Honduras

 

Destination Nicaragua

Honduras - March 17, 2006

After our two last scuba dives yesterday morning (see previous entry for more info!) we rushed back to pack our bags, pick up our certifications and catch the 2pm ferry. Having skipped breakfast (again) due to our early morning dives, I decided to join our instructor and have a chicken burger while doing our paperwork. This however caused me to run a little tight on time... .arriving to the ferry with only 4 minutes to spare. Lee on the other hand played it safe and skipped the satisfaction of what seemed like the juiciest meal of the week. Once our ferry arrived in La Ceiba, the first item on our agenda was to head straight to the immigration office to work through the passport fiasco. Unexpectedly, it turned out to be much easier and less painless than we anticipated. Nevertheless, the ordeal still consumed most of the afternoon, something we have become accustomed to so far in Central America.

As we learned, our best option to get to Managua, Nicaragua was actually to back track to San Pedro Sula (where we initially came from) and then catch a 12-hour bus to Tegucigalpa.

When we finally arrived in San Pedro Sula, it was 9pm and we were absolutely starved. To our delight, there was an incredible juice bar for licuados (similar to fruit smoothies) conveniently less than a block from our hostel. According to Lonely Planet, this joint was tabbed "The best licuados in all of Honduras," and we wholeheartedly agree. We ended up parking ourselves at the juice booth and had a dinner's worth of fruit smoothies. At $0.85 a pop, we couldn't go wrong. They were so good, we even considered staying an extra day just for the smoothies.

The last leg of our journey will be a bus ride from Managua to Granada, which is our destination for the moment before departing to Costa Rica.

ps. The above pic was taken at 4:45 am waiting for the bus (hence the face). Lee no like early manana.

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The Island of Scuba Divers

Honduras - March 16, 2006

On Friday, we took the ferry (a true people mover ferry) to Utila island. Upon debarking we were met with a wave of scuba instructors, each with the best scuba deal on the island. Utila Island is one of the Bay Islands off the eastern coast of Honduras. It's supposedly the cheapest place in the world to get certified in scuba diving. The islands draw crowds from all over the world not only for the price but for the quality of the diving. The reef system is part of the massive Belizean reefs. We took the open water course which lasted four days and consisted of in class lectures, homework, exams and of course, the dives themselves. Our days started at 6:45am and usually didn't end until late in the day which was always followed by the ever so lovely condensed book reading and homework. The first few "confined" dives were done in the bay which was amazingly clear. During our open water dives we took Tristan out to sea to one of the many dive sites surrounding the island. For both Lee and myself diving was an amazing experience. The first couple of days we had to stomach some rough seas out to the dive site. By the third day, I realized the beard I was sporting was causing my mask to leak far too much, so I cut it strategically to eliminate the leakage.

Our instructor Mike (left) convinced us to take the Advance Open Water course after our Open Water Certification. It was hard to pass up the offer, given that Mike was a phenomenal instructor and they gave us a great discount on top of the already cheap rate. So, our stay in the Bay Islands was extended by another two days. Those two days also included a larger textbook to do in less time. We had to focus on six fields of diving (navigation, multilevel diving, deep diving to 100 feet, wreck diving on a ship wreck, night diving and buoyancy control).

While on the deep dive to the Haliburton wreck, Lee suffered from "Mask Squeeze" as he forgot to equalize his mask. This resulted in his getting some very nice red speckled rings around his eyes. He lucked out in that mask squeeze usually results in monster raccoon eyes for a minimum of 2-3 days. The night dive was especially unique as we saw many various aquatic life (including an octopus and more) asleep. Possibly the most impressive sight from all our dives was when we covered our flashlights to create complete darkness. Shortly after doing this, the sea lit up all around us with firefly-like particulates called bioluminescence (the light that is the result of the chemical reaction that occurs in an organism). That in itself was worth the entire Advanced course. There was a lovely sunset too as we made our way out of the bay (as evidenced in the top photo).

-Lee and Patrick

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Illegals in Honduras

Honduras - March 11, 2006

After arriving in Puerto Cortez, Honduras's largest port city, we crammed in a small taxi with a couple from England (Nico and Isabella) and headed to the immigration office. After a small spat with a taxi driver who was trying to overcharge us, we realized that the immigration office was closed. Despite a small crowd of gringos (from the same boat) waiting patiently yet with a somewhat "what do we do" look, we decided to hump it over to the bus station and deal with immigration later. Utila Island (our destination, which had an international airport) and La Ceibia (another port city where we were to take the ferry to Utila) were bound to have immigration offices. Waiting for the mysterious immigration officers to turn up could force us to miss our connections to Utila and potentially delay us by a day. Rumor has it that they showed up about 15 minutes after we left (a siesta after lunch is suspected no doubt). The lack of being illegal tourists is turning out to be a bit of a pain as the immigration officer in Utila seems to be on a perpetual vacation of sorts and thus we have been unable to get our passports stamped with a Honduras visit. Leaving the country with no proof of showing that we ever arrived may prove to be a fun one to explain to the immigration office.

At any rate, after taking a two-hour bus ride to San Pedro Sula, an hour bus station transfer and a three-hour bus to La Ceiba, we arrived late at night forcing us to spend the night there. We went out for a drink and then dinner with Nico, Isabella and another girl from Quebec, Emmanuell, who was also going to Utila. It was a great night full of laughs. Nico and Isabella were on their 7th month of travel with a few more to go. They traveled all of South America and were now touring Central America before going back south again; it was evident that they fell in love with South America.

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