Welcome to the Jungle

I met the cutest girls at Alton's who were form Colorado that just graduated from high school and are taking a year off before college. I convinced the Colorado girls to take a detour to the Jungle River Resort where we could go white water rafting. The lode was settled on top of all these cliffs that we could jump from into the river. 

The Colorado girls & me. Emily, Emma, Emma, & Chloe.

Gotta love my makeshift bathing suit. I left my other only one drying on the clothesline at Alton's. Note to self: DO NOT hang cloths to dry the day you leave to go on the road again.

After the hike we had a delicious fruit platter. Then we had lunch and decided to go on a hike. Little did we know what a hike it would be....

Tho coolest bridge (aka punta) I have ever been on.

The whole goal was to find the water falls. We had drama in the beginning because we had no money to enter the park. So we had to go back to get it. Then Chloe fell and we were losing a lot of light before we even got to the falls. But still we persevered. We found the falls & awarded ourselves with several girl scout badges. By the time we got out of there we had survived many different elements including man eating insects and complete darkness. You can imagine our delight to find the punta and get back to the lodge for our dinner stew surprise. 

Alton's Fun

Alton's and all the wonderful people that I met there made my experience in Utila as incredible as it was. Here are some fun Alton's highlights and others around the Islands.

Our group got to go to this resort called Utopia. The deal was we were to pick up trash and they would feed us and give us a couple drinks. We literally picked up trash for like 1 1/2 hours and then had delicious BBQ, we played volleyball, swam, snorkeled, played pool, and just hung out. To top it off the owners all had AUSTIN TIES. And I even won a cool Koozie. 

Alton's even took us on a booze cruise!

Gotta love the fire-dancing scuba instructors.

Here was our last night in Utila. Even though we were rained on, we didn't let it spoil our fun!

Matt and Mark were our British Doctor friends. They had an internship with the wild & famous Dr. John of Utila.  

Now you can see the main reason why I left Utila. The MOZZIES & SANDFLIES (aka "no see ems") were the worst I have ever encountered. It got to where I was not sleeping at night because the itching was so painful. FYI- August & September are the worst months because the breeze dies down. 

Taking the Plunge

I stayed at Alton's dive shop in Utila which is the smaller of the Bay Islands off of Honduras. Right when we gott off the ferry we were swarmed by all the dive instructors trying to sell their shop. Luckily every center has a fixed price. Usually the nights that ou dive are "free" since you are paying to dive. The island is relatively cheap considering it is a island. It has s great food selection and a nice nightlife. Everybody that lives here is somehow connected to the dive world or studying to become connected to the dive world. I also enjoyed some resort action thanks to some connections and biking around the whole island. But everyone comes here for one main reason, TO DIVE!

All the dive centers have tons of oxygen tanks ready & a professional who works all day filling the used ones.

Here is the gage that tells you how deep you are and how much air you have left.

The dive crew setting the anchor up front. 

The dive master is giving me my final inspection.

The finished product!

Although it is hard to tell this is me (look at the hair) at about 40 feet! 

Here are just a couple cool underwater shots. Some highlights were seeing an octopus, 2 eels with their high pitched squeal, barracudas, flounders, scorpion fish, and SOOOO MUCH MORE! But by far my favorite part of diving was the underwater dance the ocean seems to do. All the coral and sea plants seem to move back & forth with such a cool motion. 

Here I am after my final "fun dive!" Oh-yeah I am officially open water certified, which means I can dive to 60 feet.

Just What the DR. ORDERED!!!

Those of you who know me well, know about my obsession with the good ol' D.P. So you can imagine my excitement when I came across Dr. Pepper in Honduras. Although there was no fountain options or Styrofoam cups, the little comforts of home when you are on the road can be delightful. So I bought two, and set up the 10 second timer to document my dorkiness.... 

Copan Ruins

Copan, Honduras was a quant little city with a great town square. We were lucky enough to have met a guy who had been staying there for some time so we had a built in tour guide. We had some great local mexican food, stayed in a quiet cheap hostel. The ruins was about a 15 minute SHADY walk just outside of town. These were the last of the Mayan ruins that trailed down Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, and Honduras.

These are the Macaw birds that are common throughout Honduras (and maybe most of central America.) The were so talkative, intelligent, & entertaining. They were there on the fences to great us right when we came into the ruins.

Here is the feistiest of them all. He had battle wounds from fights all over him. Now he is just shaken like a Polaroid picture.

Here I am making my best dragon face!

Although this Mayan site was on a much smaller scale than TIKAL, it was cool because it had very intricately and well preserved artifacts & carvings that others have not had. 

Max and I were starting to get delirious towards this point, so we set our 10 second timer to see how far we could get up hill. 

Antigua Highlights

Here are some shots around Antigua. I loved Antigua. It had a great small city vibe, with cobblestone streets, & a bustling market. We were also able to get our "RAGON" one night so that was loads of fun.

The hurricane season did catch up with us after all. Ali (from London) was not affected because everywhere she goes she brings her Brellie & a pair of sunnies.

Yeah- coke has bee everywhere right? This was us preparing to get our "RAGON"

This random school marching band serenaded us all day long!