http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Honduras/Bay-Islands/Utila/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Central America Caribbean , Honduras , Bay Islands , Utila en-us Mon, 08 Sep 2008 09:52:50 BST Mon, 08 Sep 2008 09:52:50 BST Honduras After school I never thought Id spend 7 hours on a school bus. But that is how we got from Belize City to Punta Gorda. They squish as many people as they can on the buses and thru the aisles and make stops wherever someone wants to be picked up. You rotate from knees on the seat in front of you squashed down a bit to head on the seat in front of you to sitting up straight...every 10 min http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Honduras/Bay-Islands/Utila/blog-320259.html What an exhausting and fulfilling week Lets start off by saying that Utila is awesome A little background first Utila was discovered by Captain Morgan and is where he found Blackbeards treasure and it went on to become the biggest pirate colony in the world. Need I say more Utila is basically a dive town and Bryan did his advanced open water courses while there. I was 100 sure I was not g http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Honduras/Bay-Islands/Utila/blog-315074.html After a harrowing day of four buses and hundreds of miles we arrived in the coastal city of La Ceiba in the north east of Honduras. It was just a stop over however on our voyage to the Bay Islands where we were to indulge ourselves in yet more world class diving. Unfortunately the majority of the first day was spent bumming around La Ceiba as the doofuss in our hostel told us the wrong ferry time http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Honduras/Bay-Islands/Utila/blog-313996.html So where were we...oh yes when last we spoke I was busy poking fate in the eye with a red hot poker rambling on about the virtues of some tough travel for the long term benefits of the memory banks...that which does not kill you only makes you stronger...etc etc. So there we were in Granada a couple of volcanos rivers and a tad of the carribean away from the Corn Islands no big deal right http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Honduras/Bay-Islands/Utila/blog-312456.html So Honduras was the next stop and as time was limited we decided to head straight for the Bay Islands straight meaning a 4 hour bus from Rio Dulce to San Pedro Sula and then changing for a 2 hour bus to La Ceiba.There are only 2 boats a day from La Ceiba to the Bay Islands so we set off on the usual task to find a bed aided by our guide book which by now is looking a little worse for wear We hea http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Honduras/Bay-Islands/Utila/blog-311516.html OK so I know that I have been a slacker when it comes to updating this lately...and by lately I mean the past 34 days but there has been so much going on it was hard to find the time.When I last wrote I was in Nicaragua finishing up my fun travels before coming here to Utila for my course to become a SCUBA instructor. I left Leon Nicaragua on a bus at around 6 am bound for San Pedro Sula http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Honduras/Bay-Islands/Utila/blog-309548.html I arrived here in Utila after spending a few days in Florida with my mom. Picking this as my first stop on a year long journey was a decision I made while hanging out in Hawaii this past March with my dear friend Jim. Seeing a whaleshark was a animal on my animals to see list. Learning that this little tiny island was one of the best places to see these incredible fish and to dive for very cheap http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Honduras/Bay-Islands/Utila/blog-295826.html Ok...i admit...it is actually the 25th June...were in Costa Rica for about 11 more hours and I still have to write about that and Nicaragua. I promise I will...but for now....heres all about Honduras. So we awoke next day bright and early but def not bushy tailed to get a minibus from Antigua in Guatemala on to La Ceiba first port of call in our 4th country on the tour Honduras. We left goo http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Honduras/Bay-Islands/Utila/blog-291826.html YihaaSaa er ventetiden forbi endnu et nyt blogindlaeg er ved at tage formDenne skrivelse omhandler eventyret i Honduras vilde dyr vilde dyr der ikke var der danskere massere af sol samt en afslutning.Ovenstaaende blev skrevet i gaar de billeder jeg gerne ville uploade laa ikke paa min DVD hvilket medfoerte at jeg gik i panik. Nu ligger de paa DVD'en men denne computer kan ikke laese den http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Honduras/Bay-Islands/Utila/blog-288145.html Hei Talla hetkella olen Utilan saarella noin tunnin laivamatkan