Utila 2 (addition) & Tegucigalpa

I spent almost a week in Utila. Originally I wanted to do 10 dives, jam them all into 3 days. But the island was so relaxing so I managed to do only 2 dives a day. There were some people who spend several weeks on the island without even diving, well, that I cant understand. Like many people there I did not leave the island when I was supposed to, which brings me to the local urban legend, which is being told as true on Utila. The legend goes like this: ‘There are 3 lies in Utila. The first lie is when you say it is my last drink or even further – I’ll never drink again in my life. The second lie usually goes right after the first one, here it is: I love you. And the last lie is: Içm leaving this island today (tomorrow)’ I was told this when I said the last sentence to my co-divers, they laughed at me. We were sitting on the beach at night drinking rum and burning marsh melons. There are only 2 boats from Utila, the first one leaves at 6:20 am, and that was the one I needed to catch, if I wanted to make it to Tegucigalpa the same day. Well I made it, so Im not sure if the legend is true.
There was another funny thing about that island. I met a very strange person. She was German. Her name was Silvia. We had a lot problems communicating, my Spanish was even worse than her English. She spent her last money on the boat trip to Utila hoping to get a job. Before that she lived in Tegucigalpa for several years (she gave me some tips on the city). Silvia, was wondering around Central America for over 10 years. She claimed to be in love with Honduras (there obviously was a man involved). She would spot me after my dives and we would play chess. Then she would catch me when I was going to get some food. I could not really avoid her, the island was too small. I don’t know whether or not she got a job, but because of her I made sure I got on my boat off the damn island.

Ohh, almost forgot, another thing about that island, very bad thing, the worst. In addition to the mosquitoes, there were 3 (!) types of sand flies. Sand flies are little, almost invisible, hideous creatures that eat you alive. The locals call them flying teeth. I did not use a repellent, so with couple of days my body was completely covered with there bites and oh god that was itchy…

Tegucigalpa

Tegucigalpa is a very attractive city. It is dangerous but all Central American cities, especially capitals are dangerous. I had a lot of fun there. First of all, like I said before, I finally submerged myself into some culture. I went to several museums, an art gallery (a very good one). Also, there was a street theatre, showing ´Don Quijote de la Mancha´ , right on the main square.
I stayed in a funky backpacker’s hostel, owned by an American who escaped the American politics and particularly Bush. Where I met some people from Utila, for them Tegus was a stop over before going to Leon or Granada. Well, there was a taxi strike in the morning and they blocked the whole city, so nobody went anywhere. I was even going to. I was exploring the city. There was a huge stature on top of the mountain, overlooking the city (next to the stature there is a Coca Cola sign, Hollywood style, locals told me it was there as long as they can remember, it even used blink with red and white). Anyways, I hiked all the way up, through the villages on the hills (people live there, on a 45 degree angle, and kids play soccer), then through the forest, stones and water pipes. I had to stop twice to get some coca-cola, which was kinda funny, because they sell coke twice as expensive if you buy in a bottle (about 50 c) but usually they would pour it in a plastic bag (for 25 c), coke in a plastic bag, amazing! It took me 2 hours but the view was stunning.

When I was going down I saw ¨waterfalls¨ of these plastic bags and other plastic shit going directly into the rivers. There were thousands of tons of this shit. Latinos have absolutely no sense of ¨their environment. They literally shit where they eat, sleep and ride the bus. They throw all that plastic stuff out of the buses´ windows passing rainforests, jungles the beaches… It is hard to imagine, that their ancestors worshiped nature. However, somebody told me that they have no understanding of what plastic is, maybe they are used to organic trash. That is probably why sometimes they are burning plastic trying to get rid of it. It is nasty.

I stayed one extra day to see a football match between Olympia (Tegus) and Vida (La Ceiba) with another German guy I met in Utila. I don’t know mush about football but that one was not interesting. But watching the funs was amusing. They would hop and sing their fan songs for 3 hours straight, regardless of the score. Also, there were Pizza Hut employees, running around the stadium selling pizza slices in the 35C degree heat, along with beer, cigarettes and all the other snack sellers.

I crossed the border with Nicaragua yesterday. I was preparing myself for this ¨big step¨ for 2 days. I managed. There were money changers (coyotes) following me in a large flock, once I stepped off the bus at the border. I was cursing them out in Russian but they would not stop following me. It looked funny and it was, except I knew how badly it might’ve end up. I refused the help of annoying rickshaws. I walked 5 km in a melting heat across the border. I was so please with myself that I even changed few banknotes to Nicaraguan cordobas. Naturally, they ripped me off, a little, on the exchange rate but it was really minor, about 50c. I decided not to argue.

PS If anybody is interested, there are some good artists Galería Nacional de Arte. I personally liked Miguel Angel Ruiz Matute, Anibal Cruz and some others