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So, our first real day of surfing and we just get bombarded at like 8am with questions by the surf shop about what type of board we use (who knew that there was so many bhoard specifications!?!?) But after a bit of tutting at our blank faces, the guy finally just threw some boards our way - god help us. So we got in a rickity olf jeep and were dropped of at the beach and left to our own devices - how hard can surfing be? This however, should not have been the question we were really asking - more, how on earth are we going to get out through therse huge waves to even catch any!? But a bit of battling and a few hits on the head with the surfboard later and we were surfing (ok, well only surfing the foam but still!!!) We stood up!
Half a day of surfing and we were shattered, so what better way to spend the afternoon than sleeping on the beach - this is definetely the new apres surf style. After our snoozing, we went out for tea with the Dutch boys that we met earlier on and Claire had mroe fried chicken - surprise surprise! Before an evening of packing and an early night. The next morning we set off on our travels to a town called Granada on a chicken bus with our bags thrown on to the roof. After our first bus to a nearby town, we got off and were madly rushed by locals to get onto a bus that was already on the move! Only to find out that it was completely not going to the right place at all. So after finding the right bus, we got to people watch (you would have loved it Amy) for a good ahlf hour until the bus filled us. During this time, we saw a tv stand, bike and bed all get put onto the roof of the buses around us! Absolutely mental - these buses are old american school buses and have ladders on the abck whcih EVERYTHING seems to be able to be brought up to the roof on. Not only ws what was going on outside a sight, but also the guy next to us on the bus. This old drunken crazy local was sat opposite us and really wanted to communicate with us - yuo can just imagine. So after a while, he was jsut desperate to dirnk our water, so we compromised and filled up an empty can with it for him. Only for him then to spill the whole thing on the floor and then try and get soem fanta off the people in front. By this point, the whole bus was having a giggle at his expense. After all this drinks steeling, the guy proceeded to buy us some bizzare plastic bags filled with some sort of coffee in them - making no sense at all now. Once the bus was full though, a guy came on and convinced the drunk guy that there was a 'special fast car' especially for him outside - the bus was just loving it at this point and we finally managed to set off and get into Granada.
We'd been told about this great hostel there so missioned up there only to find that they only had one room left and it was a double bed with a single in too. This led to a very wierd conversation with an american guy off the bus deciding that we should share this room. Only problem we soon discovered though, was that there was only one key! Awqward hwhen you have only known a guy for all of a few hours, but somehow it worked and we all went out for eats and a bit of sightseeing. Lots of churches, monuments etc. l;ater, and our culture aspect of the trip was definetely crossed off!
Our night continued to be jsut as exciting with a feast of egg fried rice whilst watching bridesmaids in hammock chairs. A pretty great way to spend the night. Ooooh, and I forgot, we actualyl had a pool in this hostel! So we had a lovely swim outdoors in the rain, surprisingly nice.
The following morning, we took a bit of an impulse decision to not stick around as we were just not getting a great vibe from the hostel. Before setting off though, we decided to do a canopy tour (zip wiring) in this forest on the side of a volcano near the village. It was fab! But over far too quickly! The guys who run it were crazty and safety riles aren't quite so strict oer here as the UK! They ahd us swinging upside down, head first and all ove rthe place whcih was certainly an experience! But possibly we gace them the wrong idea, when i jumped onto one of the ropes and somehow ended up straddling the instructor! No surprise that later on when he tried to get us to fly the wire like 'superwoman', that he just lvoed asking us to spread our legs - awqward!!!
After that anyways, we decided to have a stop on the way to our next place in a hostel in a treehouse. It was TREK up the side of this hill/mountain thing to get to this amazing treehouse. Loads of like wooden beautiful cabin type things and just a great chill out palce - aslong as you areok with long drop toilets flooded with flies!!! We spent the evening with the people there and had the most amazing hommade pesto and pasta - long overdue!!! Followed by some beers and lounging arund. Until out of the blue, the guys sut whipped out a bag of coke and they all started snorting it off their keys. A pretty surreal moment in the middle of a forest, and bizarrely that was the end of their night with them all going to bed. And there was us expecting some entertainment form them being really high - surprisingly disappointing! But the night did provide us with some more entertainment... We were in a log cabin dorm type thing nearer the bottom of the hill and a few other peple were in there with us too. I woke up at maybe 4ish, to hear this like growl/roar/cry noise. It then clciked, that we had been told earlier in the night that the previous night, they have heard a puma/jaguar about the site for the first time in 8 months, For about a hald hour, a giant cat was outside our dorm!!! Which had no glass in the windows and no locks on the door, so it wasn't exactly the best nights' sleep I ever had!!!
