Alright that's a terrible blog title but after the underwhelming night spent in La Ceibe, arriving on the smaller Bay island of Utila was a welcome relief. It's main claim to fame is diving, there are multiple reefs nearby and for a few months of the year you are practically guaranteed to see whale sharks every time you head out into the water. I organised a few dives for the next morning and we watched the sun set over the lagoon and then munched on lobster and conch soup.

I swear I'm getting less sleep on this trip than I do back in London. If we're not up super-early to see the sunrise over a ruin somewhere deep in the jungle then we're up early to catch a shuttle somewhere else, or in this case up at 6am to go diving. Yes it's a tough life, I know! I did two dives that day, both were good, only slightly hampered the number of people on the dive. It seems everyone these days owns a GoPro, so every time there's something worth seeing, everyone clusters around and sticks their camera in to take a picture. I'm as guilty as the next guy, but the next day it was nicer when there were just two other divers in our group and we could space out a bit and take in all there was to see. Lots of amazing corals, tons of smaller fish, a few turtles and a moray eel chowing down on an unlucky lionfish were the highlights.

Back on shore, we dozed, walked around the main streets, drank rum out of fresh coconut and spent an inordinate amount of time searching for just the right factor suncream (there was no 20 to be found, so in the end we had to settle for a factor 30, suncream fans). On our last night the guys at the dive shop we were staying at had a "snorkel test", traditionally the last test that a student dive-master undertakes before being certified and involves a lot of drinking and silly games - it was amusing to watch from the sidelines.

Apart from that we didn't do too much on Utila - the pictures tell more of the story!

To the jungle!
KL