Hello everybody,

I hope you are all well and enjoying the cold weather back home :) I hear it is the coldest winter in quarter of a century, I hope it is for snowing for you at least.

Well following on from my last blog, I am now completely healed from being ill, it did last a little longer which wasn't all that pleasant, but these things happen.

So whilst in Antigua with Anna I visited a couple of places that I had already been to as Anna really wanted to see them, but this was no big issue for me.  We visited Pacaya Volcano in the afternoon, which was a completely different experience to the morning climb, seeing the volcano in a different light and all.  We went with a group of 5 hot Norwegian girls who were staying at our hostel...........good times :). They were really nice and were potentially heading in the same direction as Anna and I around Central America.   We also took a day trip the following day to lake Atitlan which was really nice, it was a baking hot day so we just chilled amongst the markets and took a boat trip around the lake............very pleasant indeed.

Following the trip to lake Atitlan we all went to the lovely Rainbow Cafe back in Antigua, for the open mike night and Alex's last night in Antigua before heading back to Germany.  It was a nice chilled night, with good music and good food.  It's always sad when people leave but you do start getting used to it after a while :(

Myself and Anna left the day after Alex, heading for Honduras and the Copan Ruins, a famous site there.  It was about an 8 hour journey by bus, but it was all good.  For some reason you don't receive a stamp at the Hondras, Guatemala border, which is slightly disappointing as you've got to love getting stamps in your passport (oh well) :s

Copan and the ruins were really nice.  The town has loads of character and has lots of nice places to eat.  Anna and I did the Copan ruins site which was really cool, same same, but different to Palenque.  It was a baking hoy day again, so we just leisurely strolled around the site.  Following this we took a nice horse ride up into the hills where we were able to view the ruins from above, it looks pretty impressive from this perspective.  We also went to a traditional Village (also on 2 rhorse back) which was cool to see, people in traditional dress and traditional homes.  I was loving galloping along the hills on the horse, I was putting him through his paces, it was great fun.  

Following Copan we took a bus with a guy called Clarke from Canada at 07:00am to La Ceiba on the north coast of Honduras.  We would wait here before catching the ferry across to Utila, an island off of Honduras.  We were recommended this island over Roatan by a French guy called Cyril, (probably the nicest person from France I have ever met, Anna and I were shocked).  Utila is also the cheaper of the 2 islands and less touristy, which generally translates to full of Americans :).  They really have a bad rep everywhere.  Roatan on the other hand is meant to have the nice beaches, so it is all swings and roundabouts.

Our plans here were to dive, so beaches really weren't high on our list of criteria.  We were both really excited to go diving.  On the ferry over to Utila we met a dive instructor from Ireland called Declan, who worked on the island - he was really nice.  He works at the UDC Dive Centre on Utila island, which has just been voted the best dive centre in the world for 2010.  Needless to say Anna and I decided to dive with them for this part of our trip, which for the past 3 days has been amazing. They have a hotel called the Mango Inn which partners the dive shop.  The accommodation was really nice and served great food.

On the first night in Utila the dive shop through a massive BBQ, $16 for loads of food and all you can drink, it was the perfect ice breaker.  We were chilling with all the dive instructors and people there.  The atmosphere in dive centers is always great in my experience and this didn't disappoint.  

We had a great night with everyone, including Declan and his wife Sarah, who moved here from England a year and a half ago.  Declan was a successful banker in London, but decided to jack it all in and move to Utila.  He and his lovely wife Sarah have built there own massive place on the coast which looks amazing, we have seen it from the dive boat..............JEALOUS!!!!

Anna and I dove 3 times a day for the first 2 days, where we saw Eagle Rays, Turtles and loads of other amazing corals and marine life.  We met a cool duo from London called Rebecca and James, they are work colleagues from London, but both love to dive, so they headed out to Utila for a diving holiday together.  They were great, we dove with them every day and went out together at night.  After 2 days of diving Anna and I were planning on leaving for Belize to dive the famous Blue Hole, but this place is infectious, you just can't leave.  Declan says Utila should be called super glue island because people come for a couple of days and end up staying for years, and I can understand why.  

So myself and Anna decided to dive for another day here in Utila :). Everyone at the dive centre was really happy to see us stay, which was really nice, we felt at home here with everyone almost instantly.  We crammed in 4 dives on the final day, including one night dive, which was really cool.  Declan gave us a cheeky free dive in the afternoon too, which was really nice of him.  Anna and I were just going to head out on the boat  with James and Becks to snorkel, while everyone else went diving, but Declan told us to get our scuba gear ready, so we were off in a flash :)

I am now sat on a bus bound for San Pedro on the Honduras mainland, yes we finally managed to tear ourselves away from the beautiful Utila, which we are both very sad about.  We had a chilled night last night with everyone as we had to get the ferry back to the mainland for 06:00am, plus diving 4 times in one day is knackering................I loved every minute of it though.

We are now heading to San Pedro, before catching a bus to Belize, another dive crazy location, which we are both really excited about.  It is going to be expensive to dive there, but it's got to be worth it whilst we are out here.  We are going to try and dive our way up to Cancun, where Anna flies out of on the 7th Dec, diving in Cozumel too, an island off of Mexico........if we can squeeze it in :)

Really looking forward to it all.   Not to rub it in (with it being super cold back home) but the weather here has been great and it is meant to be rainy season in places.  I definitely think I have had a few angels looking over me whilst I've been on this trip.

Lots of love to you all, I will try and report back with more as soon as I get the time.

X