back in Guatemala

What a day this has been. Never a dull moment, let me tell ya....

It all started this morning when I caught the boat leaving the island of Utila. It's a two hour ride to the north coast of Honduras, where I got off in La Ceiba. From there, I caught a taxi to the bus station. At the bus station, I caught a two hour bus to San Pedro Sula. From San Pedro Sula, I needed to take a taxi to another bus station where there was a colectivo to Puerto Cortes. I had to hop off of the colectivo in the middle of the highway to catch a chicken bus to the border town of Corinto. Here I got my passport stamped out of Honduras, then caught another colectivo into Guatemala. After being stopped twice for identification checks by the police, I got my passport stamped into Guatemala in Entre Rios. The colectivo continued on, until at a point where the road forked, I had to get off the bus once again, in a place where there was little more than a woman selling mangos and pineapples to catch yet another colectivo onto the Rio Dulce. This was by far the most exciting ride, seeing as how I was almost there (after one boat, two taxis, six colectivos, and a chicken bus). But also since the colectivo which is designed to fit maybe 12 people total, in reality was carrying maybe 38 by my best estimate. I literally had to hang on to the front seat while standing in the open doorway. Yeah, so anyway, I'm here now. After 13 hours. What a trip!


About Utila though... I had such an amazing time there. I'm now officially a certified scuba diver. I took four dives in total. Three times we went down to 40 feet, and once down to 60 feet. It was absolutely amazing. I saw some of the wildest fish with the most beautiful colors. And thanks to my awesome dive buddy, Danielle, I was able to see a green moray eel on my second dive and also a spotted moray on my third, both hanging out chilling in caves. Not to mention all the coral, and yeah, I'm in love with diving.

There's more to tell, but I'm exhausted from just about the longest day ever. Tomorrow I'm starting a sailboating trip to Belize. I won't have access to a computer for probably about a week until I return. I'm super excited! We're going north on the Rio Dulce, stopping in Livingston, and then heading to Belize where I'll get to DIVE!!