Friday, June 13 - Arrive in Utila, check in hotel, go to the beach
We took the 6:10am bus to La Ceiba to catch the morning ferry to Utila. We arrived at the dock at 9:00am and queued up to buy our tickets. Unfortunately the dock workers had been on strike the previous day so the boat had not run. This meant a lot of people still waiting to ride the ferry. Thus the morning ferry had already reached capacity.
The next ferry was not until 4:00pm and we dreaded the idea of having to waste 6 hours waiting. Luckily there were enough people left over that the ferry decided to make an extra run so we ended up on a special 12:00pm ferry. This is unheard of but made us all very happy. The one way tickets were 414L ($22). The ride was only an hour and was little rough but no too bad. I sat right at the front of the bow watching the island come into view. Some of the people behind me, including Christina, got a little drenched from splashing waves but I evaded it all.
There were some really adorable tugboats at the dock. 
The main town in Utila is Utila Town and that's where we were staying. Upon disembarking we were met by a dive instructor from our hotel with a sign bearing our names. He led us up the street to the hotel, Cross Creek Dive Center.There is one long, narrow main road through the center of Uila Town. It is mostly made of dirt, sand, and concrete. Due to it's narrowness, it can get a bit dangerous. Locals and tourists zoom past on bicycles, 4 wheelers, scooters, but only a handful of cars. You need to keep your eyes open.
Surprisingly there are many people of European descent native to the island. It was hard to tell the tourists from the locals. There are also many foreigners from all over the world, Denmark, Switzerland, Germany, US, Israel, Peru, etc. So walking around you hear a strange mix of Spanish, English (British and American), Danish, Creole (which the natives speak), German, and more languages interwoven together. The whole trip we had to keep reminding ourselves we were still in Honduras.Our hotel, Cross Creek, was built around a mangrove swamp so the whole thing was on stilts. There were skinny wooden plank walkways leading to the different parts of the hotel.
We stayed in a row of cabins each with a bunk bed, a private shower, and a string of hammocks out on the porch. Shared toilets were just down the walkway. Across from us was a cabin where all the diving equipment was stored which also doubled as a bar on nights when people were barbecuing. A larger cabin was the temporary home to many dive masters (divers with more training and experience that work at the hotel). 
In the mud down below the raised platform we saw many large crabs scurrying about. Included with our dive class was 3 free nights at the hotel. The other nights were only $4.00 each. The main selling point which clinched our decision on which dive center to go with was that Cross Creek has a spacious kitchen. We were given our own designated spot for food. although some of the guests were the greatest in keeping the kitchen and dishes clean, I enjoyed the camaraderie in sharing it. It really helped us become a family for a week.After settling in, we were led to the office to sign our life away on the papers for the scuba diving course. Christina and I were taking the first course in scuba diving, PADI's Open Water Diver. (After completing this course you can take even more courses to become an Advanced Open Water Diver, a Rescue Diver, a Dive Master, an Instructor, and much more. The more advanced the program, the more time it takes to complete it.) The Open Water course takes about 3 1/2 days but more about that later.
Today we had free so we got some lunch and stopped by Captain Morgan's Dive Shop to sign up for a day trip to the Water Cay for Saturday. Then we went to the beach, Chepes. Utila only really has two beaches, Chepes Beach and Bando Beach. Both have a few drawbacks from being the ideal tropical Caribbean beach. Chepes beach was covered in a thin top layer of white sand but just underneath was hard white rock. Not all that comfortable to lie on.
Palm and almond trees lined the beach. The water was clear, flat, aquamarine, and warm. It had a sandy bottom. 
You could snorkel if you swam out farther but I never went out there. We met a guy and girl that were in the US military and were stationed on the Honduras mainland in Comayagua. We went to have appetizers with them on a dock overlooking the sea. Afterward we showered back at the hotel. The drain was just a hole with sunlight streaming in from the swamp below. Of course, they only had cold water but it was hot and humid so you wouldn't want hot water anyway. The room was stuffy, even with the fan on, but we slept okay.Saturday, June 14 - trip to some cays, a magical wonderland, day 1 of scuba class
We got up at 6:00am to get ready for our day trip to the Water Cay. After cooking breakfast, we walked down to Captain Morgan's dock for the 25 minute boat ride to Pigeon Cay for 200L ($10) round trip. On the boat ride we met a girl who had done her Peace Corps service in the Philippines.
