Honduras - Utila - Bay Island(s)

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Honduras

We only had 60 miles to travel today so we had a lazy breakfast and were on the bikes to leave the hotel by 12:00. As soon as John got on his bike, the steering was heavy-The first puncture of the trip. We inflated the tyre and watched how quickly it deflated. We were planning to stop for a few days to do some diving on the Bay Islands and so if repairing it could be left to then, it would be better. It seemed to be a slow one and we estimated John could ride for 20 mins safely before topping it up again. So we set off and by 3 pm we had made our destination of La Ceiba, travelling through torrential down pours for most of the way. We planned to spend the night in La Ceiba and head to the Bay Islands the following morning.

We stopped at Burger King for a quick lunch and to look up the location of the docks for our trip out to Utila. We arrived at the docks at about 15:50 and inquired about the cost of the bikes on the ferry as well as us. They told us the price, (the same as us) which didn’t seem too bad considering the risk of leaving the bikes on the main land, and after a quick chat with Monty who was in charge of loading, and a quick chat between ourselves, we decided to go there and then. Monty said they will hold the boat for us(as it was due to leave at 16:00!) and we rummaged through our spare US dollars as we didn’t have enough Limperas(Honduran currency)-we eventually find enough money and all systems were go. We rode the bikes round to the Quay and were met with a wide metal mesh to get the bikes from the key to the boat but from the quay side to the ramp was a 12” wide plank at 30 degrees going up about 2-3 feet. Mike went first and the guys on the boat were either side of him to steady him up the plank. The next was me and the same again with legs dangling helplessly in mid air on the plank the guys steadied the bike and I was also on board. As soon as we were on, the boat left and we were left working with the crew to secure the bikes as the boat bobbed up and down leaving the harbour and getting under way. The trip was about an hour and a half and the boat really pitched and rolled and we needed a couple of attempts to get the bikes secure enough so they only moved a bit and after about 45 mins we were happy that they weren’t going to break loose of the moorings and we had a quick drink and something to eat…which made Mike feel a little sick (fizzy grape juice which tasted disgusting !).

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Securing the bikes as we sail !

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We arrived at the island as dusk was falling and the quayside was full of people waiting for people on the boat and to pick up provisions. The rear deck of the ship, with all the cargo, was too small to turn the bikes around in so these were reversed off with the help of the locals constantly telling us it was fine to keep going backwards even though we would have run off the sides of the ramp long before we got to the end. Both bikes off we had to wait the best part of an hour as the quay was blocked with pick-up trucks collecting the cargo.

We were the entertainment of the locals for a while on the quay before heading off in search of accommodation. We had been recommended to stay at Alton’s as they do a dive and accommodation package. We arrived to a basic room but not before Mike was given the 3rd degree by some local kids about the bikes and I from an American who was travelling with his father around central America also on the bikes.


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Alton's Dive Shop/Centre


With all the riding in the past few days we needed a couple of days off to recharge before starting our diving course, We both awoken fairly early by some loud music, reggae music. The room we stayed in at Alton’s was not too hot and John’s mattress was so thin he had to use his camping bed- the showers were also falling apart. We decided that if we couldn’t be relocated we would find a place else where. As we leave the room we were met by Mitch, who runs the place with his wife Julie. He said there was a waterfront room free if we wanted it. So we had a quick look and were moved in before breakfast . The room wasn’t that much better but it was adequate enough and only about $3 each per night(as we would be diving with them).

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Our new ocean facing room..., only problem was Reggae !, which started at about 7 a.m in the Morning, and continued noon and night !!

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The new view fom our new room.

We spent the rest of the day wandering about the town getting our orientation. We then spent a further day wandering about and queuing in the bank as the cash machine wouldn’t let us have any money from either of the banks we have accounts with. We paid for our dive course upon our return to Alton’s and are presented with our PADI theory training book and told that we need to read three chapters before lessons started the next morning. We were given the impression that you could get through a Chapter in half an hour (and are horrified to later discover that it takes about 90 mins per chapter.) We started straight away and after a quick dinner were back to the books until late but still only managed the first two chapters and the quiz questions.


