Whale Sharks!!

Up at 8 to catch the 930 ferry to Utila. We had time so we grabbed some breakfast. I was pretty hungry and ready to eat a McDonalds egg McMuffin. There are plenty of fast food restaurants in La Ceiba but of course no McDonalds at the port. The one and only food place was a fried chicken stand. I wasn't about to order one for myself- this was afterall my first meal and I was scared. Andy was frighted/hungry too because he said "I'm salivating because I'm hungry as shit and half because I'm nauseous". That pretty much sums it up. Andy ordered the fried chicken, beans, tortillas, eggs, ham, and sour cream-something. The guy who did the farmer snot shoot into the sink next to us and washed out his mouth really did it for me. I ate a bit just so I could stomach my antibiotics and we took the hour ferry to Utila. Utila's residence have an interesting combination of Spanish and Caribbean. There was a little old white lady on the ferry w/ the loudest Caribbean accent. Just imagine a grandma w/ the voice of a loud Jamaican lady. Hilarious.

It's warm and beautiful here! I think I like it better than Belize. It's smaller than Caye Caulker and pretty chill. We signed up for Captain Morgan's Dive shop and got a discount at Pirate Bay ($7/pp!) since it has the same owner. The dorm's are very nice and they even have real warm showers! We dropped our stuff off and got ready for our first dive.

The dive was very pretty, even better when the sun was shining bright. The coral was more colorful than Belize. Now for the good stuff. During our surface interval our boat captain heard over the radio a Whale Shark was spotted. We took off for the hunt. We were told to wait until the signal to jump in (with our snorkel gear only) and of course not to touch the shark. We were so pumped! As we got closer we saw two other dive boats and the fish jumping out of the water (signaling a Whale Shark) and the Seagulls trying to eat the fish. We knew we were getting close. All of a sudden our DM yells "dive dive dive!". We all jump in and I immediate see a 15 ft long Whale Shark from the back. It was amazing! I swam so much trying to chase it like an idiot I ended up at the other end w/ the other boats, then I had to swim back.

Back in the boat and we headed for another sighting. We were so pumped that we finally saw a Whale Shark! People wait their whole lives to see them! We headed off for the second one not expecting it to be as cool as the first. Very soon we saw the fish jumping and Seagulls and we heard "dive dive dive!". We jumped in and all I saw were bubbles. I had to come up to clear my snokel and as soon as I went down there she was- a huge Whale Shark swam right below me! It was so close I had to hold back so it's fin wouldn't whack me. Luckily Andy jumped in and went right down and took some great pics! This sucker was big, maybe 25-30 ft. So fucking cool. The second dive was better than the first. The highlight was a huge Moray Eel- the biggest I've ever seen! It's head was the size of two basketballs. We could swim past it in an overhead swim-through. Once I saw it I decided not swim through because two girls in front of me were taking their sweet time and I wasn't going to get stuck in front of that eel.

Back on land after an amazing dive and time to eat some real food. Andy got a $1 beer and we headed out for some food. We ordered the fried fish sticks, onion rings, and steak quesadillas. Enough fried food to hold us down for a bit. Not bad for my first real meal. I have a bad feeling about this one but I'm finally hungry so I'm going for it. We'll see how this works out during our 7am dive.