Pigeon Cay and Jewel Cay are sister cays connected by a short bridge. Both are very small. There is a narrow sidewalk through the center with only enough room for one building on each side before the island drops off into the water. The cays are just a big coral rocks with buildings built on stilts all over it. There were no beaches. It was very dense and the only open space was where the sea penetrated.
It only took 5 minutes to walk from the beginning of Pigeon Cay to the end of Jewel Cay. We met some native local kids with tan skin and blond hair that only spoke English and Creole but no Spanish. They were learning Spanish in school.
Captain Morgan's had kayaks we could use to get to the Water Cay but it was a bit windy and choppy so Christina and I walked around to find a water taxi. We found one for 60L ($3) round trip. 
The ride was only about 15 minutes and we passed many tiny cays just big enough for one house. 
The Water Cay is a 3-acre uninhabited island covered in palm, almond, and pine trees and surrounded by white sand and clear still water of the most amazing shades of blue. We were the only people on the entire cay and we walked around the whole thing in about 5 minutes. 
Along the way we even found a raised toilet someone had built which obviously had no plumbing and just a hole leading to the sea. We didn't really understand it's purpose as you might as well just go in the water. 
About 3/4 of the island was surrounded by sea grass but there was a large stretch at the end with a sandy bottom. Our view was of two more tiny cays within shouting distance. The water was very shallow and you could walk to one of the cays with water only reaching your chest in the deepest part.We were told there was good snorkeling but we couldn't seem to figure out where. There was a coral reef but it was too shallow to swim over and we couldn't find a way around it. It was nice enough just lying in the water and relaxing on the beach. It seemed we were in a travel advertisement. We began skimming our newly issued dive manuals before our class started.
Our water taxi returned at 11:30am as scheduled and dropped us back off at the Pigeon Cay. We would have loved to stay longer but our Captain Morgan's boat back to Utila left at noon. While waiting for the boat to depart, we absorbed the scenery. 
Back on Utila, we went exploring. We found a bakery with the most heavenly cinnamon rolls. They don't have cinnamon rolls on the mainland so it has been about 10 months since my last one. Delicious. Most of the houses on the island are built on stilts. 
Up a side street from the main road, we found a magical place know as the Jade Seahorse. 
It has a restaurant, a treetop bar called Treetanic, a few cabins in the back named Nightland which are eclectically decorated and each has it's own theme, a store with beautiful glass work for sell, and the main attraction... the garden (and the plants are not the main attraction).
Stepping into the garden is like walking into a weird dreamy Alice In Wonderland under the sea. The owner built concrete archways, mountains, wooden bridges, and stairs and proceeded to cover every single inch with glass, bottles, plastic figurines, tiles of all sizes, sea shells, etc. making a fantastical trippy wonderland. 
It just goes on and on. The owner is presumably very dedicated and inspired as it mst have taken a lot of time. Click on the link to see a video of a tiny section of the garden with delightful wind chimes in the background: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsL6nbqdUeQThe store is also brilliant. It is covered from floor to ceiling with all variety of knick-knacks. You can never see it all.
I somehow dragged myself away and we stopped by the grocery store. Surprisingly, they sell everything here that we have been dreaming of on the mainland. We were jealous.I also bought some ear drops. There is an eccentric American doctor who lives on the island named Dr. John. He runs the Utila Community Clinic which has the baffling hours of 10:00am until noon. Apparently he makes house calls also for emergencies outside those hours. Anyway, he has formulated his own ear drops to avoid swimmers ear and infections and I was told they're brilliant so I forked out the 100L ($5) for the bottle.
Back at the hotel, we showered, cooked dinner, and went to our classroom for our first dive course. The first session was from 4:30pm until about 7:00pm. Our instructor was Mathieu, a 23 year old French Canadian from Montreal. He was great. Also in our class were a girl and her boyfriend from Santa Barbara, Jolie and Preston.
First we watched a 90 minute training video about chapters 1 and 2 and Mathieu guided us through the details of what diving is all about. For homework we were to skim chapters 1 and 2 of the manual and complete the quizzes at the end.Christina and I walked around town, used the ATM, and had a beverage on one of the numerous docks to enjoy the evening. It was gorgeous. The black water was completely still and the full moon shimmered off the water. There were perfectly drawn clouds in the sky. We had walked into an enchanting picture. Back at the hotel we had a snack and completed our homework.
