So we have been in our new place for a few days now. I still love it, but there are some definite down sides.
Pro's:
-On the water!
-Lots of space
-Central Location (great for buisness and close to everything
-Beautiful building and area
-No Roomates
-Right underneath Cafe Mariposa (where ahnna works and i will be trading massage for great food.)
Con's:
Central Location (can hear the music from the bars when they crank it at 2am)
Cockroaches and Ants (a problem everywhere you go down here)
Right under Cafe Mariposa (where they play music from 10am to 10pm)
the music coming from mariposa is always pretty chill and we barely hear the baseline, so thats not really that much of a problem. All in all the Pro's by far outweigh the con's but the honeymoon is over.
I am working on my Rescue diver course at the moment. I finish it and my Advanced open water course on monday and start my DiveMaster Training that same day. I also open for buisness that day, so its going to be a crazy week, but after that first week i get to pick when i want to dive and when i want to work, so things will chill out then. Hope you are all well, feel free to comment on the posts, i love hearing from you all.
Friday, February 27, 2009
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Got Da Hookup!!!
I don´t remember what exactly i wrote last but i think we left off with Ahnna and i in a crummy hole in the wall hotel room with a very nice Italian girl named Martina, and i was about to go look at a room in a house. I did see the house and it was very nice. Hard wood floors, fully furnished. We would have been living with one of the instructors at the scuba school i´m diving with. His name is Marvin, but everyone calls him Bob Marvin, picture dreaded red hair and deeply tanned skin with a spatering of freckles. He keeps his house very clean, and we would have had a large room with a full sized bed and a bunk bed and penty of space. I told him we were going to take it because it was only 200 dollars for the both of us and the only other place we had looked at was a VERY nice studio for 600. But the universe apparently wanted us to have the very nice studio to ourselves so it worked things out for me. Here´s how that story goes.
Ahnna and i were walking back to our hotel after i had chosen my dive shop and ahnna says to me ¨I may just have to take up midday drinking¨ apparenty she had seen a little sign for ¨the best margarita on Utila¨ so with my encouragement we retuned to the sign and followed the little pathway off the main street under small intermitent aches that opened into a nice tropical setting and a large yellow building overlooking the bay. We went up the stairs to the Cafe Mariposa and sat down. The seating is all on a covered deck with a spectacular view looking northwest over the bay. I said to Ahnna, ¨wouldn´t it be cool to work here¨. She replied in the affimative, so when the waitress came over with menus i asked if they were hiring. she said she would ask, and just then the owner/manager of the restaurant walked up. His name is jeff and he´s from seattle. He sat down right then and there and asked ahnna a bunch of interview type questions. I did my best to be a fly on the wall and keep my mouth shut. Then he had the lead waitress come over and continue interview while ahnna thuroughly enjoyed her margarita. the end result being ahnna will work 2 shifts with no pay (though she keeps any tips wich is where the real money is anyway) and if ¨she is half of what she says she is¨ she will get a few (2 or 3) shifts per week. Later, as we were trying to finish one of the best plates of nachos i´ve ever eaten, Edie, the kitchen manager, came and sat down and had a little talk with ahnna and I. When we had been talking with Jeff earlier we had mentioned that we were looking for an appartment, and that was when he told us about the studio just under the restaurant that was available for 600 dollars. Edie told us that he had just talked to the owner of the buiding and she said we could have it for 450. still too much but we went and had a look in the windows. the place is big! (keep in mind i just moved out of the trailor) all open space with a kitchen and a bathroom in the corner, a leather sofa and a rack for hanging clothing. there are wooden pillars at intervals throughout the space which i think is 30X40. the front door opens onto the deck overlooking the water. I will post pictures later tonight maybe. anyway, we are trying to be frugal so we turned eddie down. Later i was walking and thinking about where i could do massage in the house and i realized i proabably wouldn´t do any massage there and bringing my table down would have been a waste, so we returned to the Cafe Mariposa to find Shannon, the owner of the building cleaning the place. i proposed a deal, she knocks off 100 dollar of the rent and i give her 10% of any money i can make doing massage out of that space. Its set up perfectly to hang some sheets between the wooden posts to separate an office space from the bedroom space and kitchen space. she agreed and we started hammering out the details. everything seems to have worked out for everyone. I am paying 350 per month for ahnna and I to have a beautiful waterfront appartment as well as a work space. Shannon has a new source of income. I will be charging 30 per hour, 15 per halfhour US. Shannon will be my receptionist so she can keep track of everyone i work on and knows that i am paying her the 10% and she has inscentive to help me advertise around the island. I already have my first appointement when i open for buisness next week. I´m going to talk to Jeff about working on him and his staff at a discounted rate in exchange for a free lunch every day. I´m very excited for the possabilities.