The next morning, we headed on our way to a town called Leon, stopping at an all you can eat waffle, omlette breakfasty place!
On arriving in Leon, we went in search of some place that would have a party atmosphere and we definetely found it. After a bit of an explore of the town, and an all important stop to buy a bottle of ruma nd some Tang (powdered juice they ahve everywhere here), we got on witht he cooking and started drinking. We ventured out to a bar before hitting the local night clud Bameleon - WE HAD FOUND SINNERS IN CENTRAL AMERICA!!!! Cheap drinks and great music - the places out here just love like 10 songs that are permenantly on repeat - I'm starting to hate the black eyed peas!!! But it was brilliant, and we had an awful lots of multicultural fun!!!
The next morning was certainly not fun! ANd the only thing we found to cheer us up was the dirty equivaleny of KFC- dissgraceful we know, but friend chicken seems to solve all problems over here! Once we had perked up a bit, we decided to dip into the culture and visited the largest cathedral in Central America. The roof is open for you to mooch about on and it was just amazing. You could see everything for miles and loads of volcanos - just in time to prepare us for lcimbing one in the morning! Whilst in our rare cultural mood, we decided to visit an old torturing prizon that had been turned into a museum. The trip there was interesting enough, as we found ourselves, along with hundreds of other people, behing a 1mile/hr herse with the jolliest of bands serenading it down the street as if it were a wedding! Consequently, it took us forever to get there only to find out that it wasn't wuite what we expected - the photos will say it all. So really, it used to be a torture jail, but had now been turned into a generic central american myths and legends museum with background torture sounds. The woman who made it must have been as high as a kite!!!
So after amuzing ourselves there for a while, we decided to treat ourselves to make a chicken curry for tea. Possibly the best meal so far and definetely needed! An early ngiht then followed due to our volcano boarding that was to come!
VOLCANO BOARDING!!! After being told we had missed the bus by yet another obnoxious receptionist then discovering that we hadnt, we made our way onto the back of a truck where kates heart skipped a beat as she laid eyes on our instructor matt. the beautiful ozzy charmer!! he explained a few things as kate was drooling on her feet, the only thing i have seen her produce more saliver for is fried chicken! anyway we got to the volcano, an out standing black lump in between many green lumps. boards under our arms and guantanimo bay suits over our sholders we began the hike to the top. it was hot, sweaty and tough, many breaks were needed, giving us many photo oportunities and drink stops. at the top we could clearly see the 2 craters and the smoking sulphur coming from the ground. naughty matt took us inhto the crater for an explore and the chance to touch the unbelievably hot ground. he kept reminding us that the volcano was over due to errupt by nearly 3 yrs, an encouraging thought as we were scrambling about on loose rubble! with a bit more of a hike we were at the start point for the boarding - looking over the 40 degree slope was a bit stomach churning... we are going down that on these bits of wood!?!? 2 by 2 we did, the boys were obviously eager to go first and show us how it was done, they silently flew down the ash, keeping perfect balance, it lokoed easy and installed us with some confidence. next up it was us.... we sat there ready to go then with a final push we were off. legs flying every where, ash in evry crevish, falling off the boards, getting back off, falling and so on. kate was unlucky to get a boarding wound on her arm, similar to one on matts arm, destiny was already dragging them together!!! at the bottom a man with a speed gun took our speeds, i was a dissapointing 23km/hr but kate flew in at 58km/hr, not quite topping the girls record of 87km/hr!!! after a bumpy ride home with a beer in hand (just about!) we got back to the hostel where mojitos waited for us! a couple later we were ready for a nap! the afterrnioon soon turned into the evening of drinking games, and we found our selves once more at cama leon! plenty of dancing and mingling and vegetable patch tour later, everyone stumbled into one bed or another.
