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Saturday, July 30, 2011

Evening in Times Square with Josh

So I know these are a little late and random, but our buddy Josh (CJ's partner) visited us for only one night in NYC before he preformed on The View. He is a dancer and recently filmed Weird Al Yankovic's video Perform This Way. The performance aired earlier this month. It was so great to see him in New York, we missed you CJ! The other girl in the pictures is his friend Ganelle from home, Puerto Rico. We spent the night in Times Square and at a Irish Pub. It was awesome to see him in another city and a real surprise. Times Square at night it so bright! Thanks Josh for your photographic skill and for sharing the pictures. This was right after we lost our camera! Gracias.










Tuesday, July 26, 2011

A Day on the Island Utila

Hola amigos! Today I finally feel like writing on the blog. We have had a great day so far. We have spent most of the last week hanging out at the Underwater Vision Dive Shop here on the island. We came here because our friend Lacy has come here now three times and is a Dive Master at this shop. The dive shop consists of a few small dormitories, some private rooms, suits, and a hotel with our minimalist room. Yeah this room was free for four nights and is ten dollars a night, the downfall being that we kill about three cockroaches a night and we jimmy-rigged the fan with rope so that it works correctly...all part of the experience. The shop has  a sweet dock and a restaurant/bar with one dollar beers and 5 dollar meals. We have met a lot of chill people from all over the world here at the shop, mainly Canadians and Australians. They are all addicted to diving and have passed the addiction onto us. A lot of the pictures below have our new buddies. After a week or so we have realized that it might be nice to plant down our roots for awhile, so this is the place it will be. The island has less than 2,000 people on it and is only a couple miles wide and five miles long. Only one part of it is inhabited, while the other half is covered with volcanic rock and tropical forest. The water is crystal blue and the temperature is super warm. Can you see how we could get stuck here?


Scuba Diving is such a wild experience, where you can see more life than any hike in any part of the world. At first we both had our own reservations about breathing underwater, but after the initial underwater skills the fear was gone! Our first time under it was only 3 meters, but we stayed down there for 75 minutes. After that we have done six dives all the way down to about 18 meters. During these dives we practiced more skills and explored six different dive sites around the island. We saw remoras (shark sucker), parrot fish, squids, box fish, bull fish, trumpet fish, huge lobsters, hermit crabs, angel fish, sea turtles and so much more. It is an amazing feeling to be weightless in the water and to have a school of fish surrounding you. Seeing fish above you is really an odd feeling. The visibility here is pretty good and it only takes about two hours to go around the island on a boat. Our instructor is Lacy's good friend James (the b-day boy in the pictures below), he was an awesome instructor who knows his stuff and has been on hundreds of dives. We were so lucky to meet him before the course, so we already felt comfortable and could call him 'aout' on his Canadian accent. For the past couple of days we have been questioning doing the advanced course in diving. This means that we could go down to 30 meters, do a night dive, do a wreck dive, navigation dive, deep dive and a peak performance buoyancy dive. It has taken a little persuasion on my part to get Amber to do the night dive, but I think that she is convinced, I mean you get a flashlight! :) The other part is that it would be about another 500 dollars total for the course between the two of us, but when in Rome - right? We figure it will give us the opportunity to see so much more of the ocean and of the next places we dive (Little Corn Island and maybe Hawaii in the winter?). So in the next few posts we will let you know how it goes, if we do it we won't start until Sunday giving us time to chill out.


Yesterday we found an apartment/house with our friend Lacy for 550 for the month, which is actually expensive for the island, but nothing compared to our last trip in South America. It is close to the dive shop and has a kitchen. Actually we haven't seen it yet.....but we looked on the outside and it looks nice. It includes wifi and cable so we can stay connected to the blog, oh yeah, the air conditioning will come in handy considering that is on average 90 degrees here all the time! It will help us save money and prolong the trip because we can cook for ourselves and relax for awhile. During our trip last time we felt that moving around every five days got so tiring and you really loose the relaxation part of the vacation. So by staying here for three or four weeks we can really get to know the place. Already we have found that the diverse roots of people here is crazy. The island was given back to Honduras by the British less than a hundred years ago and it has a large Caribbean vibe. They speak Spanish, Creole and English here. The island is also a refugee for Americans who leave the states because of legal trouble and don't want to go to jail. However, the island is pretty safe as long as you are cautious, which we have learned to be traveling throughout the Americas. Also this is the drop spot for planes traveling with drugs from South American before Mexico (to get to the states), so every once and awhile you get the DEA or South America's version landing on the island to bust them. But don't worry parents (and Aunt Nancy) we are safe and the people are really friendly and not scary at all. The only downfall of the island is how they deal with trash and how solar energy has not caught on here. But it is Central America and at least they don't burn it. Instead all the used water leaches out into the lagoon in the middle of the island and slowly makes it to sea to get washed away in the current. The trash is buried to make the island bigger. It is not that apparent, but in some spots it is really sad to see. We are going to have a trash clean-up maybe one day to help out and are going to start using big water jugs (10 gallon) that are reused to not add to the plastic consumption on the island. Other than that this place is beautiful and we have so much to explore.


In the next few weeks we have a ton of cheap activities planned and we will let you know how they go as we do them. Tonight is wing night at the restaurant/bar here and Tequila Tuesdays at Tranquillo. So that should be fun. We started the day hanging out at our friends house just chatting and listening to music, the dive staff here is super cool and we are enjoying getting to know them all and learn their talents. We also went on a run today in the blistering heat to explore the island more. That is really the best part of going on runs here, we get to explore and see more remote parts of the island. We are also thinking about going to Sun Jam festival on an even tinier island in a couple of weeks, Dj's from all over the world. 


