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| One of the dutch students got a photo of him while snorkeling |
WE SAW A WHALE SHARK!
After three weeks we saw what we came here to see......
It was around 6 meters long, we think it is juvenille. Unfortunately Steph only saw it's tale as it was descending back to the depths. We got to snorkel with him after a chance meeting while moving to another dive site in between dives. AWESOME! Such a surreal experience, I was so enthralled I forgot to put my snorkel in my mouth and ended up swallowing a bit of water.
Around Utila - Treetanic and the Jade Seahorse
We stumbled upon the most bizarre bar and hotel ever. Think Alice in Wonderland mosaic style. The place is built into a tree with heaps and heaps of different levels with all sorts of weird and wonderful places to sit amongst the sculptures (spiders) and bottle art. The bar was built as a present to the owners girlfriend and has been 15 years in the making and is still unfinished.
During the day you can visit to take photos before it turns into one of the three popular bars on the island.The photos don't do it justice...
Utila - Cross Creek, our Dive Shop
12/3 - ??
So, the place we are living at at the moment, and for about a month now, is called Cross Creek Dive Centre (sorry been a bit slack with the blog updates….). It is in Utila, the cheapest of the three bay islands of Honduras. Utila is famous for being the cheapest place in the world to do your dive ceritifcation. One of the shops on the island certifies the most divers in the world each year, we have chosen a slightly smaller and more laid back shop than that one. Soon after arriving in Utila we decided to do our Divemasters. The course seemed like a relatively cheap way to stay on the island for a month or so and dive as much as we like. The course includes accommodation and free diving for life, and will enable us to work if we feel the need.
So, the place we are living at at the moment, and for about a month now, is called Cross Creek Dive Centre (sorry been a bit slack with the blog updates….). It is in Utila, the cheapest of the three bay islands of Honduras. Utila is famous for being the cheapest place in the world to do your dive ceritifcation. One of the shops on the island certifies the most divers in the world each year, we have chosen a slightly smaller and more laid back shop than that one. Soon after arriving in Utila we decided to do our Divemasters. The course seemed like a relatively cheap way to stay on the island for a month or so and dive as much as we like. The course includes accommodation and free diving for life, and will enable us to work if we feel the need.
The island itself is quite big, however the majority is covered by mangrove swamps. The town of Utila is quite small, consisting of one main road, and a second small road that intersects it. There aren’t really that many shops other than dive shops, especially any that sell fresh fruits and vegies. The boat comes in with fresh stuff once a week or so, but it is quite expensive and consists of about 5 different dodgy looking vegetables. It actually works out cheaper to eat out for everything except breakfast, enter good ole cereal. One of our favourite places to eat is just across the road from Cross Creek, called Big Mama’s. Quite convenient for the hour between boats, and really cheap….It is a small place run by a lady and her daughters who are all really friendly. Hew goes in most days for a ‘super baleada’, kind of like a burrito bread folded in half full of tasty things like refried beans, pickled onions, meat, cheese (not for hew obviously), salad, and a little hot sauce. They are huge and only cost 45 Limps, which is about $2.20 back home. Yum (they also make a good popcorn chicken which I am a little partial to…)
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| Laurence the resident Cross Creek dog |
The Cross creek “hotel” consists of shared rooms, private rooms, cabanas, a Dive Master house, and Laurence the resident pet. We are in a private room, with a shower (handy but cold water, it took a week or so to adjust again but after diving it is really nice to cool down!). The people here range from late teens to early 30’s. It is pretty funny, bit like being back at Uni living on campus. A lot of drinking and fornicating…. (drama unfolds just like my own personal episode of neighbours… he he he). There are soo many Australians here, it is weird. We haven’t met that many anywhere else.
