Friday Jan. 12, 2007
After 3-1/2 months on the road, I must have become slightly complacent about the road conditions in these countries, and on my way north from Copan to La Ceiba I was given a wakeup call in the form of a large rock that emerged from beneath the lineup of traffic in front of me. At the time, I couldn't pass, so I was checking my map at about 80 kmph when my front wheel made contact. I didn't know what I'd hit, only that it was violent and I was still rolling - albeit now with a small bump bump bump. I pulled off the highway and looked back to see the culprit split in half in the middle of the road (feeling somewhat better knowing I'd killed it), but then I saw my rim, bent on one side. It was amazing that the tire wasn't torn and that the bead still held the air inside the tire, and even more amazing when I realized how much luckier I was that I hadn't gone down in all that traffic. I knew God was taking care of me.
I stopped at the first reasonably large tire shop in the next city and along with two employees we spent the next hour pounding, prying and pressing this unbelievably tough cast aluminum (obviously alloyed with the much stronger unobtainium) wheel back into a resemblance of its previously more rounded shape. The total cost for two man hours and shop expense: 50 Lempira (less than $3 US).
Given the road hazards I see everyday, this was relatively minor. From metal bridges with holes torn through them, smashed semi-trailers held together with a rope, old pickup trucks carrying loads easily twice what they were rated for (when they were new), machete wielding labourers and pedestrians everywhere along highways often without an inch of a shoulder to walk on, cars passing each other regardless of whether someone is coming in the opposite direction or not (I've seen four vehicles wide on two lane highways), and I'm not even going to mention the animals. I've even seen (almost hit actually) a rope held across the highway by kids wanting you to stop and give them something.
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I stayed in the dingy Caribbean coast town of La Ceiba for a couple of days looking for a replacement wheel while also getting ready to take a ferry to the island of Utila. It was here - a famous backpackers budget island - that I was hoping to get my first chance to scuba dive (while earning my open water certification through a four-day PADI course). After a few short phone calls using Skype on my computer through the Internet I sent off an email to a Suzuki dealer in the capital city of San Jose, Costa Rica as well as a Suzuki parts plant near Medellin, Colombia to hopefully have something in place when I returned from the island.
Utila is well known in the world of diving as probably the least expensive place to get your certification. Unfortunately, the word seems to have gotten out and prices were substantially higher that what my current version of Lonely Planet listed, equalling Utila's more expensive sister island; Roatan. The savings here came in the form of accommodations and food.
I was fortunate to meet a fellow Canadian named Sean on the ferry over. He was taking a one-month masters dive course and had rented a beautiful apartment with enough room to sublet part of it to me for the week. It was a new building with modern fixtures and plenty of space, right on the water's edge - probably the nicest place on the island - and something both of us were not used to frequenting. Sean was a great roommate and the week flew by in a whirlwind of dive work and dinner plans.
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While in La Ceiba I'd met Jen and Pete who worked as diving instructors on Utila and were just getting back to work after a Christmas vacation in the US. They didn't try to convince me that the company they worked for was any better than the others, and they seemed like very nice people, so when I reached the island I decided to dive with them. After all, you have to really trust the person with you when you're underwater. As it turned out, my timing was really good and there weren't any other students ready to start a class, so I got one-on-one training from Jen (classes can sometimes have up to four students per instructor). She was a talented instructor who demonstrated massive amounts of patience with me as I adjusted to the feeling of being underwater. The most difficult exercise I had to pass was the complete removal and replacement of my mask while kneeling on the ocean floor in approximately 20ft of water. The trick is to keep breathing through your mouth with the regulator while NOT breathing through your nose (which is usually safe inside your mask from the water and rising regulator exhaust bubbles) all in water that's just a little too deep to jump out of if it doesn't work. Oh yeah, don't forget it's saltwater, so you really can't see anything until you get your mask back on and cleared of water.
It's a small world when you travel for extended periods and I've met several people over and over again in different places. On the dive boat I met a nice couple I'd met back in Belize (Lindsey and Jon from England) who were also taking their dive masters training.
I really lucked-out when I heard that Pete just got a new video camera with waterproof case for Christmas and he was looking for an excuse to use it. So besides a couple of shallow-water still shots from my waterproof camera, I also have a great video of my last two dives in the Caribbean showing some of the amazing sea life in our oceans.
Besides the diving, Utila also has some great places to eat and drink. For example, the Jade Seahorse cabins, restaurant and bar with its glass bead and seashell covered walls, 25ft high treehouse bar and blacklight bathrooms is something of a cross between someone's psychedelic vision and a flea-marketer's dream.
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