Day two....
A dive shop helped us find a taxi the night before so we decided to just dive with them so we headed for the Captain Morgan’s boat at 7 a.m. This dive shop operates out of one of Utila’s Cays so the day begins by heading out 30 minutes to Jewel Cay to pick up any dive students that have been in class out there. Captain Morgan’s has their own “hotel” that most of the divers stay at and I was glad we weren’t one of them. It’s a little shady and when the potty doesn’t work so everyone “pees out back” (the ocean is out back). Sometimes the water works, sometimes it doesn’t…sometimes the waves crack the pipe against the rocks thus cutting them off from fresh water for however long. Remember, Utila is mainly a backpacker hangout so if you want fancier, resort places you should head to Roatan (the island next door) although Utila does have a few swank resorts. Our boat picked up students from Uruguay and France, a couple other fun divers and we headed out to the popular north shore for our first two dives of 11. Our divemaster was a nice guy from Minnesota named Brian. Turns out Brian’s parents moved to about an hour from Midland so his dad could head up a community college. How’s that for small world? When he mentioned where his father lived I almost choked (my parents cottage is about eight miles from where they live).
Don’t get me wrong, the diving was great but Utila is in a very tough spot right now. Imagine the most glorious coral formations and underwater terrain you can…now picture it 80 percent dead. Utila has a severe pollution problem combined with the fact that the fishermen have overfished the reefs. I would have loved to have seen this place 15 years ago. They are just now catching on that one of their greatest natural resources may be unrepairable. There are reefs that are being reconstructed – right out in front of our house was one of them and it is showing great signs of rebirth. Unfortunately for Utila, the mainlaind has a river that empties out into the ocean and heads right for them – so when the rains and winds come all the garbage from the mainland heads directly to Utila’s waters. The north shore waters are fairly clean - it really depends on the weather from the day before. Utila is not faultless however, one person told us the locals just don’t see it as an issue to just chuck out their garbage into the streets or the ocean – she said once someone told her “the tourists will pick it up”. Many of the dive shops seem to be catching on and there are now some major cleanups happening here and there.
Once back on the island from diving (about 1 p.m.), many places close from 12-2 p.m. so we had to find a grocery store open to stock up on some supplies. It seems like every 'store' here sells everything – you don’t go to one place for this or one place for that, everyone just seems to have a little of everything. Some of the places seem to just be someone's residence that they just put out some items and call open for business. If you need fast food, there are ladies that come out and sell food stuffs on the corners – everything from fruit to bringing out a roaster filled with whatever Baleada filling they want to sell that day. Baleadas are similar to a tortilla and filled with just about any kind of filling you can dream up. Our adventure continued that day as I had discovered a prescription I needed was not with me. Bad news. Remember, Honduras is a third world country. Insert long story here...ending hours later, two clinics, lots of no English later, finding something similar at the "medical store" that was open...oh whenever they felt like it. I was very relieved and we headed back to the supermarket to shop for a couple other things…only to find the prescription I was looking for was there in the supermarket “pharmacy” section. It was parked next to all kinds of other drugs that you need a prescription for at home – and in Hondo it cost me $1, in the states, it costs $53. Nice.
Let the photos begin!
Sunrise through our patio doors. Now that's a rough day when you have to get up and look out at the ocean and blue sky calling you to dive.
We stayed in a really nice place. If you're looking for a cheap place to go and have adventure in you, I have recommendations...
This is the shop that greets you when you get off the ferry to the island. We ended up diving with them after the first night being stuck in their shop waiting for a ride. We had a good discussion about diving and thought what the heck we wanted to go out as soon as possible and they were leaving at 7 a.m.
On the boat out to Cay that Capt. Morgans classrooms are on - these two guys were two of our dive masters. One was from South Africa and the other from Australia. All of our dive masters were pretty cool people from all over the world. This was our first day at 7 a.m. on the boat...the fact that it was already about 85 degrees should have given us a big clue that Utila was not going to have a lack of heat. With humidity it was about 110 on average.
Utila is spotted with an odd compilation of high end homes and extremely low end homes. This is a water view of where we stayed. I asked one of the dive guys who generally owns these houses and he said "rich Americans". Ok. Well there you have it. Turns out you can build a really snazzy place and be lost off the face of the earth here for about $250,000. Talk about a logistical nightmare, but you could do it. Many of the homes are extremely isolated and have to provide their own power and water. Oh yeah, and you can't get to them from the town...you'd have to own a really nice boat while you're at it. :)
Our boat captain was a local Utilian named Luis - turns out he is very adept at driving a boat with his feet. He was a fun guy that always keep us rockin' with the local rock station while we waited in between dives.
Sam was our guide from Australia. Before every dive they gave us the briefing of what we were going to see, the path we were going to take and how long we could expect to be down there. We saw some cool stuff thanks to these guys.
It still hurts to look at these pictures because I love my camera and having to use a disposable underwater camera nearly killed me. Alas, they suck but here are my favorite fish...blue with bright blue neon polka dots. And I'm terrible at fish ID's so I don't remember their names.
Hello Mr. Lobster.
Back from diving...what're you going to do? Ok sit out front, look at the ocean, drink beer. OK. Fine. Be that way.
Every night the storms came rolling over the horizon. We watched this one light up the night and the mainland for a long time. Best part of thunderstorms...they bring wind...sweet and cool - not hot as hell...wind.
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