Honduras

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Honduras: Big sharks, Freediving and scary Waterfalls.

12/07 - Utila - diving Mecca

There is a video made by a traveller called 'Utila, You'll never wanna leave'. From talking to some of the tourists that now live there, it seems quite true - people seem to get stuck!

Utila is one of the Bay islands, it sits on the second largest coral reef in the world (after the Great barrier). There's a differently named dive site every few hundred metres. It's a small island, 13km long and 5km wide. Life is based around a main strip, with a couple of small beaches. Most of the remaining island is impenetrable wilderness. Shame.

We'd arrived after a really long journey from Nicaragua. We'd left Leon at 2am by shuttle (the first tourist shuttle we'd used), and arrived at La Ceiba port in time for the last ferry across to Utila. Little did I know at the time that the afternoon ferry is known for being rough...I should have known when the staff started giving out sick bags! The poor local lady in front spent the whole hour chucking her guts up.

It's a big impressive tourist ferry ($25 one way), the price being a good indicator to what to expect in Utila - they definitely hike up the prices being a tourist destination.

Scuba touts

We expected to be jumped on by touts in Utila and were very surprised to be met with the most polite touts ever! They had a quiet persistence but each let the other competition say their pitch too. I'd already had my eye on one particular dive centre so we got a free tuk tuk with them to their dive shop.

We decided to go with Underwater vision as we could get cheap accommodation($10 a night!). Technically it was a share dorm but with only 2 beds in it we got it to ourselves, and with a private bathroom. It was also the dive shop recommended by our friend Jess. We'd thought we'd hit jackpot with the room until the first night, sooooo hot! Max said it was like a small child blowing on you. He really struggled - if he doesn't get his 8 hours then angry Max comes out! We managed to get an extra fan but it was just blowing hot air around. Better than nothing though.


13/07 Diving with underwater vision

UW is mainly full of people on courses, which is always a risk as you might be put on a dive with crap people who use their air really quick, meaning everyone's dive gets cut short. Luckily the open water students we got put with were not too bad and all but one stayed down nearly an hour. The dive was slow and relaxed, the dive master was nice but didn't point anything out so we didn't learn anything. They were really shallow dives which we're not used to as we normally pick dives where we get to see the big stuff which is usually deeper! We'd recently watched a bit of a doco at the hostel about the global reef bleaching and it really made me take notice of what we are losing.

The best bit was when we went through some swim throughs. I hung at the back knowing the others would be kicking up sand everywhere, and I followed max through. The others were turning back to exit but max spotted another way out. I figured we probably were not allowed to go that way as technically it was covered overhead, but it wasn't really a cave so we went anyway!

UW has great setup - a little beach, hammocks and seating by the water with loads of space to jump in. It has a busy bar/restaurant with a theme every night. A highlight from my first day, a guy at the bar thought Max was Israeli!



08/08 - Snorkelling with a whale shark and diving with lots of cool fishes!

We were not that impressed by Underwater Vision so thought we'd try Altons dive shop the next day. We were in a group with a couple who had a lot of experience and then there were loads of divemasters in training.

How to spot signs of a whale shark

On the way to the dive site, the captain looks out for whale sharks, Utila is famous for the number of juveniles in the area. They look out for 'boils', this is when the water looks flattened and there are loads of bubbles in a circular area. Boils are caused when schools of tuna herd smaller fish into a ball, the fish are forced into tighter schools and jump to the surface to escape. Plankton are found in these boils. Since whale sharks feed on plankton, if you spot a well formed boil there is a chance there may be a whale shark feeding.

The rule of the dive boats are that if the captain sees a whale shark or pod of dolphins, you are allowed to jump in and snorkel - but you must pay 200 lempira ($10) for dolphins and 300l ($15) for a whale shark!

When the captain called it, we all lined up at the back of the boat, ready with snorkel, mask and fins. When they shout "go!" the engine is cut and everyone piles in! We saw the whaleshark was right below us and max and I started swimming full pelt, knowing that they swim fast when they get going. We have swam with adults before that are the size of buses, the juvenile seemed tiny in comparison but still would have been 12-15ft! It wasn't long before it dived down and was lost in the deep. Game over.

