We arrived in San Pedro Sula dragging our two heavy boxes and full set of dive gear to the customs check desk. Of course, their security wanted to dig through our boxes that we carried for the homeowner of the place we were staying. Thankfully he did not feel the urge to take everything out of the almost 50 lb boxes that were chuck full of candy, snorkel gear, household items and the list goes on. For the record, we did sort through them before just randomly carrying two boxes o’ stuff for someone we didn’t know out of the country. We needed a connecting flight to Utila but had only been able to have a Spanish speaking friend in Saginaw make reservations. Once we made it through customs we headed out to find the airline we needed. It was at this point we knew we needed to be Spanish speaking people. We ended up finding someone to help and while it was painful with our no Spanish and his no English we did get the “Airplane cancel – needed maintenance” message. No chicken flight for us! We were then ushered to the front doors of the airport and told to wait "uno momento” and he was gone. We both started to chuckle at the fact that we had nooo clue what was going on. Finally, our guy showed up with a taxi driver and sent us on our way with some strange guy that spoke no English. Three very quiet hours later we arrived at the La Ceiba docks and sat in our first taste of sweltering heat and humidity (they really mean it when they say it feels like 114 degrees) waiting for ferry to Utila.
Let’s establish the island time factor now. Eh, whenever.
Finally our boat set sail and the adventure had officially begun. On the boat ride over we sat next to a couple from Cincinnati, four British girls and nice guy named OK. He is a US citizen but has been living on Utila for two years on his catamaran. I have discovered Utila is truly an interesting place. It is not only a strange conglomeration of Central Americans and the rest of the world but a unique mix of a zillion different cultures. Money can be spent in Honduran Limperas or US dollars, frequently signs advertise prices in dollars. Most Utilians speak English as well but to me it has a very strong Jamaican lilt and sometimes you have to listen closely to catch on. Anyway, once on the island we drummed up a taxi (this can be anything from a four-wheeler to a beat up old pickup) and eventually made it to our beach house…in the dark…and discovered we were staying smack dab in the middle of nowhere. (it was awesome!) :)
Leaving the mainland of Honduras...
On the dock upon arriving in Utila.
The sun going down on day one.
The place we stayed...it rocked.
As a thank you for carrying the boxes, they left us a pod of bananas and a case of beer in the fridge.
Now is that a rough view to wake up to or what?
