A whale of a time

Finally hit the Caaarabeeean Maaaaan.....stoked.
Its nice to hear some different music that suits the beach life, instead of that omnipresent trombone crap in Mexico.
I tell ya it's hard work trying to decipher some of those thick accents tho. And its a full trip when you hear a little white kid open his mouth and out flys this perfect Rastafarian style accent. Funny as.
On our way to the Bay Islands we spent an arvo checkin'out the Mayan Ruins in Copan. Nowhere near the impressive scale of Tikal but some very intricate carving and a really nice ball court. Also some very friendly Macaws all hanging out and happy to pose for a pic or two.
Hit the island of Utila (bay islands) a little late on the first day to get in the water, but found a nice dive outfit to stay and dive with called Altons. Next day we did two dives the first being a refresher dive (as it had been over two years). During our surface interval we went out deeper looking for whale sharks, as they are common (but not always around).
It must have been our lucky day because our captain found some. We all slipped into the water as quietly as possible but only got a glimpse of the "biggest fish in the world" effortlessly pulling away and down into the depths below. But as we swam around we discovered Manta Rays that were majestically cruising by and snorkelled with them for a bit. We all got back on the boat to look again and came across the Mantas feeding. They were flapping across the surface to stun the fish before coming back round to goble them up. We all got in the water to check this out and whatta ya know there was a whaleshark in there too that allowed us to snorkle with him as Manta Rays flew by for at least 10mins. It was an auspicious experience we won't soon forget.
All this on our first day in the water, it was going to be hard to top. No one else from Altons spotted a whale shark for the rest of the week, so we realised how lucky we'd been.
We did 10 dives each all up and had a great time with pretty good vis on every dive. The water was a little cold though cause of the time of year and we felt it a bit. But we saw some good stuff - Spotted eagle rays, big Morey eels, Hawksbill turtle, etc.
It was definately hard to leave the island and we postponed it a couple of times. The second time so we could hire a boat with some people we met and spend the arvo on one of the uninhabited Cays (little islands).
On our way there we stopped and bought some fresh fish (Tuna, Yellow tail & Red Snapper) from some local fishermen and once on the island started a fire and cooked up a feast of fresh fish accompanied by wine, cold beer and Rum. Good times.
Now we've got a full bus mission ahead of us to get down to Puerto Viejo in Costa Rica. Will take us at least 3 days.
Later
Dave & Em