The word travel is derived from the French word 'travail' (meaning work or torture). This word was in turn derived from tha Latin word tripalium, a three staked instrument of torture. Read on. We went in for repairs in the coastal town of Tela. Mental repairs. Repairs to our sanity. From here, we made tracks for the Bay Islands, an hour off the Honduran coast in the Caribbean. Our catamaran journey was... well, terrifying. The swell had us rocking violently from side to side. Thankfully we were blissfully unaware at the time that the young skipper had only been given this new toy two weeks earlier. The islands played host to our PADI Open Water Dive Course. Located on a small caye, away from the partying on the main island, Utila, we were in for a quiet time. English is the language of choice for the locals, though delivered in a bizarre Creole dialect. The course provided an opportunity to face our fears of open waters. Three days later, having removed masks, air supply and any other forms of terror inducing activity at 18 meters depth, we were finally handed our dive certificates - though not until we had passed a written exam. After three days toasting our success on Utila, we, together with our companions Rick and Dolly, made for Trujillo. Toads the size of footballs meant that a Sue veto would follow. We left the next morning. A group decsion was reached to take the road less travelled into the mountainous interior of the country. Three chicken buses and nine hours later we arrived in La Union. The friendly locals living some way below the poverty line instilled a sense that no gringos had passed this way in a long time. It surely wasn't the case? People came out of their houses to watch us touring their small settlement. The restaurant was more like someones living room. The menu was what was in the fridge. Phill and Rick played the locals at football - again this caused a stir. Despite their openess, you just had the underlying feeling that the situation could turn without warning! An unfortunate misunderstanding presented itself. The locals asked Phill n Rick to handover 5 Lempiras as a bet on the football game to come. We tried to explain that our women had our money. Turned out we had put them up as our end of the bet. Luckily Rick slotted home the winner and the girls remain in our custody! Their value by the way around 7 pence each! Two nights in the mountain retreat of Valle de Angeles, close to the capital Tegucigalpa (pron. Te-goose-i-gal-pa), was our last gander at Honduras as we are now in Nicaragua. Last Monday we reached the half way point of our trip - 9 months down, 9 to go. Guess you could say we are on our way home. Hold the Pineapple Hedgehog though, we're goin' the scenic route! PaS