Deeper and Deeper in Honduras

Late on Fri 22nd September we crossed the boarder into Honduras. It was 8pm by this time and very dark and our driver could not find his way to the campsite. So 8 very armed policemen had to escort us 20 minutes down the road so we could stop anoying them by driving backwards and forwards through their inspection point. It was an mini adventure in itself. The next moring we went to Copan ruins. This is an impressive collection of Mayan temples and obelisks. This is the last of the Mayan sites we will visit. My next set of ruins will be Incan in South America. After Copan we drove north through Honduras and caught a plane to Roatan, one of the Bay Islands. It is a large island 40 miles long but I did not get a chance to see any of it because I signed up to do my PADI scuba diving course. The course is normally run over 4 days but we had to fit it all in, in just over 2 and a half days. It meant we were studying till 9pm at night (not easy when you have been up since 5am that morning) and then getting up bright and early the next day to do our skills and breathing techniques. We practised these on the beach before doing our first dive on the first full afternoon. It was hard work but so worth it. We did a total of 4 dives all together. 2 were at 12 metres and the final two went down to 18 metres. That is the depth limit allowed for open water scuba divers. I saw a variety of things including parrot fish, cow fish, lobster, shrimps, sea snails and sea slugs, a multitude of different coloured fish, an eel and amazingly another turtle. Turtles are even more difficult to spot off Roatan than they are in Caye Caulker but I guess we were exceptionally lucky. There was also a wide variety of corals and microscopic life. Because it is dangerous to fly untill 18 hours after your last dive (due to the risk of decompression sickness), we finished our last dive at midday. After taking the final exam (and passing with flying colours) this left me with the afternoon free. I treated myself to yet another opportunity of a lifetime. I went diving in a yellow submarine. Yes a real yellow submarine. This sub has been built by hand by Karl Stanley, who takes you down in it. He is a keen marine ecologist and biologist and he knows heaps about the wildlife. It is only tiny and it is a squeeze to get into the front but it is capable of going to depths of 2000 feet. We only went down to 1000 feet. It was fascinating. Due to the domed window everything seemed alot smaller, starfish were the same size as your little fingernail. We saw rare creatures including the sea lilly which was thought to be extinct only a few years ago. The entire experience was wonderful and eerie and to quote a cliche out of this world, but is is so difficult to convert into words what we were able to see. All in all most of my experience of Honduras has been below sea level and it has been truely magical and fasinating. It is with regret that I am going back onto dry land now but it is now onwards to the unspoilt beauty of Nicaragua.