It was a long trip to Honduras, and I didn't realise that with the time differences, I would actually be awake for about 24 hours. But it didn't matter - I was on holiday for the next 8 months!

I arrived in San Pedro Sula, in Honduras, slightly stressed as I realised on the morning leaving that I booked my hotel room for the wrong night - the 28th of August and I would be arriving on the 27th of August. A classic Kath start to the trip! And all the guidebooks have made Honduras out to be a place of rough crime, attacks and gang warfare, so I was a bit worried.

I managed to get an email off in Miami, and somehow hoped that someone would be waititng for me at the San Pedro Sula airport, which they were. A lovely man called Luis was waiting for me with a sign around his nexk saying Catarino Victoro - I had arrived in Spanish Honduras. It was so nice to walk into the heat and humidity and just feel alive and in summer again, after the awful weather we have had and the non existant summer in the UK.

I went to my hotel, which was air conditioned and quite nice, and definitely not somewhere I knew I'd be staying in a couple of weeks time, so I thought I deserved it, since it was my first night!

After a good sleep, I had to be at the San Pedro Sula airport to catch my flight to La Ceiba, and then my ferry on to Utila, which is the little island I would be doing my diving course on. My friend Lee from work had recommended Utila to me, as she had been a diving instructor there with her boyfriend about 8 years ago. She said that she had a great time, it was beautiful and that the cinnamon rolls and fish burgers were to die for. Good food and a good beach sounded perfect to me!

But back to the plane from San Pedro Sula to La Ceiba. It was a tiny little plane, one that I imagined could be used for gun running or drugs smuggling and we travelled low over beautiful green fields and valleys. And an hour later we arrived in La Ceiba.

Again, La Ceiba has a reputation for being rough, and you need to be careful. And even though I can't speak Spanish, and I have the backpack and blonde hair, I found people and taxi drivers really kind and helpful. A random hotel just let me store my stuff there for no charge even though I wasn't staying and none of the taxi drivers ripped me off. So ignore what the guide books say about Honduras, you have to be careful, but probably no more than anywhere else that's poor that you're travelling too. And Honduras is poor, I think we take for granted the luxury and convenience we're used to having, well sorry to project onto all of you, but I know I do. Having lovely, healthy food, fresh fruit and vegetables beautifully wrapped up, fruit smoothies, proscuitto, medicine, clothing all just a couple of minutes away for me is amazing.

In Honduras most people live in shanty towns, tin roofed and rough cottages. There are no museums or beautiful galleries or buildings. But there are very warm people, amazing jungles, aztec ruins and beautiful beaches.

So anyway, I landed in La Ceiba, and since I was there at 10 and my ferry to Utila only left at 4, I went off to La Ceiba's only tourist attraction - the butterfly museum, which is housed in it's owner's home. The museum was only as big as a large lounge or dining room area, but I managed to spend 2 hours there as the man who owned it was so interesting and the moths, butterflies and insects that he had collected were so beautiful. Some of them even looked like jewellery. I met some really nice French girls there, who had just come from Utila, and we headed off to have lunch together.

Honduran cuisine is not great, is's pretty cheap but very carbo loaded - lots of rice, beans, tortillas and not much fresh fruit and veg. But hey ho, when in Rome and all that. I'm lucky as the French girls said they'd had upset stomachs and I haven't had that so far, even though I've been eating pretty much street food.

So after lunch with the French girls, who gave me lots of tips for Utila and recommended a great hostel, I headed off for the ferry. The ride was for about an hour, and I arrived at the beautiful island of Utila. Waiting for us at the dock were a bunch of dive instructors - all blond, tanned and beautiful and trying to get us to sign up for their dive school.

Utila is a hogsback or Grahamstown of the diving community I think. It's really small, people go there to escape a bit, and it's about diving, chilling out with your friends, drinking and getting high. It's so laid back it's almost permanently asleep. It was exactly the place I needed as my first port of call to get me into holiday mode.

I arrived and stumbled the 2 minute walk to Ruby's Inn - my hostel, a beautiful clapboard hostel right on the water. My room was spotless, big, with two double beeds and a fan - which I needed! Utila is about 32 and very humid.

The next day I headed off for my dive lessons. My instructor was Jack, who was as brown as a nut - his head was shaven and even peanut shaped. He is British, grew up in he Bahamas and Jamaica and went to school in the UK and US. He also lived in South Africa and Kenya for a while - very nomadic lifestyle. He was a great guy, and we got on really well. He was also really patient with me, and I was extremely lucky to get one to one dive lessons. With my lack of athlectic ability I needed all the help I could get! Especially when on the second day I almost gave up as I couldn't get my mask to clear and kept on swallowing and inhaling water and then choking - you can imagine the sight!

But I got through it and after the 4th day I was a diving pro, and I am so glad I did it. The space, silence and beauty underwater is fantastic. I felt like Superman, suspended and flying in space. The scenery was also incredible - like deserts, forests and mountains from a fantasy land. To be honest the fish life wasn't as amazing as I'd hoped for (the Red Sea is head and shoulders above) but I did see some massive barracudas (I actually thought they were sharks) and there are apparently a lot of whale sharks and turtles in the area. But that didn't really matter, I just enjoyed being underwater so much.

The rest of the time I just lazed on the beach, went snorkelling and swimming, and out to some small islands with a really nice Amrican girl I'd met. It was a super chilled time - eating baladas (tortillas with beans, cheese and avo) for dinner for about $1 in the evening and then going to the little movie house which had wooden benches and cushions and could seat about 50 people and played old DVDs. It was classic. I read about 5 books during the 4 days I had off from diving, and was sleeping about 10 or 11 hours a night, which was amazing. I can't remember when I last did that, and I've got used to operating on 6 or 7 a night, so it was fabulous.

I also went to a local church service, which was lovely. The people speak in what I would imagine are real Southern or New Orleans types of accents, which are lovely to listen to but difficult to understand. It was a beautiful little church right on the water and everyone was so kind and welcoming. There was such a community feel, eveyone knows everyone and is involved in each others' lives, it's an amazing support system. An incredible to be reminded again how simple life can and should be.

After a wonderful, relaxing time (where I even managed to get a tan!) it was time to head back to San Pedro Sula and then to catch my flight to Quito in Ecuador, for Spanish lessons and then hopefully Galapagos islands.