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Published: June 20th 2006
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR LINDA, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU. I LOVE YOU!!!!! ENJOY YOUR DAY!
i first want to say that i love your comments. i am glad that you are all enjoying my blog and that you are inspired to write. it makes my heart smile to hear from each of you.
jill, kate & vera - i was thinking of you all while doing the scuba training yesterday afternoon. it is a lot like headstand....it requires a good deal of trusting in yourself and your own capabilities. i miss practicing with (and learning from) you all. i'm thinking we should have a yoga meet up in central america...hmm???!!! 😊 ~~xo~~
jennie morrissey - the bus driver in antigua was playing the entire guns ~n~ roses appetite for destruction (i think that's what it's called???) CD. i had a flash back of me & you rocking out in my room at marion's house. "take me down to the paradise city...where the grass is green and .....".
trip to utila.... antigua, guatemala to copan, honduras - 6.5 hours
copan to san pedro, honduras - 3 hours
san pedro
to la ceiba, honduras - 4.5 hours
a long day of bus travel was followed by an awful time trying to find a hotel room in dirty, ugly la ceiba. unfortunately, it is a necessary stop on the way to the bay islands. there are only 2 ferries a day from la ceiba to utila...one at 10am and another 4 pm....if you miss either of those then you are forced to stay in utila. since our bus did not arrive in la ceiba until 9:30 saturday night, we were forced to find a hotel room there. (we=me, katie and kamie - two girls from orange county california that i met at the bus station in copan). our first room was AWFUL.....rats, unidentifiable insects, dirty sheets, ceiling fan dangling from a few wires~directly over my bed! after a few minutes of shock we unanimously decided that we needed to get out of there. so we walked around and found another place which was a little better....only cockroaches, no rats or other insects. (as some of you know....my fear of cockroaches is INTENSE!!!!~fortunately i was able to deal with it....necessity forced me to). all the hotels in la ceiba were booked
so we didn't have much to chose from.
i woke up early the following morning and tried to get the first ferry out of that dingy little town. so i said goodbye to kamie & katie and went to hunt for an ATM machine so that i could get out enough limperas to pay my ferry fare. i tried 20 different ATM machines and none of them were working...city wide outage. i flagged a taxi and asked him to take me to the ferry station anyway. i thought i could try my credit card.
as i was approaching the ticket office for the ferry i was told that i had missed the 10 because it left at 9:30???????!!! somehow(?) i learned that there was a mall nearby so i took a cab from the pier to the mall and chilled in the AC for a while. (it is sooooooooooo HOT here....almost impossible to stay cool) then i took another cab back to the pier around 12:30 and tried to catch a private speed boat to utila. this is where my day started to improve....
i was sitting at the (empty) dock where the private boats are, waiting
for someone to come who was heading to utila, journaling about how shitty la ceiba is when a truck pulled in and two older guys got out. after they conducted there business they came over and started to talk to me. i was so grumpy so i told them that i was having a bad day. after talking a little while longer, they invited me to go for lunch and a drink at a nearby restaurant. since there was no action at the pier, i decided to join them. we went to a really nice restaurant and were treated like royalty as soon as we arrived. we were escorted to our table where we sat with 40 or so more guests. it turns out that the two guys that had approached me were cousins of the president of honduras and the guest of honor at our table was the hondurian minister of construction. we dined and drank and had a great time. after 2 hours it was time for me to get back to the pier so i did not miss the next ferry. just as i was getting out of the car, kamie & katie were getting out of
a taxi next to me. amazing!!!
we boarded the ferry for utila. adios, la ceiba. i chilled on the upper deck and listened to bob marley as we crossed the caribbean sea to utila. thoughts of how cool it is to be travelling and to be meeting such amazing, warm people flooded my brain. one of my favorite parts of
travelling is seeing the open, accepting, loving side of human nature. you meet the most amazing people who love and respect you instantly....simply because you are alive. the world is full of free, fun, loving spirits.
we arrived in utila and checked out a few dive shops before deciding on cross creek diving center. the vibe here is perfect...not too much of a party atmosphere, sincere/thorough instructors...great sleeping and eating accomodations. katie, kamie and i are sharing a gorgeous cabana...we have a king and full size bed, big/clean bathroom with a hot water shower, cable television, a refrigerator....a patio out back that sits on the lagoon (where we sit at night and watch lightning storms).
a little about utila....
the people here are a mixture of folks...divemasters, which make up close to half the population are from all over the world....the rest of the population is made up of locals who are from either african or european descent. the locals speak caribbean english. i can understand spanish better than caribbean english. it sounds like a mixture of african and english dialect. there are significantly more men than women here....90% of the people on the island are GORGEOUS men with accents....ladies, it is heaven!!! buff dive instructors with sexy accents....makes it very hard to concentrate 😉 it is hard not to have a smile on your face while you are on this island. maybe i'll stay and become a dive master???? hmmmm......
yesterday was my first day of diving school. in the morning we did didactic stuff and the afternoon was spent in confined water, practicing skills and getting used to the SCUBA. the first time we went under, we were there for about an hour. i have no idea how david blaine lasted 7 days!!! it took a while to adjust to breathing under water~~~very, very strange adjustment....as you know rachie (bubbles!!-kiss, kiss, muah,
muah). but after a while i felt better and was comfortable with it during the second dive.
there is a big party tomorrow night on one of the small islands, which we will have to take small boats to get to. lots of people...good music...free food & drinks. hammocks. i can't wait!
i had class again at 8 this morning...we watched a few videos and now we have a break. this afternoon we will take the boat out and do our first open water dives. i woke up this morning having a slight anxiety attack thinking about being in the open waters. i'm a bit freaked out.
oh...i am becoming addicted to the world cup. if i were in the US i don't even know that i would have the knowledge that this was happening. but in the countries here (the one's that i have been to) the games are on ALL THE TIME. it is impossible not to watch the games. the more exposure i have to football, the more i am amazed with the sport. these guys are true athletes....great skill, agility, no equipment. all you need is a ball. it is beautiful to watch.
the spanish announcers add to it...they are SO passionate...whenever there is a goal the announcer yells GOALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL ....and then i think he passes out from lack of oxygen.
well, i should probably get going so that i can gear up for this afternoons dives. sending you all hugs and imagining you all as happy! pictures to come soon....very soon!
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Laura
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oh..... you are so very brave!! I was so much more fearless in my younger years.....the first thing I thought to myself while reading your entry....."is she crazy getting in to a car with two older men, STRANGERS!!" Now I am showing that I am a Mom! Good luck today with your open water dive, I look forward to reading about it, no worries you are tough:-)