Utila and whale sharks!

I just spent the month of July traveling with my friend, Michael from Sacramento and my brother, Joe. We went everywhere from diving The Blue Hole with sharks to visiting the ancient ruins of Tikal, Guatemala to hiking through caves and seeing skeletons to laying on the beach of a tiny island. Belize is amazing, beautiful and safe. I really felt at home and comfortable there. But alas, everything must come to an end.

I needed some time away from the insanity of small island living for 40 days. I had some of the best times of my life, both spiritually and physically exciting, but I felt I needed to explore further. In fact towards the end, it got even more crazy. An Italian guest went nuts and threatened 2 people with a knife. He was destroying property on the resort and went looney when he drank. We made a point to not give him any alcohol on the island and hid every bottle of rum we had. Then there was the owner who loved me at first but then completely went off on me when I told her I was going to do my divemasters in Honduras and not with her. She screamed at me like a child with no respect and told me “I’m not a God”. She flipped out! Apparently, her boyfriend and her got into a fight and she had bite marks on her arm and a broken thumb. She apologized the next day saying that it wasn’t me, that she was upset with him and I was just the one she took it out on. I told her that I’m a 40 day paying customer who referred 3 other guests and didn’t appreciate being treated like at. I have a free place to stay when I go back. It was a very disheartening way to end my time there, but it forced me to go. The adventure continues...

After spending 3 months in Belize, I finally decided to non renew my visa and head to Honduras. I'm in Utila, a cute dive island off the coast of Honduras. It’s known for it’s backpacker flair with numerous dive shops all over town and a happening night life. I have met a lot of people that are traveling alone. Actually, most people who are here are solo travelers. There’s a group of us that rode over on the boat together. We are the international group, someone from each country of England, Ireland, Australia, Canada and USA. They are a lot of fun! We’ve been diving, eating and having local cervezas every day!

I started my divemasters internship up again at Utila Dive Center. It’s been rated as one of the best professional instructor PADI facilities in the world! And I believe it! It’s a bit overwhelming to see between 50-100 people running around the dive shop all in various levels of training. We have everything from DSDs (very basic new divers) to Tec Diver Instructors (people who are certified to go down to 300 ft). There’s a bar at the dive shop with a lounge, a swim deck and hammocks. Every week they host a party with free beer and rum. They have movie night, trivia night and various other reasons to party. It’s a place that people come to relax, socialize or study.

Luckily for me, I’ve completed all of the theory. I just have to assist on classes and do my skills training. I’m sitting in on an open water class this week. The dive shop has 4 boats, 2 of which go to the North side to see the whale sharks, which are in season right now!!! People have been spotting them all month! They allow you to work at your own pace and we have the option to do fun diving when we want or take a few days off from a course, if we need to. I can make my own schedule, as long as I get everything completed. And there’s no time frame! I plan on being done within the month. There’s also sunset yoga on the deck next door 3 times a week. They want me to teach some yoga classes there, as well! I can do both diving and yoga! I’m very excited!!

I am renting an apt for the month. It's nice. I have a kitchen, bath, 2 beds, wifi and cable tv. And there's ac in my room. I'm about 100m from the dive shop. I'm just happy I found a place to relax for a while and unpack. I can finally make my own coffee and eat my own cereal! :)

The more I travel and meet people, the more I want to see. I try to keep up with as much as I can, as I think about my friends and family back in The States daily, but I'm living such a different life. I'm still the same crazy, fun loving girl but the environment is different. And I like it. I enjoy the newness of who I'm going to meet and what different cultures have to teach me. I'm learning so much...about myself and the world and who I want to be.

Peace xoxo
Julie