Leaving... on a catamaran!

Monday morning was too rough to head to the north side so we had to stay on the south side of Utila for our diving. You really have to get out to the north side if you want a chance at seeing a whale shark. They have been seeing them quite regularly lately.

On Monday afternoon Borja, Steve, and I rented a catamaran, bought a few beers and headed out sailing. We picked up Richard and Yago from Alton's dock after they were done their afternoon diving and headed out again. Borja, Yago, and I needed to be back by 6:00 PM for a briefing for a trip to Cayos Cochinos the next day, but shortly after 5:00 the wind basically died! It was very slow going after that! We never made it back until 6:45 PM. We got the "brief" briefing in which they repeated about three times the fact that we had to be on the dock and ready to go by 5:30 AM. Point taken!

Tuesday was a phenomenal day trip to Cayos Cochinos. We did one dive on the way and one dive when we got to Cayos Cochinos. Both sites had tons of life on them. They also had massive currents, which for some reason we ended up having to swim against. I don't know why they didn't do a live boat on the second dive as that was the dive plan and then it changed at the last minute. We actually never made it back to the boat!! We had to swim on the surface to get back. After the dives we pulled in to an absolutely postcard worthy island. The few people who live there have a very simple life... little huts, lots of hammocks, dugout boats for fishing, no electricity. They were so friendly and the little kids were so much fun! Playing in the hammocks, snorkelling and swimming with the kids... a traditional lunch (guess what? fish, rice & beans, and fried plaintains!), some drumming and punta dancing, Flor de Cana rum, a few beers... then time to head back to Utila. Happily we made it back with no mishaps - all the staff had been indulging in drink and weed - including our boat driver...

When we got back to Utila we found out that the morning dive boat had seen a whale shark! I had an amazing day at Cayos Cochinos... but I might have traded it for a bit of a swim with a whale shark. There was only one diver on the morning boat (the rest of us had gone to Cayos!) and she was able to get in the water with it for 3 or 4 minutes before the whale shark decided to descend. This morning I told Gringo, the boat driver, that he had to find me a whale shark since it was my last day of diving. He did his best... and we thought we had found one... we all got our snorkelling gear on and were ready to slip into the water... but it wasn't my lucky day I guess.

So now it's my last night on Utila... tomorrow morning I am catching a catamaran to Roatan with a guy named Captain Vern!