Into Honduras, Diving in Utila

The morning after the Acatenango climb it was up again at four with Betty from the homestay for the bus across the border to Copan Ruinas and on to La ceiba and the bay Islands in Honduras for an open water dive certification course. It was a long and uneventful journey and two days later the ferry was pulling into the port on Utila, a smallish atoll in the Caribbean about 30km offshore. It was pretty late when we got there and with so many dive schools it was impossible to make a decision on the spot so we went for the one with a free first night`s accommodation and crashed.

The next morning after a think and a bit of a look around I decided I really wasn`t that happy with the place we were staying at (the deck opened out onto a stinky polluted lagoon and the rooms were like ovens) so I decided to switch to Captain Morgans, which has accommodation out on a small cay off the main island. It was also a bit cheaper (250 US for four nights accomodation and dive course with two free fun dives). It was a good move.

As I had just missed the boat out to the cay for the day I had to stick around in town for the night and wait until the following morning, which actually turned out really cool because there were some locals guys staying at my hostel with guitars and a big bottle of rum.......


On the way out to the cay the next day I met the others who were doing the open water with me, Kristy, also from Melbourne, Scott and Helen, a cool couple from the UK, and Isabella from France via England.

Having a few beers in town


Pulling into the jetty in front of the hotel I knew straight away I had made the right choice...... stunning place.

Hotel Kayla
the jetty and sunset deck out the front


Sunset from the deck

a nice place to chill....
Looking out my window at the reef

After dumping our bags we were straight into it with our instructor Marta, watching three videos and filling out the questionaires and then into the water for a test dive in shallow water off the jetty. Had a few water up the nose issues at the start but after that was sorted I didn`t have another problem. The fish and coral are absolutely amazing in utila, like swimming around in the coolest aquarium ever.

It`s OK
The open water course went for three days and included two dives a day out on the reef or in the lagoon at the hotel, videos and quizes and an exam at the end. As certified open water divers we can now dive with another certified diver anywhere in the world as long as it is in open water with no overhead obstacles like caves or inside wrecks which requires further courses.

Swimming along
Hovering like a buddha
Once done with the open water course it was pretty hard to say goodbye to this little piece of paradise so we all decided to stay on for the three day advanced course (another 250US) which included a wreck dive, a deep water dive, a night dive, a navigation dive and a peak bouyancy dive to fine tune our bouyancy, probably the most important element in diving. After the course we had two more fun dives on the north side of the island which were the highlight for me, such a pristine reef with so much amazing wildlife, truly beautiful.

Yesterday was the last day of the course, so I`m now a certified advanced diver (after only a week!) and am seriously considering coming back to Utila after the trip to do my Divemaster course which will mean can work on a dive boat guiding other divers, soooo tempting........

Tomorrow night the dive shop is hiring a small island for a sendoff party for one of the instructors so I`m on the main island tonight stocking up on rum (2L for 12 dollars!), cigarettes and meat for the barbecue, it`s going to be a pretty sweet night.........