Utila

February 1^st 2013

Today went by like a New York minute in New York.

After nearly three years of travelling….or at least being out of Ireland for extended periods of time, I have decided to actually put pen to paper (or fingers to keys) and record my adventures as I encounter them and explore the  personally unknown realm of internet blogging.

I’ve been slack to say the least in keeping up with friends in the past so this is my way of letting folk know what I actually get up to when I sporadically run away from home! While I may have missed out on detailed stories of what I encountered over the last few years I hope to get myself into lots more trouble and adventure in order to bring  grit into my new blog. Hopefully my constant updates of life overseas will not bring the reader a sense of boredom but will infact intermittently render a mild chuckle or stimulate a mild note of interest.

Meanwhile…in the Big Apple….

I boarded my plane in Dublin with first stop New Jersey.  As I took my window seat a couple sat down next to me. I took no notice until the constant shower of affection from the manpartnerhusband started encroaching on my cocoon of personal space. I had no choice but to throw a questioning glare that went utterly unnoticed but what I then observed was a very AMEERICAAN balding man, who bore exceedingly similar physical and mental (that I would discover when asking him to move from his aisle seat to let me pass and go to the toilet) characteristics to that of Tobias in Arrested Development. He was there with his obviously new Thai bride who squirmed in her seat as her manhusbandman showed her with moustache covered kisses and double hand holding. Now if I was a very sheltered person who had never watched any media I would could say without a doubt that I may have felt as if I was watching soft porn the way he fondled her hands.

Finally the flight took off and at altitude, our ‘flight attendant’ as United Airlines call them, delivered pretzels to break up the action and ManhusbandTobiasman chilled helped ease the level of groping, much to my delight.

The flight took just under 8 hours to Newark Airport, NJ, which ended up in 4 toilet breaks for me as I was determined not to get dehydrated and proceeded to consume vast volumes of the clear stuff (not Vodka by the way!). By toilet break number three I was getting eye daggers and by toilet break number four he didn’t even move. He just made a fake effort to tuck his legs in against his seat. How and ever I finally made it to Newark after flying over lots of frozen lakes and white capped hills, with the famous Manhattan skyline gleaming in the distance.

I’ve only been in New York once before in Uni with DCU Drama. I wasn’t so big on the tourist trail back then, I was more focused on the enticing lights of Time Square’s endless stream of mindblowing shops and taking advantage of the lock-in a friend of a friend of a friend’s Irish bar for us under-21’s! I had always regretted not seeing the iconic statue of liberty and so thought that might be a potential one for the one day stop-over itinerary.

But first a bikini wax! I asked the receptionist in my hotel (yep, flashpacker in my old age staying in a hotel for my stopover) and she sent me in the direction of possibly one of the dodgiest neighbourhoods I think I have ever been. Episodes of The Wire kept taking over my thoughts. Every time I saw a car with tinted windows stop anywhere near me I thought I’d hear the sound of a gun. There are a lot of Mafioso looking cars around there. Anyways, I found this salon where the latina lady was down the back of the shop with what seemed like friends and she asked me what I wanted done. I looked at the guys, looking at me and I guess somewhat meekly, replied, ‘I’d like a bikini wax please’ and she repeated ‘a whaaat?’ and I looked again at the guys in their baggy pants and hoodies, looking at me clearly interested in what I was going to have done. So I just said it a loud for all to hear and she said ‘no problem. You can get yo Brazillian in 5 mins. The gurl is just in wit anotha client’. So I waited and got flashed a golden smile from one of the guys as he walked out of the shop. Fantastic.

So, in I went with the girl to get my wax done. All dignity and modesty gone as I took of my knickers and lied on the table like a baby waiting to get its nappy changed. Then I saw the wax. Double dipping was apparently acceptable here and all I wanted to do was say can you use a different stick and a different wax and wash your hands please but the wimp in me kept schum and just let her away with it. If I end up with some kind of infection let it be known that that was the most likely of causes and nothing more sinister! In fairness, she did a pretty good job in the end.

