Day 137 - Friday 16th July

Another long distance bus took us to the port city of La Ceiba and a ferry finally got us to our Bay Island of choice, Utila. Basically a small island COVERED in dive centres we settled on the slightly run down but full of character Paradise Divers. Out for dinner the first night, I saw Crofty and Sampson walking down the street and we finally had our long awaited reunion!! We drank in a cool bar called treetanic, a cunning blend of a bar in a treehouse shaped like a ship. A few rum and cokes later and we ended up at a club called Bar in the Bush. We were dancing with some Americans and a Honduran guy we'd met on the ferry and his mates...and this is where things went wrong. Still nobody's sure why but some local guy hit me to the floor and started kicking my ribs in. People pulled him off and we decided it was time to leave. And just when we walking home and discussing how weird the whole thing was Oli and I got jumped by two guys in bandanas and with broken bottles who again beat me to the floor, hit me round the head, kicked me again in the ribs and took my wallet. Unpleasant to say the least.

Day 138 - Saturday 17th July

My birthday. Sigh. Not as I'd planned out, diving was cancelled and I spent most of the day nursing my injuries and hanging out with Matt.

Days 139 to 142 - Sunday 18th to Wednesday 21st July

Did 7 very painful dives to complete my Advanced PADI course and some extra fun dives thrown in. Highlights were spotted eagle rays, a turtle, a shipwreck, playing ping pong with egg yolks held together by 30m of pressure, underwater frisbee, crazy jellyfish on a night dive and doing some cave diving. Island highlights: lots of munchies burgers, great fajitas, thick Caribbean accents, our dive centre's fisherman caught a 300lb marlin that tasted AMAZING and sea kayaking with crofty and the guys round some reefs and some mangroves. Also the muggers through away my cards and being the small place that it is they made their way back to me via the mayor. Apparently the guys were found too and were going to be dealt with the islands own mafia revenge style...