A Perfect Day in Utila

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Today we dove on the north side of the island. Seemingly the north side has the most fish life and is very popular. It did not dissapoint. Even though the waters were choppy and we had to decend with four foot rolles on the surface, once we were under it was calm and beautiful. The coolest thing about diving Utila is that the coral formation looks like all those pictures of the coral reef you see in books, but never actual see under water. They are ragged and full of tiny crevices that you can poke around (not literally) and see some amazing life. What I love about the dive sights here is that we tend to spend a lot of time in shallow parts of the reef which is great if you like the macrolife. There were so many baby fish darting around as well as snails and small crabs. There were big fish too. We saw a beautiful green eel, a nurse shark, and a baracuda. There were no equipment malfunctions and diving was easy and fun.

Today was a great day of diving but we have had many of those in many different places. Tonight was something really special, a meal that will no doubt be remembered forever. We had dinner at Chez Lola on the south side of the island. CHEZ LOLA IS NOT A RESTAURANT, it is a home, and tonight we went over Lola and Sebatian's for dinner. Lola and Sebastian are from Nice, France and they own a little plot of land with a vegetable and spice garden. There is a dock, A-frame house, two fire pits, a table that seats maybe 10, a bar and an open-air kitchen, all built by hand with thier own money over the past five years, loving detail by loving detail. They are young, beautiful, idealistic and they are living thier ideals. There is no electricity on that part of the island so the majority of thier power comes from solar panels, they have two fresh water wells, and they irrigate thier gardens with the water from the mangrove behind thier home. They believe in a world where people that have never met before can sit at a table together, enjoy a beautiful meal by moonlight, drink wine, smoke cigars, and find parts of themselves in each other. At our table was a chef, a school nurse, a rocket scientist, a financial services marketer, a human resource executive, and a women who owned a dog walking business. It's not important what we talked about, what you need to know is that what Sebatian and Lola have set out to do at Chez Lola happend tonight and I'll bet happens every night they serve a meal, we connected. We connected over an appetizer of bonito tuna tar tar, a roasted red pepper, an onion and anchovy pizze, and the best homemade roll I have ever tasted...oh yeah this was after Sebastian fed each of us a spoonful of sea urchin eggs he had taken from the sea that day. The main course was rock fish served with a fish stock based sauce and a mango sauce, carmelized carrots, and roasted potatoes. Dessert was an indivdual lime pie and a piece of flan. This was one of the greatest meals of my life if you just consider the food, but if you factor in the sound of the ocean, the near full moon, the off the grid property, and the fact that Lola and Sebastian came and sat with us during dessert, and the conversation it was the best. If you book at Chez Lola you will witness a couple living exactly where and how the want without a trust fund, how will you let if affect you?

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