Getting off the island

It's much easier said that done. Getting off of Utila. Yes, there is a morning ferry (6:20am) and an afternoon ferry (2pm), but physically getting yourself and your bag the 10 minute walk down the road to the dock is pretty difficult. Last time it took me 2 months to make the walk. This time I didn't have 2 months.

Initially, I'd said I couldn't leave the island until after I'd reached 100 dives and seen a whale shark. If you follow my blog, you'll know that both of these were accomplished by the beginning of the week. But I wasn't really ready to move on yet. So I said that Thursday was the day. I wanted to go to Bar in the Bush once before I left, and it's only open on Wednesday and Friday. So Thursday it was.

But Wednesday, I wasn't ready to leave yet. Thursday morning, after Bar in the Bush, I woke up fairly ready to go, but I wanted to dive before I left. No afternoon boat that day, so Friday afternoon it was. An Aussie couple at the dive shop (Chris & Kate) said that I should stick around until we had a BBQ with the dive shop folks, and that sounded like a good last evening, but it wouldn't happen until Friday. OK, Saturday afternoon it was.

Plans got modified, and the dive shop staff plus a few extras (I was half-staff because I'd actually worked as a divemaster two days) were all invited out to owner Troy's resort - Laguna Beach Resort - for its fourth birthday bash on Friday.

That afternoon, I went out for my last two dives with Mike, one of the DMTs (Divemaster-in-Training). The first dive was uneventful other than some underwater frisbee played at the end. The second dive was more entertaining and included a massive snapper with big teeth too menacing to go past, a big sea turtle, and some underwater cartwheels (much easier said than done, but definitely hilarious). Good final dive. I'm over 110 now!

That evening at about 6:30pm, we met in the office and the rum started flowing. Everyone chipped in 50 Lempira (~$2.5) for some rum and mixers, and then we headed out to the front dock for a quick booze cruise over to the resort. Once there, we hung out laughing and drinking until the food was ready. At about 8 or so, we had an emergency! No more rum! One of the dive instructors, Kris, had a quick word with Troy the owner and came back gripping another 1.5 liter bottle of the yummy Flor de Caña. Whew! We had a nice dinner (they had BBQ lamb and shrimp, I had salads), and then we were shuffled back on board the boat to take us back to town. 20+ tipsy/drunk people on a boat = lots of fun, and I got some good pictures of the key players.

When we got back to town, it was only 9:30ish. What else to do but continue drinking? We all headed out to the bars and had a good night. I ended up at Bar in the Bush again. It was a late night that ended with someone from the dive shop doubling me down the road on his bike. (Bar in the Bush is a good 15-20 minute walk out of town.) I think Tomas' bike is the usual taxi service, as instructor Kris said that he hitched a ride with him the week beforehand.

And Saturday afternoon, I stopped by the afternoon boat to say good bye to everyone and took off on the afternoon ferry. La Ceiba HO!