Brian, Rich, Doug & Greg enjoying shark steaks
(notice the raindrops on the lens)

Getting Wet In Utila

Imagine a tropical island paradise. Then imagine take that image and submerge it in water - that would be approximately what it's like during huricane season. Doug, Rich, and I decided to take a trip to Honduras to visit our dear friend and roommate AJ in his home country, but did not expect it to rain every single day without respite. When we later questioned AJ about this his only response was, "I thought you knew it was huricane season." Needless to say that phrase has since become infamous.

But if you're in a tropical island paradise and its raining all day, everyday, you might as well go diving, because at least their you're supposed to get wet. Utila is world-renowned for its excellent diving, so since we had nothing else to do and because it was so cheap we dove 3-4 times per day for the whole week. The only problem was that with the stormy conditions and lack of intense sunlight, the visibility was not great. We still managed to have fun together though, despite the fact that with our diving 3 times a day and the constant rain, our skin never actually dried for the whole week, even overnight. Also, Doug's bag was lost by the airline and he had to survive for the whole week on 2 shirts and a pair of Honduras's finest sandels, that didn't quite fit. One of his shirts happened to be an early Christmas gift from me, the Rich called a "Guatemalan prayer cloth". Needless to say he was a little embarassed when I gave him a similar shirt a second later!

Typical sunset in Lago d'Atitlan

La vida tranquila en Guatamala

Well my 5 weeks in Guatemala have come to an end. I am a little sad to leave, because I love the lake and my family here, but I think that I´m ready to leave. I thing that I have learned a lot of spanish, seen some very interesting places, and met many nice people.

The last weekend was very good. Saturday I went across the lake with 2 friends and we climbed the volcano San Pedro (3,020m) with 2 other americans. The view fromt the top was incredible! We were able to see all of the lake and 3 other volcanoes in the distance. It took a lot of time so luckily we bought bread and water before we left.

Sunday was special as well because my town here has a tradition that every year a lot of people bicycle around the lake on the first sunday in december. This year more than 100 people participated including yours truly.

It was a big activity because they organized all the meals, the water, the mechanics, and a boat for all the parts where there are no roads. When we rode through the towns everyone was in the streets cheering us on. It was about 55kms in total but many parts were very steep and on dirt roads. And at one point I had to walk with my bike up a mountain for over an hour and a half. So, it was a very nice weekend.

Today, I´m leaving for Honduras for 10 days and I´d like to do a lot of diving. I´d like to do more but there´s no time. I´m very excited about this next week.