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.........

Birthday and Acatenango climb

My birthday turned out to be great! After dinner I was finishing a beer and thinking of heading out when I was mysteriously told to go outside and was greeted by Jaun Carlos (the father of the Family) grinning mischieviously whilst lighting a big row of fire crackers (they were LOUD!!)


They were thrown in front of the neighbours house!



Next came a cake with candles and then the traditional cake biting ritual with a face smushing as well

Thanks Betty!


And a couple of rounds of Mezcal to finish


Headed out on the town afterwards for some drinks with and to see some live guatemalan music with the guys from school.

Here are some more pics of various things around Antigua:

At school with my teacher Delia

At the reptile park with a cool but really stinky snake

The family (I´m the one up the back with the tiny head)

The day before I left Antigua I went on a hike with Liam and Andrea (two other students from the school) up Acatenango, one of the volcanoes overlooking town.

The one on the right side, Fuego is the one nextdoor with smoke billowing out

We started the drive out there at five in the morning (ouch) stopping for a quick sunrise pic on the way

And began the ascent through farmlandRainforestopen pine forestand finally misty moonscape

With some impressive views on the way up

As you can see the views weren´t great at the very top so after sitting around on the summit freezing our arses off for half an hour we attempted to descend. That is the guide attempted to seem like he knew where he was going. He didn´t. We wandered around in the fog getting more and more lost until eventually we suggested that we turn around, go back to the start and try again. This time our guide decided to leave us on the summit along with all of his gear in the blasting icy wind and try to find the path himself. After half an hour Andrea was starting to shiver uncontrollably and in a thin, wet hoodie at 3800 metres that is not such a good thing. We were just about to head down without the guide when he came trotting back in just his singlet, having taken off his jacket and fleece to mark the path?!?! and then creeping around in the fog until he found us again. For his sake I´m glad he did, this was no place to get around in a singlet!

The descent was fine after that and we actually made great time back to the trailhead, taking 3 1/2 hours to climb and less than two to get back down. Absolutely bucketted down though which was not a problem for me but the others didn´t have raincoats for some reason so they were not exactly having the time of their lives.

Pretty shattered after the tough climb at altitude we were looking forward to a nice meal and a snooze back at town when we were informed that despite being expressly told we would have a shuttle van to pick us up we actually had to wait nearly an hour for the local chicken bus. This turned into a two and a half hour journey of indescribable torture however there was a nice interlude of a lady falling asleep next to me with her breast exposed.

It was a day to remember that´s for sure...........

Antigua and Lago de Atitlan

Have been at school now for one and a half weeks and whilst I can kind of get the gist of written spanish to hear and speak it is still kinda tough. It`s a little discouraging too when we play group games and the other students are all way better than me........ still I know how to say ¨cheese is good¨ and ¨I like the table¨, very important phrases.

Being pretty much THE place to study spanish in Latin America there are heaps of other backpackers here and the nightlife is ridiculous (50 cent cuba libres anyone?) so staying focused on studying is not the easiest thing. I`m pretty much just trying to get as much of it written down as possible and actually learn and practise it later on as I travel.

The view from Cerro de la Cruz, a hill above town

Mi Casa

Cheeky neighbourhood kids, at least they`re not inside on the computer all day....

Antigua was the capital of the spanish colony in Central America from discovery through to 1773 when a massive earthquake destroyed the entire city, which was one of the most beautiful in the Americas at the time. Rather than keeping the capital in such a volatile area (there were and still are many other earthquakes, and there are three huge volcanos close by) the city was left mostly in ruins and the government shifted to present day Guatemala city. Most of the current buildings date from just after the earthquake when the city was partially rebuilt but on a far more modest scale, with very few buildings over two stories high and all with very thick walls. The enormous churches were stripped of their riches and mostly left as they fell right through to the present day, most streets have a large ruin of some sort on them. All of this means that Antigua today has a very even, historical look with every street lined with modest but still very pretty houses and shops from the late 1700s, cobblestone streets (sometimes doubling as rivers), nice little parks and the occaisional ruin here and there. Being Guatemala`s prime tourist destination it`s also very clean and suspiciously free of stray animals.....

One of the many ruined churches

Local ladies washing clothes in the town washing well

The only downside is that it pours rain every afternoon and also at random and sudden points throughout the day, meaning a fool like me who always forgets his umbrella gets soaked at least once a day..........

On the weekend I bussed over to Lago de Atitlan to have a look and a night out and was really impressed. The lake is in a huge ancient crater surrounded by steep mountains and three big volcanos, all covered with thick jungle, with several small towns on the shore.

