I apologize in advance for the length of this entry, but there was so much to say.
This was my first weekend in Honduras and it was awesome! Friday was fun, but not much to speak of. Went out with another student from the school, Humphrey, who is from Oxford, England. One of his roommates, Kate, joined us and she is working as a teacher at a rural school for a few months. She is from DC. We went to Expatriates, which is a typical bar that caters to people from the US and Europe. Good beer and good company.
So, the real weekend began on Saturday morning when I hopped on the ferry to Utila to begin my scuba diving certification classes. Utila is one of the bay islands off the coast of Honduras. It is smaller and not as touristy as Roatan, but well known for its diving. Directly across from the ferry dock on the island sits Captain Morgan’s Dive shop (yes, this is the school that I chose off of a list and despite it’s questionable name, it is well known and reliable). As I signed up for the course, I was joined by a Korean boy, Jung goo, who is a college student from Japan, doing a study abroad in Iowa and visiting Honduras for vacation specifically to learn to scuba dive. After a short wait and some scuba reading, we were picked up by a boat and taken to one of the very small islands off the coast of Utila, which are known as “the Cays”. The dive shop has a moderately sized house/hotel on the Cays where they offer free rooms to those people taking one of the various dive courses. As we were pulling up to the dock, I noticed there were 4 boys fishing just off the island in an old bathtub. I really wish that I would have had my camera ready. It was a good picture of the way the people here make due with what little they have. As we climbed off the boat (which was pretty much a hitched ride) the driver instructed us to go to the only street on the island and turn left. Well, there was a little confusion due to the fact that the “street” was actually a sidewalk. However, we eventually found our way and met our dive instructor, Anka. We immediately began watching the first of many instructional videos. After the video, we sat down for lunch and a quiz. Following the quiz, Anka gave us a layout of the day’s plan and then asked what seemed to me like a silly question: Can you swim? Surprisingly, Jung, said, “I honestly don’t know. I haven’t tried to swim since I was 10”. I was shocked and Anka was speechless. However, she recovered quickly and compared swimming to riding a bike: you never really forget how. As if that wasn’t comical enough, she then told us to put on our suites and get ready to get in the water. To which Jung responded, “I need a bathing suite?” Again, Anka recovered quickly from the shock and just told him to wear shorts. I was just trying to keep myself from laughing out loud.
We got into the water for the pool portion of the course, which actually took place in shallow water off of the hotel dock at the tip of the Cay. As instructed, I swam out to a tiny island and back to the dock. (This warm, clear water was a breeze after my summer training in the dark, cold water of Lake Michigan) However, Jung swam about half way then began to sink. Anka saved the day with some quick swimming and a life preserver. I guess swimming isn’t quite like riding a bike and can be forgotten. Next, we had to float on our backs for 10 minutes, which was totally relaxing for me as I basked in the beautiful sun. However, I don’t think that Jung had the same experience and actually had to get out of the water because he was hyperventilating. After a short rest, we resumed the class and it was fairly uneventful except for Jung’s frequent returns to the surface for various reasons/malfunctions. As we were standing on the dock waiting for Jung to recover, Cassandra, a dive master in training, spotted an octopus moving over the coral directly below us. It was a really cool sighting and we were all excited.
After a long day in the water, we showered (actually sponge bathed in the trickle of water coming from the only working shower in the building) and then joined the rest of the crew for dinner. The crew consisted of: Anka from Germany and living on the Cays for the last 2 years; Cassandra from Canada on the Cays for 6 weeks taking her sweet time getting certified for dive master; Jesse from Vancouver arrived 3 days prior and getting open water certified like me; Jerry (Jesse’s brother) from Vancouver Island and just returned to the Cays after spending a month earlier this year getting dive master certification and trying to find a more permanent job; and a couple from Pamplona, Spain who were planning to begin the open water dive classes in the morning. We all walked what would be about 1 block down the “street” to the restaurant for BBQ (fish for me). After dinner and a few beers, we walked to the school yard where the island was having a party to celebrate winning the World Series (this is exactly what they told us with straight faces). As it turns out, they won the baseball tournament that involved 4 teams from Utila and one team from the Cays. This is a major accomplishment for the Cays considering they don’t have space for a field of any kind and therefore really only practice their pitching in the “street”. The party was a blast and everyone on the Cay was there, which was about 50-75 people. We danced all night to various types of music from old school spanish, reggae, reggaeton, old school american music and really old twangy country music. The best part of the night was falling asleep to the waves lapping up against the building directly outside my window.
Today, we woke up bright and early because the boat was planning to pick us up at 7:45. Breakfast consisted of yummy baleadas, which is a traditional food of beans, eggs and cheese folded in a tortilla. The boat arrived late, of course, but nobody seemed to care. We spent the day on the boat and did two 45 minute dives at 20-50 feet. We saw many different kinds of fish, some eels, a sea cucumber and a lot of different coral. Unfortunately, we missed the sea turtle that the other people on the boat saw at the second dive site. The day was beautiful and the sun was out the entire day, which I am told is unusual. We are lucky that there was no rain the entire weekend. Unfortunately, I had to take the 2:00 ferry back to La Ceiba, so my day was cut short. Leaving was not bad since I will be back on Friday to continue my lessons and will dive the entire weekend. All in all it was a great weekend and I met some really fun people. I can’t wait for next weekend!
