Alright Folks,

Glad to see they let you through the boarder okay. From Granada we went to Comayagua for a quick stop over to break up the long journey to the Bay Islands. We went to Roatan and from the second I got there I was running around trying to arrange some diving for the next couple of days. I had spoken to a dive shop via email but due to the time that we arrived they were the only dive shop not open. At the hotel we were staying at, a decent place this time, in fact the bathroom was about the size of our room in Granada, there was a dive shop attached.

I went down the following morning as they had very good prices ($20 a dive, compared to $60 in Costa Rica). I wanted to do maybe 5 dives in the two days that I was there and ended up doing six and took another dive course. To complete the course I had to do three core advanced dives; a night dive, a deep dive, and a navigation dive, and two electives from a choice of loads. I chose to do naturalist (identify all the different types of fish and coral), wreck diving, and also did another one just for fun; peak performance buoyancy.

Of all of them the last one helped me the most with my diving skills. The idea is to attain perfect buoyancy under water to use less air and to stop floating up and down with every breath. The Navigation dive was my first dive and I was so amazed by how clear the water was and how much things I could see I completely forgot to check on my direction. The task we were given was to swim in a square and than a triangle. For the final task they took us for about half an hour away from the boat and told us to find our own way back. As I had not really been checking on my compass I only knew that I had to go back in a south-south west direction. The idea is to know the exact degrees to go in. We all left together and I ended up at the front of the group and the others followed me. Weather they were following me or going in the same direction I didn{t know. For their sake I hoped they were not following me as I was just guessing my direction. By luck more than skill I found my way back and was in fact the first back and by a clear 7 minutes. For that everyone else had to buy me a beer. The other dives were great fun as the water was lovely and warm and so clear.

So after I passed the course I was able to call myself an Advanced Diver!! The diving was so amazing and the visibility was brilliant. It was like swimming in a huge tropical fish tank. At the end of it my ears were a bit messed up and I was told I had the divers buzz ? it feels like you are still on a boat due to the amount of diving I had done in such a short time. As I dived more my body would adjust itself to this. I don?t fell it anymore.

It was a pity we only stayed there two days as it was a cool place and as I spent most of my time diving I got to take one picture of the place and that was of yet another sun set. I wanted to go back but it is not the easiest place to get to so decided against it in the end.

From Roatan we headed to Copan to see the mayan ruins there. Again we got in late and only had one full day to check the place out. I was totally knackered from all the diving and so my enthusiasm to see more ruins was not the best. Instead of going with the rest of the group myself and two of the others (Laura and Jyothi) decided to go later and just have a quick look around. Both Laura and Jyothi had seen about the same amount of Inca ruins that myself and Sharlene say so we were equally not arsed to see much. Copan is famous for being the most decorated Mayan site. I brought my camera but only took a few shots. Sorry, I was going to put them up but deleted them off my camera after I put them on Nick?s server so I can?t show you them. The place was quite impressive and the town had a nice rural feel to it.

Just like all the other countires that had passed before it Honduras was not lucky enough to have us stay there for long and so we headed for Guatemala. So again another boarder and more exit fees.

Until Guatemala, Em