Are you for SCUBA?
This entry was posted on 3/3/2007 1:48 PM and is filed under Honduras.
UTILA - Hey everybody, we're down in Utila Honduras right now, enjoying a lot of scuba diving. Utila is one of Honduras' Bay Islands and is a mecca for scuba divers. Apparently it's the cheapest place in the world get your PADI scuba certification (PADI is one of the main certification organizations). You can get 10 dives for 200 bucks down here, back home that would cost around 450... and don't worry, the equipment is all in great condition.
Anna and I just completed our Advanced Open Water training and are looking forward to getting certified in Wreck Diving and using Nitrox - a special mix of air with more oxygen than usual to give you longer bottom times. The wreck diving cert will allow us to go inside the wrecks we come across - a big no-no if you haven't got the proper training. It's not quite as dramatic as that Ashton Kutcher/Kevin Costner movie, but it's close
Yesterday we did our first night dive and earlier that day Anna saw her first Octopus! Wohoo!! She was all excited... we were actually in the middle of a search and recovery exercise when she started pointing wildly holding up 8 fingers... I thought she found the item we were searching for but NO, it was just a silly old octopus. I just caught a glimpse of it before it dashed into a hole in the coral.
The day before that we swam with a pod of dolphins! We were en route to our next dive site when I spotted dozens of dorsal fins rolling through the water. The captain stopped the boat and let us all throw on masks/snorkels and jump in with them. It turns out there were over 40 of them... the dive master thought there were more. Underwater I saw baby dolphins and heard the high pitch squealing they all make while communicating. It was very cool. Sorry I have no pictures.
Right now we're hoping to see one of these whale sharks... unbelievably huge creatures that feed on small fish and plankton and stuff (not on Tom and Anna). Look at the size of the snorkeler in the photo! They are supposed to be here from march to april and tend to like full moons. Well, it was a full moon last night so we're keeping our fingers crossed!
