I am a PADI diver woohoo!!

Hi Everyone

So I have now completed my Padi training so I am officially a diver, its really exciting exploring far under the sea, well 18m anyway which is quite along way when Ive only ever dived down a couple of feet! And its not scary as you can see everything and the visibility is really good. We went on 2 fun dives on Sunday, this is what you call them once you have done your training and you dont have any silly tasks to do once under the water like taking your mask off and your breathing apparatuis out! its crazy how as soon as you take your mask off you think you cant breathe even though you still have our regulater in and you can breathe just fine! a lot of it is in your head, once you get iover that and remember to constantly equalize (this is holding your nose and breathing gently so the presure in your ears and sinuses equalizes that of the presure pushing on them from the water) its fine and you can just enjoy and take in all of the sights around. The coral is so so beautiful, purples, oranges, reds. Ooh and we saw a wreck, just a smallone but it was amazing and before I learnt to dive I had no inclination to see a wreck, I thought I would be scared of what was lurking in the dark there but it was incredibly beautiful and made me want to know all of its history and how it got there and where it had sailed to before it lost its life and sunk to the bottom of the bay of this sleepy caribbean island!

I am tempted to snorkel with Whale sharks, I know, can you beleive it, I cant even watch Jaws without squirming! But we went to a talk on them and they are so beautiful and graceful and vegetarian! well only eat fish anyway so pescatarian anyway, not interested in chubby english girls to eat anyway!!
They have a kind of like polka dot pattern on them which is their camoflage and looks and lights up when it catches the light like a showl of fish, this puts preditors off, not that it really has any as they are so huge, up to 60ft long!
I`ll keep you posted if I do this and don`t have a heart attack whilst doing it!!

Life on Utila is still idylic, there is trouble on the mainland as the ex president is back in town and in hiding at the Brazilian embasy, there are riots and the whole country is having a curfew, even in the day time, which is so crazy as how can the whole country stop work and not shop and not leave their houses etc but hopefully its only tempory, there was a curfew on th eisland even though the islands are so seperate from Honduras so it only lasted 24hrs and now it doesnt apply to the islands only the mainland.

Im thinkning of leaving here, as tempting as it is to saty as its so easy and lovely, but am eager to see other places and explore more, im thinking of El salvador and Guatemala next, well leaving on Monday but if the troubles last on the mainland it may be tricky to get from one place to the other, we;ll see, I dont mind so much, im in no rush. I have a friend, David, the french guy, who may come with me for 7- 10 days or so before he goes back to Paris, this will be nice as then it wont be as daunting to travel to the mainland and begin the next part of my adventure.

I`ll keep you posrted, ooh and I just attached some pics of Independance Day, 15th Sept, the whole place comes alive and the kids dress up and march through the streets and put on displays and play ion their bands, its was lots of fun to watch, then they all play games, well the older kids and adults, like boxing - which was a bit grusome to watch in places, and climmbing a greasy pole to get the money on top, the local kids had been practicing and made a human totum pole, climbing up each other to reach the top, was funny towatch - not sure if any of them succeeded & claimed the prize as we watched for an hour then went for a cocktail to watch the fire works.

Hasta Luego, am off home to my apartment to do my Spanish Homework xxxx

More piccies x

New pics for you to see x

My Elephant feet, me and my friends in coco loco which is a bar on a jetty which juts out into the sea, it does really good pizza too. The beautiful beach which is located in a smallish cove, so the water is always calm and almost like a lake, it has 1 tree which hangs on the edge of the water and everyone bathes under when it gets just too hot! We are having an even hotter spell at the moment, i won't complain as I know its getting into autumn in England. I have been on the island for 1 month today, its gone so so fast. Im going to spend the rest of the day on the beach, snorkeling at coral view, which is a jetty with a teeny tiny barand you can just step off it right into the reef, it is truly amazing! Then im having a house warming, I have moved into a lovely little apartment with another english girl called Hazel, she isn't in my close cirlce of friends but she's nice and we were both looking for somewhere new to stay. So the others are coming round later and were gonna have rum and Ill make another apple and mango crumble as I made one last week at my leaving the iguana station party and it went down really well yey! xxxx

Diving

Hello Everyone

The sun is still shining here everyday on Utila and it is so so hot! I don't know where the rainy season is, but its not here, im not complaining.
Ive done such exciting things since I last blogged.

I'll start with the bat caves on the way to Pumpkin Hill, 1 of only 2 hills on this tiny flat island. We trecked through forrests to get to the bat caves, I was a little anxcious as you can believe, then we had to climb vertical coral (as the whole island used to be under water so lots of it is made up of coral) this was so scary and of course I wasn't prepared, no I didnt decide wear my suitable trecking walking shoes that you bought me mum, I had on my lovley pair of pink flip flops that Annie bought me, great but not at all practical for this adventure!! Anyway it was a short climb to the top, by this point I was sweating a little and my nerves were growing, but with encouragement from my new friends, Marc, Hazel - (which I now share an apartment with as of 30min ago! more on this in a minute) French David and lovely Mayja, we reached the top and were faced with a tiny crack in the rock into which we had to climb eek!! I which you may or may not know, (Age I know you do) am a bit claustrophobic, but really wanted to see inside and am up for trying new things and would hate to be the whinny english one who never tries new experiences and is a bit of a baby! so in I went, guided by Hazel who was acting as our guide as had done this a few times before, she was v patient with me. We all climbed inside very careful not to bang our heads, and crawl through about 5m into this dark crevice, my heart was pounding, and there were bats flying all around us, then down into a large cave full of bats flying and hanging form the ceiling, it was amazing and I was so glad that I had faced my fears, but then I had to leave the others quick smart before my chest exploded and i had a heart attack, and crawl my way out to daylight! Its amazing how trying something new can make you feel so alive and also that untill you try someting you have no idea of how it will make you feel, i dont really get paniky or anxcious very easily so its funny to see what conditions make me feel like that.

