We had geared ourselves up for a mammoth journey to get to one of the Bay Islands, Roatán, in Honduras and although it was a very long day, it wasn't quite as mammoth as expected. We got a small boat from Livingston to Puerto Barrios at 5.30am. From there we had anticipated taking a bus to the border and then two more buses to the city of San Pedro Sula (one of the most dangerous cities in the world apparently). However we were met off the boat by a man driving a tourist shuttle there which was a bit more expensive but a lot less hassle so we opted for this after much discussion. We met a Spanish/ Colombian/Argentinian couple and a British girl on the bus and travelled the rest of the way with them on another bus (a really old coach), a taxi, a ferry then another taxi. The ferry itself was very nice with air conditioning which is a luxury for us, but the journey was terrible: an hour and a half of bouncing up and down, which we both spent staring at fixed points out of the window. We knew it was bad when a man came round handing out sick bags (the woman behind me was sick twice!) Simon couldn't even watch the football.

We spent a week on Roatán and it was really lovely. We stayed in a little town called West End which is where most independent travellers stay and stayed in a hostel just across the road from the beach and an excellent beach bar. The first two nights we stayed in a cabin at the end of the garden and then moved to a room in the main house, partly to save money and partly to avoid the mad dash across 3m of biting leafcutter ants every night on the path!

We spent the first day taking it slowly to recover from the travel the day before and to look round and find a dive school. Then the next day we began our diving experience, just the two of us with our instructor, Rudy. In the morning we spent time in the classroom then in the sea just off the beach learning some skills. We both found it quite hard to get used to, particularly the breathing. I also found the kit extremely heavy so it was a massive effort to carry it across the road and along the beach! As you can see from the pictures, Simon carries off the pink flippers very well. He insists he had pink because they were the largest the place had but I think he actually requested them. In the afternoon we went for a fun dive at one of the many dive spots on very nearby coral. I wasn't sure about diving in the morning but the proper dive in the afternoon was amazing once we finally descended (it took me two goes and Simon had trouble equalising his ears). The coral was spectacular and in great condition and there were so many fish. We also saw a turtle. After this I decided to carry on with the next day (I initially only signed up for the discover scuba diving day).

So the next day was similar except we spent more time in the classroom and more time in the shallow water doing skills then another dive in the afternoon once Simon had spent some time watching another awful England match. I didn't enjoy this dive so much as we had to do some skills which I'm not a fan of and also my ears were hurting me a bit so it was hard to concentrate on anything else. When we got back off the dive we had to do a swimming test of four lengths between two jettys and then tread water for 10 minutes. By the end of that day we were both exhausted! Unfortunately the next day I didn't feel well, I think from the day before and the heat, so we only did the classroom stuff and the exam (which we both passed - I got 98%! - Simon got 99%) then not much else for the day.

The following day we went back into the shallow water to finish off the skills. I really wasn't enjoying it though and was still feeling quite tired so I really struggled. We had to do a skill involving taking your mask off under water, swimming with it for a bit then putting it back on and clearing the water out. I really hated getting water in my mask because I struggled blowing the water back out and kept breathing water into my nose which was really unpleasant. As this was making me panic, I then found it harder to breathe so decided I'd had enough of diving and called it a day. However I had done more than enough to get my PADI Scuba Diver qualification which allows me to dive to 40ft. I'm still very glad I did it though.

Simon is much less of a wimp than me though so he continued in the water then completed his last two dives in the afternoon and is now a qualified PADI Open Water diver, up to 60ft. On his third dive, Simon was doing some navigating with a compass and, completely oblivious, swam over a scorpion fish. If he'd touched it, he would have got a really nasty sting. On his last dive he saw four turtles which was amazing. As a souvenir from the diving, Simon still has blocked ears five days later.

On our last full day, we got a water taxi over to West Bay which is where several resorts are and a really beautiful beach. The beach by where we were staying was also really nice but the one at West Bay is more like the pictures you see of Caribbean beaches. There wasn't loads to see though so we returned after about an hour then spent some time on the beach and in the sea. In the evening we finished off our stay with some excellent seafood pasta in a really nice restaurant/ house/ boutique hotel place owned by a man from Cheltenham who arrived for a two week holiday several years ago and never left! At one point the police arrived: they had somehow spotted Simon's beer bottle from the road, even though we were upstairs, and told the owner off because they have just introduced a new law where they can't serve alcohol on a Sunday.

We absolutely loved Roatán and could see why there were so many expats there. The island is so beautiful, we had some good food there and it was so relaxing. It was very hot though but at least we could jump in the sea to cool down. We were sad to leave.

Katy