Utila

Pine tree on the public beach in Utila

Utila

Dirty plastic debris on the North Shore of Utila

Today is our 4th day on Utila. We've completed our advanced open water PADI certification and we have a day off. We leave tomorrow on the 6:20am ferry back to La Ceiba. From there we are going to take a bus to Tegucigalpa, then continue on by bicycle to Nicaragua the next day. We decided to take a bus because there is no direct route to the capital that is safe and doesn't involve mountains and dirt roads. The buses backtrack way North before heading South again to Tegucigalpa. Also we are beginning to be in a bit of a time crunch as I am planning on going home in 7 weeks for my Alaska job, and we have to get all the way to Panama City in that time (another 900+ miles depending on our route)!

I've enjoyed being back on Utila. I came here 4 years ago to this same dive shop (Alton's Dive Shop) and got my open water scuba certification. I always thought I would come back here, and I still think I will again sometime in the near future. I would like to take the divemaster and instructor training course and work as a scuba instructor for awhile. Maybe that will be my next move when I finish out the season in Alaska.

When we got here, there were no rooms available because a giant German school group was here occupying most of the rooms. So for the first two nights, we camped on the beach. It wasn't so bad, cause we had access to showers and it gets pretty cool at night. It was the first time we've used the tent on the trip. We never feel like camping after a hot sweaty day of biking. We camped two nights, the last two nights we've been in a dorm room, which we've had to ourselves. And good thing cause it poured both nights, very glad we were no longer camping! The downside of camping here was that each night a dog came, while we we in the tent sleeping and peed on it!! The first night we didn't realize it, just saw residue on the outside of the tent and wondered what it was. The next night we were awoken by the splatter of pee misting us and actually saw the dog! I was so angry! I believe the dog belongs to the owner or someone else who lives here. When we told the owner about it, he had no response, didn't seem surprised at all or offer us a place to clean up the tent! Now I am stuck with a smelly tent. I doubt the smell will go away on this trip with the tent being tucked away in its stuff sack baking in the sun on our bikes for another 7 weeks! Grrr!!

The dive course took 3 days. On the first day we took a refresher dive, since it had been 4 years since either of us had gone diving. Upon entering the water, I panicked, it's very strange wrapping your head around the idea that you can actually breath under water! Because I was so focused on breathing I didn't equalize the pressure in my ears and one ear filled up with water, so I had to sit the first dive out on the boat. On the second dive I did better and felt comfortable and ready for the advanced course.

On the second day we did two dives. We worked on buoyancy, which involved swimming through hoops, floating in place without hitting the bottom and knocking weights over with our face while swimming along the bottom and trying not to hit the bottom. I hated this. It was so hard! I had a mask that kept filling with water and hurting my nose and I coulding seem to get the floating down! No one was very good at it, but it made me mad that I wasn't, I like being good at things! The second dive involved underwater navigation which I also didn't like much because we had to do underwater navigation exercises in groups and it was really hard understanding what our instructor wanted us to do when he was giving hand symbols underwater! I also don't feel like I really learned much from either class.

Yesterday was our third and final day of diving, and it was awesome! We did a deep dive (32 meters) to a ship wreck! It was really neat, we got to swim through it and saw giant Snappers underneath it. Tomas our instructor brought down a plastic coke bottle so we could see how it compressed flat under such pressure, he also brought a bunch of different colored bottle tops, so we could see how the colors changed in the absence of lots of light. He brought an egg as well, which he cracked on the bottom. The pressure holds the egg together, but we didn't get to see it for long, cause some fish swooped in and ate it just about immediately! The second dive that day way called drift dive in which you swim with the current through multiple dive sights. The boat drops you off and then picks you up at the other end. It was really neat cause we got to cover a lot of area.

Today was a bit on the rainy side but it cleared up by mid afternoon, so we went for a bicycle ride around the island.  It was a ton of fun.  We saw lots of pretty beaches and rode just about every road on the island.

Fish swooping to eat the egg, I didn´t even get to see it

Halliburton shipwreck   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

bicyle near the wreck, who knows why it´s there

Fish on the reef

Some neat plants of the reef

Bubbles, one of my favorite things about diving! Lots of fish in background too.

For some reason this picture loaded sideways, but I´m not fixing it!

None of the pictures of me came out very good :(

It´s difficult getting out and walking with the tank attached

UPDATE:
We decided to go out to the bars for our last night.  It was my first time drinking since before I left home.  Craig and I both were drunk before we got to the bar and had two more drinks after arriving.  The bar we went to is called TreeTanic and is really neat.  The actual bar is in a tree house, and the surrounding area is very artsy with lots of mosaic work, a lot of which incorporate bottles.  Super cool place.  We left that bar and went to another on the water which was absolutely packed because they had $0.50 tequila shots that night!  As soon as we got there we found Simon and Astrid, two Austrians that we have been running into off and on since Belize (since Mexico for Craig).  Craig talked with them and I went to the bar to try and get us another drink, which really we probably didnt need!  There were so many people trying to get the attention of the bartenders that I had to wait forever.  In the mean time a large black local guy started talking to me.  He asked if I was married, I think, the conversation is a little fuzzy now.  I just know he was speaking weird island english to me and I was responding in Spanish.  Then his next question for me was: Are you pregnant?!  I have always had a little belly, but never enough to lead anyone to belive I am pregnant!  I said no and he proceeded to rub my belly!  It was so weird, it didnt even occur to me to tell him to stop, cause in my head I was laughing about it.  Craig came to look for me while all this was happening and told the guy to stop and the guy proceeded to punch Craig in the face twice, before I grabbed him by the arms and held him back!  The rest of the crowd in the bar was on our side and helped shove the guy further down the bar away from us, but he didnt get kicked out! I couldnt even believe what had happened, it was unreal! I hate fighting. So we left the bar shortly after and went back to the dive shop and passed out.  I have no idea what time we went to bed, but when our alarm went off at 4:45, I apparently turned it off and have no recollection.  A half hour later Craig managed to get us up, we were both still drunk and had to scurry about packing and get down to the ferry.  It was awful.  We made the ferry and I passed out on one of the seats for just about the whole ride.  When we got back to La Ceiba, we had to bike 8km to the bus station, then wait around for over 3 hours for the next bus to Tegucigalpa.  The hangover was setting in and I dont know if Ive ever had a worse hangover!  To pass the time, we ate a giant typical breakfast in addition to a giant baleada!  Usually food makes me feel better but this time was not the case.  :(  I proceeded to sleep nearly the whole 8 hour bus ride to Tegucigalpa.  We had the nicest luxury bus with seats that reclined farther than Ive ever seen!  Getting into Tegucigalpa, we found the nearest hotel to the bus stop and went to bed early in preparation for the long 2 days of biking ahead.

Treetanic Bar, Utila

Giant baleadas can cure any hangover!