My reasons for wanting so badly to be in Utila the first week in August were two-fold. One, I had been told that the first week in August has historically been one of the best for whaleshark sightings. And two, the baby turtles from the nest I had guarded on the beach in June were due to hatch and if I could swing it I wanted to be a witness.
First things first, I signed up to dive most of the week I was there. See. I already feel better. Then I made arrangements to look at an apartment to rent. The apartment is close to town but not on the main road so it is relatively quiet, in a complex with four apartments and a fenced yard. It is two bedroom (hey a room for a visitor -- hint, hint), included cable and internet. It has air conditioning in one of the bedrooms but I don't need it. There are floor fans in each of the rooms and I'm actually fine just using a fan. The only thing not included int he rent is electricity which can be a bit pricy but it appears I can likely get by on about $100 US per month. It is "pay-as-you-go" electricity which is actually kind of nice, because i left the island for a couple weeks I emptied my already almost empty refrigerator and just shut off the breaker to it. Therefore there was no electricity being use dint he house while I was gone.
I dove every day. It was absolutely beautiful diving, as seems to be the norm, but alas, no whalesharks. But that was okay. As everyone told me, "you're here now all the time, you'll see them". Good point.
I was a little bummed, Chris, a dive master I've come to love diving with, had recently had an emergency appendectomy so he was not able to be in the water at all. Good part was he then worked as our boat captain. I did however get to dive with Imke a lovely German dive master. Unfortunately she was planning on leaving the island to do some traveling alone in Central America. But it was great to dive with her before she left.
So, we may not have seen whalesharks but we did have some amazing dives!
Really the best part being the turtles and spotted eagle rays which I think we saw one or both on every dive that week.
Of course there is all the other marine life as well ...
I did go out to guard the beach one night but the baby turtles from the nest I had guarded had already hatched and made their way to the ocean (we hope). As it turns out, the eggs seem to hatch during the day not at night. But I was lucky enough to witness a huge loggerhead turtle come up on the beach twice during the middle of the night to look for the perfect nesting spot. She did not lay eggs, checked out couple spots, I think likely came back the next night to dig her nest and lay her eggs. I'm still hopeful that maybe I will get to see some eggs hatch this month.
After a perfect week at Pirates Bay Inn/Captain Morgan's Dive Center I finally had to leave and make the move to my apartment. A quick TukTuk (taxi) ride and I was there with all my worldly possessions (3 suitcases). I unpacked my bags, visited the grocery store, the power company and the store to get a Honduran sim card for a phone. Then I began the process of re-packing for my planned trip back to the states to go with Jim Abernethy's Scuba Adventures from West Palm Beach to Tiger Beach in the Bahamas to dive with the big sharks. That is for the next post.
Before I go though I want to reiterate how great the people are at Pirates Bay Inn and Captain Morgan's Dive Center. I know I raved about them in June when we visited but I don't know that I've ever felt so welcomed anywhere I've visited. When I arrived on August 2nd and showed up at Pirates Bay Inn, almost every instructor and dive master I had met in June and all the office staff immediately came up and welcomed me back, by name, asked how I was, asked if i was there permanently, asked how Greg and the rest of our group from June was. As usual, the room was clean and comfortable, the food was excellent from Christina and Adith, the beers were cold ... couldn't find a thing to complain about. And for every concern I might have had about what I needed to do to get permanently settled, almost every one of them offered help and support. I truly felt like I had arrived home, where I was meant to be.
So now it was time to get back to the US. As usual I made my reservations later rather than earlier but still tried to go as cheaply as possible. The trip to the US wasn't too bad. I took a flight from Utila to Roatan using World Wide Travel (they don't seem to have a website) here on the island. Then I caught a United flight from Roatan to Houston to Nashville where United promptly lost my luggage. I watched them scan the barcoded luggage tag as I went through customs in Houston but somehow it went to El Paso. Really? El Paso? The worst part was when I checked with the lost luggage office at the airport in Nashville the woman there looked it up on the computer and saw that it went to El Paso. Then throughout the night and the next day I got text messages from United saying they were still trying to locate my luggage. I called the number given to me, because I could help them locate it, "IT IS IN EL PASO!!!!!", but you only get a computer recorded message, no human to talk to.
I arrived in Nashville the night of the 13th and was leaving on a plane at 6 a.m. on the morning of the 15th to go to West Palm Beach. I was beginning to get a little nervous. I had my regulator and dive computer and camera equipment with me, but I still needed fins, mask, wetsuit, booties, hood and my other clothing etc..
Finally on the afternoon of the 14th, they delivered my bag to my hotel in Nashville.
I took Delta to Florida and back to Nashville without incident. I'll write about the fun of getting back to Utila -- on United again -- in my next post.
Yes, that was a big sigh you heard.
On the bright side, if you do a fair amount of international travel I can't recommend the Global Entry and trusted traveler program enough. When you have a fairly quick layover in your port of entry (for me Houston) it is wonderful to be able to quickly get through customs and on to your next flight. There is always the possibility that I will still get stopped and have my luggage searched etc., but so far that has not happened. It has also given me TSA pre-check on every domestic flight I've taken since I got it. It truly makes international travel so much easier, and well worth the $100 it cost.
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