33. Up until 29/4/08. The end...far from it baby!

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22/03/08 - 11/04/08
By this point in Honduras I has settled into my house, got to grips with working at the UDC dive centre which meant that life was as normal as life can be living on a small tropical island. So for this reason i didnt write anything into my diary. I had a daily routine which was something i hadn't had since i left home. Wake up in the morning, do my exercises on the balcony, sit down and have breakfast with Darren and then walk down to the dive center talking to everyone on the way making a 15min walk into a half hour one. I was really enjoying the work and got great satisfaction out of being with students experiencing the under water world. Also the other Divemasters there were a fantastic bunch of people from all different backgrounds whish made working along side them a pleasure.
By the 11th of April i had almost completed my Divemaster course and had plenty of time to relax, party and enjoy my last few remaining weeks of travelling before going home on the 29th. As i had been there for a while now i had seen some great people come and go and had to say goodbye to some good friends.

12/04/08
Woke up in the morning with a slight hangover but had the peasure of waking up next to one of the female diving instructors from IDC. A lovely girl whos company i really enjoyed. Shame she was leaving the next day. After she left to go to work around lunch time i decided with my first free day in ages to spend it by the pool. I had a few reasons for doing so. Darren and I needed a new room mate as the American lads had left and i had seen a new girl who had started to work at the dive center the day before and was hoping she was looking for a place to stay. I have to admit i wasn't playing the good Samaritan, i thought she was beautiful! A real Pocahontas look alike! The day went fantastic. I got to welcome a whole new bunch of divemasters (including Pocahontas) who had just arrived and had a laugh with them for hours soaking up the sun around the pool talking about some crazy subjects. Including sex with cartoon characters and other adult like conversations!ha To my delight Caitlin (Pocahontas) was a great laugh and really easy to get on with. My friend Tina from Germany also arrived back on the island so i took her for lunch to catch up. The evening was spent by the pool and Caitlin was eager to rent one of our rooms. French Ben turned up around 6pm with his head down looking really sad, clearly with something on his mind. We said goodbye to the others and we went for a quite beer. I found out then his Dad was dying from Cancer and had taken a turn for the worst. That really did bring me back to reality. It must have been so hard for Ben being on the other side of the world from his family. But its times like that when the friends you make whilst travelling become so important. We had an early night after having a BBQ at Cross Creek diving school.

13/04/08
In the morning i went to get my medical done but once again (for about the 5th time!) the doctors was closed! To get a medical should only take about 5 minutes but this task was becoming ever more annoying as it wasnt the closest place in the world to walk to! I had two fun dives on the 1pm dive boat with Ben, Julia and Stephen which i was really looking forward to. We ended up on a sand patch stealing each others equipment and having ninja fights under the water. Great fun! It was good to see Ben smiling again! I was suppose to go to Erikas leaving do that night but i went for a power nap at 8pm with the intention of meeting up with everyone later on and...mmm...didnt wake up till the morning!

14/04/08
We had a storm roll in overnight so all dives were cancelled. Was going crazy sat indoors watching tv and Darren was busy studying for his Instructor course. I decided to ignore the rain and headed down to Mangos pool where once again i bumped into Caitlin. She got changed into her bikini and jumped in with me. Needless to say we were the only ones in the pool. We were warm till we left the water and with no dry towels or sun to dry us of we resorted to Caitlins sleeping bag to dry us off...towels work alot better for the record! Caitlin and her friend Sarah were moving in the next day which was good news all round. I was at the UDC dive center by 5pm where i had a Pysics lecture. Exciting stuff!ha We all had dinner at Bondus Cafe staying there till closing time. Our friend Geoff was playing his guitar and singing away in various languages. A talented guy to say the least!