Sunday June 15 - Day 2 of scuba class, confined dive #1, open water dive #1, BBQ
We got up at 6:30am, cooked breakfast, and relaxed in the hammock until scuba class began at 8:30am. In the classroom, Mathieu went over chapters 1 and 2 with us and gave us more training about the equipment and everything we need to know. Then we watched the second 90 minute video covering chapters 3, 4, and 5 in our manual. Our homework was to skim chapters 3 and 4 and complete the quizzes at the end.
From about 10:45am until noon, we had a lunch break. With the shared kitchen and inviting hammocks we got to know the hotel staff and other guests very quickly. The hotel staff is a bunch of foreigners with a lot of diving experience that run the front office, take care of all the diving equipment, and teach various courses. There are also locals who do the laundry, sweep, and keep the kitchen clean. The guests were from all over the world but we were all there for diving. Almost everyone, including the staff, was in their 20's. Everyone was very friendly, we all stopped to chat when passing, and invited each other to join in whatever we were doing.
At noon we met up with our dive class again to prepare for our first dive. Mathieu showed us how to get all the gear ready. We loaded it into the boat and connected everything to the oxygen tank. There were other classes on the boat ride with us. The rescue class was the most distracting because the people have to act crazy so the students can practice saving them. It was very chaotic for of first ride out.
We only rode about 15 minutes and then donned our wetsuits, snorkel and fins, and put on our scuba jacket and gear. After we were all outfitted, we worked with our buddy (mine was Christina) to do a step-by-step body check ensuring that everything is working and in properly connected. Finally we put our mask on, our regulator (breathing machine) in our mouth, and jumped in the water.
Since this was our first dive, we swam over to the shallow water. The course involves 2 confined water dives (which can be in a pool or pool like conditions) which are performed in about 5 foot deep water and 4 open water dives (open meaning out there in the ocean), the first two are only down to 40 feet and the second two go down to 60 feet (the maximum we are certified allowed to go).In confined dive #1, I was a little nervous. It was a bit overwhelming learning about all the equipment and steps to do everything and then once I finally got in the water it was a very weird sensation being underwater and breathing and trying to stay relaxed about it. So we (us 4 students) positioned ourselves on our knees on the sand in a semi-circle around our instructor, Mathieu. There was also a dive master, Josh, as an assistant so we had 1 professional for every 2 students. Once we got positioned, (remember we were still underwater and breathing this whole time) Mathieu starts leading us through the practice exercises.
Some of the exercises were to practice properly descending (while equalizing our ears with depth changes) and properly ascending; we had to take the regulator out of our mouth and put it back in practicing how to clear the water out before breathing; we had to take the regulator out and drop it and use a sweeping arm movement to find it again and replace it in our mouth (it is connected to the tank on our back by a hose); we practiced reading our gauges for remaining air pressure and depth; we took out our regulators and got our buddy to give us their alternate regulator to breathe with; we practiced some hand signals (since you can't talk down there); and we practiced clearing water from our mask.
Crazy. If I wasn't overwhelmed enough just being underwater and trying to breathe naturally, the idea of doing exercises was frightening. During the first exercise I could feel myself started to get a panic attack. I somehow got through it, but the second exercise was to clear out a partially flooded mask. I couldn't get it right and I kept choking on water and putting my head above the water to cough. I tried again but couldn't calm myself down and started crying in my mask and I stood up above the water. I was just very anxious and wasn't even comfortable with just sitting there breathing yet.
One thing that caused me to panic was the noise. The bubbles coming out of the regulator when I exhaled were very loud and it was freaking me out. Snorkeling is a very quiet experience and I pictured diving the same way. In addition, the air we were breathing from the tank was very dry which I wasn't prepared for either. At that moment I was convinced that this was then end and I wasn't going to complete the rest of the course. I was over it.
Well, once I stood up and was panicking, the dive master, Josh, came up too. He tried to talk me through it and calmed me down. I finally was able to get the anxiety to go away and agreed to try the mask exercise with him again one-on-one. This time I was able to do it. I was still considering abandoning the course but I just kept doing the exercises and it slowly became more comfortable. After we all successfully completed each exercise (we were down in the water maybe 45 minutes), we swam back to the boat for a short break.
