Guatemala, El Salvador and Hondruras…
Posted by Karen on August 19th 2007
Written on the 2007 Alaska to Brazil expedition
So Far…
Guatemala was great and so different from what we had been used to, the food market stalls have been some of the best to date. It was on to El Salvador, where by popular consent, it was decided that the locals here are the friendliest so far (I know we keep saying that but it’s true)! Tourism is definitely in its infancy here, there is no ‘local price’ and ‘gringo price’ to be had, and it’s all very upfront and honest.
Stopping off at colonial towns and beaches we made our way through El Salvador – naturally’ fishing’ being a priority!! The boys (and Lynn) managed to catch a grand total of 42! So fresh fish was on the menu for the next couple of nights.
After El Salvador it was then on to Honduras. This has been a beautiful country and extremely green and fertile – and it’s this way for a reason, it hardly ever stops raining! Tropical downpours have been with us pretty much the whole way through Honduras, but with the temperature still being nice and hot, it doesn’t really seem to matter much.
Honduras is reputed to be one of the world’s cheapest and best places to dive, so with that in mind a small group defected for 2 weeks to go ahead of the truck to Honduras’s Bay Islands. The 2 main islands, Roatan and Utila were the intended destinations.
So 2 weeks were spent, in a flurry of fun dives, PADI, Advanced and Rescue Dive courses. We had a lovely relaxing time and some were lucky enough to have pods of Killer Whales (Orcas) and Dolphins swim right along side the dive boat, and although obviously we weren’t about to jump in with the Killer Whales, we were able to snorkel and play with the dolphins – it was simply wonderful!
On Roatan Island we also had the opportunity to take a small private submarine down to the ocean’s ‘deepest darkest’, well not quite, but we did get to 500 meters below which was a mind blowing, ‘once in a lifetime’ experience. It’s another world down there… electric jelly fish, weird looking plants that were all actually animals and we came eye ball to eyeball with a hammer head shark at 200 meters – it was all very surreal and an incredible experience!
The truck caught up and a few days was had by all either on the islands or on the mainland exploring Honduras’s night life and surround rivers and walkways.
Leaving a few behind for a while longer - yes – Utila was ‘that’ good they have decided to say and do even MORE dive courses (I think we may have a few budding ‘Dive Masters’ in our midsts)! We now carry on, headed for Nicaragua and Costa Rica!
Until next time…
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