Skal

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Well, the last week has certainly been eventful! Since the last blog, Tandi and I said goodbye to the boys and traveled from Belize to Utila, Honduras.

The rest of our time in Caye Caulker was super chilled and filled with many lobsters. We spent Christmas eve snorkeling with a gazillion sharks and stingrays and drinking alot of rum punch- a Belizian specialty. As cool as it was, i still haven't seen a reef that compares to the Great Barrier Reef at home. On the night of Christmas eve we had a pot luck dinner with everyone at the hostel and sang "Feliz Navidad" a million times. On Christmas day we celebrated by hanging on the beach and revealing who we had for secret santa. I had Tanz and got her a Mayan mask, Tanz had Seany and got him a Mexican wrestling mask, Seany had Stuey and got him a hammock, and Stuey had me and got me a hammock. An excellent Christmas, especially compared to Vietnam a couple of years ago.. Ian Pham may recall that one quite clearly haha.

Tanz and I decided to fly to San Pedro Sula, Honduras to save us many hours and several days on buses. It appears we can't get anywhere without a hitch.. in this case they put us on the wrong plane that went to another city in Belize, Placencia. Lucky they realized about ten minutes before take off and put us on the correct plane to Honduras. After fifty minutes of feeling like falling out of the sky we landed in San Pedro Sula. Nobody we have talked to likes San Pedro Sula, but compared to Belize City it's heaven and there are Pizza Huts everywhere. Luckily it only cost $5 as opposed to $90 in Brazil!

The next day we got a bus to La Ceiba where we took a boat to the island Utila. At the beginning of the trip one of the crew members was handing out seasickness bags. Tanz and I had never been seasick before so we declined.. the guy asked if we were sure and of course he knew better. I managed to just hold it in, but unfortunately Tanz succumbed as soon as we arrived in Utila.. gross.

We started a scuba diving course at Utila Dive Center the day after we arrived. Our class was mainly Americans, an English guy and our lovely new friend Delaney from Canada! Scuba diving is definitely one of the weirdest sensations i have ever experienced. You get to see all these different creatures you don't normally get to see snorkeling like puffer fish and weird spiders.

There is only one word for new years eve.. crazy. The night began with shots of Belize vodka, a bbq with all the people in our hotel, and many drinking games. I'm not going to bother elaborating on the night, but i will tell you about how 2011 began. We somehow woke up relatively fresh and went to the dive center at 11.30 for our first official dive. Unfortunately the ocean was incredibly choppy and crazy and induced "seasickness" in a few of the class. When we finally arrived at the dive site (after running aground) we wanted to get under the water asap so we would stop feeling so sick. Unfortunately it was too late. As we were all clinging to the rope in the water with huge waves and all our scuba gear on, a Guatemalan lady next to Tanz started throwing up.. unfortunately the scene of her vomit floating past me resulted in me being sick too. I have know idea how Tanz managed to hold it in with two people puking either side of her. I'm pretty sure i was asking for my mum. Somehow we managed to do the dive and it did feel better under the water. As soon as we were back on the boat it all came back again so we decided to postpone the second dive until the next day.

By the evening we had recovered pretty well and decided to have dinner with Delaney, a couple of guys from New York and a couple of guys from Denmark. We proceeded to a bar where the Danish boys generously started buying everyone loads of delicious blue shots. Delaney, being the smart one of the group, went home early as we had 3 dives to do the next day starting at 7am. It turned out being just as fun as new years so Tanz and I decided to postpone our course a day, which brings us to this evening! We've ended up staying here a few extra nights then intended, but it doesn't put us out much and by Tuesday afternoon we'll be certified divers!

Now, to get back to La Ceiba without being seasick..

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Comments

[Pete]

Blog
At last I could read it Julia. Fascinating. Hope you get your 'sea legs' for the second sessions. Actually, you did well in the first! X Pete