15/04/08
The storm was still around in full force which turned all the dirt tracks (as there is no roads) into mud streams! The place was a mess. I did manage to my medical done but ruined my flipflops and shorts walking there!ha Later on in the day i met up with Caitlin and moved her in. Her friend Sarah was moving in within a few days. Caitlin and i spent the night lying on the living room floor on our bed covers (as we have no sofa!) watchig tv. We hit it off straight away. When it came to going to bed, we didnt leave each others side. We had a lovely night of spooning in my double bed and i was hoping that even though she was renting out the other room she was never going to use it.

16/04/04 - 22/04/08
Once again every day followed the same sort of pattern so i failed to see the point of writing in my diary. Every morning i woke up to Caitlin, i still made sure i had breakfast with Darren as that was his and my time to catch up. Looking back now we must have spent almost days worth sitting at that small round table just talking about life, family, past times and future ones ahead drinking our cups of herbal tea!ha I think Caitlin thought we were slightly crazy as she filled the fridge with bottles of rum! The diving was going well still edging ever closer to the finish. It was a wierd feeling at the dive center now as I was considered one of the more experienced Divemasters there. Was feeling more like the daddy rather than running around like an excited kid not really knowing what to do!ha Many evening were spent drinking beer under the stars by the sea or even sometimes going to the tiny cinema on the island. It was happy days! All the divemasters went to Water Cay which is a tiny exoctic island untouched by man where we spent an amazing day. Pure paraside!

23/04/08
Today i finished my map with my good friend Hilda and completed the Divemaster course. Finally! Well it was almost complete. I had the Snorkel test to go through and survive till i was truely considered a Divemaster. So in the evening everyone met up at the Tranquila bar where the snorkel test takes place. There were a few of us doing it that evening so i had the pleasure sharing the experience with a few friends!ha Frank my mentor stood up on the bar and announced us one by one and with a packed bar watching you, you felt slightly under pressure! Frank announced my name and took great pleasure in taking the piss out of me for taking so long and for being so laid back! I rememeber doing the snorkel test thinking i was going to die afterwards and hearing my friends shouting out 'i love you!' (worryingly it was mainly blokes voices!ha) The small remaining part of the drink which i can only describe as pure evil which i couldnt finish ended up all over my lap! The cheers afterwards made it all worth while...i think! I cant rememeber much after that though but i ended up in my own bed after a crazy night!

24/04/08
I stumbled down to the dive center buying beers, ice and food along the way as we had organised our second trip to the beautiful island Water Cay. Once again we had a large group of divemasters going needing two small boats to take us. We left on these two small creaking long boats at 9.30am and needless to say we were all feeling slightly fragile!ha But with the fresh air and excitement for the day ahead caused us all to be in top spirit. The boat trip took about an hour giving us time to talk about the important things in life. Like...mmm...would you rather have sex with a kinky ostrich or have a romantic night under the stars with a baboon?!ha Yes, i know we are adults but when your in paradise with no worries in the world your mind does think in different ways! Thats my excuse anyway!ha
Water Cay is an amazing untouched tiny island surrounded my lovley coarl and clear waters with only palm trees to protect you from the blazing sun! There is a large sand patch on one side of the island which is only knee high. This acted as our rugby pitch. We were split into teams of two. Team Baboon and team Ostrich. We had great fun. My friend English Ben and I had a few collisions and considering he is a giant rugby player, I was well pleased I came out alive and with my head held high and more importantly...still attached!ha After all the energetic actvities the rest of the day was spent sitting in the sea sipping on our ice cold Corona's out of our freezer boxes. Caitlin and I found our own quite spot and just sat there for ages thinking how life cant get any better. Personally i dont think a girl can look any sexier than when she is stripped away from all her securities like makeup etc and placed in a setting like that. I was going home on the 29th and at that point i dont think i was looking forward to leaving. Couldnt wait to see family and friends but life was so good I just didnt want it to end. On the way back i got my i pod and speakers out and played Backstreet Boys. Everyone was taking the piss at first but within 2 minutes everyone was singing along at the top of their voices!ha After a great day we all went to Daves for dinner and ended up in Tranquila Bar to say goodbye to Julia and Melly. My two beautiful German girls who started their divemaster course the same day as i did. Was gutted to see them leave. I wasnt feeling well though and by 10pm they hadn't arrived so i walked to their house where i said my goodbyes to them. I laughed by saying "who is going to eat all my food at the dive center now?!" as these two girls had the power to know when i had food and appeared within two seconds to help me eat it!ha After an emotional farewell i walked back home to get an early night as i had my last dive boat in the morning and i felt as if i was coming down with something. It had been an amazing day though.

