Hangin’ Out in Honduras
Upon my return from Costa Rica I had…
This idea stemmed from earlier discussions with my friend Sheila. She had offered me a number of recommendations for my trip to Costa Rica and had commented about her travels in Central America. One thing she mentioned was her desire to visit Honduras.
So I called Sheila when I returned and babbled on about my adventure in Costa Rica. I talked about riding a motorcycle all over a foreign country. I spoke of my paddling along the Caribbean Coast. I reminisced about being caught in a tremendous thunderstorm and how I found a hotel just in the nick of time. And then I blurted out
Her reply? “Christmas.” And that it how it came to be that I found myself sitting in the International Terminal at SFO on Christmas night, waiting for a flight to San Pedro Sula airport in Honduras.
Of course there was a little more to it all than that. Between the statement, “Christmas” and the actual day of travel there was a lot of arm twisting, convoluted discussions, theoretical hypothesizing and much more but really it all boiled down to that one moment. Our planning for the trip included buying guidebooks, spending hours of time perusing the Internet and discussing our desires for the time off. Originally we were leaning towards a package deal through Sea Trek in Sausalito. We would fly to Guanaja Island off of Honduras and do a seven-day paddle trip around the island. Unfortunately that option required a major outlay of cash that we were both reluctant to give up. We discussed Roatan but for some reason the island just didn’t capture our imagination. In the end we chose Utila, the smallest of the Bay Islands, as our destination.
Utila is one of three islands located off the East coast of Honduras. Known as the Bay Islands Utila, Roatan and Guanaja each have different attractions for tourists and adventurers alike. Utila is the smallest and least known of the three. There really isn’t much to it. An airstrip at one end with a road that bisects the island over to the main community, which is located along the length of a fairly large bay along with a couple of inland lagoons and one hill. The primary attraction for folks is the diving. Surrounded by reefs Utila is the perfect place to dive and in our case, learn to dive.
After a fairly reasonable flight from San Francisco to San Pedro Sula via San Salvador Sheila and I found ourselves in the airport with about 4 hours to kill. We rented a taxi and had him haul us over to a market place in town. What a find! There were lots of local artisans goods including hammocks, woodcarvings and a variety of leather products. For me the interesting part was the tortilla factory located in the middle of the complex. There were a dozen or more stalls located in the center of the market where women were mixing up masa and then making tortilla after tortilla on a simple little table. The smell of fresh tortillas was wonderful!
Unfortunately neither of us was in the mood to shop so we hightailed it back to the airport and waited for our flight to Utila via La Cieba. Unfortunately nothing is direct in this country. To get to the islands we had to fly to the domestic airport of La Ceiba where again we had time to kill before boarding a 15-minute flight to the island. That put us into town around 5pm or just after dark. We had the taxi drop us off at one end of town and we simply started walking, looking for a room. Freddie’s Place looked promising but no one was available to help us out. Our next stop was Alton’s Dive Shop, an interesting little place that immediately sold us on a dive package with room included and a hammock with my name on it!
Now I must say that we did not set out on this trip with the intention to go diving. Originally our plan was to do the Sea Trek package on Guanaja. Unfortunately money became an issue and we chose Utila as an alternative. We had noticed a lot of talk about diving and certification in our studies of the guidebooks and web sites and I must say the idea was floating around in the back of my mind. Once there it was not too difficult for Mike to twist my arm and convince me that this is what was meant to be.
In the morning I knew we had made the right choice. Our room was on a pier out over the water and our view was to the West toward the open water and the cayes. The warm breeze caressed my skin as I stood there ready to make my first difficult choice of the day. Which of my two swimsuits was I to wear?
Since our dive school didn’t start until later that day we spent some time checking out the layout of the town and getting our bearings. There were a few nice little restaurants like the Delicious Food Café and Big Mama’s along with the ubiquitous Internet cafes and long distance telephone companies. The funny part is that most of these places were run out of someone’s home! Still, the atmosphere was nice and the people very friendly.
One major disappointment was the quality of equipment at the dive shop where kayaking was concerned. They had two Cobra sit-on-tops, a single and a tandem. Kind of like driving Mom’s station wagon when you’re used to a sports car. We paddled over to the reef at the Southeast end of the island and did a little snorkeling. The water was wonderfully warm and the aquatic life rather scenic so that helped reduce the disappointment in gear. Still, this was going to be a challenge to my paddling sense.
Learning to dive was altogether different than what I had expected. Then again most of the folks I know who’ve done this class have taken it in the US where we tend to be pretty damn anal about things. In Utila the course was offered and followed the PADI curriculum and yet it was nowhere near as intense as I anticipated. I guess it helps being in the tropics. Read the book during your leisure time, review a video on each chapter during classroom time, listen to the Dive Master explain the mechanics of things and then go out and do them! All in all it was pretty cool! (At least for me…sorry Sheila)
Our first dive was a confined water dive where we swam out off the dock and went to the bottom in maybe 8 feet of water so we could practice the basics. We did things like removing your regulator and blowing bubbles (you never hold your breath while diving), clearing a mask that’s leaked in water, removing and replacing your mask, practicing neutral buoyancy adjustments and a variety of other things. The next set of dives were actually out on the reef and included more skills work along with a little sightseeing.
All in all we had the one confined water dive along with four open water dives and then two fun dives tossed in for good measure. It was a bit challenging at times like swimming 30 feet or so without a mask while down near the bottom in 40 feet of water. I also really had to work hard at clearing my sinus passages and ear canals while heading down to the bottom. For some reason my right ear always gave me trouble. I finally got the hang of it in the end but I’m still noticing little noises in my right ear these days.
