Chocolate factory and ginormous fishes

We went for the 9am dive to El Aguila (The Eagle) wreck, a 30m cargo ship which was deliberately sunk and then broken into 3 by a hurricane soon afterwards. The visibility was great and there several swim-thrus, plus it's next to a reef so a far better dive than the Utila wreck we did. We were with Eddy and Allen again, plus an Israeli girl called Jenny who was miles behind us most of the time filming things.

The stern is on it's side so as we entered it and then swam down a level it felt really funny as there was a slight current and it was hard to tell which way was up. We then swam around the stern and saw a big eel garden full of tiny grass eels poking their heads out of the sand. We then swam across the destroyed middle section and onto the bow which had several levels to swim through. On one, Eddy swam in through one door and a ginormous snapper swam out the other door - it was dark so he had no idea what the huge monster was at first. After a tight squeeze out of the hatch at the front of the boat we headed towards the reef which was covered with big groupers and snappers. I've never seen so many huge fish, it was amazing! They were completely unfazed by us and you could swim right up to them. We continued to swim around the coral, through valleys and small swim-thrus. It was a beautiful dive - my best in a long time!

When we got back we had breakfast and then walked to the ATM but it wouldn't give us any money. We phoned the chocolate factory owner and arranged to meet at his shop. We met him, Vidal, and his Scottish wife, Jodie, who were absolutely lovely and they took us to the 'factory' 5 mins away which is a small shop that the cruise ships stop at, with a small area behind where the chocolate is made. Vidal talked us through the whole process which takes a long time and is very small-scale. We tried raw, fermented and then roasted cacao beans plus numerous samples of the finished products with various flavours; plus some starfruit truffles which were delicious! We also tried some plum and hibiscus jams which were really tasty. He was really enthusiatic and didn't expect us to buy anything, however we got 5 bars for $20.

He also offered to solve our money crisis which was very kind by letting us make a credit card transaction and just charging us the 4% which is far better than the 19% which the hostel charges. Anna and I walked to his shop to do this and then got a couple of pieces from Rusty Fish. We returned to find Hannah in the sea.

We grabbed some snorkel gear and headed out in the bay searching for a sunken submarine. We climbed onto a small sailing boat which has a swing rope for public use and swung off a few times which was great fun. It was fairly hard to get the rope back for the next person and luckily there was a guy there to help us rock the boat. The guy also showed us where the submarine was and we saw the huge green moray eel that lives there.

We went for dinner at a busy street food place with tables and chairs in front of a supermarket. For 100L we had plates of kebab or chicken, plantain, coconut rice & beans and salsa - really good food! Anna had the most ginormous piece of fried chicken.

When we returned a cockroach was sat on Anna's toothbrush - luckily she has a spare! We later found it on the toothpaste - obviously likes fresh breath.Read more