The banana republic

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I'm finally on the good old Bay Islands of Honduras, where scuba diving is king. It was an interesting couple of days getting here, though. Yesterday, I got to the market in Chiquipula at 5:30AM to catch the bus to the border. After the border formalities, I caught a bus to Copan Ruinas, where I caught yet another bus bound for La Ceiba. This bus was fairly nice, but the big problem was that there was an accident on the highway that delayed us about two hours, causing me to miss my connection in San Pedro Sula. I hung out with an older couple who were also going to the Bay Islands, only to Roatan. We went to the "best shopping mall in Honduras" (not that great) and got some pizza at some Italian place (much better than I expected). One bonus was that the bookstore in that mall poured me two free glasses of wine, for no apparent reason. 😊

Anyways, I finally made it to La Ceiba, the port for the Bay Islands, at around 10:00 PM, got to my hotel. I surveyed the city's lousy nightlife, then went to bed. I woke up the next morning, got screwed yet again by the Central American taxi driver cartel, then took the boat to Utila. I talked to a few people on the boat, trying to get an idea of where I wanted to do my dive certification. The dive shops on Utila are fairly competitive, and it seems that everyone on the island has some sort of allegiance to a particular place, either because you know people there, work there, or dive there. I visited almost every dive shop on the island, trying to decide which to go with, and after an agonizing decision, I went with the Utila Dive Center, which is supposed to have a good safety record, and has a PADI 5-star rating, meaning they are certified to teach instructors.

So I am staying in a decent hotel, although rather expensive (US$6.50/night). It has a pool, though, the first place I've stayed in that's had one.

Sorry, party people, I was about to tell you that I finally brought my camera with me to upload some cool pics, but it seems that my camera has run low on batteries, meaning no pictures for this entry. I'll try to get around to it tomorrow or the next day.

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Comments

[Chris]

I hope for 6.50 a day they include a toilet seat.