So as you can tell, we have really made this place home in the past week and plan on being here for at least two or three more. It is tough being away from the Garcia family and Aunt Nancy right now. We have been chatting with Aunt Nancy through email and it sounds like the cancer is progressing faster. We really wish we could be there with her, but we know in our hearts that she is happy with what we are doing. We love you Aunt Nancy and are thinking about you everyday. Our hearts and prayers are with you and the family. Okay so to my dad's family I will work on calling you all soon. Maybe we can set up a skype time, I will contact Jill soon. To the Griffin's we love you all and miss you too! If anyone is reading this let us know with a comment if you get a chance. Okay, my book for the day is over, Peace and Salud to you all!


Love,


Sean and Amber (Seamber)

Monday, July 25, 2011

Update!

Hey, so here are some more pictures. I will update with words tomorrow. Just want you all to know that we miss you and really, put some comments up so we know how you are doing! The island life is super chill. We just got an apartment and move in on Wednesday! So we are thinking that we will be here for at least two or three weeks. More details manana. Lacy has been more than hospitable and we are now getting into the swing of things. Tomorrow we are going to plan out the next phases of the trip, exercise, and chill on the beach. That is the plan, but who knows on this island something can always come up that is way more fun! Good night family and friends we love you all!

Utila, The Bay Islands, Honduras

Before the boat ride to Utila, oh how naive we were.

This is our faces after a hour boat ride enclosed in the puke rocket in some nasty waters. Amber was fine, I didn't  puke but I was so sea-sick! But I did not puke! This definitely made me rethink the sailing trip. 

So this is the local rum made on the island with local herbs. The locals swear it has medicinal powers. We tried it and we have not gotten sick sense. :)

Can you find the gecko?


This is our friend Erik's bar called Rehab on one side of the island. The flags were our favorite part of the bar.

Our first Mexican food dinner at sunset!

The best Nacho's so far, and some average enchiladas!

Here is one of the sunsets on the island.

Treetanic bar games, one of the coolest bars on the island.

Treetanic

Happy 30th Birthday Eric!

Lacy's friend Stacy and our dive instructor, James!

Can you believe the color of this water? This is the dock right off of our hostel, Underwater Vision.

Amber diving into the clear abyss off the dock that we hang on daily.

The local Spiny Tailed Utila Iguana, indigenous to Utlia.

Celebrating Eric's 30th at the local dive bar, Skid Row!





A sunset view from the dock, love chillin' in paradise. 

Our friend Lacy and our new friends James (the dive instructor) and Nathan Wallace.

Dinner party faces!

So happy to finally be with Lacy. These two have been friends for eight years!

James cooking for his birthday, red curry, it was so freakin' good.

Can you see the face, good job Portia. 

James is feelin' his 32nd birthday!

Kariokie Night, one of the best nights of the trip so far. Why is singing as loud as you can so fun!?!?!



Singing to Elton John!


Wallace what are you so excited about?

Wallace slow-motion walking to My Heart Will Go On, honestly the lamest song of the night.  Other than that the songs that played here were amazing. 

What did you find in there?


Can you see how super-pumped we are??? Seriously we love singing and after a few drinks everyone sounds like a superstar!


Lacy is so excited because this time she got a mic. But remember no Queen and no Dirty Bit. It's for..............sure!

This was either Madonna or Spice Girls!

Our whole open-water diving course partying after we all received our open water  certification.  The teacher James required that it was the final part of the course. 

Lacy and James stoaked that he is now 32 and chillin' with friends. 

The Capitan D Tosh boat. This is the boat that takes us around the island to the numerous dive sites. 

Utila was formed by a volcano many years ago and it is completely flat besides this  little hill. 
This is me on the back of the boat, trying to avoid the sea-sickness. It ended up not being a problem! I hate the boat ride, but we both are in love with being underwater. 

Loving the water, so warm, so beautiful!

Look at her stride, the captain complemented it! Nice form Amber!

We are so happy to be certified and be in the water together. 

Feelin' It!!!!

The island is surrounded by these tiny Cays, island chains that are so small.   

The scuba gear set-up!

Our instructor and friend James, loving being on the boat for his 32nd b-day!

New diving buddies! Lacy and Amber are loving the sun!


The Underwater Vision owners dog, Tucker, relaxing on the beach. 

Fresh pina, a 300 x 100 meter island, a 100 foot two deep sand bar, now this is what paradise is. 

Pose for the camera Colin, damn those shorts are hot!

Our diving friend Portia, her voice is so incredible. 

All of us hanging out on water Cay. This is the tiny island with the most picturesque beaches we have ever seen! Plus no buildings, no other people, and super clean.

Hanging out on the sand bar. 

This is the life!

Amber out on the sand bar, the water is so clear.



So we are coming to this island for a 24 hour techno-fest called Sunjam with Dj's from Italy, Germany,  Brooklyn and Honduras. Over 1500 people all jamming on the tiny island. 



This day was so great, just lounging in the open waters.  

On a island and in love, what more can you ask for? Have I said that already.  We feel so lucky.  Thinking of you Aunt Nancy!

The north side of the tiny Watercay. We will be back here many times.