Scuba scuba

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY TO ALL THE LOVELY MAMAS OUT THERE READING THIS! 

And most especially to my beautiful Mama!!

Our trip across Central America is quickly turning into a trip to Utila. We love Utila. I haven't explained the amazingness of this island yet, let me begin..

When we arrived off the ferry we were both overwhelmed with how relaxed and peaceful (but still ready to party as hard as possible) everyone seemed to be. Everywhere we went people were so friendly to us and the attitude definitely has not changed in the week that we've been here. At Parrot's Dive Centre especially, the workers are so welcoming and try to make everyone feel at home. Alfredo, scuba master extraordinaire and owner of PDC, held a party at his house on Friday where it was $13 to get in and then all you could eat and drink all night. It was a pretty crazy night - he has speakers in his house that are about the size of a full couch and his house is a series of cylinders so everything is really open. I noticed that most of the people there were other travelers who were doing scuba lessons at PDC so it was a cool way to get to know everyone outside of your own class as well (the classes can become pretty cliquey pretty quick). Our class has a total of nine people in it, used to be ten but one unfortunate girl has severe asthma so was having troubles underwater on the skills sessions, and then got kidney stones and extreme traveler's diarrhea so she dropped out.. Then we have three jacked up UFC wannabe guys from Vancouver and Edmonton (but work in Fort Mac and have too much money for their own good), a slightly over-dramatic girl from Australia who seems to have a million different woes everyday but is so dramatic about them that you can't help but laugh a little, one other guy from Aus who is your typical tanned, beach hair surfer dude guy, a 30-something guy from the States who's so shy and traveling alone and seems relatively normal so we're all really curious what his back-story is, and then a scrawny little English guy named Angus, who is an absolute hoot - completely unintentionally I think. On our first open water dive (where we were actually out in the ocean and not just doing skills on a tarp in 5 metres of water) Angus, somehow, ran out of air. What's really strange is that when we got back to the surface, his regulator (the hoses that the air flows through) was working perfectly and he still had quite a bit of air left. What Mark (our instructor) thinks happened was that he started hyperventilating or something from being underwater/being too excited/etc. and just wasn't able to catch his breath properly. Either way, what a freaking scary thing to happen on your first dive! After that day we all went out for dinner together and Angus was telling us the story of his brush with death. As soon as he finished, he lit up a cigarette and ordered an espresso to calm his nerves..haha I don't know why I find him drinking and espresso and having a smoke so amusing but I think it was the whole atmosphere of that moment, plus you really have to see Angus to understand how funny it looked. He's probably in his early 20s but looks about 15 and 90lbs soaking wet. 

Anyways, back to scuba classes. Matt and I are officially Open Water Divers! We finished our last session yesterday afternoon where we went down to 18 metres and explored the amazing coral reef (second largest in the world!) off the shores of Utila. There are some incredible sights under water and seeing them first hand is indescribable. You know how amazing everything on those Planet Earth ocean videos appear? It's like that, but a million times more thrilling. It feels like flying and being able to explore a whole different world while doing so. We saw many beautiful fish and different sea life and so many unbelievable colours everywhere. It seems like everything has electricity running through it to make the colours glow on everything. 

Needless to say, Matt and I are both completely hooked on scuba diving. So much so that we've decided to prolong our stay here to do the Advanced Deep Water course! In fact, everyone in our class liked it so much that we're all staying to do it. Which means that we'll be here at least another week - hence, the trip across Central America has turned into a trip to Utila. 

With the advanced course, which we start tomorrow, we'll be going down to 30 metres right off the bat. Then we'll be doing some more skills training (like how to use compasses and navigate underwater), we'll be doing a dive down to a shipwreck called the Halliburton, and a night dive! Not to mention two free dives and another free dive that Alfredo through in for us last night which I'm most excited about: a night dive to the Halliburton! At night, and in the deeper waters is when all the big cool species come out like octopus and eels. Also at 30 metres is when divers can start experiencing something called nitrogen narcosis. Apparently, nitrogen narcosis is a lot of fun. It gives you a euphoric feeling and you usually end up just giggling or smiling uncontrollably. But it can have other effects, Mark told us a story about one guy who took out his mouth piece and was chasing fish around with it. When they were talking about it later out of the water, the guy said it was because he thought the fish needed air to breath! Although it can make you do stupid stuff at times, there will still be five supervisors down there with us to make sure we stay safe, and one of the many other reasons that you always dive with a buddy! 

