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On Sunday 29h April we started our long journey to La Ceiba on the Caribbean coast of Honduras, right the other side of the country. We caught a bus to a town nearby to Leon and then another bus to El Guasale, the border town. From there we got bicycle taxis to take us the 3km to the actual border post where we spent 45 minutes arguing with the money changing sharks and still didn’t get a very good deal. Luckily we didn't need to change a lot. Then very conveniently a bus was leaving in 20 minutes to Tegucigalpa, the capital. We got that bus to drop us off at the airport so we could check out times and prices of flights to La Ceiba the next day. And we totally spawned it, because there was a very reasonably priced flight leaving in 40 min. So we took it! It was via San Pedro where Kez had her first Wendys burger, the only place open and the kind lady there even phoned a hotel in La Ceiba for us because we didn’t have a phone card and couldn’t buy one as everything was shut. In total we paid $15
more than if we had caught the posh bus most of the way and we saved a whole day, bargain!
Early on Monday morning we got up to get the ferry to Utila. The Bay Islands in Honduras are part of the second largest barrier reef in the world, and offer amazing scuba diving and beaches. Utila has some of the cheapest diving in the world, and cheap accommodation, so is full of backpackers and divers taking various diving courses. Taking advantage, we decided to take our advanced open water dive course here, for the bargain price of $229 including accommodation and 2 free fun dives. We spent the first morning visiting dive schools, and after flipping a coin, we decided on Cross Creek as their free accommodation and guest kitchen were spot on. By the end of the week we regretted this a bit, as the rooms were in the mangroves, and we had hundreds of small-but-incredibly-itchy sandfly bites, although our instructor Chris was great. We ended the day watching a gorgeous sunset from the deck of another dive school and cooking ourselves a yummy chicken pasta.
On the Advanced course, you need to do 5 speciality
dives, and study various aspects (e.g. safety) for those dives. Tuesday we started our course with a fish identification dive, and learnt how to identify many new fish and found out that many we thought we knew were something completely different! Unfortunately, Kerry had problems equalizing her ears and stupidly forced it a bit too much. One of her ears was really painful afterwards, so she didn’t do the second dive. That was a drift dive, where you drift along with the current, and get picked up by the boat at the end of the dive. We rested after the dive by watching Liverpool crush Chelsea 4-1 on penalties to reach the Champions league final, before a disappointing BBQ/braai of fatty ribs and small fish at a local restaurant. The day ended with a tasty raspberry rum and sprite drink at the amazing Treetanic bar, built up in the braches of a tree with funky furniture and lights built out of recycled bottles and marbles. If Jen Arthur ever designed a bar, this is what it would look like!
Kez queued up for the popular doctor the next morning, sadly to be told that she had "beaten up" her
ear and damaged the eardrum and no more diving for at least a week. Very sad, but at least there’ll be more diving for her another time. Nick carried on to complete his deep dive and navigation dive. We watched another amazing sunset from the boat before Nick completed his course with a night dive. A very cool experience, where fish sleep inside coral and snot balls, nocturnal animals like lobster come out to play, and the surface looms overhead like dark clouds threatening a storm. We took our chances with another BBQ at RJ’s and Nick had a very tasty steak and Kez eventually got a wonderful barracuda, and also got a free rum for her wait.
Thursday morning, Nick did his 2 free fun dives, seeing turtles on both dives. Between dives, we searched for the whale sharks that come to feed off Utila, and had no luck with them, but did manage to find and snorkel with dolphins instead. Awesome, and a great substitute! The evening was spent at Alton’s dive shop, which had a great vibe, especially as it was in party mode for the manager’s birthday. We sipped a few beers at sundown on
the deck (again), ate the free food, and supped a few rum’n’ades before bed.
Friday we spent the whole day travelling by bus to Copan Ruinas, one of the most famous Mayan ruins. We stayed in the “new” village, with cobbled streets and a cool plaza. We ate Anafre at a local restaurant, a traditional dish, similar in idea to a fondue, but where you dip your Nachos in a heated mixture of beans, cheese and chorizo. Very tasty and surprisingly filling.
We visited the Mayan ruins the next morning, a large area of many pyramids, plazas and a ball court. We took a guided tour, where the guide was slightly disappointing, but he still managed to bring the rulers and daily routine to life, by explaining the unique Stalae (decorative statues representing the rulers) and hieroglyphs at Copan. The ball game seemed a bit harsh, the ball couldn’t hit the ground (the ball was round, so represented the sun and moon, so dropping it was very bad karma and meant the sun and moon may not rise again) and the best player had the honour of being the next human sacrifice. Luckily for the squad sizes, their
season was a bit easier than the premiership, with only 1 game a year.
Tomorrow brings a new day, and once again a new country. We are very excited, as everyone we meet tells us of how wonderful Guatemala is, especially the friendly people. Kez hope that the people at the Mexican embassy are especially friendly, as they have to give her a visa!
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