Ahhh finally back at a dry hot beach after months wandering and hiking around wet mountains. I finally get to swim again and soak in the hot salty Caribbean. I picked Utila because it’s one of the cheapest places on earth to scuba dive and I wanted to have my first go at freediving. I also heard there were awesome parties.
The ferry over from La Ceiba was rough. The whole thing shook violently from side to side and there were times when I thought we were going to flip. Two of my friends threw up and I would have lasted another 10 minutes before I would have too.
When we landed in Utila we were swarmed by dive shop employees trying to entice us to do a course with them. I banded together with Connie and Anne because we thought we could get a better price if we went together. Eventually we settled on “Parrot Dive Center” which offered to do our courses for $240 each. I was doing my advanced open water course while Connie and Anne did their initial. The facilities were minimal and the “free housing” was absolute trash. I spent each cold shower standing in rust and hair and each night floating in an inch of my own sweat. The heat and humidity and the fact that we had one tiny window for a top floor room made the room unbearable to be in during the day and miserable to be in at night.
I started my course the very first morning and realized that you can forget how to dive after a year of not doing it. I jumped in the water the first time and heard my gear leaking and squealing behind me. My divemasters said that it was fine, but when I went down 5 meters with the group I started to hyperventilate. It took me by surprise, I never even believed in hyperventilation, but my lungs started to spasm and I got this feeling that I just couldn’t breathe. I signaled to the instructor that I was having trouble and he came over, grabbed my arm and saw that my fingers were turning blue. I wasn’t very aware of what was going on around me but I eventually remembered what you’re supposed to do and I tried to hold my breath for a moment and then take long deep breaths. I finally got my breath under gave the instructor the “OK” signal. The whole first dive I just stared longingly above at the surface as I pushed down to 30 meters for the first time. I could feel the nitrogen narcosis and felt mostly confused about the beauty around me.
The coolest part of the advanced course was diving a wreck that was pretty close offshore. It was 30 meters deep and when we went down we also took a mountain dew and a straw and drank it at 30 meters.
We also got to do one night dive which was unreal. Swimming around with the flashlights made it feel like we were on the surface and just moving around very slowly.
I continued to dive by day and then went out to Tranquila for rum by night. We would see our instructor Joel there who could always be recognized by the glitter he put on each night to party and the glitter he would wear the next day as a consequence. One night we got to see a divemaster graduation where scuba snorkels were strapped to their mouths and jungle juice was poured down the snorkel and tequila in their face masks that they were supposed to suck down with their nose. Painful.
After my stint at Parrots Dive Center I headed to Freedive Utila to try my hand at freediving. I wasn’t ready to leave the island yet and wanted to spend my birthday with the people I had gotten close with in Utila. The freediving was rough at first but I made it down to 12 meters the first day and 22 meters the next day on a single breath. I can’t describe how odd it was to go that far down without any equipment. On the way down it’s scary, you think you’re running out of breath, but as you reach the bottom and flip around you look up and see schools of fish swimming around and it’s just bliss. You can see the surface and that delicious air wayyyy far above you but I was never in a rush to go back up. It took one and a half minutes to go down 22 meters but when you’re under the water it feels like a lot less.
On my birthday I decided to go freedive around one of the local reefs. It was my first time at Coral View. I went to the end of their dock where I found a little bar and ordered Salva Vida and proceeded to sip it. I practiced my Spanish with the bartender, Kimberly, and found another guy at the bar to practice my Spanish with. I ordered us both more beers and when he left I did a bloody mary. I was feeling pretty good when I dipped into the hot water and swam out. It was only about 20 meters until the depth went from a meter to about 20 meters below. I dove down a few times following the crevices and cracks of the reef. I saw all kinds of fish down there, a turtle just as he started to ascend and two enormous barracudas hanging out curious of me around the bottom. After washing off the salt water I headed to Tranquila for some rum and there I ran into the Irishman that I climbed Acetenango and Fuego with. This time I got to meet his girlfriend and one drink led to another and we danced the rest of my 26th birthday away.
I woke up one morning and realized I had been in Utila for far to long. I ran into Seanan the second Irishman again and found that his plan was to go to Roatan and then back to La Ceiba. I thought that sounded like a brilliant plan so after Utila we took another miserable ferry. I started the trip as the only person to go stand out on the bow and after the boat started flying through the air the captain called for me to come inside. I walked inside and while I was walking to find a seat the boat dropped so hard my head went through the ceiling. It was kind of awesome and hilarious but I eventually found a seat and held on tight for the rest of the ride.
We rolled into Roatan and stayed at a hostel called Buena Onda. I snorkeled more, ate more food, and quenched my thirst with more Salva Vidas. I ran into Jana from Belize again who just happened to be staying at Buena Onda as well and spent the last day exploring the island in a car rental. It really wasn’t that exciting but we found a really cool kitesurfing spot on the east side of the island where I found another old friend from Copan.
Awesome.