25/04/08
I woke up feeling awful but seeing Caitlin by myside and knowing i was on a dive boat going North side of the island where whalesharks had been spotted over the past few days gave me a buzz. Caitlin did try to tempt me to stay but I just couldnt give up the opportunity to seeing whalesharks. I has missed them in Asia and OZ and i knew if i didnt go and the people on the boat ended up swimming with them i would kill myself! So i managed to pry myself away from Caitlin and walked down to the dive center thinking this was the last time i would be walking this route to go diving. A very strange feeling. We got the boat ready and i was that confident of seeing whalesharks i was telling all the customers that it was going to be a sure thing. I had a huge gut feeling. My dive buddy for the day was a bloke called Paul from Portsmouth! Small world! Our first dive was along a huge coral wall which was amazing, seeing turtles amongst other awesome things. As we surfaced our captain had been told on the radio that whalesharks had been spotted and were only about a 10 minute drive away. So off we went. They say you know when whalesharks are around becuase the sea looks like its boiling. I never really thought that was possible but oh my god! Since there is a whole food chain in one small area, the smaller fish are leaping out of the water escaping the larger ones and the whalesharks are swimming around eating the planctum that ths small fish are after as well. Its a breathtaking sight. One you can only believe once you have seen it. We were ready with our fins and snorkel gear with our hearts pounding away. When the captain came close to the whalesharks and gave us the word we all eased in being blessed with the experience that i will always rememeber and cherish. In the space of 45 minutes we swam with four different whalesharks. The last one was about 30 foot long and when we dropped in the water its mouth (which i could fit sideways in!) was about 2 foot away from my fins. The most beautiful creatures ever! The adrenalin rush i got from these 45 minutes was more intense than doing the Nevis bunjee jump in New Zealand! I couldnt compare it really to anything else i have ever done. When it came to the second dive after seeing all the whalesharks, the adrenalin had obviously wore off and i came down with a fever 25 meters under the water! Not pleasent. By the end of the dive i was a shivering wreck. The boat ride back to the dive center took about 45 minutes which i spent on top of the boat wrapped around with towels in the sun trying to warm up. When we got back i managed to get my shivers under control and bought Captain Eril dinner for doing such a good job with the whalesharks. After that though i did wave my white flag and went home to go bed but luckily Caitlin joined me as i needed some TLC. I wasn't feeling good at all but i had just swam with whalesharks so i was a happy man!

26/04/08
Caitlin and the rest of the divemasters had a boat just for them in the morning to look for whalesharks. I waited for them at the end of the pier for their return. That morning i washed my hair and i know this sounds disgusting but i didnt normaly bother while i was there since i was swimming in the sea every day and my hair felt clean anyway. But dear god! My looked so blonde after washing it that when the dive boat came back, bearing in mind they had just swam with two whalesharks, the first thing i could here them all shout was, "ahhh, Barries bleached his hair blonde!" Once i shouted back, "no, i just washed my hair this morning," i got a load of fun abuse! Fair one though because my hair was that blonde it looked stupid!ha We had lunch at Bundus cafe and then Caitlin and I went back to ours after arranging to see everyone at Tranquilas Bar later on in the evening for my last night on the island. We got down to the bar for sunset as arranged and from the very start of the night i could tell it was going to be an emotional night. There were a few more Snorkel tests that evening which lifted my spirit a wee bit. Still saying goodbye and talking to people one on one was tough. I was surprised to see how upset some people were when saying their goodbyes to me. I remember Hilda crying and saying that I made her laugh every time I saw her. I cant think of anything that can be said that tops that. So many people said so many awesome things to me that night which made me realise once again how lucky i was to have met such an awesome bunch of people. I was finding the night hard anyway and decided to go home early with a very tipsy Caitlin by myside!ha