Diving with a guide that looks like a shipwreck!

Initially we thought our divemaster/guide, Cam, was a douche. He'd given some sarccy comments to us when we arrived because we were diving with underwater vision, but he turned out to be a great guy! He had no hair up top but a big bushy beard with loads of stuff tied into it, like beads, chains and even a bottle cap! He looked like he'd been washed up in a shipwreck! He was passionate and enthusiastic, pointing out heaps of fish and spending time post dive telling us what each was.

What we saw that I liked, including a nurse shark and whale shark....!

Duppy waters. 28m. 60mins.
Rocky point. 17m. 60mins.

Nurse shark, Eagle rays, southern stingray, hawksbill turtle, porcupine puffer, queen triggerfish, lion fish (a pest here so the divemaster spears them!), green moray eel, seapearl, yellow-headed jawfish, Peterson cleaner shrimp, banded coral shrimp, cowfish, spotted drumfish, lizardfish, flamingo tongue, squat anemone shrimp, permit, tiger grouper, trumpetfish, filefish, discofish, peacock flounder.


Food in Utila

There were no cheap eats here, local food is as pricey as western food. We found Altons to have the best value food, So we kept going back. Otherwise we ditched the rice and beans for a bit of American style junk! There were a couple of places that I really enjoyed, including a coffee shop where I'd have an ice coffee post dive. Considering the coffee here is normally undrinkable, I made a few return trips here! And they had amazing chocolate brownies which we also treated ourselves to. Another place was a feral bar that our friend Jess told us to go to! She recommended the homemade Big Mac burger, it was amazeballs!

The local snack here in Honduras is the baleada. It's a corn tortilla with a smear of refried beans and a sprinkle of salty cheese and folded over. One place sold the 'mega baleada'! We also had a few of these bad boys.


Free diving - start of the beginner course

We've always wanted to try freediving, and since there is a school here with great reviews, we thought we'd give it a crack. It's a 2 day course, approx 5 hours theory and 6 hours in the water between a group of 3 or 4. Our German instructor was called Claudia (pronounced Clowdeeaa!). She's super smiley and friendly. The school owner is Tex, a very mellow guy and really friendly. I was expecting the school to be annoyingly spiritual and earthy but it wasn't at all. Claudia even said she isn't into that, apart from doing a bit of yoga there was nothing hippy about it.

The other beginner students in our class were a Canadian scuba diving instructor and a French guy who was extremely keen, he was asking about advanced and instructor courses before we'd even started the course!

Freediving theory

The first afternoon we learned the background to Freediving, the physiology behind what happens to our body and about breathing exercises that help prepare the body for the dive. It was really interesting, especially seeing videos of the pros in action. Competitive freedivers can dive down as far as 200m and hold their breath for more than 10 minutes! Crazy stuff. There's one guy called William Trubridge who has a free immersion world record for diving to 124m. (He has many other world records too). Free immersion is when you dive down without any aid, I.e. fins. You just use a rope to pull you up and down either head or feet first. His personal best for a static breath hold is 7min 29sec! I can barely do 30 seconds!

BREATHE!

For part of the lesson she showed us how to 'breathe up'. This is the breathing you do before diving down which relaxes the body and more importantly your mind. If your mind is relaxed then your body follows. It slows your heart rate therefore you become
more oxygen efficient.

I never knew breathing could be so difficult!

We were shown how to belly breathe, filling our bellies before our diaphragm. I had no idea if I was doing it right but I know we all looked pretty stupid trying! Our homework was to practise breathing!


09/08 - Free diving - first day in the water!

We were told that Freediving is best on an empty tummy, there's no way Max and I could go without eating so we had breakfast and were fine, although I thought it might come back up on the boat trip out to the dive...

