Blogs from Bay Islands, Honduras, Central America Caribbean - page 6

Nothing too blog-worthy in the last six weeks or so, as I’ve been spending most of my time learning some Spanish. I started with four weeks in Colombia - two weeks of school in Bogota before moving along to Cartagena on the Caribbean coast for a couple of weeks. I spent the most recent two weeks in Montezuma, Costa Rica for another change of scenery. The good news is that I’ve managed to pick up the basics of the language and some vocabulary; the bad news is that it is going to take months to become reasonably proficient! It has been good to challenge my brain (frankly, it was over-challenged on a few occasions) and interesting to hear, even within the same country, how the language varies. I spent most of my time in Bogota staying ... read more

We woke up to a beautiful sunny day and got our first look of the resort by daylight. Its so cool! Our resort is right on the ocean with a pool area overlooking the sea. We wandered into town and went to a breakie restaurant that had a porch out the back right on the beach. We both ordered omelets (which were delicious) and freshly squeezed OJ to start our day. The restaurant was owned by this really annoying American woman who was treating the poor waitor boy like a school kid, telling him which way all the salt and pepper shakers had to face on tables...like, who cares! We were reliably (mis)informed by our guide that we were booked in for 1pm for the Dolphin Adventure and we were to meet at the resort reception. ... read more

Na Rosco op de taxi te hebben gezet is het solo-deel van mijn reis begonnen. Na een poosje in Guatemala te hebben rondgestapt met mijn zo-goed-als-niet-bestaande-Spaans op naar Honduras. Van medereizigers al allemaal adviezen gekregen over waar ik het beste naartoe kon om te duiken. Mexico was een hele goede optie, maar na alle verhalan aangehoord te hebben op de bus gestapt naar Utila, Honduras. Om de keuze nog een keer bevestigd te krijgen kom ik in Hopkins,Belize een duikinstructrice tegen uit Mexico die mij Utila nogmaals van harte aanraadt en meteen een duikschool aanbeveelt. Hopkins is een schattig dorpje in Belize met de laagste criminaliteitscijfers. En een prima strand aan de Carribean. Dus een dagje blijven hangen om te windsurfen en te chillen. De Funky Dodo blijkt een prima plekje te zijn om mede-backpackers te ... read more

Despite some cloudy and windy weather, we were able to get on the morning dive boat, heading to the south side of the island. Our first dive site was Diamond Caye. This dive began with a descent to a sandy bottom where we were greeted by a friendly angel fish with a dog's personality. When we put our hand out to it, it swam right up to us. We moved along to some beautiful coral formations that seem to be unique to Utila. You swim through channels of coral with sponges, sea fans and all sorts of plants swaying gently in the current. Small reef fish dart around looking for food or avoiding becoming food. A patient diver will be rewarded with sightings of juvenile fish, tiny hermit crabs, sea snails and perhaps an eel. One ... read more

Keeping in theme with the Honduran way of doing things, we arrived at Deep Blue Divers at 7:00am for our 7:30 boat that left at 9:00. The original plan to dive on the north side of the island before stopping at Water Caye for a picnic lunch was somewhat altered, but it turned out to be a great day. Our first dive was a beautiful wall reef with lots of great coral formations. I was surprised by the lack of fish we saw, but the huge brain coral and aquatic plants made up for it. The theme of the day was definitely “Mishaps with Dive Equipment”. My tank nearly fell off twice, John broke his mask, John couldn’t take pictures with his camera, I couldn’t read my gauge and thought I was running out of air…need ... read more