Day Eleven

Woke up nice and early for my last day of diving. Decided that I was only going to do one dive today, and then call it a vacation. There are rules on how much time you need before diving and then flying, so I decided to play it safe since I was a little bit worried about my ears and their equalization. Headed down to the dive shop to hang out and figure out what to do for my last dive. We decided to go to the Blue Channel, which starts off as a nice shallow dive, and then goes to some swim throughs and finishes off with a swim along the reef wall, depending on your air consumption. The dive today we went to a max depth of 65ft for 55mins. Some of the noteable mentions were a Bridled Burfish, Hawksbill Turtle, Caribbean Spiny Lobster, Porcupine fish, Saucereye Porgy, baby Banded Coral Shrimp, 8ft Green Moray Eel, and a tiny baby Lionfish that was actually transparent it was so small. The dives with swim throughs tended to make me nervous, as you have to swim through tiny caves, and I am always worried about touching the coral – however on these swim throughs it is almost impossible to not graze the rocks. I was proud that I lasted 55 minutes; my air consumption definitely started improving by the end of the trip.

I did a total of 10 dives while I was down here, each one different and unique in its own way. My favourite dive I think was today's, we got a little bit of everything all mixed into one dive, and we were the only 2 people at the site. It’s been awesome diving with a smaller shop since it is so personable, and you’re not herded around in groups diving in a big long line. It was a sad moment getting onto the boat after the last dive, knowing that I wouldn’t be diving again for quite some time. I can tell you that I am nowhere near finished with diving, and hope to dive all around the world. It feels very natural for me under the water – in fact I feel more comfortable down there, than I do on land. It is just so peaceful and intriguing. The underwater world has so much to offer, so many new things to see and discover.

After we got back in from the dive, we hung out at the dive shop for a while and chatted as usual, filled out my log book and then got my final lunch of the trip from Buena Vida next door. Got a nice Chicken Teriyaki on Rice meal. It was huge, struggled to eat it all. Luckily I always saved the last few bites to feed to the shop cats – they really appreciate it. I got my equipment together, and headed back to my hotel. I got a few things organized around my room, and then headed down to the beach to get a beer and do some relaxing for my last day. It was a beautiful day, drug a chair into the water and layed there with my neighbors for a while before deciding that I had better go to some tourist shopping before I left.

They had all the typical tourist stuff, shot glasses, mugs, jewellery and all the crap. The stuff that caught my eye was the Lencan Pottery which is a traditional Honduran pottery, and the Mahogany woodworking from the mainland. I couldn't find any woodwork that I really liked – almost bought a nice set of coasters, but decided against it. I managed to pick up two pieces of Lenca Pottery, one small one for myself, and one for my mom. Just a little something to remind me of my first solo vacation. Headed back to the room, tried to get a little more organizing and packing done, and then took a nap in my hammock. It is so easy to fall asleep in those hammocks, maybe I should put one on my porch and take summer naps there.

Woke up, got showered, finished most of my packing and then headed down to Sundowners to see what my final night would bring me. When I got there, there was a nice yelling match between a tiny Italian woman and some dorky looking tourist guy. It was kind of funny at first, but got fairly annoying and then quickly got booted out of the bar. I grabbed a beer and saw my friends Kevin and Lance across the bar and went to join them. Chatted with them and Kevin introduced me to some more people he had met at the bar. Watched the final sundown, which was beautiful as usual and then ran into my dive instructor Mel. Mel, Kevin, Lance and myself had a few beers there and then headed down the road to get some roadside taco’s. They were delicious as usual – I don’t know how those guys make such delicious food on the side of the road. 

After the taco’s Lance went home to bed, and the rest of us headed to the Blue Marlin for a few more beers. Stuck around there for a while, it was pretty low key. Not much goes on in West End on a Tuesday night. Kevin eventually went home, and me and Mel continued drinking Salva Vida’s and chatted for quite some time. We walked across the street to the Buena Vida and had a couple more beers and chatted it up with the owner and some people who were sitting there. They seemed to be quite interested in me and my story of why I was there, etc etc – so that was fun to talk about. Mel also works at the Buena Vida twice a week, so we hung out with the owner till close time. After that, Mel grabbed a cab home and I walked back down the street to my hotel... a nice low key last evening. I had been drinking too much lately anyway.