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You are here: Home / Archives for Destinations / Central America / Honduras

Sharing is Caring….

May 28, 2009 By Jillian

**This post was created prior to the earthquake of 5/28/09– We are NO longer in Utila.**

Let’s face it, we do a lot of what most people would call “extreme” sports.  We mountain bike, whitewater kayak, compete in off road triathlons and do as many adventure races as possible.  Generally if there is an adventure sport/activity out there we want to try it.  For one reason or another, neither of us had ever tried SCUBA diving.  Not exactly a sport, but certainly an adventure.  I have a hard time snorkeling, really who likes to breath through a straw,  so when we inquired about taking classes in DC last fall I was needless to say, thrilled when it turned out to be too expensive.  However that was not the case in Honduras and after almost every traveler we met moving north or south was going or had been to the Bay Islands we felt compelled to include it in our journey.

I’ll be completely honest with you, we only learned how to SCUBA dive because we were in Honduras and it is the cheapest place in the world to become certified.  We figured that since we’re traveling around the world, we might as well get certified since showing up at the Great Barrier Reef and not being able to dive would just be lame.  (Although I later found out that Australia is full of sharks.) Plus, this trip is all about new experiences.  Therefore, we headed off to the Bay Islands of Honduras for a PADI Open Water Course.

At the recommendation of our friends Tracy and David (two years around the world themselves!) we signed up for PADI Open Water Certification at Underwater Vision on the island of Utila.  Thrown into the reading right away, we read the part about sharing air with your diving buddy and well, we were glad to have each other as buddies.  Admittedly I did not share well in Kindergarten, or in 4th grade, especially when it came to Barbies, but its been a long time since then and I can safely say I would share my air with Danny, even if he never shares his ice cream with me!

An hour into our confined water dive I was shivering 3m down practicing how to clear my mask and share my air.   Needless to say the heavy equipment and dry air, coupled with the temperature underwater and extremely low visibility made for a lousy first diving experience. The next day, 30 minutes into my first open water dive I was 12m down staring into the home of a lobster surrounded by coral and big tropical fish.  It was about 180 degrees away from the confined water dive and I felt like I was in a deep sea aquarium.  The feeling of breathing underwater was surreal, I didn’t even notice how deep I was until I looked to the surface.

Over the next five dives (we did a few fun dives as well after our certification), we swam in what seemed like an endless aquarium of tropical fish, coral and even some wrecks. We learned the unofficial rule of wetsuits, “don’t pee in a wetsuit, especially one that isn’t yours” and how to gracefully, if somewhat awkwardly get in and out of a tight wetsuit.

Although I have nothing to compare it to, the diving around Utila was incredible.  Excellent visibility (except for the first day) and nothing but beautiful coral reefs, blue water and thousands of marine creatures.  We saw entire schools of fish and even swam with a sea turtle!  Unfortunately our timing did not coincide with Utila’s famous whale sharks and there were no sightings of manta rays or other large marine animals. Swimming underwater with all the marine life I felt a little like Ariel (sans the red hair, but with the sidekick) from the Little Mermaid and I’ll admit that I sang “Under the sea” into my regulator more than a few times.  Maybe that’s why I was having buoyancy issues!

So now that we’re certified to dive, who is coming with us under the sea?  I hear you can dive with Penguins in South America….

Filed Under: Caribbean, Central America, Dive & Snorkel, Honduras Tagged With: tours

Copan

May 26, 2009 By Jillian

The last of the big mayan ruins, we’d heard mixed reviews about Copan. Some travelers loved it and said it was their favorite while others put it on the definite waste of time list.  Our border crossing and trek to the Bay Islands put us right in its path so we decided to go for it.

Arriving in the town of Copan Ruinas about 9am we dropped our bags at the shuttle company and walked the 2 km from the town to the actual ruins. Like Goldilocks and the three bears, Palenque was touristy, Tikal was huge and Copan was just right.

Nestled in the jungle the incredibly well preserved ruins of Copan were unlike both Tikal and Palenque in almost every way. Not only could we actually make out the carvings on the stelaes and the carvings on the buildings, the general atmosphere was peaceful and well maintained. All of the big Mayan ruins we’ve been to have been impressive, but the surrounding environment and the feeling of the ruins had a much stronger impact on us than Tikal or Palenque.  Copan was impressive and immediately striking, so striking that it almost felt like walking through a movie set of Indiana Jones. We were able to go up most of the pyramids and ruins, but the greatest part of the entire site was a hieroglyphic stairway. Unlike anything we have seen at Palenque or Tikal, the hieroglyphic stairway gave me a real idea of what the city actually may have looked like.

Laid out in almost neighborhoods, we explored the main square, climbed the high pyramids, the temples and the tombs.  The quietest place in the entire site was the royal palace complex.  Ancient custom dictated that people were buried in their homes so the palace complex also served as the royal burial grounds.  A quiet group of ruins in the back of the site, we climbed down into the royal palace complex and sat amongst the rocks.  Maybe we liked Copan better because of its beauty and preservation, but I think we appreciated it more after studying spanish in Guatemala and living amongst indigenous people.

Like Tikal and Palenque, there was an outrageous fee for foreigners compared to locals. I think it was 50 lps for locals and 285 lps for foreigners, ouch. In reality though, as long as the fee is going to support the heritage site and improve facilities/museums/conservation efforts I don’t really mind, but its rough looking at the price chart. Maybe we should implement similar pricing in America! Balking at the cost, we didn’t pay an addition $12 to go into the tunnels. Turns out we didn’t miss much, Danny walked into one tunnel anyway and confirmed our decision not to pay for them. 🙂

Besides the ruins, Copan is also home to a flock of Macaws. Fortunately we were traveling with a Danish couple, Henriette and Anders, who matched our personalities. Danny and Anders took hundreds of pictures while Henriette and and I enjoyed the shade. 🙂

Filed Under: Central America, History & Culture, Honduras Tagged With: animals, copan, ruins

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