Thursday 9 August 2012

Duckin' n diving

During my brief time in El Tunco I’d had a few beers with an English surfer, Sam Wildgoose (yes I’ve complimented him on the fineness of his surname) who mentioned that he was going to head to the Bay Islands in the Caribbean off Honduras to obtain his PADI open water scuba licence.  My own vague plans had been to slowly make my way north through Guatemala and Mexico on route to Cancun, but I’ve always wanted to scuba dive but always thought the time investment when on holiday for a shorter period was too much.  Reasoning that if I can’t find the time in 7 months of travel I don’t really want to do it I changed my plans and rendezvoused with Sam again in Copan Ruinas on the Honduran side of the Guatemalan border.

Copan Ruinas is one of the more impressive Mayan sites in Central America, an enormous sprawling complex of a once great city that was at the height of its powers from 400 to 900 AD. Arriving on a sultry afternoon I was the only one wishing a guided tour at the time, so with my own personal guide we sweated our way around as she babbled in my ear about each of the temples. 


The floor of the main temple area used to be covered in white staccato tiles which would have been amazing and blindingly bright.  Today it’s been covered by grass and kudos to the groundskeeper as I’ve only seen a better outfield on the first day of a Boxing Day test.  I also learnt the Mayans played a game that’s an early version of soccer, kicking a ball back and forth at concrete macaw heads, with the loser being sacrificed to the Gods.

As you may expect I’m a sucker for a nature walk and after the ruins took myself on the adjoining walk and interpretive trail, which I really enjoyed, with colourful macaws in the trees, lizards and other creatures moving through the jungle. At one stage I thought it had started raining only to look down and see the whole forest floor was a sea of moving ants criss-crossing my flip-flops.

After numerous hours of bussing followed by an hour ferry journey on the ‘vomit comet’, a small catamaran that makes the bumpy journey across the sea I arrived on the beautiful Caribbean island of Utila. Sam and I checked into our dive school, Alton’s, a series of weather worn wooden accommodation structures that connect to its own dock (and dive boats), bar, seaside hammocks and loungers.  It’s a sweet set up, although the accommodation is some of the ropiest to date, the shower is a bit of pipe sticking out of the wall and the cold water is intermittent, which can be frustrating if you wish to wash….or flush the toilet.
The Alton's Dock




I loved doing the dive course and our instructor, a German woman who must be slowly going insane with the complete lack of punctuality of anyone on the island, was really good, direct and no nonsense.  I was with a great group of people and over the four days of the course, as you’d expect, got to know each other pretty well.  By coincidence I was also here during the annual one day music festival, Sunjam, that is held on a very small tropical island off the coast of Utila. Almost all travellers go along and consequently the dive schools are closed the day following to enable people to recover.

I had a great time at the festival, but it also precipitated one of the scariest moments of my trip.  The festival started at midday and we’d been advised to get there before night as the seas were rough due to a strong onshore wind that had blown all day.  Unfortunately we’d been diving, returned late in the afternoon and all fancied a meal before heading off.  We made it back to the dive school only to see the last boat depart.  Walking the short distance into the centre of town we were ushered into the back seats of a small speedboat waiting to depart. 

It was only when we left the dock I realised the boat was severely overloaded as it tipped precariously back and forth in relatively calm water. It was now night and it was soon apparent the guy driving was drunk.  As we powered into the larger seas the boat lurched to one side and then swung alarmingly back the other. Lisa from my dive school who was sat next to me alternated between closing her eyes and putting her head down to hysterical screaming when she felt the boat tilt.  By this time the driver had slowed down and we appeared to trying to surf the face of the waves up and down, which worked until a large wave loomed out of the dark and the whole boat tipped to such an extent that the back section of the boat we were in dipped below the waterline and we started taking water. 

By now I thought there was a fair chance we were going under. Apparently I appeared very calm but I was focused on trying to work out when it was appropriate to jump into the sea and swim to the nearest piece of land.  A large part of me was wondering how I’d ended up in this situation, while a small part was intrigued to see what would happen if we did sink as I’ve never been in a boat that has sunk before and I was pretty sure I could make the swim to land, although it would put a dampener on the evening. Fortunately our little boat managed the waves and 45minutes later a very relieved group kissed the sand of the festival island.  The festival itself was very good and the return journey better in that the boat had a normal load and the sea a tad calmer.

Follow the day off I resumed and completed my PADI course, so am now an open water diver which should come in handy later in my journey. I spent the lay day checking out, according to the Lonely Planet, the fourth best bar on the planet, TreeTanic.  It is an amazing place and the work of several years of its owner, a cross between Gaudi and Alice in Wonderland and has probably the most artistic use of recycled materials, and glass bottles in particular, I’ve seen.  As someone quipped when we visited however, bars one, two and three on the LP ranking must have earnt that place as you can get a drink there...as there was no barman and no one vaguely interested in serving. It does feel more like a tourist attraction than a bar, but even so it’s an amazing piece of art.

My next move is up the coast on route to Cancun however I’m currently stuck as Hurricane Ernesto is moving through the region, which isn’t too bad as Utila is great place to be marooned.

4 comments:

  1. Hi Rob - what an adventure. Oh my gosh, can't believe your scary boat ride to festival island. I could just picture the whole thing. I would have been terrified. Congratulations on the diving certificate! So enjoy reading your blogs!

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  2. Thanks Marisa! Glad you're enjoying, hope Chateau de St Kilda is treating Marcus and you well, cheers, Rob

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  3. Chateau de St Kilda is treating us very well; gracias amigo!

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