He has a bud who just got back from diving the Honduran coast?  Yeah,
right.  Why offline anyway, is it some sort of secret?  Shouldn't this
be the place to discuss the diving?  But I digress.

The problem with diving the Honduran coast is simply runoff.  It's a
muddy land with lots of rain and shallow water and that means the
water is simply too murky to support enjoyable diving and allow a
coral reef to flourish.  It's sort of like that diving off Puerto Rico
that I warned you about, but even worse.  Much worse.

I have a good buddy who spent plenty of mainland time in Honduras and
neighboring countries but didn't bother trying to get wet until he hit
Roatan.  He's an instructor and also teaches Spanish for a living,
shore dives in relative crappy areas like Malibu, so I know he would
have found a way to dive the Honduran mainland if it were at all
worthy.  Cheap beer and food, lots of fun, but don't expect to dive;
and if you do dive, don't expect good diving.

But there is an island hopper from La Ceiba to Roatan (and probably
Utila too) and it might be OK for same day diving provided they don't
cruise at a high altitude.  Please check and double-check if you go
that route.  At the least, it's probably very cheap when tickets are
purchased in Honduras and you can always find a place to crash and a
dive boat for some of the lowest "resort" prices in the universe if
you can get away for a day or two.