fight2type

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Honduras

Continuing the series of posts I've written and never actually posted...

When I found a $200 ticket to Honduras, I thought I'd hit the jackpot. The alternative was a $60 bus ticket to Panama (5+ hours), plus $2 bus ride (another 40 minutes) and $6 water taxi (40 minutes-ish)each way to get to Bocas del Toro. I'd been to Bocas before, I'd never been to Honduras. I'd be flying into San Pedro Sula (1 hour flight) and could just hop the bus to La Ceiba to the ferry and head to Utila. Seemed simple enough.

Turns out the bus ride to La Ceiba is 3.5 hours. And the ferry and buses don't coordinate schedules, so I couldn't actually get the ferry to Utila until the next morning. This is a weekend trip, time is precious. I find out that there is local airline that flies to Utila from San Pedro Sula. Score! The ticket is $136. WHAT?!?!? Oh well, whatever, I just want to get to Utila so that I can spend all of Saturday diving. I book the ticket. (Don't get me started on the unresponsiveness of the travel agency and the stress they caused me). I arrive at the San Jose airport and patiently wait for my flight.

For whatever reason the flight left late. When we touched down in San Pedro Sula, I was grateful to only have my small backpack as I zipped through customs and immigration in record time. I ran to the Sosa counter to be told, NOPE! Sorry, the flight has already pulled away. You can catch the same flight tomorrow afternoon! Oh good, I'll arrive at 3:30pm on Saturday afternoon and have to catch the 6am ferry back. And there will be NO diving! After checking with the other puddle-jumper airline and confirming that there was no way to make it to the island that night, I finally conceded and walked out of the airport, hopped in a cab and headed to the bus station.

Knowing I had about 30 minutes before the next bus left and three hours to wait for the one after that, I kindly asked the driver if he could please hurry. He understood completely, agreed, told me he thought we would make it on time, and proceeded to pull over to put more gas in the car!! As we drove at a leisurely pace I started to envision the joy of being stuck at a bus stop for three hours. Of course I was snapped back to an even less pleasant reality every time the driver came to a light and while stopped, opened the door to hock a loogie. EW!

I go rushing into the bus station (again grateful that I have learned to go minimalist and only had a small backpack) and stand in line watching the clock tick – 2 minutes until the bus is supposed to leave. A guy on the other side of the room shouts over the line asking if there are any tickets left for that bus. She says yes and waves him forward. I immediately shout, “Is there another one?” and go running up to the desk. Once on the bus I stop and breathe and take a moment to realize how my Spanish skills just got me that bus. YAY! Score one for Spanish skills!

I spent a good portion of the trip chatting with a lesbian couple from New York, dozing in and out of sleep, and reading a little. When I finally arrive in La Ceiba I realize I have no idea where to go. I'd done a little research, but when I decided to buy the flight to the island, I'd stopped looking for hostels in La Ceiba. I asked the guy at the bus station if there was somewhere nearby that I could use the internet. He pointed to a mall “across the street” so I headed out the door in search of the mall.

By this time it was dark and I was alone walking down the street – not awesome! I make it to the mall (which was down about 2 blocks, across two streets and a parking lot... NOT just across the street!) and pull out my laptop and am actually able to connect to the wifi. I find a place that looks decent and is cheap and since I have no way to call, just hop in a cab and have them take me there.

Upon arriving the guy working there handed me a phone and I proceeded to talk (in English) to the owner who told me the price, said he could get me to the ferry in the morning and that there would be breakfast if I wanted it. He then assured me that his cousin, the guy standing in front of me, would show me my room and help me if I needed anything. After hanging up, the guy looks at me and asks if I speak Spanish. I reply that I do and he says he didn't think I spoke Spanish and that's why he gave me the phone. (Thanks for assuming that the blond, white girl is incapable of communicating!) I settled into my room on the second floor and headed up to the 3^rd floor balcony (apparently the only area with wifi – not sketch at all) to catch up on facebook and chat with a couple friends online.

The ferry ride the next morning was rather uneventful and the guy I was couch surfing with met me at the dock as planned. We walked to his apartment on the other end of the island and he pointed out a couple dive shops and bars along the way (these two things sum up all there is to do on Utila). His apartment sits right on the water and we chatted on the balcony for a bit before I headed off to find some diving.

I found a shop where they were somewhat hesitant to put me on the boat, because most of the other divers were new and were just doing the “Discover Scuba Diving” program – meaning they weren't actually certified. I told them that it had been two to three years since my last dive, and that I really didn't mind being with beginners. They agreed to have an instructor run through the basic skills with me again and put me on the boat. SCORE!!

The instructor (with a VERY thick French accent) ran through a flip chart of info (retreiving your reg, clearing your mask, clearing your reg, etc.) and we headed out on the boat. I was surprised by how many people there were and started to think maybe I made a mistake when I said I was okay on a boat with beginners. To my pleasant surprise, when we arrived at the dive site, the instructor who went through the flip chart refresh with me told me to hop in the water. He followed and then the rest of the group went a different direction. Private dive! SCORE!

We swam over to shallow area and he had me demonstrate my skills, and then we were off. We did two dives (the second in a different location) and sadly did not have any whale shark sitings, but I did see Trumpet fish, several varieties of Angel Fish, Trunkfish, Cowfish, Porcupine fish, a pretty large Great Barracuda, one tiny Lion Fish, beautiful Spotlight Parrotfish and Brown Garden Eel (lots more, but those were the cool things). After the second dive my instructor asked, for a second time, how many dives I'd been on. He then complimented me on my diving considering how little experience I have and how long it had been since I'd been in the water. I told him the truth... I had an awesome teacher!

That night the guy I was couch surfing with took me to some of the local bars. I found the concept of “Rehab” amusing. The walkway from the road to the bar has steps 1 – 12 painted on it. And there is a wall of shame that has pics of rehab legends like Britney Spears, Lindsey Lohan and more.

The next morning I was out the door bright and early to catch the ferry back to the main land. I managed to make the rest of my journey (cab to bus station, bus to airport, plane back to paradise) seamlessly. Not exactly as planned, but I got to dive and got another 90 days in paradise, so overall - Success!

posted at 11:36 AM :: 1 comments