Monday 2nd July – La Ceiba to Utila.
Spent the day taking care of business in La Ceiba, waiting for the 4pm ferry out to Utila. I organised to go diving with a company called Alton’s – and they were going to pick me up at the pier and take me to the accommodation. The ferry was a nice smooth ride out to the island of Utila and took about 45minutes to get there. It was all really easy. The accommodation at the dive school was really nice and clean and was free with the diving that I was doing which was a bonus! I much preferred the island of Utila to Caye Caulker in Belize – the whole place had a very run down and ramshackle vibe no upscale resorts to speak of and the restaurants were cheap and cheerful. The whole place was totally geared towards diving. There wasn’t really anything else to do there other than a couple of walks. The Dive shop had a nice deck with some hammocks for relaxing in the afternoons after the morning dive. It was the perfect set up.
Tuesday 3rd July. Utila
This morning went on my first two dives in Honduras. We took the boat around to the north side of the island where the best reef and diving is supposed to be. The corals were awesome and we saw lots of different reef life, including a turtle and a grey nurse shark. I spent the afternoon relaxing in the hammock and reading my book by the sea. It was a perfect day.
Wednesday 4th July. Utila.
The dives today were great yet again! Today I had a local guy called Beto who was really keen to show us lots of macro life which made the dives really enjoyable. The best part however, was during the surface interval whilst the captain was moving the boat to the next dive site, we managed to encounter a pod of dolphins and were able to get into the water to snorkel with them! It was an amazing experience. I could hear them singing to each other under the water. A pair of them swam up really close to me too which was exhilarating! In the afternoon I played some cards at the dive school and had dinner with the old head of PLQ which was really nice.