I Scuba Do! Do You?

We got up early and headed to the border for what we expected to be a chaotic event. The Honduras border experience the last two times was something else, this time however we were pleasantly surprised that there were no “helpers” swarming us, posted fee schedules, and a couple of helpful border officials. We were through in an hour, which is a personal best.

From the border we stayed on CA1 through never ending road construction all the way to Comayagua. This was a good spot to overnight it, so we found a hotel and called it quits. We actually ate supper at a Pizza Hut, how disappointing, we don’t even eat there at home never mind in Honduras.
We made it to La Ceiba the next day and made arrangements to go to the Island of Utila, via a ferry. This meant we had to leave the bikes in the trusted hands of our hotel security guards. We sure hope that we don’t get out-bid and return to an empty parking stall.

The purpose of going to Utila is to get my open water scuba certification. The island and Captain Morgan’s dive shop were recommended to us, and they are also one of the most affordable places in the world to get certified. The process takes 4 days and includes some classroom time and of course some time in the water. To our surprise the morning after we landed on Utila we were transported to Jewel Cay (pronounced key), where the actual dive school is located. Included in the price of the course is accommodations at Hotel Kayla which is right on the end of the Cay.



After the culture shock of the island, this is about 1.5km long and two or three houses wide, shoreline accommodating.





We got settled into the hotel and had our pick of rooms as we were the only guests, we actually ended up switching rooms in the middle of the night as a storm blew in and the wind was howling and we could not sleep. This was the first day of scuba school so there was a few hours of theory then we hit the water just off the peer for a “closed water dive” that involved a few of the basic skill tests. There was a 200m surface swim that Brenda just kicked the three boys’ butts on, then we did some underwater stuff. This is where Brenda’s day went downhill, she could not equalize the pressure in her ears (like on a plane at altitude when you have to pop your ears), so she felt like her head was in a vice the entire time. When we hit the surface again and she was able to speak the first thing she said was “I hated every second of it.” Thus ended her scuba experience. I on the other hand had a great experience and continued on to get my certification. So, over the next 4 days I spent my mornings doing scuba stuff while Brenda relaxed and read a book. In the afternoons we would walk the Cay, eat a late lunch or early supper, then visit with the instructors or sleep. It was very relaxing to say the least.

Dive school in the rain.

We met some very nice people that came to the Cay to dive. Also, because the Cay is so small it took about 1.5 hours to start seeing familiar faces. We also figured out “the system” on the Cay. Breakfasts were best at the place with no name that is owned by La Negra (the black woman), she also supplies the island with Baleadas (tortillas with beans, cheese, egg, meat or any combination thereof. These make a great light snack and are portable. Snacks are covered by the green store, homemade donuts, ginger cookies, cocnut candy etc. For supper there are 3 restaurants to choose from, of which we only visited 2 because the third one was not open. Both we patronized had excellent food and a friendly lady running the place. The Cayview was run by a lady who spoke Garfuni English (sounds like Creole from New Orleans), the other was Fishburgers and that lady spoke no English. The island is made up of only a few families, the ones that speak English have English family names like Diamond, Nelson etc. The Spanish speaking residents have very Spanish names that I will not try to spell, so considering that there is only 500 people on the Cay, there is a language barrier. Although most of the little kids speak both because they all play together. There are also 5 churches on the Cay; Baptist, Seventh Day Adventist, Catholic, Anglican, Methodist. I am not sure how the population is divided but it is funny to think of the demographics. 100 each and what if there is a convert, Oooo the scandal, and what about a mixed marriage, oh the controversy. There is a fella that runs a water taxi to Utila but most of the men from the Cay end up being Captains on ships all over the world, apparently they are also some of the best in the world.
Leaving the island was a bit of a guessing game, as the weather was still bad, the ferry was not running until maybe Sunday. This being Friday, it was to long to wait for a “maybe”, so we managed to get onto the local airplane that puddle jumps back and forth from the mainland. $55USD/each and 9 minutes in the air found us back in La Ceiba. We were travelling with some of the other divers from the Cay. Michael from Australia ended up sharing a room with us back at our hotel. He was travelling alone so it only made sense to offer the second bed in our room, he is a private contractor and even owns a rental property, imagine that. Oh ya, the bikes were fine, all intact no missing parts. We all went out for supper then crashed for the night.