Contrary to my usual prepared and organized  approach to things *cough* I made my way, post-wax to Penn Station, Newark. I had no idea what went where as there was no maps to be found anywhere which was handy….in no way! So I asked this guy how to get to Times Square and he helped me and soon we became short term buddies. He was there with his nephew, who was clearly very shy and from Atlanta so also new to the city. He was such a character and a super interesting guy. His immediate appearance may suggest different if one was to take one at face value. He donned a rather generous sized gold ring on his hand with a massive ruby in the middle but he spoke so softly and lyrically when he described the beauty of New York and was eager to show me what has been done in place of the twin towers of the World Trade Centre. I got a great photo with my 2 new transient friends. We exchanged emails so he could very well end up reading this and if he does I’d like to say a massive thank you for being so helpful and friendly to a lost Irish girl in New York.

L-R: Lawrence

On the train home I met another New Yorker woman, just a little older than me that I opened up to about my whole life pretty much in the matter of just a few stops. She did the same. It was unusual but felt good. She worked in advertising and worked crazy hours from 6:30am – 11pm sometimes with extra time in the office the odd Sunday. For her, work is her life. For me,  work funds my life and I’m okay with that I think.

So as quickly as I arrived I soon left and made my way for San Pedro Sula, Honduras.

February 2^nd 2013

 The humid heat was instantly welcomed as I stepped off the plane and on to wait for my connection. And what a connection it was. A number of us – 15 maybe, walked towards what initially I thought was the smallest plane I’d ever been on (apart from the time I went sky diving in NZ). It was treated like a bus of sorts and dropped us 40mins away in the coastal city of La Ceiba. From there we all got off, each of us going to different Bay Islands. I was part of a small group that were going to Utila and our group were directed towards literally, the smallest passenger plane I’ve ever been in. Men were directed up front and women down the back as we were that bit smaller. So I hopped into the back seat along with a few of our bags but suddenly was told to move up the front and got co-pilot seat up the front. It was incredible! I was terrified I’d touch a control by accident and send our little plane into the tropical depths below. Luckily my clumsiness that day did not prevail and we made a majestic and incredibly scenic flight to the Utila landing strip. This was my first indicator of how immensely laid back and chilled out this part of the world is. I knew I had come to the right place.

Monday 10^th Feb 2013

Utila is possibly one of the friendliest and most relaxed place I have ever been. There is virtually no crime rate and the majority of people walk around with smiles on their faces. After just one day diving with Utila Dive Centre I had already made a plethora of friends and found myself chatting to a huge range of new friends as I would walk down the road. After being here just over a week now I have discovered that it is officially impossible to not see someone you know walking down to UDC (Utila Dive Centre). It’s such a lovely feeling and acts as a constant reminder why I chose to come here.

I initially thought of Utila island and doing my Divemaster with UDC from a friend I worked with on my first boat – Thanks Rian!! He couldn’t have been more right about this place. UDC so far have been nothing but professional and are  pretty reasonably priced. In order to start your Divemaster course you need a minimum of 40 dives…which I was far from…so UDC allow you to do what is commonly known as round here as your ‘pre-week’ which means you do an intensive week of dives and get to know the local dive sites free of charge!! I am just finishing my pre-week tomorrow – last 3 dives!!

During the pre-week dives, I’ve been lucky enough to work with some top-notch instructors.  Being completely blasé and with little ground for the confidence in my diving ability, my weaknesses were soon pointed out by some of the highly trained instructors like Clive and Zoni and from their critique I am already feeling like a better and more established diver. I have learnt a lot in really a very short space of time.

Besides diving 3 times a day for the last week, I have also been introduced to island life which involves much time sampling the local food and very tasty but dangerous Caribbean rum. It seems to go hand in hand here. At least for pre-week. Game face starts today! The island has a party somewhere every night. It does tend to change from bar to bar but there’s always something going on.

