Utila, Bay Islands, Honduras

Hello from Utila, renowned scuba diving island off the coast of Honduras! After a good 48 hours of transportation in everything from shuttle, to taxi, to bus, to ferry, we made it to the Bay Islands. We spent a night in Copan Ruinas along the way, to visit Mayan ruins with a multitude of intricately-carved stelea along the way, which broke up the trip nicely. (We have a lovely photographic documentation of the dozens of stelea, which we hope to bore you all with in the future.) It even made the 4 am shuttle worth it, despite me having the fold-out seat next to the door, which basically required me to extend an arm out to prop myself up with every left turn that we made, to prevent myself from falling into the pit in front of the door. Emily was highly entertained from her cushy seat behind mine.

As for Utila though, yes, Emily's in heaven. She's already decided that if she ever needed to leave San Diego, this would be the place she'd choose to come. Ever since we got here on Wednesday she's been scuba diving. She's finished her Advanced PADI course and had a thrilling night dive last evening during which all but one of her group's flashlights failed. Doesn't that sound like fun? (And to think it took us 2 hours of hiking around with our packs in 100 degree heat plus humidity to find this particularly safe dive shop!)

I, on the other hand, sucked it up and had my first (and last) Discovery Scuba adventure yesterday. Not to say that it wasn't fun, but I just found myself preoccupied with breathing and clearing my air passages the entire time. Kind of took away from the tranquil joys of a beautiful reef teaming with aquatic wildlife. (I have also just regained a full sense of hearing a good 24 hours later.) After my 30 min intro to scuba diving via flip-chart, it was all hands-on from there, jumping on in with my one-on-one instructor (to give Anke credit, she was very attentive) to practice the unnatural feat of breathing underwater. I will definitely admit to a lot of anxiety, but none the less, am glad I had the experience, if for no other reason than I can now definitively state that SCUBA diving is not for me.

Other than the joys of SCUBA diving Utilia offers, most of our time here has been spent swatting at mosquitoes. They are everywhere. And I haven't had this many itchy bites since... well... junior year of high school after my cousin's outdoor wedding reception. Let's just say it was memorable. I've decided that if I get one more itchy red lump on my right foot I'm just going to have it amputated. Not really, but I've actually given it some consideration. (As a side note, I´m sorry to any future three-headed babies I may have, the 100% DEET repellent was just too alluring.)

For one night, we tried to escape the mosquitoes by staying on a tiny remote key off Utilia, Jewel Cay. While Emily went SCUBA diving I declined the offer to watch one of the dive shop hotel's many pirated DVDs in favor of exploring the island. Well, a good 10 minutes later I found myself back at the hotel, having explored both Jewel Cay, and the neighboring cay. (No wonder the dive master seemed a bit surprised/hesitant when I told him my plans for the day.) I spent the rest of my day ouside in the shade, trying to capture the colorful dive-bombing pelicans on video. It never happened, I'm sad to say, but was quite a sight. Later, I dragged Emily onto a double kyack to explore the island again. Only this time, it took a bit longer cause we had to fight the current on the way back. And by "we", I mean mostly me. She prefers floating along underwater with an occasional kick of her flippered-feet and doesn't understand why anyone would actually enjoy the strenuous activity involved in rowing. To give her credit though, she did pick up her paddle again when we started to drift backwards, despite my efforts to head us in the opposite direction. Despite this difference in preferences, Emily and I have decided we make very good travelling companions. Her self-proclaimed "sloth" in the area of personal hygiene is balanced perfectly by my poor sense of smell! (I´ll get her to post an entry yet, even if it is just in retaliation!)

In the way of fine dining, Emily tasted (she swears) the best pizza she ever had yesterday. It kind of had a tortilla-like crust. I attribute her swooning over the pizza to the fact that she's been hesitant to eat anything since her 36 hour illness in Antigua, though it was pretty good. Meanwhile, I've been trying out the seafood, as we're on a fishing island, which has also been good. The nightlife here however, actually exists! We discovered an amazing mosaic-covered treehouse labrynith last night called Treetanic, which Emily and I both agreed, is hands-down the coolest bar we've ever been too. We're going back today to get photos.

As for our upcoming plans, despite Hurricane Dean off the coast of Puerto Rico and Emily´s denial about it´s existence (even after she rode on a boat of evacuees!), we plan on ferrying back to La Ceiba tomorrow morning to possibly do some white-water rafting there before heading back to Guatemala via the complicated system of buses that got us here. We'll keep y0u updated!