We then climbed pumpkin hill and then down to a v small beach where we just lay in the water for a few hours - pure bliss!! before starting the treck home. I think I may have lost a little bit of weight, which is always a bonus, as I am fairly active all the time and of course sweat half of my body weight out daily, along with everyone else, its quite disgusting but you kind of get used to it!! But when we go out for dinner the portion sizes are huge - enough for 2 people, so maybe this weight wont stay off for long oops! but at least this will help for diving as chubby people float! yey!!

We went out dancing the otehr night to a new bar on the 3rd floor with a lovely coolish balcony, 3 rums later and light headed from the heat, we blame everything on the heat! we all (4 of us) eneded up dancing on the bar with the 3 dancers that were entertaining the bar sporadically during the nights football. Everyone had left he bar at this point, and I think they welcomed the new faces and liked trying to teach us their moves! very funny indeed! Again another good work out!

I did my 2nd day learning to dive today, was so so Amazing, but I did feel a little sea sick at times! Im learning with Maja, David and JOn, all of which are from the iguana station except French David who is volunteering at BICA conservation. Its lovely learning with these guys, we can all be begginers together!
We went out on the south side of the island to do 2 dives. It wasnt scary, we went down 12m which sounds quite a lot but its greadual and there is so much beautiful; coral to see and fish so that takes your mind of it. The only problem I had was equalizing my ears, this is tricky and for hours afgter getting on dry land after, my ears still needed to pop, I hope this doesnt happen again! Ooh and we saw about 8 dolphins on the way back so we jumped off the boat with our snorkels to swim with them, they are so beautiful and playful, but did kind of swim ahead once we got into the water so hopefully next time we can try and swim with some.

I am having such an incredible time, Ill write more tomorrow and put more pics up then too.

Take care

Cate xxxxxxx

Elephant feet!

Hola

I have elephant feet and ankles today, it started yesterday as ive been bitten lots on my legs and ankles and bum! sand flies I think, and apperently there doesn´t even need to be sand to have them around! So scratchy scratchy and they´ve made my feet and ankles swell - not the best! damn bugs they are bad out here

Ooh and Ozgood just came in the office to show me a mouce he{d caught in his trap urgh!! didnt need to see that

Well adios for now as im off for some food in a new restaurant in town called the wooden spoon xxxx

Here I am - finally!

Hola everyone,

Here I am writing to you from my Caribbean Island of Utila its´quite small about 12km long by 5km wide and just so laid back and beautiful. It´s not western at all which is a refreshing change and the people here are so friendly and they just open up their houses on the main strip so the sound of Reggae and yumi food smells drift out as you go by.
They serve really good street food & local food, a local dish is Baliades - a flour tortila filled with various things like chicken & mango, refried beans, cabbage and onion - so delicious but way too much for lunch and sometimes too messy to eat on the street!

Ive been snorkeling twice at a place called coral view, you just step into the water and the coral is right there, its amazing to see this beautiful garden under the sea and learn about all of the fish and coral, my favourite coral is te sea fan, it looks so delicate and is purple and sways and waves at you as you glide by.

Im working at an Iguana conservation centre to look after them as the locals like to catch and eat them! we educate the local children from nurseries and schools to make them aware that this species we have here called the centausaura bakeri - or Swamper is endemic to Utila and that if they carry on eating them they will make them extinct! We breed them here and then release some back into the mangroves where they live, then monitor their progress.
There are only 2 other volunteers here at the moment, they are german, 1 boy Marc and one girl, Jana, Jana is nice and bubbly, Marc is nice but a bit quieter but they are both lovely and friendly. Then there is Monica who is a biologist and staff here and Ozgood, a lovely old man who lives next door and is staff and always here making sure everyone is ok, and fixing our bikes and other things. I have a red bike that was donated to the station, its small so Ozgood says this fits me perfectly he he! its the best one so im happy with that, and its so good to go exploring on.

Im going to start learning to scuba dive at the weekend, which will be cool I hope! and will be good to meet new people and learn another new skill - am loving learning ll these new exciting things.

Ive already started Spanish lessons, my profesor is called Eddie, he´s really nice and hopefully Ill be´able to make conversations in the next few weeks which will stand me in good stead for the rest of my trip.

Im off to Daves restaurant now for a recomended piece of Choccy cake and then a nice glass of rum at Coco Loco, a good local bar which is on a jetty, so you can sit at the end looking out to sea, so lovely and relaxing.

Hasta luego xx