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| Rommell our captain, and the "Tristan" |
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| Grey Angelfish |
So, what do we do here, well, let’s see, DIVE, DIVE, DIVE, DIVE and DIVE! We are most of the way through our DM course now. It involves lots of diving as well as completing theory, exams, and plenty of water skills. We also had to assist instructors on courses - two open water courses and an advanced course. All were really fun. At one point a whole group of young Danish girls came through. Twenty two of them… mostly around 20ish or so. It was crazy! Apparently it happens every month or so and is referred to as the “Danish Invasion”. We also have to work (well kind of), helping pack and unpack the boats, run the equipment room, tieing off at dive sites, leading dives, and helping out at social events - bar tending/cokking etc.
We basically have only one more test to pass before we are Divemasters– the “Snorkel Test”. Enter a mask and snorkel with funnel attached and a couple of our instructors pouring a combination of beer, rum, coke and various other alcohols into the snorkel until the ‘victim’ spills out the snorkel and the contents to the rapturous applause of the bar or party where the skill is held.
The reefs around Utila are all pretty tropical reefs. The water is warm, about 27 degrees, so you don’t really need a wetsuit at all. There is plenty of sea life including all the old reef favourites – we have seen sharks, turtles, eaglerays, stingrays, dolphins, heaps of weird and wonderful fish, a nudi branch, WHHHHHHHALLLLLLLLLEEEE SHHHHHHHHHHHHARRRRRRKKKKKKKK and a bright orange sea horse….
The boat ride, Belize to Honduras - Instant Pirate just add Rum....
11th and 12th of March
We met Faygon, the boats owner early Friday morning and arranged to be taken by boat by one of his friends to a little town close by to clear immigration, while Faygon picked up the boat we would be taking to Belize. We waited for this friend for a while, who didn't show, so Faygon arranged for one of the guys who was milling around the dock we where waiting at to take us. The doc by the way was a boat petrol station. When we got to immmigration the officer didn't agree with what we were trying to do without some official paper work, so we had to get the boat captain on the phone to explain the situation. After a small wait we were all stamped out and ready to go (we took the captain's passport with us as well and got him stamped out without being there - never in Australia).
We got back to the pier just after 10am, ready with all our luggage and some beers and supplies for the nice, calm, two and a half hour boat ride. And we waited...and waited...and waited...We thought he was going to be there by 11 by the latest. Faygon is native to Belize and speaks mostly Creole, Spanish and some very hard to understand English. He has the best intentions but prefers to stretch the truth a little if he didn't do what he said he would. We ended up waiting until nearly 2pm before he finally arrived! We were all quite agitated when he turned up (that is being nice), after being 3 hours late and also we could see him from a distance mucking around with the boat one doc down for about an hour which didn't help. He finally turns up with the Captain and they begin to explain that the weather had turned and that if we left that afternoon we would face 8-10 foot swell in a boat that was clearly not built to handle it. After some heated discussion, and some actual non fiction, we found out that we were never going to leave early in the day as the company he works for had been using the boat all day! That would of been nice information earlier.... We decided not to risk the bad weather and he promised we would leave at 7am the next day. We tentitively agreed and spent a little while trying to work an alternataive route over a warm beer or two, but at 2pm there was no way we were going to get anywhere near where we needed to be by the next morning to catch a different ferry from a different port - we had missed the once weekly ferry from Placencia while waiting on the doc. Another thing we were a little concerned about was the fact we had been stamped out of the country in our passport and didn't leave that day. We worked out later we had 24 hours to leave the country - we were pretty sure we would be leaving the next morning, kind of.
We got to the pier just before 7am the next day and of course Faygon was nowhere to be seen. Waiting, waiting, waiting...he turned up a little after 8:30am with a new captain - he would of been all of 20 years old, named "Junior". I think Junior was roped in on the promise of partying and a free ride to Honduras. Turns out the first captain had some 'personal issues' which we later found out was a drug problem.
To describe the psyche that is Faygon a little more he had turned up in a glow in the dark t-shirt with a skull and cross bones wearing a pirate hat and the slogan "Instant Pirate - Just add rum"...classic choice of attire. We packed the boat and headed for a little village called Big Creek to clear customs with some offical paperwork for the boat. We imagined Faygon must of had to do some fast talking as they didn't reappear for almost an hour, finally we were on our way.
