utila, honduras

3 - 8 June, 2014

Utila. It's the party place of the Caribbean. Plenty of bars, set up for late night shenanigans, and tuk tuks ready to take you wherever you want to go, whenever you want to go there. 

However, we were there in low season, where the number of people is low, and the restaurants and bars are not very busy. However, we did manage to have some good nights out, dance, dive, and fill our quota of hammock time. It's all about priorities. 

The highlights

• Spending another 5 days with Halliday is always a highlight in anyone's book! 

• To get from roatan to utila, we took a small boat, packed with wine (there must have been 50 cases of wine, so we would have been ok if we ended up stranded somewhere), on a 2 hour journey with just 4 paying customers. Some of the waves we cruised over we're big and steep enough I could have surfed them! 

• The diving was interesting. We were packed into a small boat, driven to the other side of the island, and had to gear up in the water. Which means jumping in, with a weight belt, find your gear that has been thrown over, do a water dance to get everything strapped on to you (remembering not to inhale too much water during the process), hope it's all been set up correctly, take a breath, and sink to 30 metres under water. Simples. However once under water, it was pretty amazing. Sharks, eels, bright coral, crevasses, lion fish, lobsters, buddies, and fooling around. Bueno. 

• On a quiet day, Kath and I went exploring and found a private beach. Unfortunately it was closed and locked up. Fortunately we were able to convince some woodworkers to let us walk through their shop. Back entrance = beach to ourself!  

• We had a couple of fun nights out, including completing a shot challenge to win a tshirt! Not much of a challenge though. I mean, we're australian. We grew up with shot challenges! 

• After Utila, we caught a ferry at 6:30am to La Ceiba, then a bus for for 4 hours to San Pedro Sula (murder capital of the world, for those of you who are curious, who knows, may come up in trivia one day and you'll thank me), then a 1 hour bus to puerto cortez, a place not worth hanging around. One night there, and then a morning boat ride to Belize. 

The Summary

Weather: Postcard perfect. Hot during the middle of the day (when we would seek refuge in our hammocks in the shade), no rain, clear nights. 
Surf: Zeeeeeeeero. Diving took it's place again. Kath found a brilliant yoga studio. Sketchy trip there and back however the daily trip was totally worth it. 
Food: Baliatas! Can't get enough of em. Also fish. Freshly caught each day. Mmmmm. 

Beverages: The usual, red wine, G&Ts and a couple of brewskis. Oh, and some shots :) 

People: The awesome trio, me, Kath and Halliday. Random chats with strangers too. Always fun. 
Accommodation: Awesome. We stayed at a place called The Lighthouse. Probably the nicest on the island. Air con, crazy views, literally on the water, hammocks. And we had the whole place to ourselves. Could have walked around naked. Could have... 
Budget: Came in about 17% under. Not bad! 
Overall: Utila is awesome. I can imagine it would be like spring break during the busy season, however during the quiet season it was chilled, people we're cool, and diving was good. Not as good as rival Roatan, but still good none the less. 

Ciao! 
Damo (and Kath)

Hero shot! 

Playing around in our private carribean beach

Still figuring out the best way to sit on a chair

Aerodynamic testing of snorkel equipment

Snorkel or read? Age old problem now solved!

Literally the whole beach to ourselves

The 3 muscateers on our way to diving fun

It was a very packed boat

Kath giving an underwater yoga class. Meditating. 

Not only very pretty but lion fish are delicious! And incredibly poisonous. 

Kath and Halliday posing for their adoring fans

Kath was a master at finding things. Here she spotted hiding lobsters. 

This shark was actually much bigger than the photo shows

Dry Halliday before getting soaked on the way home

Pollo. Mmmm. Fresh pollo. 

To win a tshirt you have 10 seconds to do 4 shots. Step 1, line them up.

Step 2, slam the down

Step 3, look cool. Halliday. Halliday! 

Drinking game of hammering a nail into a two-by-four. I lost.  

After the long, half hour briefing/lecture at lighthouse, Halliday and I repeated it to kath, who was smart enough to let the boys endure the lecture instead. 

Lunch time, with a cheeky cerveza of course