Well I'd like to first say VERY HAPPY (belated) BIRTHDAY'S TO LAINA AND HALEY!!
So, let's go back a couple of days to Copan. So as you know, we've made it to Honduras. Copan was very beautiful. When we arrived (after the 7 hour van ride) it was pretty late in the evening and for whatever reason most of the hostels in town were booked up. I say for whatever reason because the busy season had passed with Semana Santa.. but apparently not so much. So we ended up treating ourselves to a hotel. It was beautiful with free breakfasts and all the drinks you wanted throughout the day - which, when it's 40 degrees and you're constantly sweating and needing to refuel, is extremely valuable for money-pinchers.
So we stayed here two days, just long enough to have a look around the ruins and see a bit of the town. The ruins are only about 1 km outside of town so we woke up early and walked over there on our first morning. The ruins were pretty impressive. The carving and structure that the Mayans were able to construct some 3000 years ago are incredible! We walked around for quite awhile, were harassed by countless guides wanting to give us a walking/horseback riding tour all for "the best precio for you senorita" but we'd just spent $37 to get into the damn place and didn't feel like spending another $25. The ruins are pretty extensive and it took us a good 2 hours to walk around the whole area. By the time we'd finished we were both extremely sweaty and our water bottles were running low so we walked back to town. It is just so humid and hot in Honduras that it's difficult to do much else than sit and stew in your own warmth, so when we got back into town that's pretty much what we did. We found a pizza joint (Matt's obsessed) which had probably some of the best pizza I've ever eaten and after that we were too full and hot to move. Back at our hostel there was a cat that just had three kittens who were about three weeks old. Playing with them quickly became one of our favourite past times at the hostel. Oh which leads to my "scare" with rabies!
We were coercing the kittens out of their home in the bamboo patch when a hideous grey bug that looked like a miniature crab crossed with lizard landed on Matt. I tried swatting it off of him but it landed on his knee and we both jump and did the standard freak-out jumpy dance thing. Well in this nonsense, I jumped up and stepped on Mama Cat's tail which rightfully earned me a claw to my heel. It was really only a scratch with the smallest amount of blood but Matt immediately started stressing out about stray cats having rabies and how I was going to die if we didn't get treatment right away and whatnot. I thought it was a bit of an over-reaction but he was so concerned that I started to get worried as well. We asked the owner of the hotel (a kind of strange, 50 something New Yorker) who said he wouldn't worry about it and that the cat has been living there for about three years now with no sign of rabies (not to mention she birthed three healthy looking kittens 3 weeks earlier), but that did not prevent Matt from having us go and do some internet research. So off we went to the internet cafe. I wrote on the blog (the last entry) and Matt looked into rabies. Well we both learned something that day: rabies is a saliva born disease! And since I was definitely not bit, had washed the wound and already put antibiotic ointment on it, the whole rabies scare was put to rest. But it was, if nothing else, a funny story and a learning experience.
Copan was lovely but besides seeing the ruins, there wasn't much more that we were wanting to do so we took off on the morning of day two for the Bay Islands. Which is where we are now!
The ferry ride to Utila (pronounced U-tee-la) was amazing! Not amazing in the sense of being beautiful (although the ocean, I find, is always quite beautiful), but more in the sense of amazingly rough/hilarious/bumpy/not what I expected at all. We hopped onto the little Utila Princess II at about 4pm. A smaller ferry with only one open cabin with row seating and high windows, and then an outdoor area with one bench to sit on right in front of the motors. The outdoor seating filled up before we could get a spot (it only fit about five people) so we, wanting to be outside, took up seats just on the floor and on some cargo boxes. Well the moment the boat took off we were both completely taken by surprise. It shot off and knocked both of us off our feet. As we tried to regain our composure we knocked around by the ocean waves, already pounding against the side of the boat. We stayed outside for about 10 minutes or so but the shrill squealing of the engine drove us inside. Inside was a whole different story. While outside, the boat was obviously rocky but being able to see the ocean and the waves I guess is somewhat of a stabilizer. Once inside we noticed just how much the boat was being tossed about. Each wave seemed as though it could've easily engulfed us, we were tossing and rocking every which way and soon learned why this particular boat was nicknamed the "Vomit Comet". There were actually people all around us throwing up into the bags that the crew passes out at the dock. Thankfully Matt and I both had no problem with the rocking boat but the smell and sound of people puking lead us back outside pretty quickly, although about 15 minutes from shore, a lady sitting on the outdoor bench threw up all over the floor anyway.. there was really no escaping the puke.