paassa mantereelta. Tarkoitus oli olla taalla vahemman aikaa mutta tanaan kun vihdoin olin lahdossa kavikin ilmi etta La Ceiban satama on lakossa ja taalta ei mene laivaa. Joten taalla pysyn. Koulu jossa olen toissa on lomalla taman viikon niin otin vapaata kielikoulustakin. Tarkoitus oli katsastaa Trujillon kaupunki tana viikon http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Honduras/Bay-Islands/Utila/blog-286642.html Hard to believe I'm writing this more than a week later.. but I am desperately trying to get caught back up on at least this trip before I head out to South Africa... so here goesThursday in Utila. We wake up not certain if we're diving today or the next. Although originally scheduled for Thursday afternoon we somehow got switched to Friday.. which would be okay except we were really hoping http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Honduras/Bay-Islands/Utila/blog-285546.html so.. tuesday evening in utila. and we head to coco loco some bar that also is part of the pizza nut yes nut not hut. for we are in search of good music booze and food. and somehow we found all three. so coco loco really just a woodshack built a top an old pier then with a thatched hut bar at the end of the pier. jeff was starving after dive number 3 for the day so we sat down in th http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Honduras/Bay-Islands/Utila/blog-284168.html utila day two. let's see.. that would have been tuesday. memory's already getting shaky. ah now i remember. tuesday jeff and i woke up early and grabbed coffee and fresh squeezed oj at the mango inn. we talked at length about nothing really in particular meandering easily from topic to topic analyzing the bits as it seems we usually do. it was nice in that we hadn't really had the chance t http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Honduras/Bay-Islands/Utila/blog-283802.html alright it's monday and our first real day out in utila. the night before we'd signed jeff up for an advanced dive course essentially 5 dives and some classwork. pete and i already advanced had either the option of doing fun dives diving just to dive hence the 'fun' or getting our rescue diver certification. although i'd like to get the rescue diver cert and then master diver too it's a http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Honduras/Bay-Islands/Utila/blog-283032.html Being a long narrow isthmus of land Central America has two long coastlines one of which has the Caribbean Sea lapping at its shores backed up by the second longest reef system in the world second only to Australias Great Barrier. Honduras boasts 700km of Caribbean coastline which combined with its posession of a few palmfringed whitesand islands means that there is quite a lot of fun http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Honduras/Bay-Islands/Utila/blog-281941.html Second descanso and I was headed off to Honduras to go scuba diving just off Utila in the Bay Islands. We thought it was a shorter trip but ended up taking us about 2 days due to a pretty poor infrastructure along the coast. So we ended up stopping off in San Pedro Sula which was nothing really to talk about had a pizza from Pizza Hut and head on to La Ceiba in the morning to catch the ferry to http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Honduras/Bay-Islands/Utila/blog-276375.html ja.. also ich hiermit mal in utila..mal wieder so ne voellig abgefahrene sache.. diese insel war wohl frueher von piraten bevoelkert.. und heute..nach weiterhin schlechter bildung etc. inklusive eine geringe durchmischung insel... insel...ja somit sehen die etwas komisch aus hier.. und was sie besonders auszeichnet ist ihr gossenenglisch.. ja.. die reden englisch hier.. noch nie sonen beleidigen http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Honduras/Bay-Islands/Utila/blog-275229.html I've heard for a long time that Honduras is the cheapest place to dive in the world and from what I've seen it definetely lives up to that reputation. The island of Utila has a dozen or so diveshops all competing for your business keeping prices down and promising all sorts of extras. Rather than sign up to dive the first day Mike and Daryl checked out every shop and grilled them with questio http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Honduras/Bay-Islands/Utila/blog-273860.html Today was a day for fun in the sun http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Honduras/Bay-Islands/Utila/blog-272062.html Saa var det tid for Honduras.. Kine bestemte seg for aa bli med oss videre siden ho ikke hadde noen spesielle planer. Og torsdagt 17.april dro vi fra San Pedro. Vi haapte at vi skulle komme oss fort til Utila oeya i Honduras som vi hadde satt oss som maal. Slik ble det dessverre