Besides the diving, we have been thoroughly living it up in Utila so I figure this is a good part to add in Vanessa's post that she couldn't figure out how to post...

"yo! wheres all the stuff you don't want your mom to find out about? or are you really going to bed at 7:30pm each night? hows the music scene? whats the local drink equvilent to the sour toe?whats the big no-nos for you gringos? hows the food? anything worth mentioning? what about bugs and animals? which ones should you not lick? hummmm, i'm already looking forward to your next report...
lotsa love, nessa "

Well Ness, obviously I can't tell you about the stuff that I don't want Mama to know about because she's an avid reader! But basically no, we are definitely not going to bed at 7:30 everynight. The night scene here is pretty crazy since the majority of the people here are 20 something to 30 something year old travelers. There's a bar called Tree Tantic that we're going to tonight that has been rated the 3rd best bar in the world. We haven't been there yet but it looks CRAZY! It's been described to me as an acid trip without the acid. It's also the home of a restaurant and hotel called the Jade Seahorse which was one of the first places I looked into when planning this trip and one of the main reasons I wanted to come to Utila - check it out! 

------> http://www.jadeseahorse.com/modules/photo_gallery/category/JadeSeahorse 

The music here is pretty much just ipods playing lots of chill Caribbean style music but they play it LOUD and all day long. I haven't really found a local drink besides infused rums, everywhere. There's a little cafe that we like a lot that has jalapeno infused rum, which I have yet to try, but I'm interested in giving it a shot (haha!). The food is pretty good so long as you don't try to order anything too fancy. Everyone here is pro tortilla makers which are always delicious and I have yet to find a veggie fajita that I don't like. Also, the fish here is absolutely to die for. If any of you know me well, you'll know that up until this year, I wouldn't even touch fish. Now it's pretty much a staple food in my diet. I've been eating fresh fish (and I mean caught hours before eating it) nearly everyday. The tuna is like butter and steak mixed and I don't know how they're able to make up such incredible spice combinations but they're all so good. 

Bug and animal report: lots of sandflies. You should see my body, my left arm especially. It looks like I have a disease my arm is so covered in bumps. And they're so itchy. It's so hard to not scratch them but I've been dousing myself in bugspray and anti itch cream (thanks Sally!) for days now so they're finally starting to go down a little. Other than the sand flies, lots of little beetles and bugs. Yesterday I bought a bag a pasta to make lunch. I had just finished making it and was cleaning up the bag when I noticed a bunch of tiny beetle looking things scurrying around in the grocery bag. I just thought that they had crawled in from somewhere in the kitchen. I noticed there were some in the pasta bag so I dumped out the pasta into a bowl to try and pick them out but when I emptied the bag, about 100 of these tiny things came pouring out with it. So disgusting. I looked in the pot of pasta, still sitting in water on the stove, and saw that a ton of them were in the water, boiled to death (little f**kers). It then dawned on me that the bag of pasta itself was infested and now I'm a little weary on eating pasta. As for animals not to touch, everything in the ocean is off limits unless our instructor says we can touch it (because it could be poisonous or bite or whatever) and otherwise there aren't really any animals on the island. Just lots of cats and dogs and I know to stay away from them lest I have another brush with rabies. 

All in all this trip is amazing thus far and we're dreading having to get back on the ferry and withstand more 6 plus hour bus rides. But the time will come soon. In the meantime I'm going to thoroughly enjoy the rest of the time we have in Utila! I'm off to our hostel now to work on my homework (yeah our courses come with paperwork) and jump of the dock in front of our room! Jumping into the ocean is about the only relief to get from the humidity, plus, it gives you fantastic beach hair and is good for burns! I love that salt water.

Also, it's time for me to call my Ma and sister. Much love to everyone and especially to Mums! 

Love Christine (and Matt)