Disjointed musings on Belize and Honduras

I'm really glad that David has decided to meet me in Nicaragua (tomorrow!), which forced me to hang out in Belize for a week. Belize is really cool, and it was nice to communicate in English. I hung out with Carmine, a really cool guy from Pennsylvania, as well as Sharon and Anthony, a couple from Florida and Argentina (they met each other while travelling through Indonesia a couple of years ago). I didnt make it to Caye Calker, which is all the rage in the backpacker scene, but I enjoyed Belize so much that I would consider going back and checking out the cayes.

After leaving Belize last Friday, I ended up in Utila, the cheaper of the Bay Islands. My intuition led me there, as did the budget lodging and cheaper food prices. Utila's very cool, very chill, but oh so gringo. There were so many foreigners there! Almost every dive instructor I saw was from somewhere else. Except for my dive instructor, Marvin, who is originally from Tecugigalpa, one of the major Honduran cities.

This is the back of Marvin. I regret not getting a photo of his front, as it is a beautiful front:


My time in Utila was really relaxing. The beaches were pretty ugly and the sand flies were terrible, but being introduced to diving was amazing. I was feeling down Monday and Tuesday because this time of the year brings memories of my dad dying, and I think that diving was the perfect thing to do to distract myself and stay positive. The fish were incredible, they were so colourful. I didn't see any whale sharks or eagle rays or anything else super exciting, but there was one moment when the sea wall dropped like crazy, and the ocean was the bluest blue I've ever seen and a school of fish swam by me and my mind was completely still. I am sad to report that, after snorkeling in Placencia and scuba diving in Utila, I never saw a single dolphin. And I met three other divers who did!

I really enjoyed the day I spent biking and hiking around the island. Sunday morning, I rented a bike and cycled out to a marshy area where there are supposed to be lots of birds. Actually, it wasn't the morning, it was around 1 in the afternoon, which is probably why I ended up seeing more lizards than birds. I played hide and seek with an iguana at a construction site, saw neon green gekos, and nearly ran into a giant snake that had already been run over by some motorized vehicle, and that was being attacked by a vicious swarm of flies. CREEPY. Later that afternoon, I hiked up Pumpkin Hill with a Dutch couple I'd met in Placencia, and some of their colleagues at the Utila Centre for Marine Ecology (where they're doing volunteer research on whale sharks).

This is my iguana friend:


In addition to running into the Dutch couple, I also saw a woman I'd met at the beach in Monterrico, Guatemala, and three other kids (I think they were Scandinavian) I'd met in Flores, Guatemala. For the past month, I've been hearing about travellers who run into each other in different countries and thought that it was hokus pokus. Now I understand that everyone is using the same damn guidebook (Lonely Planet's Central America on a Shoestring), and is roughly following the same itinerary. This makes me feel lame.

Saturday night, I FINALLY had my first ever, real night out (drinking more than 3 drinks, dancing, getting felt up by a French man, escaping the heat from a fire-twirler). I can't believe I've been travelling for over a month, and I've only partied once. For some reason, all of the travellers I've hooked up with have been invested in early days, either because they're studying Spanish, going hiking, exhausted from travelling, or whatever. I've been going to bed uncharacteristically early myself; I'm usually ready for bed by 11!

I left Utila Tuesday morning, and caught a bus to San Pedro Sula. I stayed the night in San Pedro, and left this morning on my long journey to Nicaragua to meet lover D. Because I really wanted to see Lago de Yojoa (where there are 373 bird species) and Pulhapanzak Falls, I caught a bus to El Mochito and asked the driver to let me off at San Buenaventura. I walked up hill for about 15 minutes with my pack on, and eventually found the falls.



After hiding my bags inside the restaurant, I went for a quick dip in the falls, took some photos, and then decided I had better catch the bus to Tegucigalpa. After asking around, I found out that the bus to Tegucigalpa doesn't stop in El Mochito, and was told to take a bus to Caracol. So I did. And, as soon as I stepped off the bus, a bus to Tegucigalpa drove right by me, and the driver completely ignored me as I ran, and waved, and ran, and waved. Luckily, a man in a van stopped and told me he would take me to Tegucigalpa, where he was headed. Surprisingly, I didn't really hesitate to get in his van. There were no ringing bells, just a desire to get to Tegucigalpa before dark so that I could catch my morning bus to Managua, Nicaragua. As I settled into my seat, though, I thought to myself, “Erin, you're HITCH-HIKING in Central America, BY YOURSELF.” Herman, the man who picked me up, was really nice. He bought me juice and water and corn soup, and lectured me about staying in my hotel and not going out by myself (apparently, Tegucigalpa is one of those Latin American cities our mothers fear and loathe).

A note on Honduras, which is so unbelievably different from Guatemala. It seems more westernized (Pizza Huts, Burger Kings, Wendys, KFC, everywhere, all the time), more sexualized (the women here dress scandalously!), and the men are pervier. They STARE. And STARE. I cannot understand Honduran Spanish, it's like they speak out of the backs of their throats.

I'm stoked for my tropical tryst with Davey!