Utila

Ryder and Mike
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Hola.  I've decided to start a blog because it is a lot easier than emailing everybody with an update on my travels.

I left La Ceiba, Honduras on Monday, July 2nd.  Before that I was volunteering outside of La Ceiba in a village called El Cacao at a daycare with very poor kids.  It was a very fun experience.  The kids were absolutely adorable and were always so happy to see me.  They would run to the gate to meet me as they saw me walking down the road to the daycare.  It always took forever to say goodbye because they all wanted hugs before I left.  It was pretty hard saying goodbye to them all.  I have so many very cute pictures of all of them which I can hopefully put up here soon.  It took Tom (another volunteer) and I a very long time to say our goodbyes on our last day.  Some of the little  girls were crying, as were a couple of the women that worked at the daycare, so it was pretty sad and emotional.  I will hopefully go back and see them one more day before I leave Honduras because I have to travel through La Ceiba once I leave Utila anyways.

Joris (crazy Beligian)
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I am now in Utila, Honduras, learning to scuba dive.  Utila is a small island off the north coast of Honduras.  It is primarily English speaking here which is great for me, but bad for my Spanish.  I finished my Open Water course yesterday and will be starting my Advanced Open Water course tomorrow in which I get to do a deep dive, a night dive (which I'm really looking forward to) and a wreck dive.  I'm having a lot of fun here.  Diving is very cool and very exciting and the people on the island are a lot of fun.  It is very social and very easy to meet people here.  This Friday a big group of us from the Dive school are planning on heading to one of the Caye's near Utila for a day of fun in the sun.

Kaitlin
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I'm still not sure how long I will be staying in Utila, which seems to be a common problem among travellers.  I've heard from so many people that it's a place that everyone plans on coming for only a week, but ends up staying for months or years.  I don't plan on staying that long, but it is Carnaval here from July 21st - 29th and I think I may stay here at least that long, before heading to Belize.