PILOT WHALES

We were blessed by the seas and snorkeled with a pod of pilot whales a day or two ago (they are starting to blur together). They move quick but these magnificent animals are even more beautiful underwater if you can keep up. I saw 3 pairs mothers with calves and one on its own. They are rarely spotted around Utila and it is especially unheard of to swim with them. After a bit of research I learned that short-finned pilot whales frequent warmer waters and they are a member of the dolphin family. They are believed to equal the intelligence of a bottlenose dolphin and are second in size within the dolphin family only to killer whales. Pilot whales are very social, and are most often found in groups of 20 to 90. Within these groups are at least some stable associations, usually between related females and their offspring. There are usually some males in these groups, but genetic evidence has shown that these males are not the fathers of the calves in the group. Several calves in one group may be fathered by the same male, indicating that a male can enter a group for a brief period and mate with more than one female. OK I hope that wasn't too much information but it explains why we saw so many mothers and calves.

We have been getting into fun diving again because... WE FINISHED OUR INSTRUCTORS! Whew we both passed without any problems and we're looking for students. I know Courtney's mum will be at the top of the list and I'll have to get my sister to do her advanced diver. Anyone else interested we would love to get some certifications under our belts. Next PADI step is the Master Scuba Diver Trainer and we will need 25 certifications. For the time being we are diving, diving, diving and enjoying not having obligations like reading PADI manuals. Thanks for the comments, its always good to hear from people keep 'em coming.


Kylee Williamson I hope I get to meet you very soon!
Owen back at CELP! I bet that was fabulous reunion:)
Mom I did get the fax and thank you again! you're the best

Back in action....

Whew its been a whirlwind here on Utila like Courtney mentioned we are being PADI-ifed and we are now nearly halfway done with our Istructor Development Course. The first day they asked why do you want to be an instructor and I have honestly not figured it out yet. Hopefully by the time we are finished I will know. It would be a fun way to make money (enough to survive hopefully) and always live near an ocean. The shop we have been with has some of the most lovely people many from the UK and Courtney's accent has picked back up again, not quite Australian more British but nonetheless not American which he would get a hard time for back home. Marine life updates include swimming with spinner dolphins out in the blue, a golden spotted eel, and, a lettuce sea slug, and two mysterious head shield slugs (nudibranchs)!!!! We have no plans past studying and hopefully passing the Instuctor Exam. We will keep you all updated but for now we are happy healthy and focused on diving. Please let us know how you all are!

CONGRATULATIONS AUNT PENNY!!!!! I was thrilled to hear my aunt Penny brought a beautiful, healthy little girl into the world on Mother's Day!

PADI Slammed

We're still on Utila.

We've been PADI Slammed. It's what we like to call it when you just keep on going through the PADI system and doing more and more courses (paying more and more). So now, we have done Rescue, Dive Masters (the original Plan) our night and Nitrox specialities, have enrolled in the deep and wreck specialitiesour Assistant instructors course and drum roll please.... are currently 2 days into the week long IDC (instructor development course) soon we will then take the 2 day exam to try and be instructors. Holy Shit. Sorry parents, but i never thought we would end up at this stage. Considering the fact that Mastercard doesn't work in the ATM here it's lucky that i had some cash in the bank. I've had to pay for all the courses and living here for the nearly two months now... i feel pretty poor, but it's nice to know that meagan will have to pay for the rest of the trip... and then some.

Other than that, we haven't been up to much, had our snorkel test the other night and we were both pretty drunk. When you finish your DM the Shop buys you a horrible concoction of shots and you have to drink it through a snorkel. It was fun though, I'll put the photos up soon on the blog.

Well not much else to say right now, will right more when (if) we pass this instructor exam.

take care all

Utila, Honduras

We're sorry.

we've been pretty slack lately, but it is a combination of lots of study to do for this Dive Masters course and the fact that the internet here is sporadic at best and then hounded and hogged by many and all when i t is working. So i'm putting my foot down and abusing all my privledges to stay on the computer and write and i cop some crap from a few people around me here.

So we are on Utila, and have just nearly finished our DM course and about to start our Asst Instructor course. We are planning on leaving in about 10 days, but we truely are the slowest travellers that central america has seen in quite a while.

So much has happened since we wrote last, but onw of the most stand out events has to be the aquatic life we have been seeing. In fact, between the turtles, the eels and the crazy fish that inhabit these tropical waters it's hard to think of something more special that the next, but undoubtably the WHALE SHARKS have rocked my world. We have a lot of sad chaotic style stories about people harrassing the sharks to see them or touch them, but the one day we got a good "jump" on a big one it was incredible. The fish was about 35' long and just magestic. I remember taking a few photos and then just ditch my camera by my side as we snorkelled and free dove beside this gorgeous and huge creature. So very inspiring and awesome.

Apart from the diving not much else has happened, we helped out in a beach cleanup for earth day and have been having some large nights in between. Yesterday we finished our "stress test". We had to change mask, fins & BCD whilst breathing from just one regulator. During this our tanks are being turned off and on again, swapping our air source, our masked are being removed and flooded, sand kicked up in our faces and all other sorts of stuff going down. But we did it, the first time we tried. Meagan was brilliant and showed her better underwater skills, helping me out, but we got through it and that was that.

well not much else to report except that we will try and write more often and keep you all up to date with what's going on.

