So Tina and I are both officially Advanced Open Water certified. We arrived in Utila over a week ago and seem to have found ourselves in this crazy vortex that won't let us leave, not that we're trying real hard.

We came here with our three gringo friends that we picked up at Finca Ixobel: Jeff, Matt, and Caileb, also known as Kujat.

The first night we got here (two Thursdays ago) we were all just so happy to arrive at Utila that we went a little crazy and did a lot of drinking. We had to get to Ceiba, which we figured would at the most be four hours. We had gotten dropped off on the border with Honduras, taken a chicken bus, had to get off the chicken bus and walk with all our stuff because there was an accident on the highway, got on another chicken bus and then finally arrived to Puerto Cortes. Little did we know the journey was just beginning: not after two minutes of being in Puerto Cortez a short bus comes rolling around the corner with a guy hanging out of the side screaming "San Pedro, Sula" and "Ceiba." He somehow managed to fit all of us and our big bags into the bus. And then another ten or so people. Watching this guy was quite the phenomenon, and I couldn't help but be mesmerized by the whole thing. We would pull up to people who were just standing around (not wanting to take a bus) and he would somehow convince everyone to take the bus! Needless to say, it took us a while to get to San Pedro, Sula. And then once in San Pedro, Sula, we had to take another bus to Ceiba, which took about four hours (we putsed around town for about an hour and a half).

But we finally made it to Ceiba (about twelve hours after we set out from Livingston). Now it's unfortunate, but Ceiba is NOT a nice town...since it's pretty much just a gateway town to the Bay Islands.

We stayed there one night and the next day set off for Utila!

Now, like said, we were ecstatic to be in Utila, so pretty much we started drinking at around 11am.

We checked into the Backpacker's Lodge and signed up for some Scuba Diving Courses (to be started the next day) through Gunter's Dive Shop (now known as Eco Marine). The night is kind of a blur...but at one point we thought it would be a fantastic idea to go swimming off the dock (of Gunter's). From there we just acted like a bunch of kids; there was a sailboat docked and we all thought it would be a great idea to try and climb it. I ended up making it up and had a very awkward stare into the eyes of the owner of the boat...and let myself fall back into the water and told my fellow pirateers that we should abort our plan to accost the boat.

Then I saw Jeff trying to climb this rope (instead of using the ladder) to get on the dock and I thought that looked like a great idea so I did it too! Once out of the water I just jumped back in and did it again.

Then we all hung out on the dock for a while, and I realized my ankle kind of hurt, so I looked down and see all this black stuff. Low and behold...the black stuff was actually by blood. Turns out I had gauged my foot somehow and was now bleeding profusely. When we go back to our room (we had somehow decided that a dorm room with two bunk beds-so four small beds for five people was a good idea, even though technically we were getting free accommodation with the dive course) I decided to clean off my wound...and was horrified to see a huge chunk of skin/fat sticking out of my foot!

Tina doctored me and we put some polisporin on it (I also pushed the fat chunk back in) with a band aid then hung out in the room for a bit and then went to bed. It was about 9pm. Of course, it ended up being Tina and I sharing the small single bed on the top bunk...and that first night I got no sleep, between being woken up with my foot throbbing and Tina scratching all of her bites (there are so many sand flees here in Utila and Tina was their victim).

We were rough the next day: me with my foot, the guys had gotten this rash from this blue algae (which was apparently on the rope we climbed...luckily I only touched it with my feet and hands and came out unscathed...whereas the boys had been hanging off it on their stomachs and sitting on it). The next day walking was excruciating and Tina was full of mucous, so we decided to postpone getting into the water (with our scuba course) and did all the written work first.

After two days (and practically finishing all the written work) Tina and I went into the water...and what a success! Turns out Tina and I are naturals under water (and Tina actually looks like a big fish when she's underwater) and we absolutely love our instructor, Jack, dubbed Captain Jack Attack. We definitely became a terrific trio and had such a good time. After getting our Open Water Certification we decided to continue on a do our Advanced Open Water Certification...so now we have both! We're definitely all giggles and at the beginning I didn't realize that I would always swim above Tina...so a few times I would watch her looking for me and I would just giggle in my regulator. Tina and I are buddies (every diver has to have a buddy) and we're pretty good a most things...but found out we're just horrible at navigation (in Captain Jack Attack's words, "That was an abomination"), arguing under water about which direction to go in etc.

We saw some pretty amazing things: sunken ships, green moray, loads of neat fish, and when we went down to the Halliburton a Barracuda swam write for Jack and me!

One day there were even dolphins when we were on our surface interval and we pursued them and tried snorkeling with them. No one saw them once under water, but I was lucky enough to catch a glimpse of one...which was just amazing.

The boys (Jeff, Matt and Kujat) left a few days ago...but Tina and I are still here!

We've had so much fun hanging out with the locals (on the island, it takes a while for them to warm up to people, but once they do it's awesome!) and Captain Jack Attack.

At one point we were hit by some tropical storms, which people thought would turn into hurricanes, but we were totally fine. In fact, on one of our many nights out at Bar Tranquila, a rain and wind storm came in and I just danced in it (with Jeff and another new found friend of ours, Shane) and had such a great time!

Tina had a moped adventure one night with her new found Gangster friend, Luis, who looked pretty pimp with his silver teeth (that actually have his name on them!)

Last night was supposed to be our last night here, so we went out with Captain Jack Attack and Shane and drank so much! Tina and I rode double on Jack's bike, we ended up stalking a random friend from Livingston who was in Utila, David, we were all being so silly, drank shots and then went home for a skinny dip off the fateful dock...but this time did no climbing on ropes or boats (being naked, I could imagine that would be horribly awkward) and kept it safe...hurray! Although we tried throwing Jack in the water (we're dressed at this point) and Tina gauged her leg! But luckily there was no fat/skin sticking out so all was well.

The alarm rang at 5am this morning (the ferry leaves every day at 6:30am and 2pm) but Tina and I couldn't manage to get up...so here we still are! We will attempt to leave again tomorrow morning.

Oh...and now we have a new plan!

Since we love Central America and Scuba Diving so much, we're going to leave Utila tomorrow to continue our travels...but then come back and do our Dive Master and Teach Scuba Diving! So we'll be Scuba Instructors instead of teaching English in Venezuela...now how awesome does that sound?

Anyways, that's all for now and we'll update again shortly when/if we get out of Utila.

Chow for now!