So i know this is getting really long, but i can´t leave without telling you about my dives! I signed up for the Advanced open water class and have done 4 dives already. The first dive we did was our ¨deep adventure dive¨down to 100 feet to experience the effects of nitogen narcosis. we went to a cliff face that descends 7000 feet into the abyss. It was AMAZING. as we descented through a soft coral forested trench we emerged into the cliff face and i was face to face with The Big Blue open ocean. we did some mental and motor skills testing and then enjoyed touring along the cliff, then back to the shelf at the top and up to the boat. Our next dive was less fun but quite informative, we did underwater navigation using compases and counting our fin kicks to move in a square and a strait line. then we swam away and had to use landmarks to find the boat. Then that same night we went out for our Night dive. I was a little nervous about being in the water at night, it was cold(for the carribean) on the boat, but once we got in the water i forgot all about fear and cold. we dropped down with our flashlights on and did a few tests then we went and found a small wrecked fishing boat. there were lots of enemenies out, but the real treat was the octopus. maybe 3 feet long if you had spread out its tenticles all the way, it ignored us as it moved from coral formation to coral formation sucking its food from their homes. One of my fellow divers, a dready kid named Luke Olson from California had his digital camera with him and got a great video of the whole thing. later we turned out all the flashlights and thrashed the water around to see the phospherescence. it was cool, but not as bright as i was expecting, apparently if you want the water to glow like i was expecting you should go to the sea between the baja peninsula and the mainland. but it was still cool to see some, and to be in the total dark of the night-time ocean. I went on one more dive the next morning, the naturalist dive, where i got a chance to identify some of the awsome fish i had been seeing the whole time. i also got to see a several hundred pound snapper of some kind. BIG FISH! all in all its been an amazing experience. Unfortunately, i´m having some trouble with my sinuses and getting nose bleeds when i surface, so i´m taking a few days off, i go out again tomorrow at 1:30 we will see if it clears up. Thats it for now. I´ll come post some pics later so you can see where i am... maybe i can get that video of the octopus to show you all too.
