The Wandering Waterman

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!