The best part of all of this was the wildlife sightings. Our first open water dive had us floating along a reef wall where we happened upon a turtle who was feeding down around 30 feet. Very cool! The huge Morey eel that we encountered on the North side of the island was also quite impressive. “Would you look at those teeth?!”
You know, that was pretty cool but I have to take that first statement back, I think the best part was being able to share all those things with some new and interesting people. My dive mates Pilar, Michael and Danny were all very interesting folks who helped make the experience enjoyable. (Not to mention Sheila who although not thrilled with SCUBA did enjoy the snorkeling and is still trying to win at Unif!)
So upon completion of my dive course and just prior to the New Year Sheila made arrangements for a room at the Utila Lodge. Pretty good digs at a touch higher price than we’d been paying but with three meals included and use of the kayaks I think it was pretty damn good!
On New Year’s Eve I set out to complete my two free fun dives. Being a newly certified diver I was excited to practice my newly honed skills and experience reef diving without further instruction or limitations. Our first dive had us drop off the boat and head down to the 60-foot level. There we chose to drift with the current along the reef wall. It was basically effortless to hang there in the current and watch the underwater world go by. My dive partner seemed pretty comfortable and thus made my life easier such that I didn’t have to keep a close eye on her. A couple of the other folks did run into problems by sucking up their air supply pretty quick. Luckily they were able to bail out to the boat leaving the rest of us to enjoy the rest of our dive.
My best discovery was a free swimming Morey eel that saw us coming and stopped to pretend he was a part of the coral. When I first saw him I thought he was a big leaf of underwater plant. It wasn’t until he opened his mouth that I realized what he was. Wow! What big teeth you have grandma! Not long after we all made for the surface and enjoyed that post dive glow while basking in the tropical sun. Our boat captain radioed in our lunch orders to Sandy’s place, which was located out on Pigeon Caye. We motored on over and stopped a bit to enjoy our fish burgers and off gas a little nitrogen.
After lunch we wandered over to another part of the reef and dropped down to about 50 feet to continue our search for new and unusual critters. We encountered a pretty good-sized school of bright blue fish along with a few parrotfish and a host of smaller guys. Like other places on the reef we found sea fans, brain coral and some that looked like deer antlers. All in all pretty cool stuff! We finally had to surface before our air ran out and made the journey back to the shop. I must say this diving stuff is great fun!
I’d love to tell you about the great parties and wild times we had on New Year’s Eve but it just ain’t so. I’m such a wimp when it comes to staying up late that I was in bed by 10pm. I rolled over and said Happy New Year to Sheila when I heard all the fireworks go off and then rolled right back over to sleep some more. Such is the wild bachelor life I lead…
In the morning while enjoying my breakfast I heard the commotion over at Coco Loco’s. Seems their New Year’s Eve party that started around 5pm was still going strong at 10am. I could practically feel the techno beat from where I was sitting a quarter mile away! I think they finally shut things down by noon.
So to start the New Year right Sheila and I loaded up a couple of sea kayaks and set off in search of adventure. Sheila had found a route that took us down the bay and into the lagoon inland. From there we would traverse the island via a small canal that ended on the North side. Once on the North side we could swim, play in the sand and possibly snorkel as we saw fit.
Again my biggest complaint with the boats was the lack of safety gear. These things were on the small side and I had a rough time getting my knees in a reasonable position for me to edge the boat. The lack of skirt made edging a risky proposition anyway! Ah well, make do with what you got. I still had fun paddling the silly thing around the island.
The mangrove swamp was pretty cool. Lots of birds fluttering about and interesting critters down amidst the roots. The canal was pretty tight with places down to four feet in width. I saw some curious looking spiders, an amazingly bright dragonfly with red wings and a black body, various crabs hiding between the roots and several little fish darting about beneath them all. Unfortunately there were a few mosquitoes lurking about and a couple got in their bites before I could get my lotion on. Whups! Ah well, its hell being a bug smorgasbord.
The beach on the North side was pretty nice. In fact so nice that I kept looking around for Brooke Shields. This is the Blue Lagoon isn’t it? The palm trees bending in the wind, the white sand beach with the warm water lapping up against my feet was just too nice. I lay back and enjoyed the sun for a bit while Sheila explored the beach and surrounding flora and fauna. In time we wandered out to a rocky little island near the reef. I took a few photos of the coral and critters before heading back over to the beach. After a while we wandered back to the canal for the trip home. Along the way we were treated to a light rain and a touch of wind. A very nice way to end our day.
The day after New Years I chose to do two more fun dives. I was starting to get the hang of this life style and felt like an old pro as I donned my gear and slipped beneath the surface. Again we were treated to an interesting array of fish including a couple of hidden lobsters, shrimp and a tiny little fish with incredibly long fins back at it’s tail. Usually folk’s talk about how big the fish was that got away; in this case we were amazed at how tiny this little fella was and how beautiful the coloring of his scales.
As all good things must come to an end so did our trip to Honduras. We were up at the crack of dawn the following day and caught a flight back to the mainland. Sheila had had enough and chose to continue on with a standby seat on the flight to Miami. I hung out in San Pedro for another day and spent my time wandering the huge market downtown. The following day I caught the flight to Miami and then spent 5 hours laying over in the airport. Sushi and beer can definitely help in that area. (Not to mention a good Traveler’s Tale book.)
Just prior to boarding I looked up and caught site of Sheila. She had made it to Miami the day before but not all the way to SF. So we caught up a bit before boarding our flight back to the Bay Area. I arrived back home well after midnight thanks to a few delays and a headwind. As always my cats were glad to see me and I was happy to be able to crawl into my own bed and enjoy a good night’s sleep sans mosquitoes and sand flies.