Utila has something of a boom town feel to it. I say Utila (which properly means the entire island) but most of the people and businesses are located in the town of East Harbor, the only town on the island. (Interestingly, I've never heard East Harbor called anything but "town" by those who live here.) There is a tremendous amount of new building going on; it all looks to be residential or tourism related. While a lot of things are relatively inexpensive here (I got a haircut Saturday for 40 lempiras, roughly $3) but building costs more than I expected. I'm told that a small 3 bedroom house would cost $55,000 to build. That's unaffordable for most residents of the island; the tourist industry has bumped up the cost of everything, I'd guess. Land too is very expensive; again, the tourist industry and probably some speculation have driven up prices.
This is definitely an island in transition. Just listening to people in the street, I'd guess that roughly half the population speak Spanish as their first language. This is much different than even ten years ago, I'm told. The boom here has attracted Spanish speakers from mainland Honduras who come in hopes of a brighter economic future. Most service people seem to be Spanish speakers (domestic workers, plumber, electrician, my hair cutter) as well as the construction workers.
A fair number of people congregate on the street. While there are more and more motorbikes, three- and four-wheel ATVs (All Terrain Vehicles) most people still walk or bicycle. To me the culture feels a little more cordial than my own because people are out in the street. Everywhere I've lived before you wave to people from your car.
One of the things that really surprised me is the amount of swearing in the street. While I've not asked anyone about that, I did hear a church member lamenting it. I'm guessing it's a more recent change.
It is noisy here! My house (and most houses in town) are very
near the street. I live next to Henderson's, the largest grocery store which
is busy. One church members calls this "the loud end of the street" because
of the music. One nearby house is filled with speakers; they can (and do)
really crank it up. There are a couple of docks within earshot that have
tourist bars. It seems that five out of seven nights I end up wearing earplugs
to go to sleep because the music is so loud. (The water carries the sound
efficiently, too.) Of course all the music goes off at midnight when the
power is turned off. (I hope no one ever hooks their generator up to their
sound system. I never will get to sleep!)