The boat trip was epic...A little over 80 nautical miles; the first 12 or so are protected by the reef on the Belize side, then 60 miles of open ocean, and 8 or so protected by the reef of Honduras. Faygon told us the trip would take 2 to 3 hours on a good day - which is what we were assuming and expecting....If we were in Australia there is no way we would be alowed to do this trip in this boat. The boat was all of 21 foot, had one 200 horse power engine ( no backup - except GPS and a radio - we hoped), painted red and black and was amusingly called the "hotstteppa".
For the first part of the trip the ride was ROUGH as hell. The waves were all broken up by the reef. Just imagine, bounding from one wave to the next, we would pick up some speed, stop dead (everyone would brace themselves), be airbourne for a few seconds before CRASHING onto the next wave...over and over, wave after wave....... It took an hour or so to get past the first reef, and were told the ride would be a little more comfortable for a while. He was right - all was going well, not quite so jarring, the ride was quite enjoyable.
Then the wind started to pick up.... SO did the waves, and so did the jarring landings. In the distance we could see a couple of massive storms brewing. As we went we were passing a few schools of flying fish, who would just glide for 50 meters next to us before reentering the water...very cool. Everyone had been fairly quite, especially Allie, who gets quite seasick. The waves had started to increase in size and the mood started to get a little more bleak, but Faygon got some corn chips and salsa out - he proceeded to hold the salsa to use as a dip in the middle of some quite big waves - he was being thrown all over the boat, but he insisted in serving everyone while trying not to spill this salsa - which was quite entertaining, not to mention lightening the mood a little ...The waves continued to get bigger and everyone continued to get a little more anxious, we had now been on the boat for more than 3 hours and everyone was wondering how far we had to go. Finally Faygon told us that we were a little over half way, which was good to hear, but meant we still had 3 or so hours of being tossed around in a boat. Not long later a couple of dolphins swam beside the boat for a little while jumping out of the water, and sometime after that we passed a big loggerhead turtle coming to the surface for air.
With the wind picking up and us starting to get a little wetter and a little colder the captain told us we were about to head into some rain for "10 minutes or so"....10 minutes - huh!
The storm was terrible.... We had so much salt on our faces and the rain was so hard it actually hurt when it hit your face. We got absolutely soaked. Luckily we had a tarp in the boat so none of the luggage got very wet....I felt a little stupid for wearing shorts and a t-shirt at this point after teasing Steph for bringing a raincoat. During one of the many toilet breaks (standing at the end of the boat and holding on, hoping you didnt fall in!) the captain told us that what we had been going through was nothing. He said the sea had been so big one day that the same trip had taken him 16 hours in a catamaran.Which was hard to believe as we were being thrown around in a washing machine, but still releaving at the same time. On we went, for another hour or so until we finally spotted some land! The mainland of Honduras. Everyone was quite happy to see that one - except for Faygon and the captain as it meant we had moved a little off course during the storm. After some puzzled looks into the handheld GPS we continued on, and on, and on, until we found a few islands on both sides of us. Geez we were happy to see these islands, for the last 5 hours or so we were a little less than convinced that we were going to make it in one piece. Not long after we sight Utila; the captain was visibly excited and I think somewhat relieved. We pulled into the main doc of Utila shortly after 5pm. We went straight to immigration which was closed of course- it was 5pm Saturday afternoon! So we were told to come back Monday to be stamped in and offically enter the country. We jumped back into the boat and took a little while to find the doc of the dive shop/school that the four guys we were travelling with had made arrangements to stay at.THANK GOD WE MADE IT!!!
We met Faygon, the boats owner early Friday morning and arranged to be taken by boat by one of his friends to a little town close by to clear immigration, while Faygon picked up the boat we would be taking to Belize. We waited for this friend for a while, who didn't show, so Faygon arranged for one of the guys who was milling around the dock we where waiting at to take us. The doc by the way was a boat petrol station. When we got to immmigration the officer didn't agree with what we were trying to do without some official paper work, so we had to get the boat captain on the phone to explain the situation. After a small wait we were all stamped out and ready to go (we took the captain's passport with us as well and got him stamped out without being there - never in Australia).
