I’m
back on a Caribbean island. A day after crossing from Guatemala I board the
ferry with Steve from Broome and Cormick and Geraldine from Ireland to the
Honduran island of Utila. I had met Steve briefly at a hostel in Guatemala and
as it happens we crossed paths a few days later. The island is very chilled, a
typical small island vibe with lazy people killing time and plenty of fried
food on the street. I came here to scuba dive and had also heard good things
about the partying. I book in with a reputed dive centre in town at
reasonable prices with accommodation included. I’d never dived before so I
spent the week there undertaking an Open Water Diver certificate – five days of
videos and classroom theory, some shallow water practice time and six tanks worth of diving in the sea,
typically 40 minutes each to a maximum depth of 18m. I get a real buzz from
learning the technique and witnessing the underwater world, the variety of
tropical fish and intricate walls of hard and soft coral and all the colours on
show. My highlights were seeing the parrotfish, giant crabs, sting rays, the
fluorescent soft coral and a long group of small squid which hovered in a straight
line in the water.
Here’s my dive buddy Kristen
and our leader Doug ready to jump off into the Caribbean one afternoon. We had a cool team of instructors, these guys seem to live to dive,
some making a full time job of it, others spending months on end in different
parts of the world doing whatever it takes to spend time underwater. It’s a fun
network of people and atmosphere.
Not sure the diving and hangovers went well together but we formed a fun group to hit the bars at night before diving in the afternoons. I had met Ian and Simon in Guatemala at the lodge where I had the fall, Simon and Claire were planning to come here to dive so we timed it well and Ian happened to show up surprisingly at the hotel. The beers flowed pretty long most nights and we got into the spirit doing the shot challenges at some bars to get the free t-shirts.
After a couple extra days of rest I dragged myself away from the island and made the three day trek across the country to reach the border with Nicaragua. Sixto was waiting at the port car park back on the mainland and was eager to get back on the road. We had some fun and peaceful days on the move again. I decided to take on what looked like a shortcut through the central highlands in what was a pretty sketchy road full of potholes but offered some of the greenest countryside I’d seen in a while, some happy farmers, many kids happy to wave and laugh at the gringo and much dodging of dogs, horses and chickens. I was stopped many times by the cops in Honduras, just wanted to chat really and ask of any dangers I had encountered. They were probably the coolest cops I'd dealt with, this guy here insisted I take a photo with him.
Not sure the diving and hangovers went well together but we formed a fun group to hit the bars at night before diving in the afternoons. I had met Ian and Simon in Guatemala at the lodge where I had the fall, Simon and Claire were planning to come here to dive so we timed it well and Ian happened to show up surprisingly at the hotel. The beers flowed pretty long most nights and we got into the spirit doing the shot challenges at some bars to get the free t-shirts.
After a couple extra days of rest I dragged myself away from the island and made the three day trek across the country to reach the border with Nicaragua. Sixto was waiting at the port car park back on the mainland and was eager to get back on the road. We had some fun and peaceful days on the move again. I decided to take on what looked like a shortcut through the central highlands in what was a pretty sketchy road full of potholes but offered some of the greenest countryside I’d seen in a while, some happy farmers, many kids happy to wave and laugh at the gringo and much dodging of dogs, horses and chickens. I was stopped many times by the cops in Honduras, just wanted to chat really and ask of any dangers I had encountered. They were probably the coolest cops I'd dealt with, this guy here insisted I take a photo with him.
