Ecotourism

we left for utila early in the morning and we took buses for many hours. there was much rushing and being shoved on to buses. we finally made it to la ceiba and we were quickly rushed onto a taxi. it had to rush like mad to try and get the ferry to Utila island. we made it to the ferry by the skin of our noses, it was actually in the midst of leaving. i wasnt feeling well before i went on the boat and the ferry didnt make it any better, after an hour we finally made it to our destination, none to soon i was a bit sea sick. i was also sick in another way, i will spare you the details but it wasnt pretty.

we were swamped by people with flyers and such want us to go to their dive schools, parties and other scuba diving things. we were hoping to go snorkling. we met this fella who directed us to a place that would give us cheaper accomidations if we got our scuba certification there. we still didnt expect to learn how to scuba dive. we checked the school out and while we were there we met a girl from austrailia named Lisa and she was also trying to find a place to stay, and learn advanced scuba diving. most of the rooms that we have seen had four beds, so we asked if she wanted to bunk with us to save some money. she wanted to check out one other place on the island other than the one that we were at. so we left our bags at the dive school and left to find the other place. eventually we found a place called Cross Creek dive centre. It looked really promising so we looked into it further. they had everything we wanted cheap scuba school rates a kitchen cheap accomidations and two free fun dives. one of the people who worked there offered us free accomidations while we are taking the course, that just sealed the deal. so we went back across town to get our stuff. when the 4 of us got back we were met by gore (our dive instructor) who offered us a better room because there were 4 of us and we chose them over the other people. The room that they spoke of was amazing, it had a private bathroom, hot and cold running water, a fridge and the best part.....A/C. We were all really excited about this room usually it cost 18USD a night but we got it for free. the lessons were among the cheapest in the world in Utila but it still set us back 240USD each Ryan used his spare $2000 that he has stashed away in his other account to pay for all of us. we started doing class a bit later then we were supposed to, and we had to rush to get it all done i ate my pancake that i had made in the class while we watched the videos. there first day was a bit boring, wet suits are surprisingly comfortable. i took to scuba diving really well. it was a really amazing experience to be able to breathe underwater. Diving is one of the greatest and most amazing things ive ever done. every day i did diving i liked it more and more. its like being weightless, and being a giant floating jungle world. i would recommend it to everyone, i think its one of those things you have to experience before you die. getting to know the equipment was surprisingly easy as well. we have a total of 6 dives under our belt now as well as our international dive certificate. we left on monday and set off for nicaragua, we took about 7 hours of buses to get to Tegas, Honduras and we stayed there overnight in a pretty clean place, most of the hotels have tvs in every room, we´ve watched more tv in honduras then we have the whole trip.
while we were in utila we had been living on just two meal days because our dives always started at 12 and didnt end till 4 so we never really ate luch, as well as for our two travel days to get to nicaragua. when we got to the boarder it was crazy, there were people hanging on the ladders on the microbus with their heads in the windows trying to get something, whether it was if we wanted a ride to the boarder, to get our money exchanged or just plain asking for money, i was afraid they were going to take our bags. we eventually got our passport stamped and got across the board, we think we got screwed a bit on the money exchange, but what can you do? after another two buses and a total of 7 and a half hours on buses we made it to Leon, we had quite a walk and it was getting close to dark, we met a fella named dave who went with us to try and find the hostel called via via. he had a compass so that helped a lot to try in orient ourselves, after a lot of walking through town we made it to via via, but we found out there was another hostel right across the road we we were told it was better by the people who were staying via via, so we stayed at the bigfoot insted, it was a really cool place. it was a dorm style hostel, it had a kitchen, clean sheets, a pool table, a bar, and tv, it was pretty swanky. the next day we went to the museum of mythology and torture...i know it sounds like a weird combination, as well as that, we visited central americas largest cathedral it was pretty amazing. later on that night we went to the bar and got to see some live music, they played one english song, "one"-U2. the whole hostel went to see her, there were a good 25 people staying at the hostel, when we got there the power was out so we had to wait a bit before we got to hear anything. the rest of the night was a blur but it was definately a good night. today we are going to climb a volcano and slide down it on a piece of plywood, it going to be really cool, i cant wait.

this blog was written over several days sporatically so if its a bit hard to understand bear with me.

missin home,

leigh.

So, you've probably noticed we didn't blog or contact anyone at home for about a week. Well, thats because we spend a week on a remote beach. So this blog is gonna be a day by day of what exactly happened (if I can remember it all).

