The Wandering Waterman

Day 4 in Utila, and I LOVE it! The diving here is spectacular, seen whale sharks, turtles (2 already!), barracuda (sing it if you know it), and tons of reef life. 100 foot visibility at times, average 50-70 feet, water temp has been between 75 to 82, but coming from California diving that is 3mm wetsuit, no hood, no gloves, “what are you a wuss, this ain’t cold!?!” kind of diving, and I’m loving it!

Utopia dive resort is also top notch, I highly recommend it so far, though if you’ve got sweet blood like mine, make sure you bring some bug repellent, the sand flies will drain you. Apparently, they’re not always present, so it’s basically a roll of the dice… do you feel lucky? The owners I’ve met so far, Angelika, Kyle, and Roxanne, have been gracious hosts, and have a great story about how this place got started, read it here: Washington Post these women are great examples of strong women taking action, we can all learn something from their story.

Alright, still two more days of diving, still hunting Whale Sharks, fingers crossed, need to shoot some sellable clips. I’ll post again once I’m home, will give it all a proper review and let you all know what I recommend…

So, I’ve been in Honduras for 4 days now, on Utila for three, and I’m loving it. The flight down here took forever, left L.A. at 12:50am, transferred in Houston at 9am, after a 3 hour layover, and got to San Pedro Sula at around noon. Stepped off that nice air-conditioned plane, and stood there wondering what the hell I was doing wearing jeans, as I got smacked in the face by the full force of Central American jungle humidity! If I’d had any hair it would’ve wilted.

Stayed the night at the Tamarindo Hostel, a basic hostel, run by Angela, a very good musician and jazz singer, and her associate Doña Maria, who, like most older Latina women, seemed to be hooked on novelas, since the television was tuned to one at every hour of the day. It’s a great little place, secure, you have to buzz in and out, and in a more suburban location, away from the center of town. For $11 a night, it was a great deal! Now, the only reason one should be in San Pedro Sula it seems, is you live there, you’re doing business there, or you’re on your way to, or from, somwhere else. The city really has nothing to attract visitors. I’m not bad-mouthing the town, I’m sure the locals love the place, but from a tourist point of view, there’s just not much to do there. I did a walk around, saw nothing but houses and fast food joints, decided it looked too much like Northern Florida, and went back to the hostel, where I promptly fell asleep at 8pm for the next 12 hours!

The next day we had to take a bus ride over the mountains to the city of La Cieba in order to catch our ferry to Utila, since our flight had been canceled. Now, I driven through the streets of New York City, survived the avenues of Manila, and faced down the 405 during rush hour traffic on a Friday afternoon, so I’m solid when it comes to traffic involved excitement… except, it seems, when riding in a mini-bus ona Honduran Highway! Apparently drivers here have the uncanny ability to see around blind-curves! What else would explain their decisions to pass each other on these curves? We had a few near misses, and all I have to say is thank god for my iPod, put those headphones in, turn up Johnny Winter, close those eyes and hope we make it to our destination! The driver was rushing because we HAD to make it to the ferry by 4pm, because, in his words, “They will not wait for anyone, they say 4pm and they leave at 4pm on the dot!” We left at 4:25pm… on the dot….

The resort, Utopia Dive Village is nice, newly built in the last 3 years, owned and run by a group of American friends, and based on an Eco/Green philosophy. Have to say, this place rocks! Air conditioning and fans in the rooms, a Grade A chef, pool table, friendly people, this place is perfect… though they do have one little request that seems to make every guest go “huh?” It seems they have a special kind of toilet/sewer system installed, and it seems that toilet paper tends to mess up this special system, so they ask that you not throw toilet paper in the bowl… just put it in the waist bin… sorry, just grimaced a bit… anyways, I, of course, keep forgetting that rule, and have now fished out toilet paper from the bowl, oh, a half dozen times. Yeah, let that image sink in a bit… grossed out yet? I just have to thank God that I haven’t had anything bad to eat… ok, we’ll leave it at that!

