I love Central America

Just got done with a very long travel day from Utila, Honduras to Tegucialpa, Honduras. Headed to Grenada tomorrow via a twelve hour bus ride. Utila was really nice. I just hung around the hotel the first day. The second day, I took three of the five dives to become Advanced Diver Certified. My first dive was to a shipwreck 30 meters/100 feet down. I saw a multitude of sea life the highlight was giant grouper probably 100 pounds or so. The second dive was to the reef and the third was a night dive, The night dive was incredible I imagine that it is the closest thing that I will ever get to being in space. At one point we turned of our lights and waved our hands through the water to expose the photoflorescent organisms, it looked like sparks flying around our hands. Pretty amazing, I think I may have caught the diving bug. It was hard for me to leave this morning.
I apologize I have once again gotten ahead of my self. I am still about a week behind on my postings so I will begin from the end.
We left Rio Dulce and spent one night in Antigua to break up the length of the bus ride to Panahachel. The largest of the five cities on Lake Atitlan in Guatemala. Panahachel, revolves around the lake and visits to the other cities via water taxi. I guess the highlight for mee was breakfast at a hotel that sat on the side of a cliff. Other than that I took a day off and just did some picture posting at the internet cafe. don't get me wrong Panahachel is worth a visit. The city and the lake sit in the shadow of three very large volcanoes so the views are very beautiful. There is also a very large contingent of retired ex pats living there. I was just ready for a day to catch up.

We left Panahachel for Antigua. It was a decent bus ride, only a few hours or so. Arriving in Antigua is like visiting another time. Cobblestone roads and stuccoed Spanish Colonial buildings and Churches. The roads were a simple grid that were easily navigable. The relative safety afforded myself and my fellow travelers a little more freedom to branch out and check out the town on our own. A large group of us signed up to climb the Picaya Volcano. It was a highly recommended tour because you are actually able to get up close and personal with lava. What was not discussed was the difficulty of the hike. Antigua was the the biggest city that I had visited in a while so I went out to enjoy the night life and try to meet up with some of my fellow travelers. I was home by two and the van to the volcano was coming at six. Normally, going on four hours of sleep would have hurt a little, but it was doable. I got on the van at six and we were on our way. When we arrived at the base of the volcano we were greeted by a dozen children selling walking sticks and by men with horses offering to take us up for 40 dollars. I thought that the price was a little steep so I bought a walking stick and prepared for the hike with a liter of water. The beginning of the hike was a short paved section with a 35 degree slope. Needles to say I was winded after the first 200 yards. I think that the men with the horses saw the bloodshot in my eyes mixed with my size and sensed that I was a shoe in for the $40. They followed right behind me and said repeated “hey man you want a mountain taxi” or “Caballos, make it easy man.” I think that it was their prodding that helped me make it up to the top. I also took a salsa lesson in Antigua so watch out ladies.
From Antigua we had another long ride to Copan, Hoduras. Copan is a quaint little town best known for the Mayan Ruins that are about five minutes outside of town. By now I am definitely ruined out. But I went and took a quick 45 minute tour of the ruins. For those Archeologists and Anthropologists out there, Copan has some of the best preserved sculptures that I have seen in all of my visits to Mayan Ruins.
Of the fifteen of us who had traveled from Playa del Carmen to Antigua only eight of us remained. Our new group was seventeen. We were still getting to know each other in Copan. So it was a pretty calm night. I know the eight of us who had been together for a while really missed our friends who had to go back to the real world. The new group consists of Mauricio as the tour leader, Harley, Sophie, and Anne (all of whom I have been travelling with since Mexico City;) Kevin from Ireland, Carolyn from Toronto, Melissa from Seattle we added her sister, Shelly in Antigua as well as; Bill from Seattle, Jamie and Laura from Ontario; Alex and Christiana from Finland; Richard from Germany; and Denise from England (she is also in her seventies for those who think that they are too old to do something like this;) and finally Rebecca a Navy Brat from all over the place as a tour leader trainee.
After Copan we chicken bussed it over to Ceiba which is where we caught the ferry over to Utilla. For those of us afflicted by motion sickness I would highly recommend either Dramamine for the ferry or kick out the $45 for the plane to Utilla. The ferry ride is choppy on good days and pretty dangerous on bad days. Once you arrive in Utila every thing is ok. The town actually reminded me a lot of the small Cajun towns in southern Louisiana. It is a very small community with its own language. The Bay island were once part of the British Empire, but the islands became part of Honduras in exchange for Belize not too long ago. The people speak a blend of English with a Cajun/Island dialect that is impossible for outsiders to understand. Some of the natives speak Spanish, but some would much rather be part of England than Honduras and have resisted fully integrating into the society by refusing to speak the national language. Like Caye Caulker, Utila is pretty focused on diving. It is not a place to go and have a beach vacation. There are a couple of beaches to visit, but they are covered with up sand fleas and one of them actually charges to go there.
We got early for the 6 am ferry from Utila then for a long bus ride over to my least favorite place in all of Nicaragua, Tegucialpa. We arrived via 5 hour chicken bus then the longest and most frightening cab ride of my life. The city is built in the rolling hills at the base of a volcano. We sped up and down hills through markets within inches of pedestrians at break neck speeds. The traffic was unbelievable as well, apparently they didn't get the memo on the efficiency of traffic lights. Yet another experience though. On to Grenada and my most challenging culinary experience ever.

Vagabond