We met at 7.30am and got kitted up with wet suit (the water is warm but apparently gets chilly after a couple of hours of not moving much), short fins and a mask. They made a MASSIVE deal of sitting down when taking the wetsuit on and off, they must have taught some real idiots if people have had issues! One of the other instructors, Sheena, was also really arsey about time management. We were quite early and she seemed put out, but then she was getting impatient at a student who wasn't there before the meeting time! (The student was actually dead on time). We quickly noticed how there was a bit of attitude with the freedivers at the shop (apart from Claudia and Tex). They were anti scuba divers and often slated them, it was like they had an inferiority complex or something and had something to prove. Very odd.

First target - 12m

The gear was set up, literally just a buoy with a weighted rope hanging down to 12m. This was our target distance but they emphasised that we were in no way expected to push ourselves, if we could get there then great but we had to be comfortable.

We took turns, with one diving down while the others waited on the surface (trying to practice breathing!). When diving down Claudia would follow us, and on the way up swam right in front of us to check we were not panicking! It was really reassuring having her eye contact.

After a while we all managed to get down to 12m and back. For me I got more relaxed as time went on which helped massively. I had a couple of really good dives where I was totally relaxed and felt that I could have stayed down a lot longer. On one in particular Claudia signalled me to come up and I did, and she said I had already done 1m20sec so she thought I better not push it. I couldn't believe it, I can barely hold my breathe for 30secs normally! I think I got a taste here for why people Freedive. Unfortunately these dives were short lived as I'd never have a dive as relaxed as this!

Rescue theory

In the arvo we had another theory session, this time learning about what to do if something goes wrong. Freediving has a reputation for being dangerous so Claudia spent a long time talking about risks and how there is only danger if you don't follow the rules, just like scuba diving. Interestingly the worst you'll likely encounter is hypoxia when someone blacks out near or on the surface, but this would be rare. It wouldn't happen any deeper than 5m. We were shown a video of this happening and how to rescue the diver - basically making sure their airway is clear at the surface.

The samba!

Another scenario we were shown is when the diver comes to the surface and their body starts shaking, since they lose motor control. sometimes theres a lot, sometimes just a shudder. There is no danger but the safety diver just has to make sure they don't injure themselves.


10/08 - Freediving course PT2: 21m target!

2nd day back in the water and we had a new target, 21m. At this point it seemed totally unachievable, 12m was hard enough.

The vagus nerve

We started the morning learning a yoga technique to help train our lungs. We sat in a circle and did these funny breathing patterns. I made the mistake of looking over at Max and nearly wet my pants. That was it, I wasn't relaxed anymore!

At the dive site We started the same drill as yesterday (although today we were upgraded to long fins!) and had a few dives to 12m or so to get ourselves back into the right frame of mind. Claudia said it's also important to experience the effects of the vagus nerve quickly so that we can move on and push ourselves to go deeper. The vagus nerve is our most complex nerve and connects everything to the brain. It's what makes our brain scream "breathe you idiot you're going to die!". Once you accept that the vagus nerve will kick in and that you will be fine then you can concentrate on what you're doing!

Free diving to 21m

Today was a lot harder, I found it harder to relax and felt more pressure on reaching the target. I was also having issues equalising on the way down and it was holding me back, so I did what other students were doing and took my fins off and went feet first down the line. Straight away my ears were no issue meaning I could move quicker down the line. But now my vagus nerve was kicking in making me want to breathe, and from around 15m down i felt contractions.

Contractions

Claudia had physically shown us what the body looks like when contracting and it looks like aliens are trying to escape out of your diaphragm! I'd felt a flutter previously but these I knew were proper ones, it feels so weird and wrong. The first time I felt it I just did a quick tumble turn and bolted up to the surface! Then when Claudia said it was my last go I knew I just had to fight it and get down! I grit my teeth, closed my eyes and just pushed through. Going feet first I had no idea how deep I was but I was so relieved when I felt the weight at the end of the line. Going up is always easier, partly a mental thing as you know you'll be able to breathe soon, partly because the lungs become less compressed and uncomfortable.