On the ferry we met a couple from Utila, the girl (Yuyu) works for a diving company called Parrots and her boyfriend (Danny) is a native of the island and one of the boat captains for Parrot's diving. Yuyu ended up offering us a free night accommodation and offered us a guide around the Parrot's diving school. It didn't take much to have us signed on to their open water program. I know it's recommended to look around at the different schools and shop around for the best deals and teachers but there are just so many and they all bombard you right as you come off the ferry so we kind of just went with the first people we met.
As it turns out, Parrot's diving is quite wonderful, but on to that in a moment! Parrot's hotel was in a complete dive (haha pun intended?) and we've since moved to a nicer place where it's only $17 per night for a beautiful beach front room, hot showers (not that we need them) and fresh linens. The diving is fantastic! We started our open water 2 days ago with an orientation with our instructor, named Mark from England - he's been diving for nearly 10 years - and the rest of our class. There is a total of 10 people in the classroom work but we were split into two groups to do the water training. Yesterday was both mine and Matt's first time ever breathing underwater! It's an incredible feeling. Mark's a great teacher, he's really patient and outgoing - so much so that he almost seems fake at times but I think that's just his attitude. Either way, I feel completely safe in his care underwater. Our first scuba diving experiences were in one metre and 3 metres of water for a total of about two hours learning basic skills and underwater signals. The first 10 minutes or so that I was under, I think I was a little nervous because I was having difficulty catching my breath and could only think about coming back up to the surface to take a deep inhale of fresh air. It's really a matter of mind power though and I was able to calm myself down, catch my breath, and enjoy the experience. I'm now a pro a clearing my mask of water below the surface. I didn't even realize that was possible and was always so curious how scuba divers either 1) managed to not get any water in their masks while diving or 2) weren't bothered by water in their mask while diving, because it inevitably seems to happen! Well, turns out its a pretty easy trick of taking a deep breath in and facing your head down then breathing out through your nose while pushing the top of your mask slightly up and off your face while lifting your head back. I was most impressed with how easy and effective this is. We also learned how to breath through the regulator with only half of it in your mouth and the other half shooting bubbles and air out, what it feels like to be low on air and out of air underwater (and the appropriate signals for each), and then how to ask your buddy to share air, and about 20 other basic skills for our future diving careers! Matt caught on to everything really quickly and was doing everything right on his first try. He got lots of underwater fist pounds and hand clapping. The two dive mater instructors and dive masters in training that were with us underwater were all very encouraging and patient with us, it makes all the difference to feeling safe and secure underwater.
Today we only have a classroom session while the other group gets to do their first day in the water and then tomorrow we get to go out into a bit deeper water to learn a few more skills before our first reef dive! In total we'll have 4 dives with the program and two free dives after completion. I am hooked to say the least and so excited for the reef dives!
I still have so much more that I could write about the beautiful Caribbean weather, Matt's insane whole-back sunburn, the crabs that are literally everywhere on the streets at night (one scittered over Matt's foot at dinner the other day and he SHOT up screaming "a crab bit me!"), and the overall amazement of everything on this little tropical island but I'd say that's about enough for one sitting. I'll try to get back on here more frequently now that we're in one place for awhile so that I don't end up writing anymore novels like this. Also I'll try and figure out how to put up pictures, haven't found a place to upload them to comps yet.
Miss everyone very much and will be telling more stories soon!
Much love, Christine (and Matt)
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