The course started at 8:00 and we were given a medical form to complete. One of the questions related to blood pressure for the over 45‘s and Mike explained to our Instructor that he had had a high reading before he left the UK so was sent to the doctors to confirm all is OK which can take up to three or four hours. (annoyingly this should have been established before class started so I am left to play catch-up).The rest of the group Elizabeth, Derek and John sit through a couple of videos that repeated the first couple of chapters in the book and Ali, the instructor, went through the quiz questions in the book for the first two chapters followed by a test on each chapter. By the time we had done this it was lunch and as John went out from the dive centre Mike returned from the doctors with the OK. He went off with Ali to do all basic tests so he could join us for the afternoon.

The afternoon diving was in the confined water area which was a max of 8 feet deep. The first test was a basic swimming and treading water test. After that we were back on dry land and were taken through the set up of the scuba gear then returned to the water in the gear. The first test in the diving gear was standing up in the shallower water, lower your head and breath through the regulator, which was a bit freaky as the water was very cloudy with silt. The next test was to remove the mask and breath. After that we moved to the deeper area and were completely submerged for about 30 mins and performed a number of exercises which included removing the goggles again, as well as removing and replacing the regulator!!

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The Kit !!

By the end of the day our senses were exhausted and we still had two chapters of the dive manual to read before lessons started at 08:00 the following day. So it was a quick meal before getting back to the books. The last chapter we had to read was on dive tables. This was to work out how long you can stay diving at various depth without getting too much nitrogen in your blood stream!! I.e. the bends. This was a bit heavy to do at 11:00 so it was off to bed and the final bit to be completed over breakfast.

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RJ's - One of the cheapest and best Restaurants on the Island.

The next day was more theory, testing and video’s in the morning but we set up our gear in the after noon and headed off on the boat to our first open water dive. The first dive was at a site called Moon Hole. This first dive was down to 40 feet. The water was fairly choppy and we had quite a lot of ‘fun’ trying to put out gear on!! We descended quite slowly but John had trouble equalising his ears but eventually joined us on the bottom. The first part of the dive included repeating the exercises previously performed, mask filling and removal and a fin pivot which is a buoyancy exercise used to get neutral buoyancy. Once complete we headed for our first real dive which was great fun swimming with the fish . The instructor Ali pointed at a number of different fish and crustaceans. It seemed to soon before we were surfacing and we were back on a boat in a choppy sea s. Both of us felt a little queasy and very tired. This was a combination of the sea and swallowing so much salt water when bobbing around waiting to dive!! The second dive was at Ted’s point. The sea was still choppy and once we had descended again we completed more exercises before going off along the reef. This time, our point were we completed our exercises, wasn’t the deepest point of the dive and we had a exhilarating if not a little scary time diving straight down off the edge of the reef to 60‘. This turn out to an even greater experience as two Eagle rays swam based as we descended. As before the dive was over too quickly and we were back on the boat. The return trip was a mixture of exhilaration and exhaustion. Was back we still had a chapter too read before the next morning. Another night of a quick meal and homework!!!

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A Moray eel spotted under the decking at Alton's one evening.

We did our review for the final chapter of the PADI course, and then took a final theory test. We both passed despite making some silly mistakes, so it was just the last exercises and two dives to finish. The exercises were to demonstrate that you could swim underwater without a mask for about 27ft, and that you could swim for 30 secs or more, not only holding your breath, but exhaling bubbles to show that you would be able to equalise pressure in your lungs in the case of the need for an emergency ascent…this to stop you getting decompression sickness. Firstly we had to demonstrate the bubble blowing horizontally, and then for real, on a vertical ascent. We both had to make a couple of attempts at this as we were blowing our air away too quickly. On our dives we saw a boat wreck, swam through a few caves and managed to swim down to at least 60’ which was quite exciting. We passed our final test points and were proclaimed open water PADI divers !!! Hooray !!!! I felt really ill, my stomach had been upset for about a week and being so busy learning so much and diving was the final straw, and despite arranging to go out for a few drinks and dinner I couldn’t even eat mine and had a banana milk shake as consolation and to try and get something into me. John stayed out for a bit longer but it seemed that everybody was of a similar outlook and he was back at our room within 45mins of me.

