bad weather and nothing is moving!

I’m still here in Utila, Honduras. As the weather was really bad, my diving instructor Bob from the Netherlands and I decided in the last moment on Thursday afternoon to not go diving. We actually been already ready to go, but everybody else cancled there plans and so it would have only been him and me.

We decided on Thursday to do the two free dives on Friday morning, which worked good in the end. It was raining, but once you are in the water, it really doesn’t matter! ;)

After we returned, I packed all my things and planned to leave with the afternoon ferry at 2pm.

Unfortuately the ferry wasn’t going …

The problem is actually not the rain or the little bit bigger waves over here. The problem is the habor of Ceiba. It’s built in a really bad way, that as soon as the wind blows from north-west, boats can’t get anymore in or out. The wind creates really big waves, which could smash the boat at on of the big rocks in the sea, next to the harbor. Whoever constructet this stuff din’t thought a lot about what he is doing.

The connection to Utila is run (as far as I know) by an American, who makes a lot of money by only allowing two boats per day. One at 6:20am and one at 4pm.

I tried to be today’s morning on the morning ferry, got up early and walked to there through the rain with my two friends from the Netherlands. Unfortuately the wind didn’t change and so both planned ferries for today are off.

Over here it’s only raining, raining, raining … – I hope the weather will change soon and I can take the morning ferry tomorrow!

During the last two days I already spent easy over 10 hours reading an interesting book, I picked up over here.

As soon as I’m back on the main land, I will try to rush to Antigua, Guatemala. This might won’t work too good tomorrow, as Honduras is going to vote there next president. All the country is crazy, but here on this tiny island everything is cool. They also got nearly no crime over here, as they would catch the bad person for sure, on this 5 km long island, before he could get away with one of the two daily ferries! =P

This was the latest weather broadcast from Utila, Honduras by SEBI=)

Please don’t even try to count English mistakes – I’m glad I found at the end an Internet connection – over a old Dell notebook with a brocken display! =P

amazing & impressive! =)

My first diving class went quite good today. We been under water for about 45 minutes and it was really impressive to see a suh beautiful sea world, like you normaly see in the TV! =)

After me first dive, when I raturned to the boat to change the air bottle, I got really sea sick. The boat was stopped close a riff and shaking on the waves quite extreme. Once everything of my stomack was out, I felt better again, changed my equipment and got ready for the second dive! =)

This time we’ve been less time under water, as we had to train couple of things on the water surface …

It was rewally nice to do the first two dives and tomorrow morning we are going for the next two! =D

More information by then! ;)

swimming with the fish

After sleeping over it and talking with the girl I love on the next day, I decided to make my way to Utila, Honduras to learn diving!
Utila is an only 5 km long tiny island. With a small boat it took us about one hour to get here, but the connection is quite bad compared to Isla Mujeres in Mexico. One way costs about USD 22 and there are only two boats leaving each day at 9am and 4pm.
Right after I arrived, I started with my diving course! I’m learning the open water international course, including a certificate etc. …
Tomorrow I will do my first real dive – today I already tried all the equipment – and will publish more information after my first dive! ;)

… moving on …

Yes – It rained all the day long on that day! =P
We spent most of that day reading our books and Blair writing his book.
The following day (Wednesday) we took a bus to a few small villages not too far from Tela. The most people over there were coming in the past from Afrika and so their language as well as everything else is very different!
It was a very cool and interesting experience!
The bus was super relaxed, so that it took us about 2 1/2 hours for a way, we could have walked in probably one hour! ;)
Just before we got into the bus, we met a very interesting grandfather, who smoked grass and tried to show us some magic trick with the sun. I got a video about that, which will definitely be online at some point! =)
On Thursday the 19th of November 2009, Blair and I went different ways again. Blair took on travelling along the cost, while I went back to San Pedro Sula, where I met my couch host Cinthya in the evening. We set our meeting point to the big bus station, but as my bus from Tela arrived somewhere totally off the route, I had to find my way there with one of the small mini city busses.
As soon as Cinthya and I met, we picked up her best friend Pili and first went for a tea/coffee and later for dinner! =)
Cinthya got a very nice flat in a very safe part of the city! =)
We kept on plying Wii until lete at night! I slept really long into the day this morning and now I will meet Pili at the cinema in about half an hour.
Pili got vacations today, while Cinthya has to work – but tomorrow we will all organize some hiking to “Coca-Cola” in the morning and also got already great plans for tonight!
I just started last night to play with the thoughts about going back to the beach to learn diving – we will see! ;)

