A Utila Christmas

We finally got out of Livingston and Guatemala on Dec. 22. The boat from Livingston was late and we had to make a mad 5 hour dash to La Cieba in Honduras to catch the boat to Utila. However, when we got there, the boat was cancelled anyways due to bad weather so we stayed the night at a hotel by the dock that had cable TV.

Utila is the smallest of the Bay Islands off the Caribbean coast of Honduras. The people here are a mixture of north american, Latino and Garifuna and they speak many languages each. We are staying at Parrots Dive Centre. Ian is completing his Open Water Certification and I´m doing my Advanced. The dive centres on the island offer free accomodation if you´re taking a course, which is pretty cool. Our room is nice enough but the hotel is directly next to a bar so the music plays loudly all night. No peace for these travellers.

Christmas was quite the experience. On Christmas Eve, the Parrots Dive Centre had a huge party at the owner´s house complete with Turkey Dinner and all you can drink rum and beer. My instructor was dressed up like Santa (a very buff Santa) handing out shots of red and green booze. Ian and I were so full, we called it quits early and headed back to out room. Unfortunately, people celebrate Christmas by partying to really loud music until the break of dawn. The house across from the dive centre was blaring music and the bar was blaring music. It was very loud. Same thing on Christmas day, except it started around noon and ended around 4 in the morning. Ian and I and a new friend from England, Hik, went out of a great seafood dinner and the restaurant was playing Christmas music, so that was awesome.

Diving has been amazing. The warm water and great visibility is stunning. I dove down to a wreck yesterday. It was sitting at 100 feet and was an old cargo ship. I saw an octopus and a fire worm and got to swim through the little wheel house where other divers had left funny trinkets. my second dive yesterday was all about learning how to navigate underwater with a compass. Today I have a deep dive which is down to around 100 feet or a little more, a bouyancy class and then a night dive. I´m so excited. Ian got into the water for the first time yesterday and loved it. Where I had to do my first few diving exercises in a pool back home, he got to go right into the ocean and look at fish. So cool. He has a few more dives this afternoon too.

Not sure how much longer we will be staying at the Dive Centre, we have one more night free but might pay for another. If we stay longer on Utila, we are definitly finding another more quieter place to stay. We´d also like to explore more of the island, we´re only seen what goes on below so far. So much to do!