Return to Roatan

For my last night on Utila we headed to Bar in the Bush. It's the party spot on Wednesday and Friday nights and since we'd all had an early night the Friday we got here and were all leaving the next day, we had to check it out. I think the big attraction of this place is the nitrous oxide (laughing gas) balloons which you can buy for about $1 each. I guess if it's something you can't do at home, then it's going to be a big draw. Of course, it seemed to be equally popular with the locals as with the tourists. I tried it, didn't seem to do a thing for me. It was however, fairly amusing to watch what it did to others.

The next morning I was supposed to be picked up at Alton's dock at 7:00 by Captain Vern for my catamaran trip to Roatan. I was ready and waiting 15 minutes early and saw him pull in a few docks over at Utila Dive Centre. He had told me he would be picking me up after he went there so I expected him to back out and then pull into Alton's. He didn't come back!! A couple of the guys from Alton's were whistling and I was on the end of the dock waving my arms. Vern kept going. So Alton's staff saved the day. Mitch told me to throw my bags on board the Maida J and started untying her. He called for a couple other staff to come help. And we chased down Captain Vern! It was pretty hilarious! That's the second time that I have not been picked up on this trip...

Once on board, the cat trip was fabulous. We were going at a leisurely pace of 5 knots so the trip took us about 4 hours. As usual it was too hot to sit in the sun for long so I mostly read in the shade. We kept watch for whale sharks and dolphins, but only managed to see a marlin swimming at the surface feeding. I hadn't really thought about it ahead of time, but on the way over to Roatan I decided that I might as well do some more diving when I got there. After all, I'd be arriving about 11:30 AM and there were two afternoon dives I could do starting at 1:00 PM. Why not?! So when I arrived I checked with PJ at Coconut Trees and I could get on the afternoon boat. I was also able to stay in the dive shop dorms, which, after all my travelling around Honduras, I realized was probably the best place I had stayed! It was the only one with air conditioning, which I sorely missed on many a night on the mainland, as well as in Utila. The afternoon dives were great.. the visibility was better than it had been a month earlier, and we seemed to see more stuff. There were also a lot less people so it was much more chilled out diving.

Later in the day, when I was having a post-dive beer on the deck at Coconut Tree, one of the instructors told me that I was to meet Anna at Sundowners for drinks. Yay!! Anna, a Finnish girl, had been staying in the dorm when I was here before and I wasn't 100% sure if she was still on the island since she had found some news out and had to go home. But she was still here! So after showering I headed over to Sundowners for a little catching up. She was supposed to go for a submarine ride that night with Karl Stanley, a somewhat eccentric guy who started building submarines at age 15, and takes people down to depths of over 2000 feet in his latest homemade sub. Or at least he had done for 10 years. Now all of a sudden there is some conflict with the local government and he isn't allowed to take paying customers. So while she was supposed to be doing that.. I went to a meeting on coral reef bleaching which one of the dive instructors had invited me to. From there we moved on to the Purple Turtle where I was able to catch up with more people that I hadn't seen in a month. Oh, how I had missed this place!