It is not the destination but the journey ..... who said that?

So, the plan was, go to Utila for a week of scuba diving. My kind of plan. Utila is one of the Bay Islands off the coast of Honduras a sister island to Roatan. Smaller in size and known more for dive training than for high end resorts.

I was meeting Greg, Paula and Sandra in Honduras, so I thought I would save money and have a bit of an adventure by taking a ferry to Honduras. The ferry, "The D-Express" travels on Fridays from Placencia to Puerto Cortes Honduras, about a 2 hour ferry ride. Then I was going to take a taxi to San Pedro Sula where I would meet Paull, we would spend the night then meet Greg and Sandra at the International Airport there and take a puddle jumper flight to Utila.

I had gone to the website for the D-Express several times but it is not a great site, not well maintained or up to date and the link to purchase tickets online is not functional. On the Wednesday before I was supposed to leave I went into a business that is right near where the ferry apparently loads on Friday morning. I had been told that they sold tickets there. I went in and was told that no, I had to go see Omar for tickets.

Omar Sierra is a local long-time Placencian, owns some guest homes on the sidewalk, and owns a Restaurant "Omar's Creole Grub" on the main road. The people told me to go see Omar at the restaurant. I walked down the road and went in. Omar's son was there and he said his dad was on his way back to Placencia on the bus and would be there that afternoon/evening or the next day and could sell me a ticket. I told him I'd be back on Thursday.

Thursday morning I walked back down to the restaurant and when I asked about tickets for the ferry the young man said, "well Omar is around today but he's not here." I asked when he would be in and he said, "later today".

I didn't just fall off that turnip truck and knew I needed to clarify, we are talking Belize time here  so I asked, "what does that mean later?" He said, "well later this afternoon or if you come back around dinner time." So I went home to wait.

I then walked back down to the restaurant at about 4:30 in the afternoon. The sign outside said they were closed and would re-open at 5:30 for dinner. Might he have told me they closed and reopened later? Oh well.  Rather than go home I went and wandered through town, stopping at the grocery, the pharmacy etc. I went back at 5:30 but nope they were still closed. I wandered some more and went back twice more between 5:30 and 6 but they still weren't there. So I finally went over to where the guest houses were on the sidewalk and rang the bell outside. A very nice woman answered and I told her I was trying to get a ticket for the D-express. She siad, "Oh, Mr. Omar does that." I smiled. She said "oh, I'll go get him right now and disappeared into the home" She came back about 5 minutes later and said, "Mr. Omar has been out of town for a few days so he turned his ticket book back in while he was gone and doesn't have it."

I was beginning to wonder if I was meant to ride the ferry at all. Then the woman said, "you do know you can just get a ticket tomorrow morning when you board the ferry."

Huh, who'd have thought?

On Friday morning Dan and Doc, my cabana neighbors called a cab for me (due to a very large suitcase I had to get to the ferry) and they rode their bikes down and we had coffee together before I left. Finally at about 9:00 we left Placencia. After about 15 minutes we were in Independence where we sat for about an hour and waited until an Immigration Officer came to the boat, checked our passports and paperwork stamped them  and we were on our way.

The D-Express Ferry

Next post: Arriving in Honduras ... the adventure continues.