Day 1:

Arrived at the beach, called Playa El Zonte, we acutally got off the bus at what seemed like the middle of nowhere. Fortunately there was a road there, and we walked down it. This is when we saw the first other white people in El Salvador, it was actually a nice change, as we had been getting some minor hostilities in the big city (San Salvador).
Upon arrive (at the actual beach) we found the place we wanted to stay at very easily. The next thing of the agenda was to find someone to give us surf lessons. After asking around, we came back to our hotel, and asked one of the other surfers staying there. He suggested we talk to Alex, the guy who owned the place we were staying at. At the time Alex was out, but as soon as we got back we ambushed him. He said the surf was too big that day, so we had to at least wait till the next day. I forgot to mention, we went for a swim (in the big surf), and we lost the room key, probably less than an hour after it was given to us. Luckily there was another copy of the key. We ate at our hotel, then went to bed after some cards (I think thats how it went down). There were only 2 single beds in our room, so I volunteered to sleep on the floor all week (I know, I'm a saint).

Day 2:

Leigh woke up uber early to see a sunrise (5:00 am), I opted not to because I didn't sleep too well due to extreme heat and the whole sleeping on the floor thing. Uh, lets see, what'd we do today, we ate breakfast right at our hotel. Wait, I gotta take a moment to describe this place. It has a main house-like building with the bathrooms, and the bedrooms, a tv slash surf board room. Then outside, there is a hut, with all the tables for the restuarant, and many hammicks (I love hammicks). Just beside the hut was a pool (mostly for washing salt water off of people and boards). Near the pool was the bar slash restuarant ordering place, which had a set of stairs on the outside to a hangout spot on the top of it, which was probably one of the best places to eat, and it had another 4 hammicks.
Anywhoo.. back to the day. After breakfast, we were informed by Alex that the surf was still too big, so instead of surfing, we went for another swim in the big surf, this time with nothing in our pockets. It was a lot of fun, I swollowed quite a bit of seawater. We didn't do too much else that day; we found a restuarant that sells burgers for $1.50, and went for a walk down the beach. We had dinner at our hotel (Leigh and I downed 5 burgers with a side of fries with each one), after leigh and I did a exploration mission of the restuarants on the beach. Another night on the floor for me.

Day 3:

Woke up, I think we all woke up at some normal time (except for me, cause I was on the floor). We had breakfast at the nice cheap restaurant right on the beach. The prices were like $0.35 US for a pancake, which was a huge hit with Leigh. I believe Ryan and Leigh had pancakes, while I had eggs and pancakes (not completely sure). The next thing on the schedule was to find out if we could get some lessons on this day. Alex was around, and he said we could do some lessons that afternoon. I believe we spent some of the morning looking for shells, then we lazed in the hammicks for a while. Then we ate lunch, but I can´t recall where, maybe at our hotel, but probably at the cheaper restaurant (I think we had a $10 credit from the morning, cause they couldn´t break our $20 bill, so that was a neat feeling, it felt like a free meal). After lunch we probably played cards and then lied in the hammicks (I know, our lives are very hard) until about 3:30, which is when we got ready for our first surf lesson at 4.
Ah, yes, the surf lesson, what fun. Alex took us a ways down the beach, partly because the currents were lessened there, and there was fewer rocks (I guess he figured we´d be falling a lot). The first thing he did was give us a spiel on what the surfboards were not. They are not sun umbrellas (they don´t like sun), they are not seats (if you get sand in the wax, you will get a terrible rash when you lie down on them), there was a couple other things, I can´t remember, oh well. Then he made outlines of our boards in the sand, and made us practice the procedure for standing up on the board. It seemed pretty easy, and we were soon in the white water (which is whats left of the wave after its broken, they are about 1 foot to 6 feet in height, so some of them are really moving). We were supposed to wait for a big white water, then jump onto our boards and forward in the water, when the white water would catch us, and we´d be flying along. After about a dozen times, and a few tips from Alex, I was standing up on the board with about a 80% success rate. I´d like to say I was the first to stand up on the board, but I´m not really sure, so I won´t. Soon, we were heading back down the beach to the hotel, and we had a quick lesson in the pool, about how to turn the board around quickly in the water. Soon, we had discovered that our two hours were up (time flies when you are being washed up upon shore), and we each owed Alex $20 (well worth the mone I think). Alex then said we could do the next lesson on the next day. We were all fairly tired, but I think this was the night we had a few beers, ryan broke a ping pong paddle (oh ya.. there was a ping pong table there too, pretty intense games) but chucking it at the table. After Ryan repaired the paddle, and I went for a cool-down swim, we headed to bed.