I was pleased I'd done it, but it wasn't a pleasurable experience as I wasn't relaxed! Luckily I'd had a taster of how it should feel the day before, which weirdly was a longer dive at 12m than my dive to 21!

Silent competition!

I knew if I did it max would be under pressure to do it too! He had been getting frustrated too as it certainly isn't as easy as it seems. He'd had his last go, but Claudia gave him one more luckily! He made it but looked slightly traumatised when he surfaced! The Frenchy in our group made it too and watching him I thought he looked really calm and controlled. He said after that in fact he was the opposite and found it terrifying! 2 out of the 3 students in the other group didn't manage the full distance but one went on to do the static course and held his breath for 4 minutes!

Free dive vs Scuba dive

I enjoyed the course, but I would rather stick to scuba! I wouldn't say it was 'fun' like the others kept saying, but it was really interesting experiencing what happens to the body and finding out what it can do (even if it seems impossible).

While we were out diving I would see a scuba dive boat, or be looking down to where the fish were swimming below and all I wanted was to grab a tank and go and explore! It seems freedivers are not so fussed about seeing fish, it's all about how far they can push their bodies and getting a PB.


11/08 - Best macro dive ever and a wreck!

Back to scuba diving! We had moved to stay at Altons dive shop as we got free accommodation for any day we dived with them! The room was so much better, being on the water there was fresh air coming through and good fans, finally a good nights sleep!

The morning dives were with local guide Roberto. We had a great dive group, with people also staying at Altons that we'd got to know - Michael, Jo and Joe, They are all good divers and really easy to get on with. We'd been out the night before at Trudys trivia night and were all feeling a bit hungover. None of us expected it to be drunken-should have guessed though when the bar staff were pouring tequila down our throats after winning a round (and 'best team name'!). Good night but I didn't want to be blowing chunks into my reg...

The dives were based on spotting macro stuff with local guide Roberto. It was unreal what he saw! At one point he even got a microscope out as the fish was so small, no joke!

What we saw (that I hadn't seen on previous dives):

Big rock. 25m. 62mins.
Rons hole. 22m. 65mins.

MASSIVE pufferfish, biggest I've ever seen! King mackerel, flathead helmet comb jelly, solitary gorgonian hydroid, yellow flare pike blenny, lots of babies! (File,pipe and sand diver).


Haliburton Wreck dive (28.7m. 36mins)

We were running out of Utila time but really wanted to fit in the Haliburton wreck that we'd heard was good. We'd already done 2 dives but the staff agreed that we could do the wreck as long as the guide taking us wore Robertos dive computer to make sure we were within the safety limits.

The wreck sits at 30m. We started from the bottom and worked out way up, there are loads of weird and wonderful things along the way, like a mask hanging up covered in algae, a bicycle, BBQ and toilet! There's also a glass dildo inside but we were not allowed to go in that part! It's a great wreck to explore, but also the first dive site I've been to here that's been busy.



12/08 - Last day of diving and exploring freshwater caves

The mornings dives were north of the island, where we explored a really cool pinnacle.

Pinnacles. 25m. 61mins.

Apart from seeing many of the fish we'd seen before, we also had a run-in with a huge evil looking barracuda! They can be very aggressive so it gave everyone a shock when it came straight for the group! Those teeth are terrifying! We also saw another nurse shark, a juvenile though.


Caves, bats and tight spaces!

For our last afternoon we thought we should leave the comfort of the dive shop and explore Utila. There's not many options of where to go as it's tiny, but we hired a couple of bikes and took a hand drawn map from the rental place. We went in search of the freshwater caves that we heard were worth a look. The bikes were really crap, the kind you'd see dumped in hard rubbish. They were cheap though and would save walking in the heat.

We'd heard that the caves were hard to find, since the path was not marked, just a slight clearing off a road to the power station. We spent a good while looking, getting eaten alive by mozzies in the process (which always puts me in a bad mood!). We were at the point of giving up when I found the path and we walked over a really hard spikey coral path to the cave.