27/04/08
Caitlin had work in the morning so after seeing her off Darren and I took our normal seats in the kitchen for the last time and had breakfast. We sat there for a few hours like we normally did eating our stupidly healthy food and drinking herbal tea. I made my way to the dive center for the last time to pick up my dive gear and bought a dive bag to put i all in for the long journey home. Everyone organised a farewell lunch at Bundus Cafe around 11am and to be honest i was expecting maybe three or four people to turn up as eveyone was so busy during the day. But the whole crowd turned up. We had to pull together about four tables. So after all e mails were swapped and final goodbyes were said Caitlin and I walked back to ours for me to pack my backpack for the final time. I just caught Darren at home before he had to shoot out for class and manged to say goodbye and thank him. He played a very important role for things working out for me on Utila. So i owe him a lot for that. Caitlin and I had a few hours before we made our way to the ferry port. Brad and Steve who were also leaving on the same ferry were there waiting and so was French Ben who couldnt make it for lunch to say goodbye. So my last final goodbye was to Caitlin and then we boarded the ferry. I was really gutted to be leaving but i knew deep down, once i left the island and started my journey home, i would just want to get there as soon as. On the way to the main land the ferries propellors hit a large piece of wood causing the ferry to shake. The rest of the way back was rather bumpy!ha We met a bloke from Norway on the ferry called Mikel who shared the taxi ride with us into town where we found a decent hotel with a four person room. We did plan to have a lads night out but none of us could wake up after going to bed early for a power nap. Just as well though as we were all going to the airport in the morning.

28/04/08
I said goodbye to Steve and Brad early in the morning and Mikel and I got a taxi to the airport. Once there we went our sepertate ways as we had different flights. I did have a bit of a scare though as when i handed them my ticket they said i was missing the part of the ticket i needed to board the plane. It wasnt after a worrying 30 minutes i finally got through! If i had missed that plane it would have been a huge pain! When it came to boarding the plane, myself and the rest of the passengers (about 8 other people) walked on to the small runway up towards the smallest plane with the old fashioned propellors i had ever seen. The jungle in the background made the experience that much more intense. I have been to my fare share of airports but this was set in the most picturesce surroundings i have ever seen! This flight was taking me to the major airport in Honduras so it only lasted 40 minutes. During the flight though i got talking to an older American couple whilst trying to take in the amazing views. Once we landed the couple gave me there details and told me if i was ever in America to give them a call and i could stay with them. You do meet some awesome people. While i was waiting to check onto my next flight i was standing amongst a load of wealthy business men who were on their way home from being on a scuba diving holiday. I got talking to them and i found it awesome how all these blokes wanted to speak to me about my travels. Even when we were all sat down waiting to board the plane they were throwing me question after question. They were all fascinated. A good feeling. Once boarded a blonde stewardess asked me if i would mind changing seat so a couple could sit together. How could i say no so off i went to the back of the plane. I got seated then the same stewardess came up to me again, appologised and asked if i would do it one more time. You try moving up the plane whilst everyone else is moving down the isle finding their seats!ha I finally got seated and ended up sat amongst the large group of American divers. I had about two hours at Houston airport to catch my next flight to L.A but thanks to American customs i almost missed the flight. But after a load of rushing about the plane got delayed for an hour anyway. I did find it annoyingly funny though how the gate next to me was going to Heathrow! I arrived in L.A by 8pm after an exhausting day, booked a hotel for the night and waited outside for the free shuttle bus. While i was waiting in the queue to wave down my bus a lady about 20 people along from me waved down her bus. By the time the bus stopped it parked infront of me. This young lady had two young kids and when her husband arrived, for some reason he had about 10 cases. Did anyone near them help...no! I couldnt believe it. I told the bloke standing next to me to look after my bags, walked up to the bloke and offered him a hand. He looked amazed. I had to repeat myself! I gave them a hand with their luggage and afterwards the young lady came up to and said, "Your obviously not American are you?" I just smiled and replied, "no, im English." I did say it with great pride infront of about 50 people just watching. The hotel cost me $120 for the night, just a bit less than my house cost me in Utila for a month!ha Was in bed by 11pm. What a long day!ha

