Hugging policemen and the like

HELLO!
Yes tis Simon and im no longer in the brilliant country of Guatemala, but in the steamily hot, rainforest & coral reef filled, cowboy country of Honduras! Que Bueno!


At the mo im on a coolcool island of the north of Honduras (in the Caribbean) called Utila- one of the Bay Islands. Its pretty developed and is for sure a party island, however the main thing here is scuba diving. Which ofcourse im doing!
Im doing the PADI Open Water course which is 3.5days, and is cheapcheapcheap (the dive school gives you accomodation and 2 fun dives free). The first day you have to do all the videos and learning stuff (so you dont get decompression sickness (where you lungs explode) etc) but then you get in the water. Its incredible. Breathing underwater is the weirdest thing. It takes a while to get used to equalizing (holding your nose and blowing), so that the pressure in your ears releases, but once youve got it its fan-diddley-tastic. Yesterday was the best so far- im definitely getting used to it, so i was swimming around (obviously with the instructor and the group) right next to the coral reef surrounded by crazy looking fish, and taking a close look at the reef and all the weird looking plants and animals around it. [we saw angel fish, sting ray, barracuda, butterfly fish and a million others. Also yesterday some people saw a hammerhead shark so today hopefully we can see that (and i can get over my intense shark phobia)]. But yeah it like a completely different world that youve just discovered.
So yeah, brilliant lifestyle of diving in the day, partying at night.


So where have i beeeeeen...hmmmm, oh yeah ok so from San Pedro in Lake Atitlan, we (me, naiomi (the leeds-bristol girl) and aussies (from the treck)) went to Santa Cruz la Laguna on the lake still and stayed in a cool hostel with banana trees and the biggest mosquito ive ever seen (literally i reckon bigger than my face). Hung around, met some bristolians (we seem to be pretty avid travellers) who knew some of my friends, trekked to a waterfall...
We then went to San Marcos la Laguna, where we jumped off some high cliffs into the lake. This was truely incredible with the view of the lake and volcanoes surrounding.

There was a bad side though. As we were jumping off (and i swear at least one person was always sitting at the top), mine and Ians (aussie) daybags got stolen. Pretty annoying considering i lost my camera, watch, raincoat (still havent found another one), some money and the bag (luckily though, they did leave on the path my tin of sardines). So we went to the local police expecting a lot of effort, when actually they were definitely the nicest policement ive ever met. He happily typed us up a report each, and also as the other policemen were watching the football and argentina scored, we all took part in a group hug. Possibly the best police experience ive ever had. Maybe we have something to learn from them.

We then didnt want to spend the night in Panajachel (on the lake also) so I wrote 'Antigua' on a piece of paper i found in a bread basket and held it up. 5 minutes later we got a lift in the back of a pickup past amazing waterfalls to a random crossroads where we got a bus to some random town where we held on to the outside of a chicken bus to Antigua.
Unfortunately in Antigua I got a bit ill (stomach pain, nausea etc) and had to rest for a few days (damn it! i finally got the illness! i thought i was some sort of amazingly healthy man). I then headed to Copan Runias (via Guatemala City, where after getting out of taxi to the bus station, at leat 10 men were shouting 'Chiquimula!' 'Antigua!' 'Copan!' etc as loud as they could in my face, while trying to take my bag to their buses, i only got by by shouting 'Un momento!', 'Silencio' etc.)...a small, very pretty town just in the Honduran lands. Met some cool folk (one of which-a high school teacher in the US- said hes going to tell and inspire his class about me because hes so impressed that im travelling alone for 6months...sweet).
From there i went up to the North and stayed in a little jungle lodge for 3 days (next to the Pico Bonito National Park).



I got there in a chicken bus, crammed full of hondurans, heading into the rainforest (i wondered if this was a good idea, considering i didnt really know where i was going). It was really cool- right in the Honduras rainforest, next to a big river. I went white-water rafting one day which was absolutely brilliant. So fast and fun going over these massive rapids (some were class 5). I fell out once and got trapped under the boat which was a brilliantly exhilarating experience.
I then headed to La Ceiba (port for Bay Islands), and decided (by the persuasion of 2 cool americans), 1 hour before the boat left, to go to Utila.

So here i am!
Leaving tomorrow to make my way to Nicaragua (should take me a day or two) and see what happens than. Havent got long left at all so i want to be speedy and make it to Costa Rica for funfun times there (the only thing is everywhere is so amazing!).

Love to all from the Caribbean
Simon