Diving in Utila

Sorry I haven't written anything in ages. Have had little time to sit down and write something. Well I left Antigua at 1 in the afternoon to go to Copan in honduras. Was picked up in a mini bus that was full of people already, it was the most uncomfortable 8 hours so far, the leg room is none existent and the traffic meant we weren't moving much and so fresh air didn't come through the windows. The border crossing from Guatemala to honduras was surprisingly quiet compared to the last one. Not a single person around just a guy in a booth. Was pretty stress free. Got to Copan and followed a French guy who spoke perfect Spanish who told me about this cheap hostel. Probably not a good idea to just follow any old person but such is travelling. Was a very nice hostel so I obviously made the right choice. Got the bus to La Ceiba at 6 the following morning, was an actual bus this time so far more comfortable than the last. Was a pretty standard central American bus trip, kids crying, bus drivers annoyingly honking at any large vehicle they passed and of course the same Enrique song played over and over again. Arrived at La ceiba and got a bus to Utila a carribean island of Honduras. Met a nice Irish couple who were going so chatted to them, I convinced the Irish guy Arthur to come to the UDC dive centre with me as I had heard it was the best. We went to the accommodation and met our instructor called Deklin an Irish guy who has been diving all his life, he is a really cool nice guy. He convinced Arthur and I its the best place so we stayed. We went to a BBQ that night and met some great people and played a drinking game called nails. Over the next two days we sat written classes about diving we had a theory part of the course to pass so it was boring but necessary. Arthur and a guy called ed were the people I was doing the open water course with. On the third day we got our first chance to put the kit on, we went into shallow water and did skills like taking our masks off and putting them back on again. We did this the following day but in deeper water. That night we went to a bar called skid row where if you drink 4 of the most disgusting shots in the world you get a free t shirt. I can tell you now that was the hardest thing drinking wise I have had to do, i thought I was going to be sick. But I got the shirt and now I'm one of the divers. The following day we did our first dive in open water, was really good fun and it was great to see all these different types of fish on the reef. We passed our open water course and so the others left this morning to head back to the mainland. I am doing a 2 day advanced course so I'm still here. Yesterday I did three dives, drift dive, a buoyancy dive where you swim through hoops by breathing and out to lower yourself. The last dive was a night dive, the best dive so far. I saw a huge stingray hunting, tonnes of lobsters, an octupus hunting fish in the corral and a baby stingray which are hard to see. We had lots of little fish swim by and when you shine your torch on them you can see there little hearts beating. Today I did a wreck dive which goes to 30m the limit of a recreational diver, it was really cool, got to see a huge eel which seemed to be the captain of the wreck as it was very protective of the boat. Later that afternoon we went diving again but it was navigation diving so it was swim and then find your way back to the boat. Got to see an eagle ray which was beautiful. It swam right up to us. And that's the diving so far, I have 4 fun dives tomorrow so will be pretty tired by tomorrow night. After here I've got to race to panama city to get there in time for my flight.