29/04/08
Crossing the road for breakfast was a huge shock to the system. I was used to stepping over a puddle or a dead scorpian in the the road on the way to grabbing a quick bite to eat on the way to the dive center and every now and again jumping out of the way of a scooter. Today i crossed a four lane motorway to grab a smoothie! I had time to kill as my bus didn't leave from the hotel till 5.30pm to take me to the airport. I spent most of the day luying on the grass by the hotel pool reading. To be honest, even though i was reading to pass time i found myself drifting away with so many thoughts and mixed feeling going through my head. On the one side I was so excited about seeing family and friends but on the other, well, my tavel adventures were coming to an end. Even though my flight wasn't till 9.15pm i was checked in and waiting at my gate by 6.15pm after the qickest check in ever. Even though i had three hours to kill, since i had so many thoughts running through my head, them three hours shot by. I did get to see one last sunset whilst i was waiting which made a pretty cool final photo. I started to think something was wrong when i looked around at the people waiting at the same gate as me didn't look like the crowd of people you normaly see heading back to the sunny UK. My flight number wasnt coming up at the gate and i was at the gate that was printed on my boarding ticket. I headed back to the main terminal to look at the main boarding screens and my gate number for my flight had been changed. But since i checked in so early i didnt notice! Then i heard the nightmare calling on the loud speaker, "last all for flight number ...blah blah blah!" As always the gate wasn't close and I ran my heart out being the last passenger to board!ha The flight was half empty and i had two seats to myself. I watched a film then drifted off to sleep.

Arriving home!
As we were approaching Heathrow airport i was joking with the people next to me that if they heard a woman screaming in the aiport, not to panic, as it would be my mum! What I found hilarious, was that bearing in mind all the countries i have been to within the last year, the only country i had problems with my passport photo (because i was 20 when it was taken and look 14!) was England. My home country! The lady at customs questioned me, "mmm, is this you sir?" I did laugh! But only after convincing her it was me. I kind of wanted to get home!ha I knew my mum and dad were going to be waiting or me and there they were. My mum was facing the other way and by the time she turned around, i was within a few feet. The look on her face was priceless and so was the few screams that shortly followed!ha My heavy dive bag was dumped straight on the floor and there was big hugs all round. My Mum and Dad are the best and i know if it wasnt for them my travels could never of been possible. We talked all the way to my sisters in Portsmouth to where she was waiting with the kids. My 10 year old nephew, Lee and my three year old Niece, Isabel did not have a clue about me coming back. My parents went in first leaving me in the car to knock on the door a few minutes afterwards. Walking up to my sisters door i could feel the emotions becoming to much already. I knocked and Lee ran to the door. It opened, he looked at me with the most amazed look ever and i just said, "I think im lost, can you help me?!" He just leaped on me and there we stood, outside the house with his legs wrapped around my waist crying on my shoulder for five minutes. I have to admit his tears were not the only ones being shed. But i think i had good reason for being emotional. I walked in to be greeted by my Niece hugging my leg (which i have to admit i was worried she wasn't going to recognise me!) and got a huge hug from my sister, Sharon. It was good to be back with my family!
Within a few days of arriving home i had my good friends Neil and Staceys wedding which was the reason for me coming back home earlier than planned. So i got to spend a whole day with the best friends a beach bum like me could ever ask for. Within a short period of time I went to three weddings and went on holiday to Disney World Paris with my family. So my adventures never really ended, and im going to make sure they never do...life is to short!

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Photos

My good friends visiting me in Utlia.
John and my lovely ladies from Norway who i spent my time with in Belize.