Hope you are all well, take care

Courtney

There is a reason Belize is sooo popular

We were skeptical of Belize before going but had a fantastic two weeks. We started out in the Garifuna- Chinese community of Dangriga where Courtney scared me high fevers and sweats. He quickly recovered and in 24 hours we found ourselves at a private campsite overlooking the Cockscomb Wildlife Sanctuary with a short walk down to pristine waterfalls fit for drinking. After a two days of hiking, floating on the river, and swimming in the waterfall we went for a day at Gayles Point. This tiny Garifuna community is sprawled out along a very narrow pennisula in a huge lagoon. The lagoon is a favorite breeding and hang out spot for the manatees. Our guides were quite literally the Grumpy Old Men of Belize. They were sweet old guys but had clearly been working together for a long time and loved to bicker. "Sticka da pole tha" the boat driver is demanding of the owner and he ignores him and waits until it is too deep and the driver gets frustrated and they go back and forth for awhile.They were really comical guys when I could make out what they were saying. In the end we saw 6 manatees, hung out in the magroves and took a dip in the ocean, which we hadn´t been in months (it was a relief to get wet). We spent a few hours with a rad drum teacher who called us over and chatted with us about life in Gayles point, drum making, drumming, coconuts, and even played for us. Really one of the nicest guys I have ever encountered. Back in Dangriga we stocked up on groceries and set out for Glover´s Reef Atoll. It was seven days of bliss. We had a secluded campsite on the backside of the coconut palm covered island that you could walk around in 2o minutes. The snorkeling just off of our site was incredible! Our first time in we saw a spotted eagle ray, two nurse sharks, and a plethera of fish and coral. All of this is in less than 3 m of water. One late afternoon snorkel we encountered and were checked out by a shark that made our hearts pound. It was either a bull shark or a black tip that measured well over 9 ft. and had some girth. I´ll never forget how fat that thing looked especially in about 10 feet of water and it was headed for shore! He slowed checked us out, I screamed, Courtney followed, the shark turned toward us, Courtney stopped following and then the shark continued on his way. Definitely a thriller and so were our dives. On three dives I saw some of the healthiest coral and sponges I have ever seen... so vibrant and diverse. Some of the highlights were an ooooold loggerhead turtle (a magestic slow swimmer with a thick neck and huge head and a barnacle encrusted shell) and a pod of dolphins in the distance. We were surrounded by some lovely people that were so generous and gave us their excess fish and even taught how to clean and prepare a conch...mmm coconut conch was incredible. Speaking of coconuts they were abundant and the only thing for free in all of Belize. We took full advantage and Courtney husked and cracked probably 50 coconuts and saved us a bundle on buying water. Overall Belize was far from a bust but we were happy to spend 2 days back in Guatemala on the Rio Dulce before arriving here in Honduras. Next stop is Utila to take the Rescue Diver course. Hope everyone is well and please keep us updated on what you all are up to.

C: So we ended up going to El Mirador and dragged scotty boy along with us. He agreed that the food on the trip couldn`t be have as bad as in flores so so we all took off with what was meant to be no more than 7 people. That`s what the tour guy said...

M: Ok so nine hikers, 3 guides, 5 mules, and a lot of ticks made the glorious five-day journey north. In the end we traveled well over 120 km, trekking through jungle and lots of mud. Fortunately it has been ¨drying out¨ and we didn´t have to wear gum boots. We began in the tiny village of Carmelita a chiclero settlement of 368 people which was founded on camping out in the woods collecting chicle by slashing a particular tree with a machete and and collecting the white gummy substance for chewing gum. Now they receive 5Q or about 75 cents for a pound which is primarily sent to Asia to make cosas (things). All of this was directly from our endearing guide Alex....

C: it`s good to see meagan talking in kilometres. it was a great trip. the hiking was tough and I have a lots of bad stories about our tour organiser but a lot of it is my own fault and he is just a shadey guy. But the trip was worth it and i definitely enjoyed my time there. Our guides were great people and amazingly hard workers. My favourite part by far was this tunnel that we got to go in. I can`t publish the photos as part of our being allowed to go into the tunnel, but they are digging away at a tunnel to find the old layer of different temples that were built upon each other over many centuries. It was awesome! A huge Jaguar Head and paws were carved and painted and sitting right there! it was awesome. I also loved the sunset over the past few days and then today we just got back from a great trip to Tikal. I really enjoyed seeing the amazing amount of work they have done there and trying to understand the enormity and massive scale of these Mayan cities.

M: Enormous doesn´t even begin to describe some of these temples. Dante at El Mirador soars above the canopy with a height of 71m and we climbed right to the top aided by a rope. You can´t do shit like that at Tikal. My favorite part of the trek was spending 5 whole days in the jungle away from civilization yet surrounded by the remains of some very prosperous civilizations. Howler monkies were everywhere and climbing a temple meant getting to be right at their level. Courtney and I witnessed a whole family moving and playing completely aware of us but still tending to their young and not moving away either... magical.

C:We got a lot of ticks on us hiking and we had to hike with our heads down looking at mud most of the way, plus scotty got a bunch of blisters - really bad ones. Poor guy. But it has been great hanging out with him and he`ll be missed, maybe we can get him to hang out in the bay islands... if we ever make it there.

tomorrow we are heading to belize to explore about the most expensive country in Central america - damn english speaking countries! But our penny pinching ways will only keep us there for about 2 weeks until we head back in guatemala for a few days and finally on to honduras. Hope everyone is well and hope to hear from you all soon

Hotter than.....

well its hotter than a lot of places. For instance the water off of Catalina island. Way to go CELP crew on your lifeguarding checks! Hope you all are having a wonderful training and I wish you the best of luck. To Travis or someone that will talk to Travis, we wish you a feliz cumpleaños!

Seriously the heat here in Flores is incredible but nothing we can´t handle mentally but physically my body has revolted and I have a solid heat rash. Don´t worry mom nothing serious and I will be just fine. While we are waiting for Scotty we have spent some time for ourselves relaxing, shopping in the market and cooking some amazing meals and swimming in the lake. We are pondering whether to do a 5 day trek to the unrestored Mayan site of El Mirador. More news on that it happens.