I ended up spending over a month in Guatemala and figured I'd better hit the road and start making my way south or I'd never make it to Colombia for my flight back to the States in January. We had spent the previous few weeks high up in the mountains in Guatemala and thought some time by the beach might be a good next step, so we jumped onto a bus and headed for El Salvador.
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| Sun, surf, palm trees, El Salvador's not a bad spot! |
We arrived at Playa El Tunco, a well known surf spot in El Salvador. It's a nice little town (just a few shops, bars and restaurants beside the sea) where life revolves entirely around surfing. We checked into our hostel and signed up for some lessons the next morning.
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| Downtown Playa El Tunco - yes that's sand on the street. |
Over the last few years I've spent a fair bit of time kayak-surfing, so I know how to ride waves and I've spent a decent amount of time snowboarding, so I can ride a board. Therefore, I thought that even though I'd never surfed before, it couldn't be that hard - right? Wrong!
Day #1 went pretty well, riding the whitewash close to the beach - standing up and riding broken waves wasn't so bad. But the next day we headed out to the real surf which was a whole different story. I soon found out I was really good at falling off the board, getting beaten by big waves and landing on rocks - but surfing, it appears, is not one of my natural talents. I was very close to ditching the board and giving up there and then, but after Nico kept reassuring me that catching one good wave would make it all worth while I stuck at it for another few days. I'll have to admit, I was glad I did. I managed to catch a few nice waves and even just hanging out in the surf watching some of the folks the rip it up on some big waves was really cool. Maybe it was the just the warm water, blue skies, and big consistent swell, but I think I kinda like surfing (any kayakers reading this, please ignore that last statement)!
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| One of the the guys showing us how it's done (I really wanted to pretend this was me) |
I spent nearly a week at Playa El Tunco in El Salvador and could easily have spent a month there, but I was conscious of the fact that I had spent much longer than I intended in Guatemala and needed to get a move on if I wanted to see the rest of Central America. So I packed up my bags, dusted off the sand and got ready to head for Honduras. This is where the group I had been traveling with since Belize would finally come to an end, nearly six weeks later. Nico and I were the last two still traveling together but he was heading to Nicaragua for some volunteer work he had already signed up for and I wanted to head to the island of Utila for some diving. And so, for the first time in my three months of solo backpacking around Central America I was finally traveling by myself!
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| Sunset at El Tunco |
I was heading for Utila, one of the Bay islands off the coast of Honduras, but getting there would involve a combination of buses, taxis and boats and would take two days of traveling. I needed to overnight somewhere and the town of Copán Ruinas, home to some famous Mayan ruins (so good they named the town after them) seemed as good a spot as any. It was a quaint little town with some nice bars and cafes but the reason most people come here is to check out the mayan ruins just 15 mins walk from the center of the town. I arrived in time to spend a few hours wandering around the ruins.
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| Some of the famous Copan Ruins |
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| There were huge macaws all over the place |
The ruins were impressive for sure, and standing on top of one of the temples looking out at the surrounding Honduran mountains was definitely a nice way to spend the evening, but I don't think there were quite as spectacular as the ruins we visited in Tikal, Guatemala which towered over the forest canopy.
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| Standing on a Mayan temple looking out at the Honduran countryside |
I was up early the next morning to catch an early chicken bus (this is what they local buses are called in Central America - they're old big yellow school busses from the US onto which they cram as many people as possible, usually pounding out some latin America tunes!). Two buses, a stopover in San Pedro Sula, a taxi and a boat later I arrived on the island paradise of Utila.
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| Utila at sunset |
Utila is one of the three main islands that make up the Bay islands off the North coast of Honduras. It's a small, very relaxed island and one of the
best cheapest places in the world to dive. I had met some Australian surfers in El Salvador who had been telling me about a freediving course you can do on the island. And before you ask - no freediving doesn't mean you don't have to pay, it's diving without any scuba gear, just using the air in your lungs. I though that learning to freedive would be helpful for whitewater kayaking as it involves holding your breath for a long time, but after completing the beginner course and instantly signing up for the advanced course I discovered that freediving isn't just a handy skill to have, it's a whole new sport that I really really liked.
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| Tex, my freediving instructor checking out the wreck |
Over the course of two weeks I nearly spent as much time in the water as I did out of the water. I completed my PADI Advance Open Water diving course alongside my Advance Apnea Total freediving course. The scuba diving was excellent it was great to be able to dive just for fun rather than having to learn lots of theory and stick you head in a book. I did some cool dives including a wreck dive on an old oil tanker, cave diving, a night dive where we saw some rays, squid, eels amongst other things and some deep water dives.
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| Making friends with a big Remora |
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| Up close and personal with a lion fish. These guys are the only fish you're allowed to spearfish in Utila - they're not native to the Caribbean and have no natural predators. They ended up in the sea after hurricane in Florida destroyed an aquarium and washed 8 of them into the sea! |
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| On the way to the dive site |
The scuba diving was amazing, but it was definitely the freediving that impressed me the most during my time in Utila. I couldn't believe what the human body is capable of. After just five days of freediving I managed to reach a depth of 38 meters (about 125 feet!) without any scuba gear - the deepest I've been
with scuba gear is 36 meters. Thanks to an Tex, an amazing freediving instructor at Ecomarine and after learning lots of breathing and relaxation techniques, I was freediving the very same wreck dive that I had dived on my scuba course, and I somehow managed to set a new Utila record for the longest static apnea (holding your breath in shallow water) at 5 minutes 32 seconds!
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| Freediving the wreck |
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| Setting the new Utila Static record |
I ended up at Ecomarine diving school since Tex was the only freediving instructor in the Bay Islands. But when I got there I found a seriously chilled out dive shop. It was basically a family that you become part of. Since it was low season I had private instruction from Tex for freediving and from Carla (a kickass scuba instructor) for scuba diving.
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| Me with Carla and Tex |
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| Ecomarine dive shop |
One of the lies everyone who visits Utila says is: "I'm leaving tomorrow" - I tried leaving a three times times, and to be honest, if I didn't have flights booked for January I'd probably be there for another few months. It's a great island and I could have quite happily my time diving with the folks at Ecomarine and relaxing over some cold beers in the evening.
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| Relaxing with a Salva Vida after a day of diving |
Once again I found myself saying goodbye to a place and to people that I didn't want to leave, but I was heading for Nicaragua a country I had heard amazing things about, so with my bags packed I headed of in search of more volcanoes...
Lots More pics here:
