Honduras

Honduras is a country that is filled with strange and unusual experiences. Somehow I'd been expecting this to be the case, and I wasn't disappointed.

After crossing the northern border from Honduras, and not encountering any immigration at all, there was a short wait to board the Chicken bus that was headed to Puerto Cortes. Although chicken buses have a reputation for manic driving, this one didn't live up to the hype. Instead we crawled along barely above walking pace.

After about 20 minutes of driving the bus made an unexpected stop at the side of a road. Both the driver and the conductor got out of the bus and were intently looking up at a tree by the side of the road. After a few minutes they started throwing rocks at the tree. Apparently one of them had spotted a large iguana. After several minuted of trying, it was apparent that they weren't going to hit the lizard, so they got back in the bus and we continued slowly on out way.

Omoa

First stop in Honduras was a seaside resort town about an hour from the border called Omoa. This was apparently once a regular stop on the trip between Guatemala and Honduras from the north. Roads were now paved and the town seems to have fallen off the trail with travelers making the jump all the way to the bay islands in a single traveling day. Arriving on a weekend meant that Omoa was in the full swing with Honduran families and only a handful of foreigners about.

On arrival in Omoa, I had a look at the only "good" hostel listed in the Lonely Planet Guidebook. After a quick look about, I decided that either standards had plummeted since publication, or that the reviewer had consumed a serious quantity of drugs before staying and thus was oblivious to the fact that the dorms at Roli's place bore a closer resemblance to a crack den than a hostel. Despite the state of the place, prices had also apparently doubled in the year since the guidebook came out. While my own standards of what I can put up with for a night have actually dropped quite a lot in recent years, I felt that I could do better. After short walk around through the town, I was happy to find a place that was offering a room that ended up cheaper than Roli's Place (after a bit of haggling), much cleaner, and actually came with walls that went all the way to the roof. I ended up sharing that with a Slovenian fisherman/photographer who I'd met on the bus from Guatemala and had the same disappointed impression of Roli's that I had.

Despite a relatively easy day of traveling the day before, I still felt like sleeping in and having a relaxing breakfast by the sea in Omoa. Happily rain that had lasted most of the previous evening had cleared and we got a window of warm sunshine and a patch of blue sky before the next downpour hit. By mid morning, both my new-found Slovenian travel buddy and I felt we'd seen about all that Omoa had to offer and were ready to make the trek to La Ceiba as a jumping off point to the Bay Islands.

When faced with a trip that involves several bus changes before getting to an intended location, I'm often a bit daunted and expect a hassle filled day. For some reason, travel through Honduras didn't seem this way, despite having to catch 3 different busses to get to La Ceiba, everything went amazingly smoothly. The one interesting moment occurred when a random Honduran man decided to launch into a half hour long sermon in Spanish facing is captive audience on the front of coach between San Pedro de Sula and La Ceiba. Maybe he felt it being Sunday and us clearly not being in church warranted his intervention.

La Ceiba

La Ceiba ended up being a necessary rather than intended overnight stop due mainly to the fact that I didn't get up early enough to make sure I got there in time for the ferry to Utila Island which was where I really wanted to go. From my interpretation of the guidebook I was expecting la Ceiba to be a dump with generally awful accommodation and nothing going for it other than a few lively bars and its location near the Bay Islands. My expectations were pretty close to the mark, and I decided that the best thing about La Ceiba was getting out.

Utila

If you aren't aware of Utila's reputation as an island dominated by about a dozen dive shops, it's pretty clear by the time you make it to the dock and are greeted by about half the island's population promoting one dive school or another.

While I'd initially planned to do my PADI open water course, I was quickly going off the idea. There's nothing that puts me off buying something than having the product or service shoved down my throat.

After making some inquiries about dive courses and accommodation, I ended up deciding on staying in a room opposite the Deep Blue Divers dive center which had a nice lounge area, a deck with a view of the water, and a really cruisy atmosphere. Diving wasn't a condition of staying, so I left the option of not diving open. An added bonus was the prospect of free wi-fi which would help to feed my internet addiction for a few days and hopefully allow me to get some work done.

Cocaine Bust on Utila

On my third day at Utila, I received further confirmation, in case I needed any, of why I'd make a terrible news photographer. Early that morning, a big load of Cocaine was intercepted by authorities. Apart from a big green army helicopter circling the island, there were men in military uniforms carrying large automatic weapons and looking busy. If this wasn't enough there was a new camera and a guy carrying a Nikon D3* and looking fairly professional. Of course while this was going on, I was enjoying a day at the beach, without my camera and wondering what the commotion was about, without even the thought of going to get some photos. It was only on my way back from the beach when I hitched a ride on a golf buggy that I found out what had been happening from one of the locals. Apparently the airport at Utila which ends a few hindered meters from the water had been used as a drop off point for weekly shipments of drugs from South America.

By the end of the week the latest on the bust was that authorities seized 2 boats, a plane and 1700kg of drugs which were destroyed on the beach. Despite all the activity, apparently nobody was arrested. Strange!

One naked American

Even though Friday night is usually the busiest in Utila, I ended up staying at home and went out on Saturday instead. Although I normally don't have anything against naked women in public, this turned out to be an exception. An American woman decided that she'd liven up her night by coming dressed to the bar in her birthday suit. I'm being kind in my estimate that she was in her late 40's. Unfortunately the preceding 4 decades had seen far too much sun and hadn't been kind. To me, cosmetic surgery hadn't really improved the situation either. Notwithstanding all this, she still managed to attract the attention of a few amorous men in the bar and spent the rest of the evening going from bar to bar, at times dressed, but mostly topless or naked and "entertaining" whoever was interested. By many accounts she had a busy night.

I'm leaving tomorrow

The biggest lie in Utila is "I'm leaving tomorrow". For about the first week I was in Utila I kept telling myself just that. For a variety of reasons it just didn't happen. At first it was the onset of some fantastic weather and the lure of a nice beach with clear water. After that I had a couple of nights at the bar where the thought of an early start just wasn't an option. The island is an easy place to spend far longer than planned and this isn't helped by the need to catch a ferry at 6:20am. There is another ferry but this gets you in to La Ceiba at a time that forces you to stay the night, which wasn't an experience I was going to voluntarily repeat. Apart from that, there's no shortage of good food, nice bars and the island has a pace that just draws you in. In the end I decided to stay and do my PADI open water course after all.

By the time I managed to pull myself away from the island I'd been there just over 2 weeks. By local standards I was probably escaping lightly - many people seem to come with the intention of staying a few nights, and can still be found on the island months later. Be warned!

* for those who aren't intimately acquainted with Nikons range of cameras, the D3 is about the biggest SLR camera available, and with professional lenses fitted looks more like a weapon than a photographic tool.