YIKES! Where did two months go???

Wow, I knew I had been slacking on the blog, and I have lots of good excuses for it (not), but two months, really?

So where have I been? Right here, living the good life in Utila.

I actually have fallen into a routine, which is nice for me in my everyday living, not so nice for wonderful adventures to write about.

After returning to the island in late August, I was diving a couple days a week. I also took on the responsibility of keeping the Facebook page for Captain Morgan's Dive Centre and Pirates Bay Inn updated with fresh pictures and posts. (Hint, hint, you should go like those pages if you don't already).

I was also helping a couple of the DMTs (Dive Master Trainees) with finishing up some of their skills they needed to do to complete their Dive Master.

I was really beginning to feel "in the groove" in my photography. Got a few shots that I am particularly proud of.

And then ... disaster struck. I went on a dive, came up put my camera in the rinse tank and when I got back to land could see the o-ring for one of the strobes had been pinched in the cap. It was completely my own fault, I was trying to hurry and had not prepared my equipment at home the night before as I try to always do. Strobe flooded.

But, I'm resourceful, I can shoot with only one strobe and in the meantime I ordered another online. It was delivered to my friend Greg's home and he had a trip here planned for late October and would deliver it to me. I could make it 6 weeks or so with only one strobe.

I can shoot with one strobe but it isn't easy and I really had to work to get the right lighting. And it didn't always work to my satisfaction.

I looked forward to having a second one again.

All the while I was posting pictures on my own Facebook page as well as the page for Captain Morgan's. I was now diving about 3 days a week and my life was good.

Now for my excuse for no blog .... I began to feel that just reposting those same pictures on the blog, that I had already posted online was boring for the reader. Most of you who read the blog also are friends on Facebook and I had little to add about the dives themselves or the pictures. At least that was my thinking. So I let the blog sit (and sit, and sit, and sit.)

About 4 weeks after my strobe disaster, disaster struck again. I went on a dive, came up, put my camera in the rinse tank and went about my business. I took the card from the camera, uploaded pictures, edited and posted as I usually do. Then I went home. I wasn't diving for a few more days and I got lazy and just let things sit. When I went back for my next dive I opened my one strobe to change the batteries. The batteries I had left in there were corroded and leaking. Clearly I had experienced another leak. This time I was shocked. The strobe had worked throughout the dive and I had not noticed anything when I took the camera from the rinse tank.

I am no assuming that it was a tiny leak, maybe a hair on the o-ring, or a little piece of dust? Who knows but either way I now had two strobes ruined and nothing for the camera.

I contacted Sea and Sea and they gave me the name of their Central America representative. He put me in touch with a shop owner on Roatan who didn't have a strobe in stock but said he would see about getting me one. As it turned out, he would be ordering from the states, the same as I would, his price was a little higher than what I could find it for and I still would have to pay shipping and he wanted me to come to Roatan to pick it up. All in all it seemed not cost effective.

I must say though, the rep from Sea and Sea was great and still says he'll try and help me get a deal on a strobe even if I get it in the states.

And if I thought it was tough to shoot with one, trying to shoot natural light only was really hard for me ... depressing is the word that comes to mind. But I just tried to keep plugging along and getting a photo here and there.

Greg came at the end of October and brought me one new strobe. So it was a great week, a visit from a friend, celebrating his birthday on the island, and at least having a little bit of light for photos ... all in the next post.

A long trip home, but arriving just in time ...

My flight back to the Caribbean left Nashville at 6:00 a.m. It is an international flight so they say you should be at the airport two hours early. My experience has been that at 4:00 a.m., there is absolutely nothing open in the Nashville airport, including the airline ticket counters and kiosks. But I still had to get gas and return the rental car so I left Murfreesboro about 3:45 a.m. Ugh.

I was flying United again so it was with some trepidation that I handed over my bag to be checked.

The first leg of my flight was to Houston, then hustle from one terminal to another for the next leg which was Houston to San Pedro Sula. I again, when making the reservations had faced the problem of if I flew into San Pedro Sula on any day other than a Saturday I couldn't get a flight back to Utila, so I would have to take a bus and a ferry and likely stay overnight somewhere, so I booked a flight to Roatan instead.

At the time it made sense, Roatan is another of the Bay Islands, I can on a clear day see it from the dive boat. How hard can it be to get to Utila from there?

I arrived in San Pedro Sula at about 11 a.m. Here is where things get worse. Every flight to Roatan from Nashville included a LONG layover in San Pedro Sula. Mine was about 21 hours. I tried to convince myself and anyone who asked that it wasn't going to be that bad. I've spent lots of hours in airports and while not great I have music, books, games on my myriad of electronics and a computer with all that time to write.

The problem with San Pedro Sula Airport is that there is almost nowhere to even sit. There are some tables and chairs at the restaurants but when the place is busy it is tough to find a seat, and I usually try to avoid taking up a seat at a restaurant if I'm not a paying customer. Before you go through security, which you can't do until a couple of hours before your flight, there is one five seat bench not at a restaurant. The other problem for me is there are almost no electrical outlets. I asked if there was one and was told by the customer service people that there was nowhere to charge a phone. I found a plug against a wall finally and spent some time just sitting on the floor charging my phone. My luggage had arrived safely but again, until two hours before my flight to Roatan I could not check my bag in so had to lug it with me around the airport as I looked for somewhere relatively quiet and comfortable to wait it out.

