Padi Certified in Utila
Trip Start
Aug 21, 2008
1
9
59
Trip End
Ongoing
Where I stayed
Utila,
Bay Islands,
Honduras
Saturday, September 20, 2008
After arriving in San Pedro Sula, Honduras on Continental (got upgraded to first class, baby!), I took a short commuter flight over to La Ceiba on the smallest plane ever... (photo to come). Then a pretty long cab ride to meet Mark at the ferry terminal to head over to Utila - one of the three Bay Islands off the western coast of Honduras, known for its backpacker services. If you can imagine a romantic chick flik reunion, it wasn´t quite like that... but close enough for being in sticky weather conditions.
A choppy hour boat ride later, we were in Utila and found our way to the Mango Inn. For Mark, after a month or so of living the backpacker lifestyle, our air-conditioned room was quite the treat
Our private beach
. After checking-in, we made our way over to the Utila Dive Center, where the services are first-class... well worth the extra money, compared to the other dive shops. I signed up for the Open Water course, while Mark signed up for his Advanced class.The place is definitely full of mosquitos... I´ve already gone through half my bottle of bug spray, still having been bitten over a dozen times. On the otherhand, Mark has only been bitten twice... grrrr...
Beer is ridiculously cheap! $1.50 for a Salva Vida lager. And we found a great value dinner place (Dave´s Island Cafe) for only $6.50 a plate - yummy pork chops, salad and buttery mash potatoes! Mmmmm... One night, I got excited over a fish special that was priced at $7.50, but Mark thought that was too expensive... ah, the difference of having spent a month as a backpacker versus coming straight from Manhattan where a fish entree costs $30.
Yesterday, we found a pretty secluded beach called Bando Beach. They tried to charge us $3 per person, even though it was illegal to do so. But travel-savvy Mark figured a way around it, by saying that we didn´t have the proper change and would come back the next day to pay..
Chillaxing
. ummm, yeah, that wasn´t going to happen. :) Anyway, the beach was beautiful and the water was super clear. (Again, photos to come later)Today, both Mark and I finished our Padi classes and are now officially certified... me to go up to 60 ft and Mark up to 100 ft. (Editor - Mark here....I had a really cool night dive too where we switched off out lights 20 meters down and watched a light show from the bio-luminscent micro-orgaisms - amazing - almost had a fight with a 3 foot lobster too) Woohoo! So far, we´ve seen some beautiful coral and lots of cool fishies - parrot fish, drum fish, trumpet fish, cleaner shrimp, etc. We´re off go on a couple of fun dives shortly. And later tonight, we´re meeting up with our dive instructors (Morna & Dick), who are engaged, at a bar called Tree Tanic, which is located up in the trees (hence the name). Definitely looking forward to quite a few Salva Vida beers... we deserve it!
That´s all for now from this guest writer... next stop, somewhere in Nicaragua...