It has been a crazy week. I arrived on Saturday and checked into my dorm in the Mango Bay Inn (which is free of charge with UDC for the first 4 nights with a DMC). Met a wonderful Canadian gurl called Krystle who immediately informed me of a beach party that night for the full moon. 3 hours later I was drinking rum and fresca (grapefruit lemonade that is actually yummy) with about 10 new friends! We then headed on up to the party and things got even crazier. What a night of excess….but lets just leave it at that. It was an incredible introduction to island life in Utila.

Sunday was, as you would imagine pretty chilled out and luckily I wasn’t starting my pre-week until Monday so had time to recover. But nearly every night there has been some kind of fiesta and the Utilians and divers alike know how to party party! Getting up in the morning has definitely been harder to accomplish.

Wednesday 13^th February 2013

Yesterday was potentially one of the best days in my life. I had my last day of pre-week dives and on the first dive had a very chilled out time,  checking out the sea life along just one of the beautiful reef sites around here.  And as I was buddy’s with my good friend and house mate, "Krystle" we also had a bit of a play around with buoyancy and doing summersaults in the water and being generally silly. Good dive but the best was yet to come.

We got back on the boat after out 40minute dive and as the boat made its way back to the dive center Captain Ryan (one of the boat drivers) spotted a huge pod of dolphins off the starboard bow. To say there was a level of excitement would be an understatement. As soon as Marc, one of the instructors told us all to quickly get a mask and fins to get ready to jump in dolphin fever took over and a mild panic ensued to grab things as quick as possible so as not to miss this incredible opportunity to swim with dolphins.  My heart was racing and finally we got the go ahead to jump into the water.

Within seconds I was swimming…no joke….eye to eye with three dolphins, so close I could have touched them. At one point the three of them were circling me and genuinely interacting with me. I was almost expecting them to go under me and lift me up like you see in those marine parks. It was just mind blowing. My three dolphin buddies then swam on and I looked down only to spot a line of  five more just below me. It was simply magical as I watched them majestically streamline through the water. After a few minutes it looked as if they had moved on so we were called back to the boat. We got back on and no sooner had we taken our gear off that the dolphins were spotted back again and we were back in the water. This time, Andy (head of UDC) very generously and trustingly gave me the lend of his GoPro.  It allowed me to capture just a glimpse of the incredible experience I encountered.

On the second swim I found myself surrounded again by a small group of dolphins who would copy me as I ducked down under water and again as I jumped up. If I did a spin, they would do a spin and vice versa. It was literally like a scene out of Free Willy, where I’m the kid and the dolphins are my Orca but in this case, the dolphins were genuinely having fun in their natural environment and blatantly exhibiting signs of high intelligence and social interaction with humans.

I will never forget this experience….ever!

And just to top all this, on the next dive we saw some awesome stuff including a green sea turtle and a scorpion fish, sitting in wait camouflaged in the coral. That could have ended differently if I hadn’t noticed its eyes suddenly dart at me with evils as I searched that piece of coral for some cleaner shrimp.

Literally, this has been one of the most incredible experiences of my life and I have UDC and Captain Ryan to thank!!! C’mon whale sharks!!!

February 13^th 2013

Had my boat workshop today and went on a rather chilled out dive and practiced some buoyancy skills. I think I’ve finally mastered the upside down, remaining still pose which I am personally very excited about.

As a mark (excuse to drink) I decided to celebrate the end of my pre-week dives by having some fiesta with friends. The night started with a wonderful dinner that we call a ‘pot luck dinner’  that involves everyone making some kind of dish and sharing it with friends. Krysle cooked a yummy shrimp pasta, Sam made some uber tasty meatballs (Yes, we all liked the taste of Sam’s balls. Especially when dipped in his special sauce). I pathetically made some garlic bread but things were most definitely topped off by Lauren’s homemade (from scratch –w hat a woman) cheesecake, Ryan was chief food taster! It has been a long time since my tastebuds quivered with such joy. A very civilized evening that was topped off with a lot of rum, dancing and ridiculousness in TreeTanic and Tranquilo bars. Great night! And so good not to have to get up at 6am! (Though I did wake at 7!) But I have realized since being here that I have met a whole host of amazing and wonderful people who, in the short space so far, have educated me and brought many smiles and laughter to my life. Life is good!