Ahnna and i were walking back to our hotel after i had chosen my dive shop and ahnna says to me ¨I may just have to take up midday drinking¨ apparenty she had seen a little sign for ¨the best margarita on Utila¨ so with my encouragement we retuned to the sign and followed the little pathway off the main street under small intermitent aches that opened into a nice tropical setting and a large yellow building overlooking the bay. We went up the stairs to the Cafe Mariposa and sat down. The seating is all on a covered deck with a spectacular view looking northwest over the bay. I said to Ahnna, ¨wouldn´t it be cool to work here¨. She replied in the affimative, so when the waitress came over with menus i asked if they were hiring. she said she would ask, and just then the owner/manager of the restaurant walked up. His name is jeff and he´s from seattle. He sat down right then and there and asked ahnna a bunch of interview type questions. I did my best to be a fly on the wall and keep my mouth shut. Then he had the lead waitress come over and continue interview while ahnna thuroughly enjoyed her margarita. the end result being ahnna will work 2 shifts with no pay (though she keeps any tips wich is where the real money is anyway) and if ¨she is half of what she says she is¨ she will get a few (2 or 3) shifts per week. Later, as we were trying to finish one of the best plates of nachos i´ve ever eaten, Edie, the kitchen manager, came and sat down and had a little talk with ahnna and I. When we had been talking with Jeff earlier we had mentioned that we were looking for an appartment, and that was when he told us about the studio just under the restaurant that was available for 600 dollars. Edie told us that he had just talked to the owner of the buiding and she said we could have it for 450. still too much but we went and had a look in the windows. the place is big! (keep in mind i just moved out of the trailor) all open space with a kitchen and a bathroom in the corner, a leather sofa and a rack for hanging clothing. there are wooden pillars at intervals throughout the space which i think is 30X40. the front door opens onto the deck overlooking the water. I will post pictures later tonight maybe. anyway, we are trying to be frugal so we turned eddie down. Later i was walking and thinking about where i could do massage in the house and i realized i proabably wouldn´t do any massage there and bringing my table down would have been a waste, so we returned to the Cafe Mariposa to find Shannon, the owner of the building cleaning the place. i proposed a deal, she knocks off 100 dollar of the rent and i give her 10% of any money i can make doing massage out of that space. Its set up perfectly to hang some sheets between the wooden posts to separate an office space from the bedroom space and kitchen space. she agreed and we started hammering out the details. everything seems to have worked out for everyone. I am paying 350 per month for ahnna and I to have a beautiful waterfront appartment as well as a work space. Shannon has a new source of income. I will be charging 30 per hour, 15 per halfhour US. Shannon will be my receptionist so she can keep track of everyone i work on and knows that i am paying her the 10% and she has inscentive to help me advertise around the island. I already have my first appointement when i open for buisness next week. I´m going to talk to Jeff about working on him and his staff at a discounted rate in exchange for a free lunch every day. I´m very excited for the possabilities.
So i know this is getting really long, but i can´t leave without telling you about my dives! I signed up for the Advanced open water class and have done 4 dives already. The first dive we did was our ¨deep adventure dive¨down to 100 feet to experience the effects of nitogen narcosis. we went to a cliff face that descends 7000 feet into the abyss. It was AMAZING. as we descented through a soft coral forested trench we emerged into the cliff face and i was face to face with The Big Blue open ocean. we did some mental and motor skills testing and then enjoyed touring along the cliff, then back to the shelf at the top and up to the boat. Our next dive was less fun but quite informative, we did underwater navigation using compases and counting our fin kicks to move in a square and a strait line. then we swam away and had to use landmarks to find the boat. Then that same night we went out for our Night dive. I was a little nervous about being in the water at night, it was cold(for the carribean) on the boat, but once we got in the water i forgot all about fear and cold. we dropped down with our flashlights on and did a few tests then we went and found a small wrecked fishing boat. there were lots of enemenies out, but the real treat was the octopus. maybe 3 feet long if you had spread out its tenticles all the way, it ignored us as it moved from coral formation to coral formation sucking its food from their homes. One of my fellow divers, a dready kid named Luke Olson from California had his digital camera with him and got a great video of the whole thing. later we turned out all the flashlights and thrashed the water around to see the phospherescence. it was cool, but not as bright as i was expecting, apparently if you want the water to glow like i was expecting you should go to the sea between the baja peninsula and the mainland. but it was still cool to see some, and to be in the total dark of the night-time ocean. I went on one more dive the next morning, the naturalist dive, where i got a chance to identify some of the awsome fish i had been seeing the whole time. i also got to see a several hundred pound snapper of some kind. BIG FISH! all in all its been an amazing experience. Unfortunately, i´m having some trouble with my sinuses and getting nose bleeds when i surface, so i´m taking a few days off, i go out again tomorrow at 1:30 we will see if it clears up. Thats it for now. I´ll come post some pics later so you can see where i am... maybe i can get that video of the octopus to show you all too.