We got back to the pier just after 10am, ready with all our luggage and some beers and supplies for the nice, calm, two and a half hour boat ride. And we waited...and waited...and waited...We thought he was going to be there by 11 by the latest. Faygon is native to Belize and speaks mostly Creole, Spanish and some very hard to understand English. He has the best intentions but prefers to stretch the truth a little if he didn't do what he said he would. We ended up waiting until nearly 2pm before he finally arrived! We were all quite agitated when he turned up (that is being nice), after being 3 hours late and also we could see him from a distance mucking around with the boat one doc down for about an hour which didn't help. He finally turns up with the Captain and they begin to explain that the weather had turned and that if we left that afternoon we would face 8-10 foot swell in a boat that was clearly not built to handle it. After some heated discussion, and some actual non fiction, we found out that we were never going to leave early in the day as the company he works for had been using the boat all day! That would of been nice information earlier.... We decided not to risk the bad weather and he promised we would leave at 7am the next day. We tentitively agreed and spent a little while trying to work an alternataive route over a warm beer or two, but at 2pm there was no way we were going to get anywhere near where we needed to be by the next morning to catch a different ferry from a different port - we had missed the once weekly ferry from Placencia while waiting on the doc. Another thing we were a little concerned about was the fact we had been stamped out of the country in our passport and didn't leave that day. We worked out later we had 24 hours to leave the country - we were pretty sure we would be leaving the next morning, kind of.
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| The "building" (ok, shack) on the right is the immigration office..... |
To describe the psyche that is Faygon a little more he had turned up in a glow in the dark t-shirt with a skull and cross bones wearing a pirate hat and the slogan "Instant Pirate - Just add rum"...classic choice of attire. We packed the boat and headed for a little village called Big Creek to clear customs with some offical paperwork for the boat. We imagined Faygon must of had to do some fast talking as they didn't reappear for almost an hour, finally we were on our way.
For the first part of the trip the ride was ROUGH as hell. The waves were all broken up by the reef. Just imagine, bounding from one wave to the next, we would pick up some speed, stop dead (everyone would brace themselves), be airbourne for a few seconds before CRASHING onto the next wave...over and over, wave after wave....... It took an hour or so to get past the first reef, and were told the ride would be a little more comfortable for a while. He was right - all was going well, not quite so jarring, the ride was quite enjoyable.
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| The first toilet break after we got to the end of the barrier reef. The sea here was peaceful |
With the wind picking up and us starting to get a little wetter and a little colder the captain told us we were about to head into some rain for "10 minutes or so"....10 minutes - huh!
The storm was terrible.... We had so much salt on our faces and the rain was so hard it actually hurt when it hit your face. We got absolutely soaked. Luckily we had a tarp in the boat so none of the luggage got very wet....I felt a little stupid for wearing shorts and a t-shirt at this point after teasing Steph for bringing a raincoat. During one of the many toilet breaks (standing at the end of the boat and holding on, hoping you didnt fall in!) the captain told us that what we had been going through was nothing. He said the sea had been so big one day that the same trip had taken him 16 hours in a catamaran.Which was hard to believe as we were being thrown around in a washing machine, but still releaving at the same time. On we went, for another hour or so until we finally spotted some land! The mainland of Honduras. Everyone was quite happy to see that one - except for Faygon and the captain as it meant we had moved a little off course during the storm. After some puzzled looks into the handheld GPS we continued on, and on, and on, until we found a few islands on both sides of us. Geez we were happy to see these islands, for the last 5 hours or so we were a little less than convinced that we were going to make it in one piece. Not long after we sight Utila; the captain was visibly excited and I think somewhat relieved. We pulled into the main doc of Utila shortly after 5pm. We went straight to immigration which was closed of course- it was 5pm Saturday afternoon! So we were told to come back Monday to be stamped in and offically enter the country. We jumped back into the boat and took a little while to find the doc of the dive shop/school that the four guys we were travelling with had made arrangements to stay at.THANK GOD WE MADE IT!!!
