Utila: diving refresher

We awoke early again and had breakfast at Thomson's Bakery, drawn in by the wondrous smells. We had fresh, hot cinnamon rolls (12L each) which were divine, and yummy pancakes (35L for two).

We checked out of Mango Inn and into Captain Morgan's. The people in our intended room had extended their stay so they put us in a small room with a double bed and a single bunk on top. It had a shared bathroom with only 1 toilet and shower for a lot of people so not the best but far cleaner than last night and they gave it to us for free. We sat down with a free welcome drink and filled in some paperwork by the beach.

We wandered to the nearby beach and went snorkelling (free gear from hostel). The beach was beautiful and the water warm and clear. It was just sea grass apart from some sunken concrete blocks which attracted a few fishes including angels and trumpets. The actual reef is apparently further up past the beach. When I got out a huge fly tried to bite me so I ran back into the water and sunbathing was out of the question!

We walked back and were about to head out for lunch when an instructor said it would be a good idea to do a refresher course as we hadn't dived in a while. Since it was only $20 we agreed and went over the basics, did the usual drills, and went for a short swim around the pier not seeing much.

Utila is renowned for it's sand flies and they viciously attacked us throughout the briefing and as soon as we got out. Nasty little things. The mozzies were out in force too :(

We went to dinner at Mario's Place with an Aussie, Kaitlyn, who had done the course with us. We had frozen lemonade, Hannah and I had enchiladas, and Anna had fish (335L). Utila has one main concrete 'street' with not much room for all the tuktuks, motorbikes and golf carts racing along and big crabs crawling along in the gutters beside the road.

We decided to pay the $10 to have aircon as it was so hot and we weren't paying for the room. Anna was too hot, Hannah was too cold...can't please them all.Read more