La Ceiba and Utila, the Bay Islands *****
Trip Start
Oct 10, 2006
1
28
110
Trip End
Ongoing
Getting under water,
Honduras
Sunday, January 28, 2007
La Ceiba was spose to be our launching point for the Bay Islands but we ended up having to stay a night in it cos of rain...hence no boat to the island of Utila. Nice place, dirty and polluted but quite spirited.
UTILA; THE BAY ISLANDS *****..Saturday Jan 27th-Feb 3rd, 2007
There isn`t a person travelling through Honduras who hasn`t heard of the Bay Islands...nor any serious diver in the world...so we said we may as well pop over for a gawk while we were scouting round the area
Did the PADI open water diving course and loved it
Before I tried to drown him
. Really scary and strange at the start (realising I`m such a wuss!) but we had to keep up with it considering that we had paid a substantial amt of dollieros in advance for it..and boy, was it worth it in end. But I found it very, very difficult at the start. I have always been taught, in sport and in real life, to breathe through your nose and exhale through your mouth but the way things are done under water is diff...you have to breathe through mouth aswell. So much of your chances of success in the diving world involves accepting that you have limited control under water and that you have to make the best of what you have..and rely on artificial air to provide you with the ticket for survival-
Collins and I were possibly the worst students EVER to complete the PADI certification. You were sposed to get the course done in three to four days and it took us five! Although in fairness, there was torrential rain one day so the "viz" (diving terminology!!-visibility) was nil and we lost at least one morning`s worth of diving!
But I dunno how Collins even got a wet suit on him in the first place actually cos he failed the treading the water for 10 minutes by bout three minutes
Dont try this at home folks.Our dedicated teacher
! I was an absolute klutz with the equipment..I lost my mask within five minutes of the first day and Jack, our instructor had to search for it for bout 20 minutes under water!..and I was even assembling my equipment wrong on the Friday when I was sposed to be QUALIFIED! But I have to say that when under water, I was quite good...despite the
fact that it took both Collins and I bout three hours to master the art
of getting the water out of our masks..I was very good at getting the
breathing right so I`d ascend and descend when I wanted to. Collins was
a joke at the start..he was like Superman in the sky floating above us
all at the surface..he just couldn`t get down to it! It was soo cool
though...so different from anything I`ve ever done before. At times, I would get into fits of laughter and a loada salt water would get up my nose and into my throat and sting the living daylights outta me. I`d
have to calm down and try not to panic until I could catch my breath
again
I just don't get it Jack!
.We also had to take a theory exam at the end. But it was quite physic-y for me and when I had finished ticking the boxes, Collins and I looked at each other blankly and then at all the blanks we`d left on our page! I actually cheated for the first time in my life...he told me the answers he had but I shouldn`t have bothered,...the ones I got wrong were the ones he told me! We were allowed to have twelve wrong so somehow we managed to guess well enough to get 7 (or 6 in my case...I WIN AGAIN!!) wrong!
The week was good aswell cos we were staying in the same place and actually made some friends! It restored my faith in myself that I`m not a complete loner! Jack our instructor was really sound..and obviously corrupt that he passed us! We had great fun slagging him bout..well pretty much everything. He was a Brit but he had lived in US and Jamaicia (so spelt wrong) over his teenage years as well.
He jinxed me good owe though cos he used to constantly slag me bout my kick ass sunglasses.-.as did half of the others. I think they`re class...or were class as the case may be cos I`ve now lost them..Lost my pencil case that had pens and pencils (no really), my Gillette SENSOR excel razor, my 60 factor suncream and my beloved Sunglasses...so when Utila finally gets its internet service up and running again and you read this Jack...cheers mate
The diving aces
. First you Brits take our country and then, you have to go and cast spells on us so we lose the only things valuable to us...like precious sunglasses!Others were really sound aswel like Hubby our Austrian dive master who was sent out on dives with us after the first two days...think they figured Jack needed a hand with the Irish thickoes. Hubby would follow us round and lift our legs up at any stage we looked like we were gonna land on the coral and kill it stone dead! A lovely guy and a gem of a diver.
Utila was a real Craggy Island effort despite the fact that it is FULL of tourists. We met a local called Shelby McNab Morgan (no really that`s his very Hondurean name!) who told us the history of the island. He has totally convinced me that Utila is actually the spot that Robinson Crusoe was stranded for 27 years...he is also running the island in his own little way big time! Every night, the news of Utila is broadcasted from the Studio Shelby Mc-.--he then takes a break and the advertisements consist of Shelby speaking (this time without his glasses!) bout his plants that are for sale and how you can buy houses off Utila real estate which happens to have his email address underneath as a contact! I call it monopoly McNab!
The team..Jack on left, Hubie upfront
There was no internet on the island cos the crowd that were providing it were closed down as a result of stealing from Honduras` version of Eircom! Apparently, the locals speak English although funny enough, I was under the assumption that I spoke English (that`s thanks to your people again Jack.-) The English the locals speak is very, very unEnglishy,,,for want of a better word! I would be able to recognize every 18th word, more or less. It really is Utilian and as Shelby said, the islanders don`t speak good Spanish or English.
There are many Hondureans migrants on the island..you can spot them by the ones who speak perfect Spanish. Shelby said that the islanders are trying to put a stop to the number that are migrating now because the island is becoming over-populated. Apparently, they have different views and principles on all things and Utilians find the Hondureans ill-educated, environmentally unfriendly and more violent.
I can`t really give my opinion on this really but I have to say that Utila was a lot cleaner than Honduras mainland.
At the moment, Utila is maintaining its original and laid back ways but unfortunately, there are signs that a massive shopping centre is going in there soon. It`s such a pity and it angers me...I seem to spend my time going to places so I can see them before they change...Why does every tourist I meet feel that they have to see Central America before the "change"---why must it change? Who wants the change? The travellers I have met certainly don`t, the inhabitants themselves rarely do....why must the greed for money be soo strong as to make the whole world look the same? One islander said to me while I was in Utila...how can the people expect a shopping centre to do well ere...you can`t even get a key cut on the island and they want a shopping mall??? But the sad thing is that it will do well...Nobody wants it initially but everyone will use it...
Honduras is super globalized...shopping malls in every corner where there is more than 100 people...soon, we`ll be a world of shopping malls and fast food joints and we`ll become astronauts so we can see things that are different from our own environment.