Many hours sleeping sitting up -- or at least sleeping while trying not to fall over.

I had attempted to make arrangements for a boat ride from Roatan to Utila, on a ferry called the Lady Julia. Unfortunately, the day I wanted to travel they didn't have enough customers so the ferry was not running. No one had a flight going to Utila so I took the only other option. I caught a ferry going from Roatan to La Ceiba (back on the mainland), then a second ferry from La Ceiba to Utila. The ferry rides are reasonably cheap but it added more hours to my long travel days.

Once again it had taken me two days to get back to Utila.

I left Nashville at 6:00 a.m. on the 26th of August and stepped off the ferry in Utila at about 5:00 p.m. on the 27th. But I immediately knew I was "home". David from Pirates Bay Inn was at the Ferry Dock to meet potential new guests. He helped me with my bags and offered me a ride in a truck they had at the dock.

The first whaleshark in four weeks or so had been seen couple days before so I was anxious to try and get in the water. I scheduled a dive for the 28th.

We completed the fist dive of the day, it was really beautiful and I was so glad to be back in the water. Then during our surface interval Captain Louis started driving out towards the open water. He was watching for the tell tale signs that start with  a lot of birds at the surface. As we got closer he looked for the "Tuna Boil", large schools of tuna near the surface jumping out of the water and feeding. It really does look like a big pot of water at a rolling boil.

All of us on the boat got our fins, mask and snorkels on and waited on the back of the boat. Louis watched the water, slowly moving around the three separate boils we had come to. Suddenly Louis yelled, "there it is, right next to the boat, get in, get in!!" We all slid into the water and there it was.

Most people are lucky at times like this to spend a couple minutes close to a whaleshark. This whaleshark was probably around our boat for 15-20 minutes. The experience was absolutely incredible and the whaleshark was magnificent.

Hard to tell but all that mess at the top of the water? That is birds diving in and fish jumping out.

Tuna, lots of them, these ones just looks so calm, but imagine this multiplied by hundreds all racing around and jumping out of the water.

They estimated this whaleshark to be about 7 meters long (about 21 feet). Most graceful huge animal ever.

I felt so fortunate to have the opportunity to be in the water with this amazing animal.

After about 20 minutes the tuna boil had dissipated and the whaleshark had returned to the depths. We then left to get to another dive site for our second dive.

The second dive was gorgeous but hard to compare with what we had just experienced.

My friend and dive buddy Laurent.

Butterflyfish

Gray Angelfish peeking out from behind a sea fan

Since then I have been on the boat a couple more days. The visibility has gotten a bit worse and last week the seas were a little rough but still gorgeous dives. Up until now I've always just worn my 2.5mm Spring shorty wetsuit but I think I'm about  ready to start wearing my full 3mm suit during the rainy season.

I'll Make that Trip to Utila-US-Utila Work ... or Die Trying

When last I left you I had checked in to Pirates Bay Inn for a week-long stay, while I worked to find a more permanent residence and settle in to life in Utila. That, and did some diving.

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.

Now That's What I'm Talking About

It doesn't take long for the four of us to settle in and relax a bit at Pirates Bay Inn. Within a couple hours our names are already on the boards for the two morning dives for the next six days. Boat arrives at the dock there at 7:00 a.m. and we are on our way to a dive site by 7:30.

The vibe in Utila is a great one. The island is 7 miles long by 2 miles wide and has about 17 different dive shops on it. It is a mixture of Hondurans, ex-pats from the US and Canada and a wide range of people from all over the world. Utila does a lot of dive training, people getting certified and at least as many becoming divemasters and dive instructors. Because it is cheap to live and dive in Utila it is a "backpackers" paradise.

For example, Pirates Bay Inn also owns Captain Morgan's Dive Centre. If you sign up to get  open water certified with Captain Morgan's you can get free lodging at Pirates Bay Inn. They have private rooms that when you're doing dive training are $29 USD per night, clean and safe and comfortable (add $10 per night if you insist on having air conditioning). They also have some dorm style rooms that you can stay in for free if training, if not training you can stay there for $7 per night.

7:00 a.m. on Sunday morning we get up and go to the bar/restaurant at the resort. Its really more of a bar, there are no dining tables and wait staff, but there are plenty of chairs around, bar stools at the bar and a couple picnic tables close by, and really good food.

Christina does the majority of the cooking and boy is she good at it. You can get the usual, eggs, bacon, toast type breakfast, or baleadas (a thick flour tortilla folded over some mashed black beans and other ingredients like eggs and bacon or sausage, cheese), but you could also get crepes, fresh fruit, homemade yogurt, french toast, cereal, and of course coffee, iced or hot even a latte or espresso drink, and fruit juices. I usually had either a baleada or scrambled eggs, bacon and a tortilla (homemade right there) and coffee and a bottle of water to take on the dive boat and it cost about 70 lempiras. Yep that is just over $3 US.

