Utila winding down... Guatemala in my sights.

It is said that there are three lies in Utila:

1.) "I'm leaving tomorrow"
2.) "I'm not drinking tonight"
3.) "I love you"

Well, I've previously been guilty of telling lie 2, and today I'm responsible for lie #1. With a smile I'd say that from my experience, lie 3 is not really necessary... but the locals know better than I do, I suppose.
The original plan was to travel from Roatan/Utila to Belize to do some more diving and snorkeling, but to be honest- it's so cheap here and so much fun and with so much to do and see both in and out of the water, that I decided it wouldn't be necessary to get to belize. Instead I've modified my itinerary. I concluded my dive course yesterday and I'm now a certified SCUBA diver, but everything on this island is closed on sundays and I needed to get some laundry done and pick up some supplies before leaving (not to mention rest my foot- more about this in a bit). So today is a prep day for tomorrow.

Hopefully I'll get the 6:30am ferry out tomorrow morning, which puts me on the mainland in La Ceiba at 7:30. By 8:30 I hope to be on a bus on my way to San Pedro Sula and ultimately the Guatemalan border. I'll make the crossing and head to the dumpy town of puerto barrios, and I hope I can catch the last ferry out for the night to Livingston... a charming Rasta town on the narrow Guatemala coast. I may not make that distance in one day, in which case I'd rather stay in San Pedro than Puerto Barrios. I'll stay another night in livingston to take in the vibe before catching a river boat up the Rio Dulce to the town of Fronteras. From there I can take a bus westward around the north side of the lake there, and I'll be delighted to stop for a day or two in Lanquin/Semuc Champey. Semuc is apparently a series of limestone pools in the jungle which descends many feet and is warm and perfectly swimmable. From Semuc I can catch a bus to Coban, from which I can take a tourist bus directly to Tikal. I'll spend a few days in Tikal and get back to Xela by Sun/Mon for spanish school!

My time in Utila has been great. I've been fortunate to meet a lot of cool people and have a lot of cool experiences, plus to feel the intense rush that it is to breathe for an hour underwater in some of the most beautiful coral reefs in the Western Hemisphere, and probably the world. I've got a single with a private bath at the divers hotel for which I'll be charged nothing- its included in the dive package. I've been hanging out with a LOT of Canadians... there everywhere here, heh? lol- the funny thing is, they really do throw heh and eh into their sentences a lot, and don't really like it when you tease them for it. I've also been surprised at the nationalities and numbers of a lot of other people- several Danish and Sweedish people, plenty of folks from the UK, a few french, and a scattering of Swiss and Germans.

In Utila there are only really three things to do- dive, lay out, and party... and we've been doing all of them. For my course I had 6 dives- 2 in shallow water near shore and 4 out on the reef where we were taken by boat- over the course of 3 days... plus one more day for classroom instruction. Already I'm getting nice and dark, but definitely not burned. It can be a bit buggy here- the mosquitos are killer at sunrise and sunset and the sanflies bite you without you being aware of it. There are really only two bars to party at, Tranquila and Coco Loco, and they are right next to each other a 5 minute walk from my hotel, with their bars on piers extending right out onto the ocean. Lots of dancing, lots of drinking, lots of girls, and lots of fun. On Friday night my hotel/dive shop had a BBQ. 200 Lempiras ($12) gets you a huge plate of home cooked goodness, plus all you can drink at the open bar. MAN we had a blast... Tatiana was NOT happy that I was sleeping so much in her class saturday morning at 8:30, but hey- I hadn't slept all night.

So about my foot... I didn't really tell the story before because I didn't want to get anyone alarmed, but a week ago- during my first night here- I was riding a bike home from an all night rum drinking session (they call that "hanging out" here) and the chain snapped and I fell of and took some hard scrapes and bruises up and down my left arm, and especially my left leg and foot. The salt water cleanses, but it also prevents them from closing up so I've decided to stay out for the near future. I've been limping around a bit, but the wounds are definitely clean and I've been taking some prescription medication for infection as a precaution. Until yesterday my foot was swollen as if I weighte 300lbs, but I've got it back down to normal again. I guess the lie about not leaving today will probably be good for me as I keep this foot elevated and lay in a hammock all day. I'm a bit worried about traveling on it, so any healing I can do today will be great.

Okay- sorry for this crazy essay, but I had a lot to say! Hasta luego...