Saturday, February 21, 2009
We Made It!
So we made it to Utila. We woke up at 4:30am yesturday to catch a taxi at 5 to the bus station where our bus left at 6. the idea being that we would catch the 9:30 ferry to Utila from La Ceiba. Ofcourse the bus was late, so our efforts were seemingly wasted until we started talking to the people sitting next to us and discovered that they had both been dive instructors on Utila for years and were currently on vacation. We spent the day with them while we all were waiting for the next (4pm) fairy. They informed me that while the bay island college of diving definantly has the best website and even the best fascilities on the island, the Utila Dive Center, where they both worked, was the most fun, and best managed. Because it has good management many of the instructors there have been working there and diving on utila for several years, whereas the other dive shops are constantly rotating through instructors.
We got on the fairy and met a very nice Italian girl named Martina who we are sharing a room with tonight and last night while we look for an apartment and she looks for another room. its been great talking to her because she doesn´t speak much english, but she does speak spanish, so we have had a chance to brush up a little.
Today i walked the island and went to almost all of the dive shops and asked questions about their opperations and prices. The last one i checked was Utila Dive Center and i´m definantly going to be working with them. the staff is very knowledgable and everyone seemed to be having a great time there, there were also alot more people there which i liked because it gives me a larger group to hang out with. Also, as it turns out, one of the dive instructors has a house on the island and is looking for someone to take over one of the bedrooms for 200 dollars a month, so ahnna and i are going to take a look at that here in 10 mins.
Another shiny spot on the horrizon, Ahnna may have gotten a job at a very nice local restaurant. we were pulled in by a sign with promises of ¨best margarita on the island¨ and the view was great so we asked if they needed anyone and they interviewed her right there on the spot while sipping a margarita. everything here is laid back, i love it. I´m starting to get really excited about my time here, and íts looking like i`ll probably be able to find a bit of massage work as well.
so there is your update, i´d better sign off so ahnna has time to e-mail before we have to go look at the house. I´ll do more posting later. Love you all.
We got on the fairy and met a very nice Italian girl named Martina who we are sharing a room with tonight and last night while we look for an apartment and she looks for another room. its been great talking to her because she doesn´t speak much english, but she does speak spanish, so we have had a chance to brush up a little.
Today i walked the island and went to almost all of the dive shops and asked questions about their opperations and prices. The last one i checked was Utila Dive Center and i´m definantly going to be working with them. the staff is very knowledgable and everyone seemed to be having a great time there, there were also alot more people there which i liked because it gives me a larger group to hang out with. Also, as it turns out, one of the dive instructors has a house on the island and is looking for someone to take over one of the bedrooms for 200 dollars a month, so ahnna and i are going to take a look at that here in 10 mins.
Another shiny spot on the horrizon, Ahnna may have gotten a job at a very nice local restaurant. we were pulled in by a sign with promises of ¨best margarita on the island¨ and the view was great so we asked if they needed anyone and they interviewed her right there on the spot while sipping a margarita. everything here is laid back, i love it. I´m starting to get really excited about my time here, and íts looking like i`ll probably be able to find a bit of massage work as well.
so there is your update, i´d better sign off so ahnna has time to e-mail before we have to go look at the house. I´ll do more posting later. Love you all.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
A New Year, A New Adventure
Well, its almost exactly a year later, and we find ourselves once again in Central America. For those of you who don't know, this years expedition is to a small Bay Island called Utila, off the coast of Honduras. Ahnna and I flew into San Pedro Sula today at noon after a grueling 15 hours of air travel that bounced us from Seattle to Los Angeles to Houston and finally to San Pedro Sula. I can honestly say that I have never had a worse flight experience. Both Ahnna and I seem to have come down with relatively minor sinus colds, nothing to worry about until you gain altitudes of 10,000 feet and greater and the slight preasure magnafies within your skull until you swear your eyeballs are going to explode out of their sockets and ricoche into you neighbors ginger ale. I think I had the worse time of it, ahnna's head didn't get as sharp, she just felt dull pain and stuffiness. The one saving grace was that for the first two flights we got the emergency exit rows so i had enough room that i could actually sleep without doing permanent postural damage to my neck. Anyway, enough bitching.