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| "The Hotsteppa", to the left are the dive boats we take out everyday |
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| Faygon & Junior in the Hottsteppa |
Belize - Placencia
09/03 - 12/03
Sorry all, we are almost a month behind!
The trip back from Caye Caulker to mainland Belize was a nice little water taxi. The poor couple in our row on the left got absolutely saturated... From the ferry we jumped in a taxi, six hours and a couple of buses later we were in the quaint seaside village of Placencia.
There isn't much to Placencia. A handful of restaurants and places to stay, a couple of bars on the beach, and some ok swimming. Steph didn't even take a single photo!!!
We headed to Placencia as it is the easiest way to get to Honduras from Belize. The trip to Utila would take: a 5 hour ferry from Placencia to Puerto Cortes (Honduras), which is a ferry that runs only once a week on a Friday. From Puerto Cortes we catch the bus to San Pedro Sula for 3 hours, after a three hour wait we get a second bus from San Pedro Sula to La Ceiba, for 4 hours. We get in to La Ceiba after 9:30pm and have to spend the night and then catch a water taxi the next morning to Utila, which takes an hour or so....This trip really is quite common amoungst travellors, so it is quite strange that the route is not a little better serviced.
BUT.......
We ran into a couple we had met in Guatemala, and ran into in Caye Caulker. They had sailed from Caye Caulker to Placencia and had been told by the captain about a guy who runs a private charter that could take us from Placencia straight to Utila in a couple of hours - but it was fairly expensive...They told us briefly about the trip during a random meeting and we said we would think about it. After quite a few bus trips in a short amount of time we liked the idea of travelling solely over the water and it sounded like a bit of an adventure. If we went the traditional way a few of the towns we would be passing through in Honduras are less than desirable to drive through, let alone arrive after dark. After a few beers and some deliberation, we decided to take the charter.
The six of us on board would make the trip on the Friday, getting us there a day earlier and with much less hassell than the normal trip. We met with the owner of the boat the next afternoon, and arranged to leave early the next morning...or so we thought.
Sorry all, we are almost a month behind!
The trip back from Caye Caulker to mainland Belize was a nice little water taxi. The poor couple in our row on the left got absolutely saturated... From the ferry we jumped in a taxi, six hours and a couple of buses later we were in the quaint seaside village of Placencia.
There isn't much to Placencia. A handful of restaurants and places to stay, a couple of bars on the beach, and some ok swimming. Steph didn't even take a single photo!!!
We headed to Placencia as it is the easiest way to get to Honduras from Belize. The trip to Utila would take: a 5 hour ferry from Placencia to Puerto Cortes (Honduras), which is a ferry that runs only once a week on a Friday. From Puerto Cortes we catch the bus to San Pedro Sula for 3 hours, after a three hour wait we get a second bus from San Pedro Sula to La Ceiba, for 4 hours. We get in to La Ceiba after 9:30pm and have to spend the night and then catch a water taxi the next morning to Utila, which takes an hour or so....This trip really is quite common amoungst travellors, so it is quite strange that the route is not a little better serviced.
BUT.......
We ran into a couple we had met in Guatemala, and ran into in Caye Caulker. They had sailed from Caye Caulker to Placencia and had been told by the captain about a guy who runs a private charter that could take us from Placencia straight to Utila in a couple of hours - but it was fairly expensive...They told us briefly about the trip during a random meeting and we said we would think about it. After quite a few bus trips in a short amount of time we liked the idea of travelling solely over the water and it sounded like a bit of an adventure. If we went the traditional way a few of the towns we would be passing through in Honduras are less than desirable to drive through, let alone arrive after dark. After a few beers and some deliberation, we decided to take the charter.
The six of us on board would make the trip on the Friday, getting us there a day earlier and with much less hassell than the normal trip. We met with the owner of the boat the next afternoon, and arranged to leave early the next morning...or so we thought.
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