Head torches on and we crawled in. It only took about 10mins to get through but it was slow going. It was pitch black, with big gaping holes leading to other caverns below and some of the way was super tight. We ditched our clothes early on as there was water to swim through, it was cold but so refreshing after the heat outside.

Toight like a toiger

We literally had to crawl on our bellies in part of it, shuffling through like a soldier! Last time I'd been in a cave this tight was in Laos and I came out with a bloody face from bashing myself on stalagtites! So I was conscious of keeping all limbs in tact. There were also loads of bats that would fly so quickly in front of the face, sometimes you only heard them as it was so dark. Great fun, I love caves!

Dinner and drinks

That evening We went for dinner with the guys from Altons and had a few beers. Being Saturday night it was really busy and people were getting on it! Unfortunately we had a 6am ferry to catch and I knew I wouldn't handle that seasickness if I had a sniff of a hangover. We stayed out til 11ish then headed home to pack.


13/08 - Travel day to D&D brewery

Blurgh, so much for avoiding a hangover, instead I gained an ear infection that made me feel rough! I'd been feeling a bit seasick the day before which I thought was odd, turns out it was my ears making me feel queasy. Luckily the morning ferry was flat calm so all good. We arrived back in la Ceiba and made the trip to Lake Yojoa region where we'd booked to stay at D&D brewery.

D&D brewery

It's located in the rural village of Los Naranjos. It is a micro brewery and restaurant with accommodation, rather than being a hostel. It features heavily in all the travel guide books and has become a destination in itself due to its popularity with backpackers. There are not many places in Honduras on the gringo trail, and due to lack of tourist industry and infrastructure, it's an easy and safe place for tourists to base themselves to see a bit of Honduran life. I think it helps that it's owned by a westerner (Bobby) who has a load of info on what to see and do and arranges tours.


14/08 - Hiking and an Intense climb behind a 140ft waterfall!

The morning was spent hiking with a few others from d&d. Our guide took us through coffee plantations and farms and up to a viewpoint that overlooks the village and lake. It was quite a tough hike as we were going at a quick pace, it was great to get out and about in the countryside.

PULHAPANZAK waterfall!

When researching Honduras there's one thing I kept reading - that this is one place where there are literally no safety regulations! It made sense then that we wouldn't have to sign a waiver before climbing behind a 140ft waterfall!

The local chicken bus dropped us about 2km from the park where the waterfall was. It was a nice walk through a village where we could
Stop and grab a few snacks (doughnut and Mountain Dew- healthy!). There were plenty of local families at the park swimming and having picnics. We went to the waterfall viewing point to take photos and I immediately wondered how on earth we were supposed to get behind it. This thing is huge and powerful, and the amount of water being chucked over the edge was incredible.

Waterfall tour

I'd made the mistake of reading a dramatic blog about the waterfall tour which had put me off, and now seeing it I just didn't understand how we were even to get close to the edge! On the tour was a local couple and their teenage son, the guide had actually left us behind so we ran to catch up. Max had just his boardies on but I didn't know what to wear so went fully clothed (like the family-I'd be glad of this later...).

We walked along a path and over some
rocks until we got to a small rocky pool. The noise from the waterfall was already deafening. The guide shouted to us to jump into the pool one by one, it wasn't very high but the water was moving a lot from a mini waterfall flowing into it. As soon as I jumped in I remembered I had trainers on-it is not easy to swim in shoes, they pulled me
down and max pissed himself as I dragged myself across like a drowning rat!

After we'd reconvened we were shouted instructions to hold hands in a line and wade across another pool (I guess so we don't get swept away). He also said to look down, breathe through the mouth and take it steady! We followed instructions, slowly and carefully. At this point we were right at the edge of the waterfall. Still holding hands, we traversed our way along the rocks under a fairly heavy pummelling of water on the back
of our heads and back. I literally couldn't see a thing from the water and mist. It's quite unnerving not knowing how far you have to go and what you'll be met with! Slowly we made it to a small enclave behind the fall, I thought we'd done it, until he explained the next step...!

