3) Week 5 - Diving, Singing and Crashed Airplanes

---

The last blog entry I left off I was almost at the end of the epic journey right across the entirety of Honduras. Having experienced long bus trips and evil taxi drivers I was not overly impressed with Honduras, it just didn´t have the same vibe as the rest of Central America has. On more than one occasion during the journey I considered jumping off the bus and heading straight to Nicaragua. However with the promise of cheap diving ahead I kept going.

To get onto the Bay Islands most people have to spend one night in a town called La Ceiba. By the time I arrived it felt like I hadn´t had any normal conversations in days (well 48 hours, but it felt like an eternity). On arriving in the bus station myself and one of the girls from the bus headed off to one of the emptiest hostels I had ever been in. Inititally the owner told us that every private room was full and it was just the dorms that weren´t, after about 4 minutes it was obvious that we were the only people there. However the place was nice enough and we were leaving on the boat at 8am so it didn´t really matter.

The evening itself was pretty quiet with just a quick meal, with the poor girl from the bus having to listen to a conversation starved Chloe talking almost non-stop all the way through it, probably not helped by the fact that she was ill.

There are 2 main islands that most people visit in the Bay Islands; the first of these is called Utila and this is the main budget backpacker island (this is where I was off to) and the second is called Roatan and this is where my new bus friend was heading to. Luckily the boats left from the same place and at roughly the same time so we could share a taxi to the terminal. When we arrived at the terminal I was stunned, it was marble, air conditioned and without doubt one of the most impressive terminals I have ever been to. We were early and I was looking forward to having a nice coffee in the beautiful restaurant attached to the terminal before boarding on the mini cruise ship sitting outside. However it became clear that the boats didn´t leave from the same terminal, that was the Roatan terminal. The taxi driver was almost dying with laughter as he kindly pointed out the wooden shed next door which was where my boat left from. The boat moored up outside looked like it should be pumping oil out the ocean not being used as a passenger carrier. I was so disappointed especially as I sat and watched the girl from my hostel heading off to her luxury ship.

In total I spent about 4 days in Utila and so about half my days were spent on dive boats. The diving itself was really good and I did my first ever Wreck dive and as you could swim into the cargo hold it was fantastic. I also coincidentally got onto my first dive boat to find the same group of guys who dived the Blue Hole with me in Belize which was nice but random. I actually haven´t done a dive in Central America without those 4 guys now. However aprt from diving there really wasn´t much to do on the island, with it being low season it was pretty quiet.

On my second day however I heard that there was a crashed plane in the jungle (I think it was a Columbian drugs smuggling plane that had been shot down) and that you could actually go and see it. It was an hour walk and I figured I could get some really good photos of it, the jungle was growing over it and apparently it looked fantastic. As it was only 45 minutes away this seemed like the perfect way to spend an afternoon. I headed off with one of the guys from the Dive Centre and we walked towards where we were told the plane was with the infamous words "its really easy to find". The walk took us past the airport landing strip and then right. On arriving at the airport we realised that there were quite a few rights actually. So it seemed easiest for me to ask two police men standing outside the terminal building. Unfortunately my Spanish is really not up to that standard and the best I could ask them was "Where ofis the plane", it didn´t help that behind them was a plane waiting to take-off. They looked at me like I was crazy and pointed at the plane. I then tried again with "No, the other plane". So they pointed at the plane again. The only other option was to try some of my famous acting skills so I tried to demonstarte a plane crashing. This is not a smart thing to do in a Hondurian airport, at one point I think they thought I was threatening the plane that was about to take-off. Luckily a local came along who spoke English and corrected the mistake, they glared at me and then walked off. I sprinted out the airport in the direction that had been pointed out.

We never did find the plane, after our 5th wrong turn in which we ended up in the local refuge dump we gave up. It was the most pointless afternoon I have ever spent, all that happened was I got mauled by the mosquitos (on one ankle alone I had 16 bites) and I almost got arrested. The worst thing about it was that at one point we were only 5m from the plane.

The only other incident to note was (for those of you who have had the priviledge of hearing me sing before) I also treated the island to the Chloe Nisbet version of the King´s of Leon song "Sex on Fire". Afterwards someone walked up to me and told me it was awful and I might well have ruined his favourite song. This moment was the official end to any future singing career I might have had.

After four days it was time to leave the island and head into Nicaragua where I was planning on meeting up with Suzanne who was coming in from El Salvador. I had 2 criteria for my next journey; avoid Tegucigalpa (the scene of the backpack kidnapping) and avoid Managua (the capital of Nicaragua) which is equally dangerous to be in especially on your own at night.

The place I was travelling to was called Leon and it is in the North of Nicargua. The easiest way to get there is from Mangua, so I set myself a pretty difficult task. Having

This is difficult to do, especially as I had to travel across Honduras and I was ending up in a town called Leon in the North of Nicargua in which it is almost essential to change at Mangua and backtrack North to Leon.

The first stage of my trip was to a place called San Pedro Sula where I spent a night in another empty hotel. It is obvious that it is the low season as most places are empty and if you don´t stay in hostels (of which there weren´t any here) it is really difficult to meet people. The hotel was nice but San Pedro Sula is also slightly dangerous and with so many sleexy men shouting an whistling as I walked down the street. In the end I put on my most horrible, baggy clothes and went out for dinner. it worked all the unwanted attention ended quickly.

The next stage of the journey was actually really smoothly. I got on a bus to Managua that left at 5am. it was a nice bus actually, I was the only tourist ont he bus but everyone was really friendly. In fact one of the guys on the bus offered me a job in Nicaragua helping him and his business partner build an eco-friendly hotel. he got really excited when I told him what my MA dissertation was written on. Apparently I was exactly what he was looking for. He seemed disappointed when I told him that my lack of Spanish might be a problem.

After about 3 hours we had a stop for toilets and food. The stop was for about 20mins and most people sat down and had a proper meal. After getting back on the bus we started driving off and I noticed this old lady who was walking across the car park waving at me. I was really touched thinking she just wanted to say Good-bye (I had been briefly chatting to her in the toilets), so I waved back and then fell asleep. About an hour later someone was telling me that they had left some behind at that stop. Yes you have guessed it, this lady was frantically trying to call the bus back and there was me sitting on the bus waving back at her. I felt terrible!

The journey itself was really smooth, I realised that the bus was actually passing by Leon and the driver agreed to stop and let me off the bus. It was perfect, considering every trip previously had felt a bit like a disaster it was nice to finally have a nice easy trip. After 11 hours on the bus I arrived in Leon and waited for my friends to turn up later that evening. I had arrived in Nicaragua!

---