After a snack and changing to a new oxygen tank, we did our buddy body check again and were ready for our open water dive #1 (to 40 feet deep).
This dive was surprisingly easier than the confined one. Even though we were deeper, we were moving and swimming and we didn't have to think about the exercises. 
The dive sight was named Black Coral Wall. As I was just getting used to the new diving experience I wasn't able to pay too much attention to the surroundings. 
We did swim right next to three small squids, Caribbean Reef Squids. They were somehow rad and creepy at the same time. They had huge eyes on the sides of their heads. They even changed their skin color and patterns a few times. The stayed by us and let us observe them for about 5 minutes before swimming away. (Unfortunately no photos of them.)
As we explored the reef more, all of us students had a little difficulty with the buoyancy thing. We would put air in our jackets and go too high so we would take air out and go too low. I finally got a good air level and realized I can just use my breathing and my body movements to move up and down. It was still hard but I was getting better.After about 40 minutes, we got back in the boat and stripped off our gear. I rode on the roof back to the hotel. It was freeing and beautiful up there. At the hotel, we carried our gear off the boat, disassembled it, washed it, and put it back where it belongs. It was about 4:00pm.
We showered, walked through town a bit, did our homework, and cooked dinner. Sunday night is the big Cross Creek weekly BBQ so everyone was hanging out. It was fun and we got to know more people. We hung out with a girl from Denmark, a girl from Vancouver, Canada, a girl from England, and a guy from Germany.
At some point it turned into some sort of frat party with some guy getting his legs shaved and people doing snorkel shots (the put on a snorkel and mask and someone pours a drink into a funnel in the top of their snorkel). It was all a little to immature for me. Maybe I'm an old lady but a few others though it was brainless also. Since the rooms are right next to the bar area, they shut everything down at 11:30pm and made everyone either go to their rooms or go out. We went to bed.
Monday, June 16 - Day 3 of scuba class, confined dive #2, open water dive #2, interesting bathrooms
We got up at 7:30am to cook breakfast and get ready for class. The class today was shorter because we didn't have to watch any more videos. We just met in the classroom from 9:00am until 10:00am to go over chapters 3 and 4 and review our previous skills. Our homework was to skim chapter 5 and complete the quiz and do four other practice quizzes.
Then we had a break until noon. Christina and I walked down to Chepes beach (it is about a 20 minute walk from out hotel) and we relaxed for awhile. There were only two other people there besides us. At 11:00am we headed back to the hotel to make lunch and then met up with our scuba class again at noon.
We got all our gear ready, got on the boat, and hooked it all up to the tank.
The boat ride was again about 20 minutes and we put on our wet suits and gear, did our buddy body check, and jumped in. We swam to the shallow water for our confined dive #2. Along with our instructor, Mathieu, the dive master, Josh, was our assistant again today.Todays exercises included: switching breathing from the snorkel to the regulator and back again; completely removing our mask and replacing it and clearing the water from it all while underwater; then we had to take it off the mask and hold it while swimming around for a minute (the instructor helped guide us around as we had our eyes shut) and then replace the mask and clear the water from it; we removed our weight belt and then put it back on while floating at the surface; we took off and put back on our BCD (flotation) jacket; we took out our regulator and breathed with our buddy's alternate regulator while swimming around for 1 minute; we hovered in one place and then floated up and down just by breathing in and out.
Today was much easier and less stressful as I was getting more comfortable with the whole thing. I did all the exercises well. It was our last confined water dive. After about 45 minutes we swam back to the boat for a break and a snack. First we had to do 4 laps around the boat.
Then we hooked up all our gear to a fresh tank and jumped in for our open water dive #2 (to 40 feet deep).
This dive site was known as Little Bight. The water was a little bit cloudy and we didn't see too many fish... 
but we did see a Remora. The Remora is also know as a Sharksucker as it uses a sucker on it's head to attach to a shark, usually, and the Remora eats parasites off the shark. It was about 3 feet long and looked similar to a shark. It swam right up and next to me for about 10 minutes. It was a little freaky because I could see it's teeth but I was assured it was not dangerous. (No photo of the Remora.)
