Week 14 - Utila to La Ceiba
Trip Start
Aug 01, 2007
1
24
69
Trip End
Dec 19, 2008
La Ceiba,
Honduras
Monday, November 12, 2007
November 1st - Utila island (Honduras)
Just when I thought I'd get away from the incessant rains in San Pedro the serious rains start in Utila. Today it was absolutely bucketing with high winds aswell. As usual in these conditions theres not too much to do but skulk indoors to catch up on reading or walk around a bit.
My main mission here on the fair but rainy island, apart from swim and chill, was to do a diving course. The diving here is apparently very good (with it being in the Carribean sea) and cheap as chips. So armed with a notepad and pen I went in search of the cheapest quality dive course.
By the end of the day and exhausted from listening to the same sales pitches and tours of the schools the conclusion was that the good schools all pretty much cost the same and offer the same courses: 3.5 day PADI open water diving qualification, free 3 days accomodation, free snorkel and kayak use and 2 free fun dives at end of course..all for $240-250. Un-decided I went back to my room to mull it over.
Dinner tonight was a cinema meal of a hot dog, popcorn and a pinapple milkshake all for $3. The cinema (I use the word cinema in a very broad sense) was a room with about 24 beach chairs, a biggish projector screen and a DVD player plugged into the projector ($2.50 per ticket and they show a different film every night from their new DVD collection). Tonights blockbuster was Quentin T's Death Proof. In all honesty its not one of his best but still decent enough...Kurt Russell's good in it.
No disrespect to the Utilan's but I suspect there's alot of (ahem) over-exhuberant family relations going on here. Alot of similar faces all over the place and walking passed them I expect to see a kid sitting on a car strumming a banjo.
Nov 2nd - Utila
First stop of this wet and windy day (as usual) was the local cafe for a hearty banana pancake and pinapple milkshake breakfast ($2.50). Decided that I was going to do my diving with one of the main dive schools, Captain Morgans (yep, named after the famous pirate and also the rum). They're safe (very important when picking a dive school), friendly, reliable, gave me a discount and their hotel and main diving area is on one of the smaller islands (Jewel Caye). Oh and they give you a cool free T-shirt with a pirate logo (that was the clincher for me).
They also gave me a free trip to the island (including a room for the night) before the course starts (on Monday) to have a look around and do some kayaking and snorkeling (very unlikely in this weather). I've booked this for tomorrow morning at 7.30 am (sigh..another early one).
After a cheap lunch of meat lasagne ($2.50) I had a siesta swinging in a hammock outside (luckily for me it was under cover)...amazing how relaxing a hammock is under cover of rain...very soothing
The evenings entertainment was Spiderman 3 at the cinema. To save money I bought some cheap snacks for the film and smuggled them in. Not as good as Spidey 1 or 2 but still good stuff and amazing SFX.
As is becoming very common durin my travels I'm bumping into fellow travellers I've met before..even as far back as from Mexico city (Small world?) so a few drinks and swapping stories always happen. My ace is always the robbery story which gets some people gasping. Not too sure if I should be telling people or not as I don't want it to put them off their travels...suppose it makes them more aware and careful and its up to them how they use the info.
Nov 3rd - Jewel Caye (small island near Utila)
Early rise to catch the 7.30 Captain Morgan boat to Jewel Caye. The boat was a small motorised boat and so a really choppy ride. After 25 minutes reached the island and as luck would have it the sun came out. Its a tiny fishing island surrounded by beautiful coral.
After dumping my gear and a quick change I made use of the sunny skies, grabbed some snorkelling gear and jumped in the warm water. Saw a huge variety of colourful fish and crabs just within a few minutes of looking under the crystal clear waters. After lunch at one of only two restaurants on the island the plan was to take a kayak out to another small island called Water Caye which is apparently ideallic; white sand beaches, beautiful coral, no inhabitants and just a few palm trees. This was all but a dream because just as I put the kayak in the sea the heavens opened. All day long it kept raining so in the end I just chatted to the divers there and chilled out.
Dinner was a barbecue at the only other restaurant called Maggies and then sheltering from the rains. Had more diving study to do so read chapter 1 of my PADI dive book (need to read 3 chapters before Monday).
