Honduras Recap

On our way to the Utila, we planned a stopover in Copán Ruinas to have a rest and visit the Mayan ruins just outside town. Although small in comparison to Tikal, they have quite a lot of detail and they're known for their glyphs. One of the most impressive parts of the ruins is a grand scripted staircase leading up a temple. Each step is ornately carved telling history about this ancient community with side channels and larger figures that go up the middle. This was a great little afternoon location to chill out in the grass and appreciate the splendors of this ancient place. We even were lucky to spot quite a few great macaws. Then, we were on our way to Utila.

Here's a little recap of our time spent on the island. Our main goal was to dive and get my Open Water since Toby already has his. This island is supposed to be one of the cheapest places to dive in the world so "they say." We arrived on the island at a perfect time when there seemed to be few tourists around. We were fortunate to head to Utila Water Sports and lock in a private instructor for my course and for Toby's Advanced Open Water at the normal rate. We also ended up staying in a little apartment with kitchen right on the water for dirt cheap. Special thanks to Erik and Kris for their excellent instructing and personal attention.

Our classes went really well, and after our first free fun dives (4 included with each class) we figured Toby should just do his Rescue Diver course as well to get 4 more fun dives and have a private instructor. It was basically 3 to1 for him, since 2 Dive Master Trainees (Kiara and Jonathan) were assisting in the course. Why not take advantage of this unique opportunity and feel much more confident in our diving abilities for the future. Needless to say, Toby's class was pretty exhausting since he was on high alert from the time we left the dock until we were safely back again. At one point 4 people jumped in the water that he had to go and rescue. During one of the simulations of rescuing a victim that wasn't breathing, Toby actually kissed Jonathan because he was so in the groove of giving mouth to mouth and had his adrenaline pumping. Kiara and I had a good laugh at our husbands and we all joked about it the rest of the trip!

As we already mentioned we did see dolphins on our trip. We actually spotted them on 4 different occasions including our ferry ride back to the mainland when we left. We believe they were spinner and bottlenose dolphins. Other cool stuff we saw while diving or snorkeling included: spotted eagle rays, yellow tail rays, southern stingray, 2 hawksbill turtles, trunk fish, parrot fish, arrowhead crabs, ocean and queen triggerfish, black durgon, green moray eels, lobsters, anglel fish, and many more creatures!

After just about 2 weeks of being on the island of Utila, we decided that it was time to move on. We really didn't want to leave, but we have other things to see and do in Central America, so it was necessary.