When waterfalls are scary

Turns out that was just the edge of the falls, now we were actually going behind, but we'd need to use a rope to get around that is attached to the rock. The guide had said that due to recent rainstorms there was a lot more water therefore a stronger waterfall. He asked if we were happy to do it, everyone said yes and we proceeded to go one by one into the unknown (I would have asked what to expect but the noise was too deafening!). The family followed the guide then me then max. The force of the water on us was unreal! At this point I was glad of my clothes, my singlet was pulled down and I know my bathers wouldn't have made it! Again I couldn't see shit and just kept inching my way along, gripping the rope with my life! I was questioning how the hell this was allowed and why on earth I was doing it!

When there's no going back...or is there?!

I got to a point where I couldn't move, I could feel the guys leg ahead of me and could hear some shouting, but with the falls being so loud and because they were speaking Spanish I had no idea what they were saying! I waited a while and then thought maybe something was wrong, maybe they were trying to communicate with me but I couldn't work out what they were saying? Max shouted 'what's going on?' from behind me. I decided to head back in case there was a problem. But the family never followed me so max said we should try again. This time he went first and we went quite quickly, we hit a point where he screamed 'you have to climb!!'. WTF - is it not hard enough to force your way through a waterfall with visions of being swept away into a giant washing machine of cascading water?! So I gripped harder and climbed up the rock, luckily it was only one step. Then I saw the fluoro orange colour of the guides tshirt and his arm came out of no where and helped pull me through the last bit!

We made it!

There was everyone else huddled in another enclave in the rock, soaked through and puffing! The guide slumped onto the rock and looked exhausted and really stressed-I guess he must have panicked when the family got through the other side and no sign of us! Looking back through the sheet of water cascading down was a surreal sight, I couldn't see through apart from looking right to the top where I could see the tops of trees.

We relaxed for a while and max joked 'shall we wait until it's stopped?'. I knew it would be easier on the way back now I knew what to expect, and it was a lot quicker but I was
still holding that rope for dear life!

Cliff jumping

We made our way back to the first pool
that we'd swum across earlier and the guide said we could jump from a rock into the pool. It was about 15ft high which would normally put me off but I had a bit of confidence after surviving the waterfall! Me and Max jumped off and it was fun (I'd got used to wearing trainers in water by now!), but then the guide said there was one more if we were keen - a 25ft jump. So again we scrambled up the rocks, and the guide threw a rock at the point in the pool where we should aim our jump. Great fun!

Apart from a bruised and scraped shin the waterfall escapade was a success!



15/08 Travel day to cross the border to El Salvador

Border crossing days are a pain as they feel
a waste of time when spending a whole day on the bus. But sometimes they're the best way of seeing more of what the country is about, as you can watch people close up without them noticing you're there.

As I've been getting a bit travel sick I don't tend to do anything on the bus whereas Max can read and be fine. So I've seen all sorts of things on the way, including a young boy on a donkey with a machete over his shoulder, a nun clasping a chicken under her arm like a handbag, vultures sat on a fence looking like they're in a queue for the bus...

Driving through Honduras countryside was actually the most scenic landscape we'd seen in Central America. I had no idea it was so mountainous.

Our bus took us to the city of San Pedro where we got a coach to the border. Luckily we didn't need to spend anytime in the city. Then it was a really easy border crossing, the simplest yet which was unexpected. We didn't know how long the whole Journey would take but we guessed we'd get to el
Salvador too late to catch the bus to where we wanted to go, it was too far at that time of day. So instead we got the last bus to La Palma, the nearest little town to the border.



Honduras facts

• In 2011, Park officials of the Roatan Marine Park in Honduras trained sharks to feed on lionfish in an attempt to control the invasive populations in the Caribbean. – Source

• The murder rate in Honduras is so high that some cities have had to start offering a program for free funerals.

• It’s completely normal to find blonde haired, blue eyed Hondurans on the bay islands. They are direct descendents of the British Pirates that came here over 500 years ago.

• More than 50% of the country lives below poverty levels.

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