After about 45 minutes we got back on the boat, rode back to the hotel, cleaned and put away our gear, and showered. Then we cooked dinner.That evening we went to Tranquila in town which has a large deck overlooking the sea. It was a gorgeous evening. There was a full moon, the water was black and completely placid, there were cottony clouds in the starry sky, and an adorable tugboat was anchored right in the center of the picturesque view. Quite a few people from the hotel joined us.
After awhile we all walked up the road to the Treetanic. This is the place at the Jade Seahorse that is built into the treetop. The bathroom there was all decorated and glowed with black light. It was the coolest bathroom ever. After about an hour we went back to Tranquila and witnessed a foosball game and a girl do the juvenile snorkel test. The bathroom at Tranquila was interesting. It is built on a dock so the "toilet" was just a bench covered in tile with a hole cut out in the center and only the sea below the hole. After that, our idea for a night swim was squashed.
Tuesday, June 17 - Last day of scuba class, open water dives #3 & 4, a beach
We had to get up at the unforgiving hour of 6:00am to eat breakfast and prepare for our dives. Today was our last day of class. We got on the boat with all our gear and hooked it up. Ready for our last dives, open water dive #3 & 4 (down to 60 feet deep). Our dive sites that day were Rocky Point and Airport Caves. Our other classmates, Jolie and Preston, couldn't make it because Jolie was sick. They were going to do the dives the next day so it was just Christina and Mathieu and I.
The sea was a little rocky that day so the second we got on the boat Christina started feeling woozy. She had taken Dramamine but I think the waves combined with too little sleep was just too much. She could barely put her gear together and finally we got her in the water. Unfortunately, floating at the surface was just as bad as being on the boat but Mathieu needed us to practice completely taking off and on the BCD (flotation) jacket while up there. I was able to perform the exercise with a little water splashing in my mouth and snorkel but Christina had a harder time. She ended up getting sick and so Mathieu thought it best to just get us down in the water where it was calmer.
We descended and were in the best dive site yet. The water was clear and we saw lots of fish and colorful plants.
Right when we got in, we saw a huge mass of thousands of tiny fish. The mass was moving as one organism. It was beautiful. We saw a barracuda which swam right next to us. Later, we found a small cave where a green moray eel was hiding. It was huge (like the size of my thigh) but I only saw it from the back side and didn't get to see it's creepy little face. On top of it was a black and white banded coral shrimp. It looks like a large skinny spider. It was rad. While swimming I spotted two arrow crabs hiding next to a rock, one was purple and the other was white. There also resemble skinny large spiders. We saw tons of various shaped and sized sea sponges of all colors. Inside some of the funnel ones were brittle stars. If you take a close look in this tube you might sot one climbing out. 
We even swam through some skinny tunnels between the coral which was scary at first. I was relieved to find we could still see the sky above. If it had been fully enclosed I think I would have been too claustrophobic to enter. As always, we took special care to go slow so we wouldn't touch or harm the coral. 
We did a few skills while down deep like taking off and on the BCD jacket, practiced hovering, learned how to use and follow a compass, took on and off our masks and cleared them of water, and did buddy breathing.Once we got back to the surface Christina's sea sickness immediately returned. Mathieu had her try taking off and on the jacket again. She took a long time and finally he just sort of helped her with it. He felt really sorry for her. She was miserable on the boat ride back and took a nap once we got to the hotel.
It was about 11:00am when we had finished putting all the gear away and we didn't have to meet for class again until 6:30pm so I made lunch and went to the beach. This time I went to Bando Beach. It was at the end of the point. It is a man made beach and there is a garden and champas (palapas), and chairs. This beach charges 60L ($3) to enjoy it due to maintenance fees. 
It was a gorgeous beach with white sand, palm trees, and warm aquamarine water but there was a lot of sea grass. There were a few sandy paths through the sea grass that led to big sandy areas so it was still okay for swimming. There is supposedly great snorkeling if you go out to the reef but I was too tired. Christina met me there later and we just relaxed until 4:00pm. We completed our homework and quizzes on a paradise beach.
