 of them — all jumping and everything. It was insane.

On my two dives I also saw an eagle ray, tons of colorful fish, and a damn scary barracuda that kept following me. I swear I thought it was going to bite me lol.

I didn’t get the chance to bring a waterproof camera sadly, so all these images are just stored in my brain. One of my friends did have one though, so he took the group photo of our 18-meter deep dive.

After all this, I got officially certified.

The Days After

I had about two free days to explore the island and relax — because you can’t take a plane right after diving. The nitrogen in your lungs from the tanks can expand with cabin pressure and seriously injure or kill you.

So for those two days I went out, partied at a local bar, ate a lot, made tons of new friends, and got ready to head back to land.

When I left, I took a tiny plane — maybe like 10 passengers including the pilots — back to San Pedro. Ate some chicken at Pollos El Hondureño and then headed back to Mexico.   

What I Learned

Honestly, it was a pretty amazing experience. It feels so good to face your fears without overthinking. Once I was underwater, I felt this weird sense of peace — almost like meditation or a flow state. It was beautiful to be welcomed into an unknown ecosystem instead of being paranoid the whole time, even though I was technically in a vulnerable position.

I learned to enjoy the uncomfortable and stay calm in stressful situations. Maybe it was the fact that I had to breathe slowly so I wouldn’t run out of oxygen and die... I don't know, but something about the deep ocean opened my mind and gave me a different perspective on life.

I learned a lot on this trip, met incredible people, had an amazing adventure, and would do it again anytime. Shoutout to all my friends who made this trip even better and for the crazy memories we made together.

"If a man has not bothered to find out what he wants, if his attention is so wrapped up in external goals that he fails to notice his own feelings, then he cannot plan action meaningfully."

Love,

Emilio