November 4th - Utila
Took the small boat back to Utila as I had some stuff to sort out and chores to do. There was a panic at the ferry docks because the ferry across to the mainland was cancelled due to bad weather. This was good business for the few light aircraft pilots hanging around near the dock (no coincidence there I'm sure) and trying to get people to charter their planes for $240 a go (who the hell would sit in a tiny 3 seater plane in a storm....mad).
Sorted out all my stuff and booked myself into a quiet hotel so I could finish my diving homework before tomorrow (all 178 pages of it).
Nov 5th - Jewel Caye Island (Diving day 1)
At 7.30 caught the boat to Jewel Caye. Lucky for me the only other person doing the dive course was an oriental swedish girl called Mia (already attached).
First lesson was equipment gathering and preparation so dragged all the gear (wetsuit, snorkel, flippers, weight belt, air tank and buoyancy jacket) to the jetty. From there I had to assemble it all and then went for a shallow dive with some scary tests like diving without a mask and without air. Saw some amazing fish around, even in a shallow dive. Divings definately my kind of thing and brings out the true Aquarian in me...couldn't get enough of it.
On these short training dives I saw: some graceful seahorses, Lizard fish, Guardian eels, Peacock Flounders, Scrawled Cowfish and a spotted trunkfish.
After a few hours in the water and literally shaking like a leaf from the cold (yes it was pissing down and really windy) the instructor called it a day. Had the longest siesta ever after that and woke up at 7pm absolutely ravenous.
Another BBQ at Maggies beckoned and then more homework (still got a chapter to read). Tomorrow I'll be diving at 12 metres properly (bit nervous about it but excited too).
Nov 6th - Jewel Caye Island (Diving day 2)
Woke up to stormy winds and bucketloads of rain. This has absolutely no meaning when you're diving so everyone at the hotel Kayla was in good spirits (Hotel Kayla's not really a hotel but more of a commune with a huge living room/ study room and the bedrooms around it..great atmosphere where everyone sits and chats about diving, smokes abit and watches films).
Today is the first day to do proper dives at 12 metres and I was abit nervous about it. Breakfast at 7.30 is a quick drenching sprint to the local shop to buy a few home baked cinnamon rolls (25c each) and a bottle of water. Then collect all the dive equipment and test it out (don't want to have any faulty gear at 12 meteres..or any depth for that matter).
The boat from the main island of Utila usually arrives at 8am bringing the dive instructors and any new divers/ snorkellers to this fair island. Arrived 30 minutes late today because of bad seas (ominous) but diving must go on and the captain of the boat took us to dive site 1 (Moon's hole with the bonus of a small boat wreck called Ron's wreck (poor Ron lost his boat 10 years ago in Hurricane Mitch) covered in underwater plant life and fish).
Any first dive is quite a nervous affair and most of the time you just focus on keeping breathing, not losing your buddy (always need to dive with a buddy for safety and theres more chance of spotting things...especially with my dodgy mince's) and keeping track of depth (go too far down and you need an extra safety stop at higher waters to bring the oxygen level back to normal).
Still saw loads of stuff on this dive: Carribean Spiny Lobsters (huuuge lobsters which I thought about hiding in my wetsuit for lunch later), Queen Trigger fish and some Furry Sea Cucumbers aswell as a million other weird and colourful fish.
After 40 minutes in the pretty warm Carribean it was shockingly cold coming out of it and into the rain and wind of the boat.
On the second dive of the day at Jack Neil Beach I saw some Banded Coral Shrimp, a King Crab (huuuuge beast that made my mouth water..even at a depth of 15 metres), a Secretary Blennie and some Squirrel Fish. Apart from the above I saw loads of other gorgeos fish..tiny bright blue things, orange and grey mid size, huge grey with illuminous blue stripes, black and white stripy ones and big shoals of fish only about 2 cm in size. When I got to the surface I even spotted a big shoal of fish jumping over the water at intervals being chased by a much bigger one. Looked amazing because the little light there was in the sky made the fish glint like little silver drops as they jumped.
