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| Central America - The Journal |
Crossing Rough Seas to the Caribbean Paradise
Day 20 - Tegucigalpa to Utila, Bay Islands
The problem with catching buses in Tegucigalpa is that there is no central bus station; all buses leave from their respective company's offices. So, we needed to pick a company which went to our next destination, La Ceiba, a major city on the Caribbean coast, get a taxi there and hope there wasn't a long wait. We hedged our bets by making an early start and picking the company with the most departures, Cristal. Luckily, after our taxi dropped us off, it was only 30 minutes until the next departure; perfect timing!
After a long but straightforward journey, we quickly transferred across town to the ferry port. There are only 2 ferries per day to the small island of Utila, our final destination for the day, one early morning and one mid-afternoon. We'd timed it pretty well, we got to the port about an hour before the ferry was due to leave, so we passed the time people watching and chatting with the funny and friendly baggage handlers, still sharing jokes despite our limited knowledge of each other's language.
The ferry to Utila is fairly small, but very modern and fast with a very competent crew. After everyone had been loaded on and the luggage stowed below, it was clear that the fun was about to start; waterproof covers were sealed over all the windows and the crew suddenly armed themselves with plastic bags and tissues.
The crossing to the island takes about an hour, but the sea can be very rough, especially for such a small and light boat. It took less than 10 minutes before the first victim was sick. During the choppy voyage, with water violently splashing against the waterproof sheets, about a dozen people were seasick, and about twice as many were close to the line, including Parki who was saved by a friendly gift of a piece of peppermint chewing gum.
When the boat docked, not a moment too soon judging by the dour faces in the boat, we quickly unloaded into a small port on what was clearly an island of Caribbean flavour. The palm trees, the glorious sun, the wooden shacks and homes, the contagiously slow pace of life and the turquoise blue waters embraced us with island life.
The spell was momentarily broken by the greeting part that was waiting by the dock for us. Utila is a simple island paradise, there is little to do other than relax, eat, drink and scuba dive in the beautiful waters and fantastic reefs that surround the island. Because of this there are about a dozen diving schools on the small island who fight over custom and keep the prices so low there is no where else cheaper to learn to dive. But business is tight and they have to fight hard for custom, to reps are always on hand to meet the incoming ferries.
As luck would have it, the first person to talk to us was a rep from Deep Blue Divers, the company we were intending to use following excellent recommendations. The rep, clearly happy with the easy sell, gladly gave us a map and directed us to a number of accommodation choices.
We'd actually already chosen a place to stay, the well known Mango Inn. However, we quickly encountered the problem of the different dive schools grasps on the island. Much of the accommodation is owned by or linked with a particular dive school. This isn't necessarily a bad thing as it means accommodation is generally free during a diving course and all the students of one school live together. However, it is not clear that the Mango Inn is part of the Utila Dive Center (UDC) empire. The UDC is the biggest and oldest diver school on the island and has a lot of weight behind it. However, it is often referred to as "the factory" as it churns through students in big classes. As we knew that Deep Blue Divers had excellent staff and equipment and that the class sizes were kept small (very important when you're sitting under water waiting for the rest of your class to perform a skill/activity) we had already decided to go with them (despite the fact they charged a little bit more than everyone else).
The Mango Inn is one of the best places to stay with a nice pool and a great social atmosphere, so we were happy to grab the last 2 dorm beds. However, after we'd checked in we were soon ambushed by a UDC instructor who basically assumed we'd be doing a course with them the next day. The receptionist then told us that the accommodation would be free because we were doing a course with UDC. But as soon as we said we wouldn't be, her whole demeanour changed, she became a lot more hostile and said that we shouldn't really be staying there and we could be kicked out at any time on the whim of UDC and their current/potential students.
I was annoyed by her attitude and the way we'd been ambushed; if I'd know about the UDC condition before checking in, I wouldn't have checked in! In fact, I was so annoyed that we quickly located another place to stay, the very comfortable Cooper's Inn with super friendly staff and no strong diver school affiliation. We then moved there immediately and cut our losses with the money we'd already paid Mango Inn. Of course, I didn't return the keys until the next day...I didn't want them having the benefit of double booking the beds!
But apart from that little incident, which was really nothing looking back, we had a fantastic time on Utila...one of the greatest weeks so far...especially as the intended 3 days turned into more than a week! Details in the next journal entry...
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To know the road ahead, ask those coming back
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