Two Beers and a Pretzel

Yes, I am alive.  There’s limited internet access here on the island.  Apparently the entire island shares one uplink, so it’s pretty slow.

Lunch on Wednesday

It’s been mostly cloudy.  I started PADI training at Coconut Tree Divers in the West End – kinda near the guy with the submarine.  We did the pool dive on Wed. I got sick on Thurs.  Tried my 1st open water dive today, but freaked out when I inhaled some water (3 ft waves) – so I stayed up on the boat.  I’ll be trying the confined water dive at 2 PM and see if I can get back on track.

On the upside, there’s a lot of cool beach bars here and since it’s low season, pretty much everyone is a divemaster in training.  It’s strange meeting so many people who came here and just decided to stay…

Got to watch a ritual where newly minted divemasters have to bong a beer thru a snorkle.  I’ll try to post a video when I get to a more reliable web connection.

The strangest thing is waking up to a half dozen roosters and dogs at 5 AM… The getting to th3 dive shop by 8 AM – I thought this was vacation.

Anyway, once I get my open water PADI cert, I’ll probably pass on the advanced and go to the Copan Ruins by mid next week.

Hopefully they’ll have better internet access there, so I can update the blog more frequently…

5:00 AM – Get to Nashville airport.  Find out they won’t book me thru to Honduras because I don’t have a return ticket.  Change checked luggage to just go to Miami.

6:15 AM – Flight to Miami.

9:45 CST – Arrive at Miami.  Walk 1/2 a mile to the other end of the terminal carrying 70# of crap.  Book an onward refundable flight on TECA from Honduras to Costa Rica on Nov 24th.

1:45 CST – Flight to San Pedro

3:00 PM EST – Arrive in the original Banana Republic at San Pedro with a 30 minute layover and a massive immigration line.

3:25 PM – Still in line.  Find out my flight was cancelled due to weather.

3:40 PM – Get shuffled onto a bus to La Cieba with 25 other people and a Chiuaua.  Pass banana plantions and bridge construction project with armed guards.

6:45 PM – Arrive a La Cieba airport.  Meet 3 other Americans and split a cab to the Grand Paris Hotel.

8 PM – Meet friends for dinner – everyplace is closed…

9 PM – …except the hotel restraunt.  Order the “Typical Plate” of fried plantains, cheese, fried eggs, beans, rice, and something akin to meat.  Food was pretty good.  I’m guessing it was a bit more authentic than the Pizza Hut next ddor or Duncan Donuts down the street.  The local beer “South Beach” is like a sweeter version of Corona.

11:30 – Finishing this e-mail and going to bed.  Need to catch the ferry to Roatan tomorrow at 9:30 AM.

I’ll get some pics tomorrow

At my going away happy hour I talked with a guy from work who has had many past lives. Big 5 accounting consultant, SCUBA instructor in the Caribbean for a year on a live-aboard, and finally, managing the help desk for the GAP. We were talking about SCUBA, and I got a ton of advice from him….

Apparently I want to go to Honduras because you can just walk off the beach to do your certification dive, as it gets deep quick, and there are patch reefs everywhere.

Upon doing a little research, I found a guy on Roatan who built his own DSV submarine (totally unlicensed and uninspected) that he uses to take tourists down to 2000 ft deep!!! Holy Cow… I wouldn’t build my own car – much less something that could instantly crush me to death if anything goes wrong.

So I’ve decided… I don’t want to ride in it that deep, but I absolutely have to talk to this guy…


From his recent website update, he’s in a skirmish with the local Mayor, and I guess he’s being physically blocked from taking the sub out to sea. That removes temptation!!

So it’s a week in Honduras (starting Nov 17th) to get my Scuba certification and see a few Mayan Pyramids. Then a bus thru Nicaragua spend 2 weeks in Costa Rica.