The dive operation U Dive, is awesome, and our dive masters, Juan Carlos “Huka”, and Gina, are pros, really taking us to some great dive spots. I highly recommend this place so far! The diving…well, yesterday was our first day out, and we hadn’t been out more than 30 minutes, when shouts of “Tiburon Ballena!” Filled the air… WHALE SHARK! They hadn’t seen any in awhile, and our first 30 minutes in the water we hit it! You snorkel up, sit on the rear of the boat, and when you’re given the signal, you slide into the water and snorkel around, looking for the spots that will tell you WHALE SHARK! This was my first time experiencing Whale Sharks, and 3 Sharks in an hour’s time, it was incredible! The rest of the trip, we dove two sites, and have to say, the reef life is incredible, just beautiful, AND unlike my story on Fiji… I wasn’t running a Marathon underwater, nice and easy!

Todays’ dives were equally exceptional, we first did the wreck of the Haliburton, a small ship specifically sunk for divers, and then, after an hour surface interval, we dove Black Coral Reef, a spectacular little reef covered in, what else, Black Coral! All my dives, except for the wreck have been at least an hour,, water temperature has been in the high 70’s low 80’s and I’ve been getting some great video, which I’ll post when I get home.

We’re doing our night dive tonight, as long as the sea stays calm, and tomorrow we’re off to search for more Whale Sharks… wish us luck!

Alright, so it’s been awhile since I’ve posted here. Wish I could say it’s because I’ve been traveling the world, filming amazing footage, hobnobbing with the Cousteaus…. but I’ve just been lazy… yep, a lazy diver, imagine that?

Anyways, I’m about to leave to Utila in less than a week’s time, and I’m ready to gogogogogogogo now! Everything has been checked, double checked, triple checked and sitting in the corner waiting to go… or to be checked again!My wife Maria says I’m like a kid at Christmas…. of course I am, I’m going diving with Whale Sharks! Who wouldn’t want that day to roll in already? I know, I know, I was this excited back in October when I went down to La Paz for Whale Sharks and came back with footage of everything BUT Whale Sharks. I’m not one to be disappointed though, and I think they’re all just kicking back down in Honduras!

I’m staying at the Utopia Dive Village, an Eco-friendly resort run by a few Americans. It’s isolated, supposed to have an amazing house reef, and just be a great place to dive out of. I’ll be posting daily here while I’m there… they have WiFi, and I’ll let you know what the overall experience is like.

Here’s some info on Whale Sharks, courtesy of National Geographic:

As the largest fish in the sea, reaching lengths of 40 feet (12 meters) or more, whale sharks have an enormous menu from which to choose. Fortunately for most sea-dwellers—and us!—their favorite meal is plankton. They scoop these tiny plants and animals up, along with any small fish that happen to be around, with their colossal gaping mouths while swimming close to the water’s surface.

The whale shark, like the world’s second largest fish, the basking shark, is a filter feeder. In order to feed, it juts out its formidably sized jaws and sucks in everything in the vicinity. It then shuts its mouth, forcing water to filter out of its gills. Everything that remains becomes the giant shark’s dinner.

The whale shark’s flattened head sports a blunt snout above its mouth with short barbels protruding from its nostrils. Its back and sides are gray to brown with white spots among pale vertical and horizontal stripes, and its belly is white. Its two dorsal fins are set rearward on its body, which ends in a large dual-lobbed caudal fin (or tail).

Preferring warm waters, whale sharks populate all tropical seas. They are known to migrate every spring to the continental shelf of the central west coast of Australia. The coral spawning of the area’s Ningaloo Reef provides the whale shark with an abundant supply of plankton.

Although massive, whale sharks are docile fish and sometimes allow swimmers to hitch a ride. They are currently listed as a vulnerable species; however, they continue to be hunted in parts of Asia, such as Taiwan and the Philippines.

Alright, keep coming back, especially after the 13th, that’s when I land in Honduras!