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Two Lardies finish off their PADI !

Despite sleeping quite well, I still felt pretty rough and got through the day on some cereal , a fruit juice and an ice cream. Other than that, I dozed on and off through the day, occasionally helping John as he worked on his bike. John fitted a new aerial as his spare tyres had broken the original off, and repaired the puncture he acquired on the way to Utila, Puncture repaired, we couldn’t get the compressor to inflate the inner tube now back in the tyre so assumed that the compressor had failed as a result of getting wet with repeated use to get John up to the port…..so we stripped the compressor, clean the piston etc, re-oiled it all and put it back together, only to find that it still wouldn’t inflate the tyre. We then decided to take it to a bicycle/scooter shop to use their compressed air(supplied from an old scuba tank would you believe !?) They pronounced the inner tube had a puncture, we assured him it had been fixed but he demonstrated it hadn’t by filling it with compressed air and showing us that it was deflated 10 secs later. To cut a long story short, he fitted a brand new inner tube for about £4 inclusive of everything !! That done, we walked back and found that the compressor was indeed still working which was good news.

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A series of photos showing "one" sunset looking from our room area.

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I still felt too rough to dive so we used nearly the whole day on getting the website updates done for the week….which we did !!!!

Up early this morning to do our last and only two fun dives at Alton’s. The sea was very calm and the sun and sky were beautiful. We were taken to the North side of the Island and dived at a site called the Maze. Rob, our Dive Master briefed us on the signs we would be using underwater, and we settled down to enjoy the 45 min journey over there. On the dive we saw more species of fish than I could have counted had I wanted to. The water was very calm so no currents or under-currents to deal with. A great dive for both us , and we again got down to 60ft for a while. My air was getting low quite quickly today and so we had to surface after 32 mins. There was 11 of us in the boat, and once we were all up, we were taken to a tiny island which had a labyrinth of sidewalks linking one ram-shackle building to another, for a fish burger of all things. The burger wasn’t that great but the experience was good fun. Burger down, we were off to the next dive site, this time, The Rock..which was as its name suggests, a big rock. Diving there was ok and I enjoyed being led through various under-water channels to see different things. 37 mins later and we were up again as I was low on air again. I was a bit frustrated for myself and the others that I seemed to be using the air up so quickly but re-assured that it would come down with more experience. We went back to Alton’s and were de-briefed as to the fish we had seen and our ‘new’ log books were officially signed off.

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One of the many dive shops on Utila.

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...and another.....

In the afternoon we tried to get a number of e-mails off to various people to arrange stuff to be delivered to Panama but I couldn’t access my e-mail account and so we had to abandoned most of what we had hoped to do. Alton’s had a dock party tonight, partly to celebrate the completion of two dive-masters courses and so, we decided to join in. The dive masters have to perform one last ’test’ to show their suitability and that is they have to drink about 1 and a half pints of rum & coke through an extended snorkel tube which is connected to a plastic bottle full of the drink. The real hurdle is that they are also wearing a diving mask and so they can’t breathe through their nose whilst drinking…in effect, they cannot breathe again until they have drunk through all the alcohol to ’free’ the airspace up in the snorkel. It was quite impressive/disturbing that one of the contestants actually managed to do it. The party drew a big crowd and it went on until about 10:30 at Alton’s, and then moved down-town to another bar, where a number stayed until mid-night or so.



This morning we packed the bikes; did some internet arranging for Panama, namely maps, Union Jack stickers and cloth badges, and a new alarm for John. We had to bolt lunch down in time to get back for the bikes and to the ferry. The same guys helped us re-load the bikes as de-loaded them, and we were underway on a much calmer sea. We had trouble finding road to capital, and when we eventually think we do, we could see that it would be a fair way before we would see a hotel or gas station so decided to get some more cash, some dinner, and find a hotel, leaving the longer ride until tomorrow. This we did, and ended up staying not more than 500m from where we disembarked from the boat in the afternoon !

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All good things must come to and end...and we sail back to the mainland, La Ceiba.

Mike
 


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