San andreas to honduras

hello readers,

we are now in puerto cortez, honduras, poised to make the next move to the rio dulce region of guatemala. from panama, we had an uneventful sail back to the colombian islands of san andreas. here we rested, played lots of basketball and soccer games, had a few fair days of surfing and then headed on to honduras. we were also able to get the satellite radio to receive a signal, which made us all happy, but a few kinks and worn raw places in the wire prevented us from getting a reliable reception. chris has gone home for a visit and will hopefully bring a new one back with him so we can hear all the news and baseball games.

we had initially planned to stop in costa rica and nicaragua on the way to honduras from panama, but the east coast of costa rica isn´t well set up for cruisers and the coast of nicaragua is dangerous because of coral shoals and mean people.

the ride to honduras was smooth, nice sunshine, and some good winds. the highlight was the awahoo, we caught, not sure on the spelling, but it was a three feet long, very muscular and excellent tasting fish. arrived at the bay islands of honduras, at the island of guanaja. quickly moved to rotan, and then to utila, where we stayed for about a week.

the activity here was diving and more diving. utila is basically a diving destination. dive shops everywhere, and divers everywhere. hardly any americans but a ton of folks from canada and the u.k. our new british friends were much amused by our attempt at speaking with an english accent, and we were even more amused when they spoke with an american accent. while in utila, ted did his open water and advanced, i did my advanced, rob did some fun dives, and chris stayed topsides. we did deep dives together to 120 feet, night dives, and wreck dives. the highlight for me was the night dive. we took our dingy out to the dive buoy, all dressed in our wet suits, like navy seals. ted and i spent much of the time upside down, trying to get disoriented, trying to feel like we were in space. it was magical when our lights were turned off, we were in a black abyss, a most unreal experience and the coolest thing i´ve done in a while. on the deep dives the instructors made us do little exercises to test our intellectual functioning at the depths where many divers feel the temporary effects of nitrogen narcossis. like a little anesthesia. i felt fine but was a little slower in counting the numbers scrambled on the instructors wet board thing. we also cracked an egg which stayed together, brought a ping pong ball with us, which imploded at 40 feet, and partially inflated a balloon that inflated as the pressure decreased with our ascent.

the stay in utila was nice. good food, good movies for $2 (i love huckabees, butch cassidy and the sundance kid), and good friends we met though our dive center. hard to leave, but guatemala is calling to us. we should be there tomorrow night. now in puerto cortez, we spent the afternoon with the port captain, the immigration officer and the customs people, getting endless stamps. but all is done now, and we are heading to a soccer game tonight at the local stadium, then heading out early tomorrow morning for livingston, guatemala to continue the adventure. that´s the story from down here. the sun is almost directly overhead and should pass us in a few days or so, heading your way.

adios,
ben