The dive boat was filled  every morning with about 14 divers, usually about 6 of us "fun divers" already certified, and the rest in various stages of training, either open water or advanced open water students and an instructor for each of those classes a divemaster or two to lead the fun divers and usually at least one if not two or three dive masters in training.

We regularly went north for the first dive site of the day and south for the second. It all had to do with the wind and the waves. Most of our dives consisted of the boat mooring in about 25-40 feet of water at the top of a wall. The wall often dropped off to close to 100 feet.

The dives were beautiful, we were fortunate to see a lot of see life including turtles, spotted eagle rays, lots of green moray eels and the usual cast of caribbean sea life. Surprisingly we saw no sharks  during the entire week. I'm not sure why the lack of sharks in this area.

Green Moray Eel in for a cleaning by Coral Banded Shrimp

Beautiful coral

Queen Angelfish

The Halliburton Wreck

Sea Turtle

Tarpon

Blue Tang

Of course my desire was to take photos. I assembled my camera gear, put fresh rechargable batteries in my strobes and checked to make niether my strobes or housing leaked. I jumped in the water on the first day and my strobes would not fire. I took a few pictures but was really frustrated as once I got past about 30 feet I got none of the beautiful colors of the reef or the sea life.

I thought maybe there was a problem with the batteries and left my camera on the boat for the second dive. When we returned to the resort I borrowed a charger from Sandra and charged more batteries. Second day I jumped in the water and got about 2 shots where one of the strobes fired then they both failed again. I was afraid my hopes of lots of photography opportunities were going to be dashed completely. That afternoon we checked out strobes and batteries, testing different batteries in each strobe. Finally, after a bit of futzing with the connectors on the cap of the battery compartment of the strobes I got them to work. May need to buy new caps (although I'm secretly hoping to find a way to upgrade my entire system actually but don't think my sparkling personality is paying for one and doubt I could find enough people who would want to donate to a "Go Fund Me" request).

I did try on the second day to change my attitude and rather than giving up and being upset about the equipment failure to try and work on my ability to take some good shots with just the ambient light. It is tough and I hate to lose the color, but just the change in attitude just made the diving better anyway. Overall I wasn't particularly happy with many of my photos from this trip but it serves as just a reminder that I have to just keep working on learning photography more, and taking lots of pictures .. only way I'll get better.

Chris a native Utilian from Pidgeon Cay, our divemaster, carried a spear with him on most dives and did his best to reduce the lionfish population, and Eitan an Israeli instructor on the boat with us on a majority of the days we dove also speared lots of lionfish. Greg finally got his chance to carry a spear and after a few misses early on he and Chris got a beautiful bunch of lionfish. On Sunday they brought their catch back to the Pirates Bay, cleaned the lionfish then lightly breaded them and fried them up for lunch and after a great haul on Thursday by Chris and Greg they brought them back cleaned them and Christina made Lionfish Ceviche.

Greg's first Utila lionfish kill.

Chris Howell, our divemaster with his and Greg's lionfish haul destined for ceviche.

On Wednesday we got the biggest treat. On  our way to the dive site we came upon a large pod of dolphins. Our Captain, Whitney stopped and we got to get in the water with snorkel gear and swim with them. It was so great to be in the water so close to these beautiful creatures. Then after getting back on the boat when we took of several of pod surfed the bow wake of our boat. I lay on the bow of the boat and took the video, when they would breach  I could have probably reached out and touched them they were so close. It just made my week perfect. I had hoped to upload the video here but that seems beyond my capabilities.

Also on Wednesday night Paula and I volunteered with Sea Shepherd to help in guarding the beach and the nests of turtle eggs and any turtles coming up on the beach to lay their eggs. Unfortunately there are still those who would come out and steal the turtle eggs to sell on the black market. At 7 p.m. we went to the BICA (Bay Islands Conservation Association) office, which also houses the new Sea Shepherd office and met with  Fernando, the coordinator of this program and Chel who would be the person actually logging research information about nests and eggs etc., as well as Haley, a visitor from Wales who like us just wanted to volunteer. We rode out on ATV's to a secluded beach set up a tarp with some sleeping bags laid out on it and started our watch. It consisted of every hour walking one half or the other of about 600 meters of beach, watching for signs of turtles coming up on the beach, signs of poachers, or signs of turtles returning to the sea.Then we returned to the base camp and slept until the next patrol, from 7 p.m. til about 4:30 a.m. We didn't get to see any new nests laid or turtles but Chel was kind enough to show us a nest of eggs which had been laid two nights before. We saw two or three eggs of what is likely about 200 eggs in the nest. The eggs stay in the nest for 52 days so my plan is to be there on August 8th to see those babies hatch and hopefully make their way back to the ocean.

Turtle Eggs in their nest.

All in all a great week of diving with great friends.

My dive buddies, L  to R: Greg, Paula, Sandra

Next post: The other part of the trip to Utila and returning to Placencia.