We are currently staying at La Posada B&B. It cost us 60 dollars US for a pickup from the airport and a night in a private room with AC and TV. The bed is amazingly comfortable (I'm sitting on it as i type, hurray wireless internet!) and the people have been very friendly and helpfull. Tomorrow morning we head to La Ceiba at 6am so we can try to catch the ferry that leaves from there at 9:30. its a 3 hour bus ride, so we will be cutting it kinda close. Once we get to the island we will head to The Bay Islands College of Diving where i am planning to enroll in a course to get my Dive Master Certification. From our Research it looks like once you choose a diveshop, there are many on the island to choose from, you get to stay at whatever hostel or hotel they are affiliated with at incredibly cheap rates, something like 2-6 dollars per night. I plan to do some asking around to make sure that the Bay Islands College of diving is the best on the island, but from my online research they seem to be the best outfit and the most involved in whaleshark research, which is one of the reasons i'm down here. This time of year is when they are migrating through, and i am hoping to get a chance to swim with and maybe touch the biggest fish in the world. I am concerned about my sinus issue geting in the way of my diving, but its rather minor like i said so hopefully it will be gone by the end of the week.
While I seach for a dive shop to affiliate myself with, both Ahnna and I will be looking for an apartment to rent for the two months we are planning to stay. Ahnna probably won't do too much scuba diving, but she hopes to get a job at a bar on the island and get some bartending experience and hopefully do alot of painting and being creative, not to mention plenty of reading and tanning and just plain relaxing and enjoying a break from the ratrace americans have come to call life.
So thats it for now, anyone who wants to can reach us through e-mail or skype. my skype ID is christopher.colwell my e-mail may be changing because Gmail seems to not like my new little computer. I'll post my new one if i decide thats necessary. Thanks for reading, we miss you all.
We are currently staying at La Posada B&B. It cost us 60 dollars US for a pickup from the airport and a night in a private room with AC and TV. The bed is amazingly comfortable (I'm sitting on it as i type, hurray wireless internet!) and the people have been very friendly and helpfull. Tomorrow morning we head to La Ceiba at 6am so we can try to catch the ferry that leaves from there at 9:30. its a 3 hour bus ride, so we will be cutting it kinda close. Once we get to the island we will head to The Bay Islands College of Diving where i am planning to enroll in a course to get my Dive Master Certification. From our Research it looks like once you choose a diveshop, there are many on the island to choose from, you get to stay at whatever hostel or hotel they are affiliated with at incredibly cheap rates, something like 2-6 dollars per night. I plan to do some asking around to make sure that the Bay Islands College of diving is the best on the island, but from my online research they seem to be the best outfit and the most involved in whaleshark research, which is one of the reasons i'm down here. This time of year is when they are migrating through, and i am hoping to get a chance to swim with and maybe touch the biggest fish in the world. I am concerned about my sinus issue geting in the way of my diving, but its rather minor like i said so hopefully it will be gone by the end of the week.
While I seach for a dive shop to affiliate myself with, both Ahnna and I will be looking for an apartment to rent for the two months we are planning to stay. Ahnna probably won't do too much scuba diving, but she hopes to get a job at a bar on the island and get some bartending experience and hopefully do alot of painting and being creative, not to mention plenty of reading and tanning and just plain relaxing and enjoying a break from the ratrace americans have come to call life.
So thats it for now, anyone who wants to can reach us through e-mail or skype. my skype ID is christopher.colwell my e-mail may be changing because Gmail seems to not like my new little computer. I'll post my new one if i decide thats necessary. Thanks for reading, we miss you all.
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