another hungover morning in leon, the beach seemed like the perfect place to recover. with a detour to the backery on the way for [pesto and veg bagguettes. the beach had the usual vicious waves but was pretty empty with baking hot black sand,. we claimed a spot and spent the day sweating, dozing and sipping on ice cold cokes, we were joined by our american room mate, patrick. the bus home seemed twioce as fast as going, then we stopped for some fresh water melon before heading back to the hostel. we had been dreaming of pizza all day, so there was only one place for tea. after ignoring patricks advice, we thought one pizza between us was not going to be enough sop had tp gp for nachos to start as well. a mountain of nachos arrived with an equil amount of squeezy cheese on top, delicious. but then came the pizza. fat crust with every topping they had in the kitchen on it, carrots and all! we struggled to say the least. i was let down by my belly, but that was most certainly not the end of the resturant fun. as usual we (kates hair) attracked a new local friend, a middle ages drunk man with extremely limited but entertaining english. after establishing that he thouhgt we were beautiful, convincing him patrick was our dad and his brother, i thought we were bonding but then he knocked my whole drink on the floor and didnt bat and eye lid, not impressed. after much more confusing conversatuion and laughing at him, he said his good byes but not without trying to get a sneaky snog from kate, she was very abbliging! we wondered home to find matt (volcano instructor) playing a lonely game of pool against him self, we put him out of his missery and played doubles. although my team had better people opn it and more enthusiasm and skill, some how kate and matt managed to get the black before us. the time had come to clear the dorm of our clothes explosion and pack. we managed to palm some unwanted things on peole, leaving room for the new things we had been givin by the irish.
the treturous 15 hour jouney!! got up at 3am to get to the bus station for 4am to start the journey to la ceiba, the last stop before utila. after 4 buses, 3 taxis and a cycle rickshaw, we arrived at san pedro sula at 7.30pm, and hour and half late for the last bus. so we found a hostel, braved it out for some food, watched blood dimond in spanish, then hit our beds for some well needed horizontal rest, before the journey started again in the morning.
yet another early morning 4am alarm, 4.30 taxi, 5am bus. one of the comfyest yet, basically a bed on a bus! arrived in la ceiba a little groggy and tried to hunt down a taxi for a reasonable price with the help of an israeli. we got to the dock in time, bought our extourtionate tickets then boarded the vomit commet. our fingers were crossed that it doesnt live up to its name, luckily it didnt for us and we arrived on utila with ful bellys to be confronted with an army of people giving us flyers and offering endless dive courses. after about 2 hours of trailing, some of what seemed hundreds of dive shops, we found one that took our fancy, under water vision. on the traul we bumped into 2 lots of peole we had previously met, its a small world! so we got our selves settled, actually unpacking and putting things on shelves! then we headed out to make use of the jetty and the sea. that night we planned to cook up some yummy egg fried rice so were thoughly disappointed to find no gas for the cooker, so we just had to go out for an italian, freshly made pasta and calamari, DELICIOUS!
alarm goes off at 6.15am, do we really want to dive this much?!?! after a few grunts and snoozes we mustered up some effort and got out of bad. i toddled out in search of some breakfast, of course not much was open at 6.30am! so bbq crisps it was. then we headed over to the dive boat for a refresher on setting up equipment, it all came back pretty quickly and before long we were heading out to the first dive site, for our skills refresher. breathing through a hose with a big tank on ur back seemed a bit alien at fiorst, but once we were down it became more natural, taking the mask off was the most challenging with water in every hole it wasnt ment to be in. but we made it and came to the surface a live and smiling! back to the boat to finish off the crisp, change our air tank and move to a different site. than we went in again for a fun dive. plenty of coral and some fish to entertain us. a large andgel fsh decided to falow us for nearly half the time till she was distracted by a mango! the dive went fast and before we knew it we were back on the boat and discoveruing why you dont wee in a wet siut. we grabbed a quick lunch then spent the rest of the afternoon on the jetty, jumping in and out of the water and sunbathing.
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