Vulcan San Pedro

The dock in San Pedro with boats to Panajachel and the road out of town. Note the indio`s nose in the background....

I stayed in San Pedro (it was the cheapest) and after sneaking in a nice afternoon stroll along the paths that wind through the farms around the lake I headed out for dinner and a few beers. Afterwards, with everything closing at 1am me and an english guy bought some takeaways and followed a local down a sloppy track to an ¨afterparty¨ with ¨muchas chicas ¨. In Guatemala apparently this means two guys drinking in their kitchen so after half an hour of broken spanish and awkward silences we politely necked our beers and got the hell out of there. The next morning a baby chicken walked into my room. I was on the second floor too, weird......

Today being my birthday I`m about to go out and grab a nice expensive meal, then possibly take a nap, and then head out on the town for still more beer. I think two weeks in antigua is about enough for my liver.......

Tulum to Antigua

For some reason I completely forgot about Tikal amd Flores in between Belize and Antigua??!! Anyway here is a revised version....


The Cenote trip was amazing to say the least. Imagine a huge network of caves and tunnels with stalagmites and stalagtites protruding everywhere, filled with impossibly clear water and stocked with multitudes of small fish. Because the water was so clear it wasn`t really like swimming at all, more like floating through space, and the surface of the water looked like a mirror from underneath which gives you a weird sensation of swimming upside down. The tips of the stalagtites poking into the surface of the water from above were particularly strange, like upside down islands in a mirror sea. I really wish I had an underwater camera to show some pics, it was truly surreal........

The water here is actually maybe four metres deep

The guide was a strange mexican version of Gus from the hostel in Nelson, Really cool guy.

A comparitively sand free sleep later in the beach hut it was south to the border town of Chetumal for an early morning bus down to Flores, Guatemala via Belize.

After another forgettable bus ride through Belize (Belize is apparently really nice but the part I saw was super dull) and a stop to pay 15 dollars for the privelege it was into Flores in the afternoon to another cool hostel, Los Amigos. Flores is an old colonial town built on and entirely covering a small island in the Lago del Peten Itza, conected to the mainland by a causeway; very picturesque.

A typical house in Belize ( I had to have at least one picture of Belize )

Aside from the pretty little town the reason to visit these parts is to explore the majestic and very atmospheric ruins at Tikal to the north. I started chatting to a british guy while waiting for the bus the next morning and we spent the day clambering up and trying not to fall off the massive temples. Monkeys, insects, lizards and colourful birds everywhere and the view from the top of the temples was amazing. It is a shame I didn`t come here a few years ago, apparently you could bribe a guard and spend the night on top of a temple, getting up to watch the sun rise.....

This temple was 57 metres high

And the stairs were no fun in the rain....

Two of the many spider monkeys swinging aound the place, with the tops of temples in the background

The next morning I boarded yet another long distance bus down to Antigua, via Guatemala city. I was still a couple of hours from Guatemala City when I noticed it was rapidly getting dark and trust me, Guatemala city is no place to wander around at night.....

Luckily I started chatting to a really nice Guatemalan lady who was returning to the city after working the week as a doctor in the remote jungle communities around Coban who offered to help me. Turns out her mother who was picking her up from the bus station was also dropping off a cousin at the Antigua bus stop afterwards and they could take me there and also help me find a cheap place to stay in Antigua, Sweet as.....

The cousin and her boyfriend were both heading to Antigua for the weekend to work as volunteer firefighters/paramedics and after showing me around the station we found a cheap (but grotty) hotel for me and headed out on the town for some beers.

The next day was School hunting day and once again a ridiculously helpful person stepped in to guide me, this time a man from the local tourist information centre. He took me around to seven different schools and introduced me to the directors and after over four hours of comparing I decided on the one that gets the best write up in pretty much every guidebook and website, the Atigueña spanish academy. After a bit of haggling I had the price down to $170US p.w. for four hours of class a day and accomodation and all meals with a local family, which is actually far cheaper than travelling, nice!

Some chicken buses in town with volcun agua in the distance

There are five other students staying in the house so the feel is more like a backpackers than anything but the showers are hot, the food is tasty and I have a nice big comfy bed. With clean sheets too, so luxurious.

Have just finished day three of class with my teacher Delia and am off on an excursion to a macadamia farm with the other students, hopefully no rain today but there is a big black cloud on its way, fingers crossed.......

More Antigua pics when it stops raining!