Last part (4 years later..)

Was just reading my blog and found out that my last story is missing... It's almost 4 years ago that I wrote it, but it's nice to have this blog complete, so here it is:

So on Tuesday I arrived in Tegucigalpa, Honduras' capital, but initially I thought we had stopped in some village to have a lunchbreak, because that's how it looked.. So I decided not to waste the rest of my day there and three Californian students that were on the same bus had the same plan as me (going to the north, the island Utila) and I heard the people from the bus company telling them how they could get to La Ceiba (from where the boats to Utila leave) the same day. So I joined their taxi, the bus to La Ceiba (again I slept from the beginning to the end) and their hotel room and also the ferry the next morning.

So we arrived at Utila (after quite a heavy boat ride of an hour, a few children couldn't control their stomachs, lovely smell..) and I didn't need to look or the diving schools, they came looking for me. I walked with the friendliest and seemingly most reliable person (she was half Dutch, that probably helped) to the diving school she represented, got some explanation from an instructor and we sealed the deal for $260, which included the basic open water course with PADI certificate, accommodation (6 nights) and two free "fun dives". Then I walked around a little and was happy to see that there at least enough restaurants to choose from, the lack of which had bothered me on the other islands (again, spoiled..). The same evening we started with our theory class about diving basics, about the important guidelines to follow, risks, Archimedes etc.

The next day we continued our classroom sessions, quickly showed that we could really swim and we had the afternoon free, which I made use of by doing absolutely nothing. In the evening we went out for dinner with the course group.

The following morning we had another classroom session and in the afternoon we finally got to see the diving gear. We had to prepare it 5 times before we were allowed to try it on and enter the water. In the water we had to do all kind of exercises, like simulating loss of air, swim without mask, removing and replacing weight belt and stuff like that. So it was not really comfortable and relaxed (what diving is supposed to be), but everything went well and I guess it was a good preparation for the actual diving (this was all done in water of 2.5m high or so). When we came back to the dock we saw a very rare animal (considering the location), a cow had jumped in the sea and the villagers were trying to get it back into the water...

The next day we had to wake up very early and be at the dock at 6.30 to prepare the dive. It seemed that waking up extremely early for 8 months did make it easier for me, because I had to wake up almost everybody else at 6.25. We prepared our stuff and left on the boat to "Black Coral Wall". It turned out to be like an aquarium like I know it from the zoos, with the coloured fish (many of them named after an animal that lives above sea, eagle ray, parrot fish, cow fish etc), coral etc. It was a strange and interesting experience to be underwater so long and so deep, the time went really fast, so that was a good sign. We came up again, really slowly so that no nitrogen bubbles would form in our body. Then we stayed above water a while and went to another diving spot where we saw similar stuff, we just had to do some more exercises here, like taking off our masks underwater. After this dive we had a quick theoretical review and then we had the rest of the night off.

The next day it was kind of the same story, we dived deeper, but we didn't see many new or spectacular things, only the eagle rays kept amazing us. When we came up from the second dive we were certified divers and we had the rest of the day off.

We're on Monday now and the course was over, but we still had the right to 2 more "fun dives", so in the afternoon we dived for fun and saw more similar stuff. This time we swam through a small cave, but that was the most exciting thing. So I liked the diving, but I had hoped for more spectacular views (seeing the whalesharks that are around some times of the year would have been nice, for example). Maybe I'll dive again in the future if I happen to be near a beautiful dive spot, but I won't travel to places just to dive, also because of the costs, because it is quite expensive. At night we went out for dinner with the course group and then had some drinks, but I didn't go to sleep late, my energy level was still not back to 100%, I guess the climate doesn't really help.