ikke. Selv om Belize er et knoettlite land og det ikke var langt fra den honduriske grensen til Utila saa endte vi http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Honduras/Bay-Islands/Utila/blog-271379.html I am recalling a trip which happened a good few weeks ago in March. For our week off group of us decided to go to the smallest bay island Utila. This time of year in Honduras is known for being chaotic trafficwise as often Hondurans flock to the North coast for a week in the sun. So we prepared ourselves for a long journey... However the bus ride to La Ceiba was fine As was the first ferry cros http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Honduras/Bay-Islands/Utila/blog-265758.html Island LifeI think I have finally settled into Island life now which tends to be slower than I am use to but also somehow a lot busier. We start work at about 630700 each day and finish about 400 most days with a couple of hours for lunch in the middle. We have two ladies who make lunch for everyone at the office as well as making our evening meals lets just say that their culinary repertoi http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Honduras/Bay-Islands/Utila/blog-265695.html Greeting from Beautiful UtilaI've now completed my first week of work at least work is the name we give it. Mainly we've been doing on the job training for everything we'll be doing in the coming weeks. We've learn't about the reef and Utila and their dependencies on the different ecosystems and how the work we will be doing will help to protect grow and regenerate these. We've spent time http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Honduras/Bay-Islands/Utila/blog-263693.html Today the World Vets team split up to work at 2 different locations on the island. Barb Natalie and Daniel head out to the stables to trim feet on the horses. The rest went to set up the spayneuter clinic and get ready for appointments. Dr Kathy Quigley and Dr Shaun Vaniman did surgeries while Lindy and Sandra K assisted in surgery. Leslie gave the premedication injections outside while Stac http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Honduras/Bay-Islands/Utila/blog-262354.html Yay I made it finally to Honduras or to be totally correct I am in Utila one of the Bay Islands just off of the coast of Honduras Had an eventful trip as my plane which was meant to take me from San Pedro Sula on the mainland to Utila hit a storm and when we landed in La Ceiba still on the main land they canceled the rest of the journey so I had to find somewhere to stay for the night in the http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Honduras/Bay-Islands/Utila/blog-261331.html After a long day of flying from various locations around the U.S.our team of 14 finally met up here in Utila Honduras. It is a small island with only one very narrow road dotted with cantinas dive shops and locals selling their . We have three veterinarians one prevet student a dog groomer an anesthesiologist a hair stylist a hydrogeologist and phlebotomist just to name a few. We had a q http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Honduras/Bay-Islands/Utila/blog-261104.html Nearly three months into a journey filled with high speed chases poser travel mates rough roads pretty girls and 75 cent rum shots nothing has been as intense and as strange as swimming 60 feet under water for 40 minutes. I fihished my basic open water scuba certification yesterday and this morning me and BArton did two dives off the northern coast of the island. Crazy stuff is all I can sa http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Honduras/Bay-Islands/Utila/blog-260459.html We were excitedly to leave San Pedro slutty hippie girls and all behind and get to a new country and the carribean paradise of the Bay Islands. We drove roughshot over almost all of Guatemala before stopping at a highway town close to the border. As we drove into town a cop on a motorbike approached the window. I was sure we were in for out first trouble with the authorities of our trip. Tur http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Honduras/Bay-Islands/Utila/blog-258941.html Ok clearly I am not a blogger at heart. I don't even like using the word B word. I still think of blogs as forums for melodramatic 14 year olds to post crappy teenangst poetry and joining their realm makes me feel a little conflicted. But I will bite the bullet and try if only so you will all stop sending me emails asking if I am dead.Where to begin I am on the island of Utila where I have http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Honduras/Bay-Islands/Utila/blog-242807.html Watch this space... http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Honduras/Bay-Islands/Utila/blog-241205.html