We showered and ate dinner at the hotel and then went to our last scuba class. We met in the classroom to go over chapter 5 of the manual and review everything we learned. Then we took our final exam. It was 50 multiple choice questions and I only missed two (one was a trick question, I still think my answer was right) and Christina only missed 4 so we were now certified Open Water Scuba Divers. We signed up for our two free fun dives for the next morning. We sadly realized that out time with Mathieu was over and someone else would be our guide on the fun dives. We both thought he was a great instructor.We were hungry so we went to get dinner to celebrate but we walked up and down the street forever before finding and open restaurant. It was only 9:15pm. By the time we ordered and finally ate, we were exhausted so afterward we dragged ourselves back to the hotel and passed out.
By the way... it seemed that all of the tourists here smoked. It was so annoying. Everywhere we went there was cigarette smoke constantly. I will definitely not miss that. Yuck!
Wednesday, June 18 - Fun dives, last night
We again awoke at 6:00am for the morning dives. Today we were doing fun dives as certified divers. Our guide was Graham.
Our dives were at Black Rock and Labyrinth. The water was really calm and clear that day. 
There was an awesome tiny little green worm sticking out of a large brain coral. I saw two file fish (which look similar to sea horses but without the curly tail). We saw a trumpet fish (it resembles a long stretched out squid). We saw a lot of brittle stars of various colors and tons of typical fish that you always see: bright blue little ones, ones with yellow, white and black stripes, black ones with blue outline, black ones with fluorescent blue polka dots, ones half yellow half purple, etc. 
The coral, sea fans, and sponges were especially vibrant.
During the course we were not allowed to take a camera with us but since we were now certified we could. We rented an instructor, Gina's, underwater digital camera and got some cool shots. Unfortunately we only got to take it on the second dive that day so we didn't get pictures of anything super exciting but it was still pretty neat. (All of the underwater pictures featured on this post were from only this one final dive so they don't exactly correspond to the text they are placed next to.) 
We returned to the hotel at 11:00pm and rinsed and returned all our gear. Then we burned the photos to a disk and headed to Chepes beach for awhile. After a few hours the sand flies started attacking Christina and our danish friend, Maria, so we headed back to the hotel.We showered, cooked dinner, and paid our bill at the hotel. The Open Water Scuba course was $270 which included 3 free nights and the other nights were only $4 each so our total was $282 for the week. Then we had a drink on a dock to enjoy the view of our last night in Utila. 3 local guys were there and swam in the black water. It was still clear enough to see there entire bodies in it.
To celebrate our last night in Utila, we hiked up to the Treetanic. About 50% of the patrons were friends from our hotel so it was like a little family party. There were 3 guys who had just passed their dive master certification so they were getting the insipid snorkel test.
After a few hours, the place closed so we all headed to another establishment that was pitch black except for people doing fire dances. The place was playing terrible techno music and we went back to the hotel soon after.Thursday, June 19 - Ferry back to Tela
We tried to sleep in but woke up at 9:30am due to the insane humidity. We were dripping in sweat. Honduras had only been this humid a few times before. It was very uncomfortable. We cooked breakfast and tried to get to the beach as quickly as we could. Predictably, right when we got there, it started to rain. We got in the sea anyway. The rain was colder than the water. It was so enchanting watching the droplets bounce off the ocean. It was really lovely.
We went back to to our rooms, showered, packed, took a final photo of us with Mathieu and tipped him, and walked to the ferry dock. The tickets back to La Ceiba were 375L ($20). I still don't understand why they were cheaper going to Ceiba than coming from Ceiba. There were a few people swimming next to the dock. 
There were about 7 of us from Cross Creek on the ferry and the two other students in our class were on board also. They never got to finish the class due to ilness and will have to finish back in the US. The ferry ride was very calm and smooth and our Danish friend, Maria, and our German friend, Edward, sat right on the bow. It was beautiful and sad. After disembarking we said goodbye and took the bus back to Tela. Two of the others rode with us. Overall Utila is a great place if a bit more oriented toward the younger crowd. I really do want to go back sometime as now it has a place in my heart.Back to California
We had Friday to pack up all our things in Tela. On Saturday, we woke up at the wee hour of 2:30am to get ready to go to the airport. By about 3:00pm, we were back in California. It can't believe our 10 months in Honduras is already over. It went by way too fast. It was a truly amazing year and I am glad I got to share it with you, if not exactly in person.
