Island Oasis!

TEARING ourselves away from Antigua, we set off toward Honduras. We made a stop in a city called Copan Ruinas which is a really small Honduran border town. IMMEDIATELY it is obvious that Honduran people are nothing like the rest of Central Americans. They are overall actually very rude and impatient. It was a a drastic change compared to what we have become accustomed to in the last three months. While the Mayan ruins in Copan Ruinas were amazing, it is hard to justify making a stop there. The atmosphere just isn't great. We met a Welsh guy who had been waiting for his shuttle to Guatemala for THREE days. Literally every morning he woke up at 5:30AM to catch a 6AM shuttle that never showed. Then he proceeded to spend the rest of his day waiting for another shuttle that he was told was on its way and which ALSO never came. We felt so bad for him! Poor Welshie.. he eventually caught a 12PM shuttle the day we headed to Roatan Bay Island.
Once in the Bay Islands, you do not feel like you're in Honduras anymore. In fact, most of the locals we met denied any association with Honduran people whatsoever. They called themselves "islanders" or "Roatoniana". NOT surprised though given my previous statement about the "Honduran attitude" The Bay Islands in Honduras are probably among the most magnificent and gorgeous places I have ever been. The water looks like it's out of a picture. There are lots of amazing activities to get involved in but mostly we just sunbathed and enjoyed the incredible surroundings. It was very different to other places that we have backpacked thus far. Firstly, it was WAY more pricey. We splurged though and got an apartment size hotel for three nights... backpacking is hard work! It was wonderous to have our own kitchen again. We never thought we would be so excited to do some simple grocery shopping... pasta every night (cheap) but GOOD. Plus, over five strands of malaria are found in the Bay Islands (go figure) and the AC tends to keep the mosquitos away. This was, of course, our justification for splurging on the AC but it helps us sleep at night with the comfort that we may have kept the disease at bay for now... not to mention the fact that although Emi is on Malaria medication I myself am not... so LOTS of AC and LOTS of bug spray! Our friends there called our hotel room "the cold climate" HA! A nice change from the 100 degree weather they have been experiencing if you ask me!
The last day, HOWEVER, we tried scuba diving! Most people actually go to the Bay Islands in order to get certified for diving both because it is a lot more affordable than the rest of the world, and because it is really incredible. Neither Emi nor I is scuba certified but you can take a "intro" dive for about $50. This entails you and an instructor about 25 meters below in which he controls all your settings and temperatures, etc. We figured that since we were in one of the diving capitals of the world that we should really try it out. SO glad we did! It was absolutely incredible. We went with a local named Lindi, who we had befriended earlier in the week. We saw a sea turtle, lionfish, schools of incredible fish, AND eels! The place we dove is called the Aquarium among locals because of the amount of fish that are there in the reef all the time. The colors were so brilliant. WOW! I can definitely understand why people make this hobby their life.