Day 4:

I´m awake early again, and I think that Ryan tried to get up and watch the sunset, but he was back in bed fairly soon after he got up, apparently it was cloudly.. ya.. whatever Ryan. I was up fairly early, so I read some surfing magazines until the restaurant opened, then ordered a breakfast of Granola con Leche and a jugo de piña (both very good). Soon Ryan and Leigh were up, and we went and asked Alex about the lesson this day. He said he was heading to San Salvador, but would be back somewhere around 3 or 4 in the afternoon, and would be able to give us a lesson then. We took the boards out that morning to go practice what we learned the day before. Unfortunately Leigh broke a fin on his board somewhere on the way to our practice location, so he couldn´t practice, but Ryan and I got a good little session in. We did it until we got bored of doing just the same thing over and over, and until we felt like we´d have had enough sun. Then we ate lunch (somewhere, most likely at the cheap place, well, cause its cheap), and lazed around in the hammicks, waiting for Alex´s return.
Unfortunately, Alex never returned.. DUN DUN DUNNNNN! (until the next day). So we never got a lesson on our 4th day on the beach. Instead, we took another intense swim in the ocean, then lazed in the hammicks (again). After dinner (nothing memorable) we went to bed, and I spent another night on the floor.

Day 5:

We woke up at a normal time, I actually slept fairly well, better than other nights, but I was still up first, at around quarter after 6. I read some more surfing magizines (in english, else I would just be looking at pictures) until the other two were up. We had breakfast (somewhere), and lazed around a bit (we did that a lot) we probably played some cards, maybe some ping pong. It was just before noon when Alex got back, we figured something bad had happened so we didn´t bother him right away. We instead went for another hunt for shells. When we got back we talked to him. Apparently, he got a super painful ear infection while in San Salvador. He had to drive around all night, trying to find a doctor. He said it was a miracle cause he found one at 4 am. So when he got back, he was very tired, and on a lot of painkillers. He also wasn´t allowed to surf because of the infection. In his words: ´´No surf, I know, it sucks´´. But he still said he´d be able to another lesson with us the next day, as long as he was careful. It was quite funny when he describe what the pain was like. (Warning, this is about to get a little PG-13 on all of you) He said ´´It was like, like, someone was sticking, uh, a.. a penis in my ear.´´ We all got a good laugh out of that. So we planned to have a lesson the next morning. His words ´´Be ready to go at 7:30´´. The rest of the day is a blur, sorry guys, I just can´t remember.

Day 6:

I woke up really early (5:30) to go for a private walk on the beach and watch the surf for a while. I wrote something in the sand, took a few pictures, and watched the surf engulf the rocks I was standing on. A very beautiful morning overall. After at least an hour on the beach alone, I headed back to the hotel. The guys wanted to woken up at 7 to get ready for the lesson. I woke them up by taking a nice sepiatone picture of them sleeping (with flash of course). They were soon up and ready to go. Alex didn´t make an appearance until 7:20, which was when his breakfast was served to him, after his breakfast, we expected he would come over and talk to us, but instead, he started a nap on the floor. We all thought (or at least I did), ´´We´ve got all day, whatever, maybe he didn´t get a good sleep.´´ Then he was up again, and drinking coffee. Thats when he said his first words of the day to us, which were ´´Hey guys, I´m still hungry, so you should probably get breakfast.´´ So we did. We ate breakfast at our hotel, and when we finished, we found Alex napping on the floor again. We didn´t get out on the waves until about 9:30, meh, whatever.
This lesson was a bit different, we were catching bigger waves slash whitewater, and we weren´t jumping onto the board, we started on the board and caught waves by paddling. We were also learning how to turn, but he told us it is a lot easier ´´in a real wave, instead of this whitewater crap.´´ It lasted about an hour and a half. He said we´d do some actual surfing later that day, out on the point, (catch some pointbreaks). Unfortunately, he headed back into San Salvador that day, and didn´t get back till about 8 at night, so we didn´t get another lesson. We ended up eating lunch at the cheap place right after the lesson. I had a fried beef, it was weak at best, but whatever. Again, the rest of the day is a blur of lying in hammicks mixed in with some cards and ping pong. Had dinner, and went to bed in good time, we had an early morning (sorta) the next day.

Day 7:

Woke up at about 6, packed up and were on the road at a little after 7. We said goodbye to the beach, goodbye to surfing (for now), and caught the first bus back to town.

I hope that is detail enough for you guys, you are probably all chomping at the bit, waiting for the information on the week where we weren´t in contact, so here it is.

Take it easy,

Peace,

Craig