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US$1 equals 13 lempiras
American Chris Phillips turned a postgraduate stint on the Bay Island of Utila into a personal and professional success story. Here he tells International Living how he combined his vocation and avocation to create a profitable business and a slow-paced Caribbean lifestyle.

Q: How did you decide on Utila?
I came to the island for a two-month working holiday. I was 22 and just wanted to get away from the States for a while. I was the first PADI dive instructor to teach on Utila, and within five months I found myself the owner of a dive shop. I paid $25,000 for the 1,500-sq.-ft. dive shop in installments of $80/month.

Knowing that my business was secure, I concentrated on diving and underwater photography. Business was booming, and by the end of he year had grown by 40 %. Before the dive boom, I was making 54,600 lempiras a week; after two years, MY profit grew to 104,000 lempiras a week.

Q: What other businesses were you interested in?
With more and more divers coming to Utila, it seemed to make sense to build a place to house them. I partnered with a friend, and over the next year, we invested a quarter of a million dollars and built the Mango Inn, a 23-room cabafia, restaurant, and bar development, complete with hot water and 24-hour power. The land cost us 487,500 lempiras. Labor was cheap for building the hotel, about 260-325 per day. Like my previous business venture in the dive shop, results have exceeded expectations and we have 90 % occupancy nine months out of the year after only one year. That equates to about 107,000 lempiras per month. Costs are manageable.

Repairs and other expenses run about 6,500 lempiras a month. Labor is the biggest expense. We pay the staff of seven a total of 26,000 lempiras a month.

Q: What advice would you give for building on Utila?
The best time to build is in the summer or in the dry months of the year: January through September. October through December is rainy season. A 1,000-sq.-ft. house with three carpenters would take about three to four months to complete. It took a year to build our hotel. A small bungalow would take only a month or two. It depends on the materials you use. Native wood is quicker and easier to use. Cement block would involve bringing a crew from the mainland.

Q: What is the infrastructure like for the would-be investor or retiree?
Utila has many appealing characteristics, much like a small town in the Midwest. There are five churches, a kindergarten, public and private schools, and two medical clinics. However, this island is unlike the Midwest in that it is surrounded by pristine underwater coral gardens and drop-offs.

There are also many frustrations that come with living on a small island in the tropics. For example, you can't just go down to the gas station with your boat and fill up. All supplies, including fuel ($2/gal. of diesel, $3.50/gal. of gasoline), come to the island once a week on the supply boat.

If there is a high demand for diesel, or anything else, the island simply runs out until the following Tuesday. Luckily, the two grocery stores are getting better at stocking to meet demand.

Many supplies now come daily on the passenger ferry MV Tropical that started two years ago. Utila's airport has seven flights from La Ceiba (520 lempira round-trip) and San

Pedro Sula (780 lempira round-trip). The international airports in Honduras are in Roatan and Tegucigalpa.

Q: What's the cost of living?
Honduras in general is an inexpensive place to live. Vegetables and fruits are plentiful, and a healthy diet is pretty easy to maintain. Now many U.S. products are available, unlike

two or three years ago. Certain luxury items are more expensive than in the States, however, such as electrical equipment, T.V. sets, and cars.

Groceries and clothing from the  States are about the same price.

Most food choices are available if you're not too picky. A pound of bananas costs only $.50, a 10-1b. watermelon costs $1.50, a pound of broccoli is $.75 and a dozen eggs is $1.25. A small box of Frosted Flakes costs $3.

Q: What does it cost to build a typical home?
If you are looking to build, there are three choices of building materials commonly used on the island: wood, cement, and stone block, all costing about $40/sq. ft.. All the materials are brought from the mainland by boat and delivered to the job site, that's included in the price of $.60/board foot. Professional building design and construction services and contractors are readily available. The average carpenter earns $20 for an eight-hour day. His helper earns $13/day.

Q: What do you like best about the quality of life here?
The local people are very inviting and open. I know all the local kids, and they know me; we are friends. It's a real community here, people help me out and I help them out. It's not a place where everyone is caught up in his own world and is taken aback when you say hello. Utila is a place where if you walk down the main street, it may take you an hour to get 500 yards, because people stop you along the way just to say hello and to find out what's new in your life.

Q: What is the best advice you can give to someone about to move to Utlla?
Be flexible. Flexibility is one of the most important qualities that a person could have. Persistence is second. Never give up. If you have a dream, you need to have the courage to see it through. Don't let the differences of living in Honduras discourage you. Nothing really good comes easy, and here is no exception. Elements like the weather play an important role in everyday life. You have to be willing to let go of the way you did things in the States and embrace the unique Utila way of getting things done.

When you arrive, your first instinct might be to compare everything to the way it is back home. Don't make this mistake. It is nothing like home, yet it's just like at homeyou take the good with the bad.

by Chris Phillips as told to Kerstin Czarra

Contacts
w Chris Phillips; tel. (504)425-3335, fax -3327
w Kennedy Bodden, attorney at law, La Ceiba, tel. (504) 443-0763, fax -2170
w Dave Adams, builder; tel. (504)4253269

Underwater in Utila
Utila's certification courses are among the cheapest in the world and are attracting an ever-increasing number of travelers and holidaymakers from every country.

The area has developed into the largest PADI SCUba-training center in all of Central America and Mexico and now supports 15 dive shops. Four-day openwater dive courses are offered for $145(all inclusive).

Dive trips for certified divers consist of two dives with full equipment and cost $25 for a half day.

Contact Richard Gonzales at Utila Dive Center, tel. (504)425-3326, fax 3327, or Cross Creek Dive Center, tel. (504)425-3124, fax -3234, E-mail: scooper@honduras.hn