La lluvia La lluvia

It is not the sunny season in Honduras. In fact, it has rained a good portion of every day that I've been here.

I ended up staying an extra day in San Pedro Sula after meeting a Dutch guy headed toward Utila, the cheaper of the Bay Islands at the Hostel Tamarindo. San Pedro Sula pretty much sucks as far as being a gringa goes. The only *safe* things for us to do was go to the mega shopping mall (where we saw Evan Almighty in english), see the parque central (only during the daytime so as to avoid the sketchy folk), see the archaeological museum (mostly just the ceramic history of the Sula Valley) and go the artesan market Guamalito. It was strange because no one really noticed us or heckled us anywhere we went. Taxis were the same all over the city and we never really had to deal with folks trying to swindle us. Overall, it was rather boring in the city and expensive--I ended up spending about $35 USD in just that one day.

Anyways, I am now in Utila and just chose a dive school to get my open water certification. I spent all day, which was okay because it was beautiful and sunny, going to different dive shops with a British guy I met on the ferry over, and they all sound the same: a bunch of gringos hanging out and living like hippies (Its funny because this area reminds me a little of San Pedro, Guatemala near Lake Atitlan. Give it a few more years and pump some more Euros and US Dollars into the economy and I'm sure it will have the thriving euro-hippie drug community.) The ferry comes in from La Ceiba on the North Coast of Honduras twice a day, and with each boatload is generally a good chunk of tourists (although this is the *low* season as far as tourism goes). My ferry ride across was pretty gnarly, though. It looked like a boat that would just be chugging along, but our Captain drove it more like a speedboat across the Caribbean. Kinda like a roller coaster with all the choppy swells. Kinda made me want to throw up too.

Now, it is raining. Again. Actually more like pouring. I was reading a local paper that said about a week ago Utila had record rainfall--about 12 inches in 5 hours. Yikes! I thought I was leaving the wet weather in Seattle! Its not so bad though, and the few hours of sunshine this morning were a good reminder of why this is close to paradise. I'm looking forward to taking dive classes from this old British guy at my dive school who's been diving for about 20 years and teaching about 7 (don't worry DAD--I did my homework!). I'm sure I'll have loads more to tell you all then!

Besos!


P.S. the knot in my stomach has now been replaced by a slow rumble...hurray for traveling!