Five weeks in Guatemala was up so soon enough it was time to get the early morning bus to the border and move on to Honduras. Driving through banana plantations that lined the border we entered yet another Central American paradise. The local buses were incredibly cheap but they took an eon to get anywhere. Having left at 7am we thought we would get to the Bay Islands (Caribbean Islands off the coast of Honduras) by the evening. No way. We did make it as far as La Ceiba. After a huge Chinese meal and a book exchange we were off on the morning ferry. Often called vomit channel, we lasted the journey very well without any bodily expulsions.
Utila. It is a beautiful island with not many people, lots of dive centres and bars. It was great! We spent six days there, including my birthday. We found a beautiful place called Rubis Inn right on the water front, with a jetty going straight to the sea. Plenty of diving training for Jenny! I got straight into diving, which is pretty much the only thing to do on the island. JEnny had a week long holiday from me by the sea, I bet she loved it! She certainly powered through the books. Diving was amazing. I did my PADI advanced divers course which was great. In total I had seven dives and they were great. Highlights were, huge moray eels, phosphorescence underwater on the night dive, spotted eagle ray, huge king crab, 30m underwater deep dive to the sunken cargo ship and the spectacular exits off the boat James Bond style (with more grace of course).
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| Caribbean oasis |
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| Rubi´s Inn |
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| View from our room |
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| Beeched as bro! |
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| 30m decent to the Halliburton wreck |
Then the day came when I was a qualified diver and it was my 25th birthday and Jen had organised my best yet! It was amazing! Awoke to a fantastic breakfast complete with BACON! Wow that delicious. We hired a boat and headed off to Water Cay - an uninhabited island that we almost had to ourselves for the whole day. Beautiful white beach and a couple of Coronas and we were set. The fish came around to wish me a happy birthday - as evidenced by their continual nibbling of our feet! On the way back we stopped off at one of the populated cayes and Jen was in photographers paradise. IT was a real local island with kids running everywhere, boat repairs and only fish burger restaurants.
That night we had fresh fish on the water front cooked beautifully in Caribbean spices. That night it was sharing tarantula stories with fellow divers at the most quirky bar we´ve ever seen. It was amazing, called TREETANIC and made from all sorts of odds and ends. A night out with the divers was awesome!
A particular highlight though was hearing from you all. Thanks heaps for all your birthday wishes it made my day!
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| Reading through all the awesome birthday messages |
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| Start of the boat trip leaving from our hotel |
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| Another family had the same idea as us |
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| Water Cay |
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| Corona, sun and sand - bliss! |
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| Pigeon cay - Fish burger restaurant |
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| Wheel-barrow derby |
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| Caribbean spiced whole Snapper |
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| Why do bars do birthday shots!? |
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| Final Utila supper |
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| Jen was preparing for my imminent death by diving |
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| Main street Utila |
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| Parrots dive crew |
After I had grown gills and Jen had read several books we were set to move on further south and keep on with the Central American trip. Next stop was San Pedro Sula. Apparently it is continuously in the top 5 most dangerous cities in the world. DIdn´t know that before we went there. We had a hostel sorted out for us and he offered to pick us up from the bus station and get us all sorted for our bus to Nicaragua the following. What a great night we had there though. Roque picked us up and first stop was somewhere for food. We stopped at the service station and then changed cars for our comfort - he brought us the Hilton van - how´s that for service. Then personal service to McDonalds, and home to our first night with Air Con. A treat considering it was 40degrees C.
We didn´t realise how safe we were in Roque´s house until the following morning when we bumped into the Irish girls from the day before. They stayed in a scummy hostel in the centre of town scared shitless all night. They awoke at 4am for the morning bus to Nicaragua (same as us), walked outside their front door to find a murdered prostitute lying directly in front their front door. CSI was underway and they couldn´t wait to get out of there. It really was a dangerous city and it was time to move on!
Honduras was cool, but it was time to move on yet again and see what Nicaragua had in store.
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