into the jungle! =P

Today’s morning, Monday the 16th November of 2009, we cooked for breakfast Hot-Meal with bananas, honey and a little bit of peanut butter.
There is quite a lot to do around here, including the second largest botanic garden in the world.
We started walking and walked for a very very very long time through the park. Later on we realized that this garden should better be called jungle, as there is much wood and nothing.
I got bitten by a lot of mosquitoes, but survived thanks of the amazing mosquito-bites-burner, I’ve got from my mum! =)
We returned at 4pm, as we hitchhiked in a Jeep van back the long way we were walking before.
On the way back to our Hostel we stopped by a small place and bought some snacks, as it was 4pm and too early for dinner. Now Blair is taking a nap and I’m quickly typing here some lines of my travelling experiences in Honduras! =)
Actually I planned to publish those lines by yesterday evening, but than many people over here have told us, that this area is not so safe for tourists at night.
So Blair and I went out for dinner and didn’t brought his Netbook with us.
On the next morning it was raining badly. How it looks like, it will rain all day long – so we are now here at a chicken grill place and sending out all our e-mails! ;)

going to the beach at Tela, Honduras! =)

On the following day, Sunday the 15th of November 2009, Blair and I got up around 9 am and started walking into the city centre. On our way to over there, we bought some bananas on the market and enjoyed another Pupusa. They got a very nice central park there, kind like in Antigua but more modern. San Pedro Sula is the biggest industry city in Honduras and seen as the second capital, as it’s also the second largest city of the country.
So far I had a much safer feeling in Honduras than in Guatemala and it’s also a lot cleaner over here.
Even I read a lot about how poor Honduras is, I haven’t seen it over here so far.
Blair and I have been on our feet for quite a while, walking and walking through the city. We then searched for an option to call our couch surfing friend Walter and ended up calling from a very small DVD store on the street.
Walter offered to show us around in the city and tell us a few stories about politic in Honduras. We decided to meet back at our Hostel, but we were walking into the wrong direction. We changed our route, after we realized we are 10 blocks off our goal location and still arrived before Walter at our Hostel. He picked us up with his car and we decided to go together for lunch.
On the way to over there, we got stopped by a young police officer, who charged Walter for not using his seat-belt. We’ve heard before, that the police over here is out of money and now charges you at each possibility they get – and right there we saw, it was true, what people have told us!
Walter is a very friendly young man, who is highly motivated, using his life to the full! We went to Power Pollo (Power Chicken) for lunch and tasted the Honduras pollo (chicken) culture! =)
Walter has been so friendly to give us a lift to the big bus station at 3:15pm.
Over there, I tried to buy my bus ticket to the Coban Maya ruins, but had to find out, that the last bus has left at 3pm.
I followed my rule “go with the flow” and decided spontaneously to keep travelling with my friend Blair, as he just got a very good deal to Tela and asked me, if I want to join him.
Following that I will probably skip the cities Puerto Barrios and Rio Dulce on my travel plan.
We jumped into the bus to Tela, which just left couple of minutes later and enjoyed our ride into the direction of the beach!
Tela is not too far away, but once we arrived, it already got dark outside. We walked relaxed to downtown of the small city and looked for Hostels. As we are the only guests at the moment, we got a cheap room for us two even cheaper.
Tela is a very nice insider tip and very safe as many years nothing bad has happened over here to tourists. We just dropped our packbags in the room and went out for a walk and later for dinner.
Before we went to bed, we watched an interesting art movie on Blair’s Netbook.