When divings finished theres alot of chatter on board the boat (not just our teeth) when everyone brags about what they saw. The bragging got so ridiculous (one bloke claimed to see a Whale..jokingly of course) that I was forced the claim I saw a salt water Elephant Dragon with its young (that put a stop to that).
One problem with diving (something to do with the nitrogen levels in the body I think) is that it promotes mammoth pissing so after diving everyone hovers in the water quite obviously pissing in their wetsuits but pretending to be relaxing in the water. Anyone who hangs around in the water too long after a dive is obviously pissing. Quite funny throwing things at people from the boat in mid piss.
Torrential rain awaited at the island of Jewel Caye so nothing to do but have a siesta. Homework for after this was 2 hours of reading chapters 4 and 5 of the PADI dive manual (including quizzes..altogether 98 pages). After this got a cheap dinner consisting of a cheese roll, a whole pinapple and a pint of milk ($1.90). I'm trying to keep my budget to $15 a day from now on due to my sad financial state.
Then lounged around and watched a bit of TV with the others (very funny Italian fella called Joey from an area called Rimini who uses a wicked underwater camera on his dives and will email some pics of me soon, a nice Swedish couple called Andreas and Mia (she's my dive buddy), an English bloke called Will who semi works here and is paid by getting dive tuition (he'll be a dive master next week) and Anka, a friendly german girl with a big hooter who's well friendly.
Nov 7th - Jewel Caye Island (Diving day 3...final day and dive exam)
Yet another stormy day but as usual everyones in good spirits. The lure of the underwater seems to block all thoughts of the weather above the sea. The last day of the course today and myself and Mia (my dive buddy) are a tad nervous but getting increasingly confident. I'm now so comfortable and at home under water that my buoyancy (I was told by my instructor Sarah) is excellent for a novice and I just roll between crevices and along underwater cliffs like a...well, dare I say it...a big fish.
After a hairy boat ride and with alot of green and pale faces we reached dive site 1 of the day which is called The Maze. It consisted of alot of underwater tunnels and crevices (great exploring potential) and I managed the full 18 metres (the deepest I can go before I go onto an advanced dive course which would allow 30 metres).
Aswell as tons of other fish and underwater creatures I saw the Scrawled Filefish, Hog Fish and more Carribean Spiny Lobster. Also worth mentioning are the amazingly colourful coral: huge bright blue cups that are big enough to hold me, huge white coral that look like giant brains and bright red stringy coral that wave around with the current.
On the second dive and after a shivering 20 minute boat ride to the dive site of Stingray point I saw some Spotted Moray, a Toadfish (very rare to see and if its quiet enough in the water you can hear them croak for miles around), Spotted Lobster and a Spotted Drumfish (alot of 'spotted' creatures here it seems). Reached 16 metres and enjoyed a good 46 minute dive. Also dove into a deep cavern which was very spooky diving in the dark.
After returning to the hotel there was no time for a siesta but instead had to do a 1 hour exam (results of my final exam will be forthcoming once marked tomorrow morning..need at least 75% to pass and get my Open Water Licence).
Night time was a washout so a quick scamper to the local shop for cheap dinner and then I was asked to pick a DVD to watch for the night. Unfortunately I picked a film called Cellular which is probably one of the worst films I've ever had the misfortune to watch (what was Kim Basinger thinking) apart from Hollywood Homicides (I was the laughing stock of everyone for the night for choosing that one..quite right too).
I asked one of the instructors today why there were so many new houses on the island and local rumour has it that a few families found huge bags of Charlie that the tide washed onto the shore and thus financed the house building aswell as being pretty rich on top of that (thats why I've been getting up so early here..you never know what the tide may bring in).
The plan for the next week is one more day of diving tomorrow (I got 2 free fun dives as part of the price of the course) then straight after the dives catch the ferry to mainland Honduras again (La Ceiba). Stay there overnight then catch a bus to Tegucigalpa (the capital). From there its a few days in south Honduras and then into Nicaragua where I'm going to stay in Granada for a day then head straight into (not literally) Lake Nicaragua to see some islands (I hear theres an island full of Monkeys somewhere) and active volcanos everywhere.
