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.

Fits and Starts .... and Stops

It is the big day .... well it is supposed to be.

Things were looking pretty good, I got my three bags down to two after my daughter Cait laid down the law (no mom, you don't need that many pairs of pants or that many t-shirts!), and I had a ride to the airport! Then I woke up Saturday morning to find an e-mail ... my flight had been cancelled. Not sure why, maybe weather somewhere else?

The flight was rescheduled for Sunday morning at 6:30, arriving in Belize city at 4:00. The weather in  northern California was crap and I didn't want anyone getting up at some ungodly hour to get me to the airport in Sacramento at 4:30 a.m. So I asked my friends Dee and Kim to drop me at the airport Saturday night.

You know, that is a really good idea, no biggie to me where i just sit and do nothing much, except I should have planned better. By the time I got there, the whole airport was pretty much shut down, no ticket agents so no checking my bags in, Starbucks outside of security all closed up tight. Hmmmm. Well I settled in with my book and I read and napped and read and napped some more til about 4:45 a.m. when the ticket agents showed up again.

As I said, I got my three bags down to two, and that wasn't re-pcacking stuff, it was actually being brutal and choosing not to take as many clothes, leaving a few things behind to be shipped at a later date. But I did it, two large bags, I weighed them carefully with my digital travel scale, one came in at 42 pounds and the other at 48 and a bit. Add to that two carry-ons, one roller and my backpack, I was kind of good to go.

Okay, maybe not. I had checked in online, no big deal (except i got lousy seats when they re-booked my flight ... oh well), I put my first bag, the  lighter of the two on the scale and it says 50 pounds on the dot. I panic just a little bit. Um, I'm used to the airport scale and my scale being about 2 pounds different, I always try to give myself a little cushion. But really? EIGHT POUNDS????, I put the big bag on the scale, nope not 8 pounds different,  the bag I assumed would come in at right about 50 pounds weighs a whopping 60 pounds according to United Airlines.

I admit, I am "that customer" when I look at the guy and say, "that can't be right, you sure that scale is right?" Like he really is going to say to me, oh sorry ma'm you're right, our scale must be 10 pounds off, no problem. Yeah, no. He says instead, it's right, you need to take out 10 pounds. WTF??????  So now I am really "that customer" that we all hate, I have my suitcases open in front of the ticket counter as I rummage around trying to figure out how to lose 10 pounds and figure where i"m going o put them when I take them out of my suitcase.

I'm not even sure how I did it, but I took a bunch of stuff out of my suitcase and stuck it in every available nook and cranny in my carry on luggage, including rolling up a full 5mm wetsuit and stuffing it into my backpack. Got that bag to 50.0 pounds.

A Starbucks mocha and a croissant later and I'm ready to roll. So off I go, leaving Sacramento with the tiniest bit of sadness and I'm headed to Belize by way of Houston. And they gate checked my roller bag so I'm looking like I'm a good traveller with only a backpack as a carry-on. Hah! Have them fooled. Oh, but i do have a middle seat in the absolute last row of the airplane ... really? Really no leg room, no arm room.

Boarding group 4 out of 5, in the very last row and a B seat is a middle seat ... but I do have TSA Pre check!

But wait .... I'm on my way to Belize! It is all just fine.

Next post: Belize city to Placencia then my first foray out on the town, okay, out in the village.