The next day was my last day on Utila and I woke up at 9.30, used the internet for a while, had lunch and then tried to buy a ticket for the ferry back to the mainland. But apparently the ferry was broken and it would not go that day anymore, so I was there with 20 other backpackers and some locals thinking about what to do next. Fortunately the other boat owners on the island heard about the ferry soon and they came to offer their services. So we got into one of the boats and after 1 minutes the port authority came to order us out of the boat, as the boat did not have the right papers. The captain did not feel like getting into any problems, so he took off. But a while later two other boats showed up and the captain of the boat I picked knew how to play the game and went inside with the officials and apparently he had offered them a high enough bribe, because half an hour later we left with his boat to the mainland where we arrived safely after a ride that was more comfortable than the one with the ferry. Upon arrival the captain seemed relieved and shouted "we made it!", I hope it was no serious relieve.. maybe just happiness because of all the money he had made and was going to make, because he could take a full boat back to Utila. Anyway, I continued my trip and took a taxi to the bus station where I bought my ticket for Guatemala for the next morning and then checked into a decent hotel, where I spent the rest of the evening eating pizza and watching TV.

The day after I left very early to San Pedro Sula to take the bus to Guatemala from there. It was a 3 hour ride and from San Pedro another 9.5 hours to Guatemala. Once we had paid our bribes (small ones) at the border and we were in Guatemala I called some friends to announce my arrival and make sure that I had a place to stay that night. When we arrived to Guatemala City in the evening and I saw the familiar places that I had walked through for a year and later I met my friends, I was surprised more than by anything else on my trip: I was happy to be back in Guate! So an unexpected but good feeling.. That evening I had dinner with my friends and then Alberto, my Italian housemate, managed to convince me to go out with our houseowner in zone 1, so a little while later I was drinking Gallo in a crappy bar in the historic center, but fortunately we didn't get back too late, because I was still a little tired from the trip.

On my second day in Guate I had my highly needed haircut and massage and at night I went out for dinner with some colleagues and then out for some drinks. Nada más..

The following morning (it's Friday the 23rd now) I had brunch with a friend and then left on my last trip in Guatemala. I went with some colleagues (some of them also through AIESEC) to Rio Dulce. We were supposed to get there around 4 so that we could take the boat to Livingston and from there a boat to our hotel, but of course that didn't work out, so we stayed the night in a hotel in Rio Dulce and we took a boat the next morning...

First we went to visit a castle that was built as defense against the pirates a few hundred years ago, then we visited a place in the river where hot waters comes from a source in the ground and the last stop was at our hotel in the middle of the jungle. The hotel looked very nice and consisted of wooden bungalows spread through the jungle and above the shallow water that was mainly used by crabs and I guess also the mosquitos grow in it, which is probably why this was the first hotel I've seen that uses anti-mosquito nets over the beds. In the afternoon we spend some time in a kayak on the river and then relaxed with some beers on some floating platform. At night we had dinner and went to bed early, because we'd have electricity only until 10pm.

We woke up early to have our breakfast and then took the boat to Livingston, which is famous for being the only real Caribbean village in Guatemala, which was obvious when we arrived (lot of black people, I thought I was back on Utila or Bocas del Toro). But we found out that it wasn't much more than just a village, so we walked around a little, had a drink and lunch and then returned to the hotel. This time the boat did not only transport people, but we also had an ant eater (size of a cat) that had got lost and ended up in Livingston and joined us to go back to the jungle. From the hotel we went to our car in Rio Dulce and from there back to Guate where we arrived pretty late and went to bed right away (my 25th bed since the beginning of my trip, 41 days before).

The day after was my last day in Guatemala, so I packed my bags and suitcase and had lunch with my flatmate, before taking the bus to Tapachula, the most southern city of Mexico. After quite a ride (because of the rainy weather almost 9 hours instead of the promised 5-6 hours) we arrived in Tapachula and I looked for a hotel. When I returned to the first hotel to confirm that I'd stay there, somebody had taken the last available room already, but fortunately he offered to share the room, in this way the price was a lot more acceptable too. I went for a bite with my roommate and then slept around 12, which was a little late considering that I'd have to wake up at 4 o'clock the next day.

So I woke up at 4 and a taxi I had arranged the day before came to pick me up to take me to the airport, because I had come to Tapachula just because from there it is cheaper to fly to Mexico City, my real destination.