Honduras Travel

Right now writing you from an internet cafe from the island of Utila on the Bay Islands group in the carribean ocean! Hurricane Gamma was right over us last night and it has been very windy and rainy for 3 days now. Tonight will however be the last night of stormy weather, and tomorrow it’s supposed to calm down alot. Maybe we might even see the sun (my tan from Puerto Escondido is now completely gone).

The ride here took 14 hours, starting in Antigua in Guatemala at 4 o’clock in the morning, and having two stops on the way (Copan and San Pedro Sula in Honduras). Managed to sleep most of the way.

The people on the mainland of Honduras seem to have slightly higher living standard than in Guatemala and the poor parts of Mexico. People are either black or relatively white latin, and hardly any indigeous people are around. Roads, houses and cars are of pretty good standard. The vegetation is very tropical and most forrests consist of palm trees. It doesn’t remind much of Oslo, as an old Norwegian guy said on the bus as we were still in Guatemala.

The ferry ride was very interesting indeed. Of course the normal ferry had broken down and we were put on an open deck one, having to be out there for 2 hours in pooring rain and heavy wind. At least the wind wasn’t cold. At first everyone was trying to stay dry but we all gave that up after 10 minutes (except for a Swedish guy who had brought his umbrella all the way from Lund and refused to give after). Waves were several metres high out there and it was a pretty damn cool experience.

This island is very different from anything else I’ve seen. The history goes back to the 16th century, and the first population here (after the natives were killed) consisted of 5,000 Dutch, English and French pirates. After those were killed by Spanish troops in the 17th century, the Spanish took some thousand African slaves out here and left them to die. Some of them survived and settled down. A few years down the road the English was in control of Eastern Honduras and Belize, and invaded the Bay Islands and made the islands English speaking. So, even today, the native language here is English and this seems very, very out of place. The accent reminds alot of Jamaican, but is even harder to understand and sometimes it’s just unbelievable how the English language could develope in this way; not even maintaining a correct grammar. What is even more unbelievable is that also the white people here speak with that accent! It’s hilarious. Even Boston Ben and other native English speakers here have a hard time understanding the locals, and you just can’t believe what you see when a white guy is talking to you in a thick Jamaican accent. Exotisch, as the Germans would say.

Once we reached Utila the rain continued and as I said we haven’t seen the sun for 3 days now. We checked in at a diving school when we got here, but didn’t sign up for any classes at first. We heard about hurricane Gamma the second day here and decided to leave again, but all ferries were shut off and no airplanes were leaving. So pretty much we were stuck here and spent the first nights going out to the local pubs and clubs (the island has a population of 6,000 so you tend to run into the same people over and over again; staying in tonight). There are quite a few tourists here, mainly Norwegians, and the place feels safe. The lifestyle is exactly how you would picture it to be in the Caribbean and everywhere you hear either Latin American music or reggae. This people sure knows how to dance; one second salsa, the other reggae, and the third pulling their hair back, putting a scarf on and living it up to American hiphop. It sure is an odd place.

Rumours are saying that La Ceiba is completely flooded and that it will be impossible to leave for a couple of days. The island is in good shape, the only trouble being some wind and rain; no floodings and no flying cars. And it will all be over in 24 hours. So we decided to check in for diving classes and had our first one today.

The Bay Islands are known for being the second best place for diving in the world (the first one being the great barrier reef in Australia), and at the same time for being the cheapest. A certificate here costs around 200 U.S. dollars (appr. SEK1500), and takes 3.5 days to accomplish. I should be certified by Monday.

This first day of diving went fine, we were down a few metres deep and performed a couple of easy excercises. The instructors are from Canada and very good, it’s definately a quality course. Tomorrow we’re going out on open sea if the weather is better (which it should be), or else we will take one day off.

My buddies here right now are Boston Ben and the 2 australians. We have a good time hanging out, all though the weather gods could have made the island a whole lot better. I will leave for sunnier parts of Central America in case it hasn’t cleared up by the time I’m certified (mainly thinking of the cost of Belize).

So despite the weather this is not a bad place and it will more than likely be a whole lot better in a couple of days when the sun is back. I will post a new journal entry in a couple of days! Check out the volcano climbing pictures from Antigua. Pictures from the Bay Islands will come up in a couple of days!