This was my first weekend in Honduras and it was awesome! Friday was fun, but not much to speak of. Went out with another student from the school, Humphrey, who is from Oxford, England. One of his roommates, Kate, joined us and she is working as a teacher at a rural school for a few months. She is from DC. We went to Expatriates, which is a typical bar that caters to people from the US and Europe. Good beer and good company.
So, the real weekend began on Saturday morning when I hopped on the ferry to Utila to begin my scuba diving certification classes. Utila is one of the bay islands off the coast of Honduras. It is smaller and not as touristy as Roatan, but well known for its diving. Directly across from the ferry dock on the island sits Captain Morgan’s Dive shop (yes, this is the school that I chose off of a list and despite it’s questionable name, it is well known and reliable). As I signed up for the course, I was joined by a Korean boy, Jung goo, who is a college student from Japan, doing a study abroad in Iowa and visiting Honduras for vacation specifically to learn to scuba dive. After a short wait and some scuba reading, we were picked up by a boat and taken to one of the very small islands off the coast of Utila, which are known as “the Cays”. The dive shop has a moderately sized house/hotel on the Cays where they offer free rooms to those people taking one of the various dive courses. As we were pulling up to the dock, I noticed there were 4 boys fishing just off the island in an old bathtub. I really wish that I would have had my camera ready. It was a good picture of the way the people here make due with what little they have. As we climbed off the boat (which was pretty much a hitched ride) the driver instructed us to go to the only street on the island and turn left. Well, there was a little confusion due to the fact that the “street” was actually a sidewalk. However, we eventually found our way and met our dive instructor, Anka. We immediately began watching the first of many instructional videos. After the video, we sat down for lunch and a quiz. Following the quiz, Anka gave us a layout of the day’s plan and then asked what seemed to me like a silly question: Can you swim? Surprisingly, Jung, said, “I honestly don’t know. I haven’t tried to swim since I was 10”. I was shocked and Anka was speechless. However, she recovered quickly and compared swimming to riding a bike: you never really forget how. As if that wasn’t comical enough, she then told us to put on our suites and get ready to get in the water. To which Jung responded, “I need a bathing suite?” Again, Anka recovered quickly from the shock and just told him to wear shorts. I was just trying to keep myself from laughing out loud.
We got into the water for the pool portion of the course, which actually took place in shallow water off of the hotel dock at the tip of the Cay. As instructed, I swam out to a tiny island and back to the dock. (This warm, clear water was a breeze after my summer training in the dark, cold water of Lake Michigan) However, Jung swam about half way then began to sink. Anka saved the day with some quick swimming and a life preserver. I guess swimming isn’t quite like riding a bike and can be forgotten. Next, we had to float on our backs for 10 minutes, which was totally relaxing for me as I basked in the beautiful sun. However, I don’t think that Jung had the same experience and actually had to get out of the water because he was hyperventilating. After a short rest, we resumed the class and it was fairly uneventful except for Jung’s frequent returns to the surface for various reasons/malfunctions. As we were standing on the dock waiting for Jung to recover, Cassandra, a dive master in training, spotted an octopus moving over the coral directly below us. It was a really cool sighting and we were all excited.
After a long day in the water, we showered (actually sponge bathed in the trickle of water coming from the only working shower in the building) and then joined the rest of the crew for dinner. The crew consisted of: Anka from Germany and living on the Cays for the last 2 years; Cassandra from Canada on the Cays for 6 weeks taking her sweet time getting certified for dive master; Jesse from Vancouver arrived 3 days prior and getting open water certified like me; Jerry (Jesse’s brother) from Vancouver Island and just returned to the Cays after spending a month earlier this year getting dive master certification and trying to find a more permanent job; and a couple from Pamplona, Spain who were planning to begin the open water dive classes in the morning. We all walked what would be about 1 block down the “street” to the restaurant for BBQ (fish for me). After dinner and a few beers, we walked to the school yard where the island was having a party to celebrate winning the World Series (this is exactly what they told us with straight faces). As it turns out, they won the baseball tournament that involved 4 teams from Utila and one team from the Cays. This is a major accomplishment for the Cays considering they don’t have space for a field of any kind and therefore really only practice their pitching in the “street”. The party was a blast and everyone on the Cay was there, which was about 50-75 people. We danced all night to various types of music from old school spanish, reggae, reggaeton, old school american music and really old twangy country music. The best part of the night was falling asleep to the waves lapping up against the building directly outside my window.
Today, we woke up bright and early because the boat was planning to pick us up at 7:45. Breakfast consisted of yummy baleadas, which is a traditional food of beans, eggs and cheese folded in a tortilla. The boat arrived late, of course, but nobody seemed to care. We spent the day on the boat and did two 45 minute dives at 20-50 feet. We saw many different kinds of fish, some eels, a sea cucumber and a lot of different coral. Unfortunately, we missed the sea turtle that the other people on the boat saw at the second dive site. The day was beautiful and the sun was out the entire day, which I am told is unusual. We are lucky that there was no rain the entire weekend. Unfortunately, I had to take the 2:00 ferry back to La Ceiba, so my day was cut short. Leaving was not bad since I will be back on Friday to continue my lessons and will dive the entire weekend. All in all it was a great weekend and I met some really fun people. I can’t wait for next weekend!
1 comment:
You are so brave! I can't wait to read more!
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