After a long winter of being cold and busy, I am pleasantly enjoying the return back to island time here in Utila, the smallest of Honduras's Bay Islands. The sounds of coconut trees rustling in the wind, sand in my toes, drinking a cold beer a beer, drinking several cold beers, and of course, lying on a hammock in the afternoon with a book. There's also the less desirable parts, such as sharing my room with insects—cockroaches, mosquitoes, and sand flies, in this case—but those are things you quickly get used to.

I've been working as a Divemaster at Utila Watersports. One of the best parts of the job is the story behind it. When I first started thinking about coming here back in March, I sent an e-mail out to all the diveshops on the island asking if they'd be interested in having a temporary DM for a few weeks. Little did I know, it turns out I already have a friend here. I got a few 'maybe' responses before getting an e-mail from my friend Angie, who I met 2 years ago in North Carolina while training for the trips I lead in South America. Turns out Angie is a manager for a dive resort here in Utila and had got my e-mail. She didn't need me herself, but hooked me up with a job here in town at Watersports. What an awesome coincidence—made me feel like I really do have friends all over the world!

I've been leading dives almost every day and am getting the hang of things pretty well after 2 weeks here. Fortunately it's one of the smaller shops in town, which means groups are small and manageable, compared with some of the larger shops in town which seem to pack their boats like sardine cans. The first time I led a dive at a site I had never been to was a bit intimidating, but the dives here are for the most part very straight forward. In contrast to the dives I led in the Philippines—enormous, deep wrecks with generally poor visibility and at times very strong currents—the diving here is relaxed with good vis and little current. The coral gardens here are pretty fantastic, with particularly impressive barrel sponges and other soft corals, and the entire island is fringed by some great walls. The quantity of fish isn't nearly as great as I've seen in Asia or the Red Sea, but there's tremendous diversity in things to see-- I've seen lots of eels, small crabs and shrimp, several huge spotted eagle rays and a few smaller rays, tarpon, barracuda, a sea turtle, a seahorse, an octopus, huge groups of 20+ squid, groupers, snapper, angelfish, butterflyfish, parrotfish, and lots of other species I'd never seen before coming here, such as black durgon, a relative of the triggerfish. There's also 2 small shipwrecks and one large wreck, the Halliburton, which was intentionally sunk several years ago to create a divesite. It's a nice easy wreck to dive, and the most memorable part for most people is riding the old bike left on the sand next to the boat 100 feet beneath the surface. It's not in the best condition but, remarkably, still has a functioning chain, so it's actually possible to ride like a normal bicycle!

Utila is certainly pretty developed in terms of tourism, which has both advantages and disadvantages (the greatest advantage is that I knew it would be easy to find short term work here specifically because of that) There's some nice restaurants and bars around town, but I've been trying not to go out too much in order to conserve money (my goal is to break even on my expenses here, which is difficult since I only make $10-15 USD on a good day as a divemaster). I've met some cool people here and always enjoy hanging out for a beer in the shop after diving.

The 2 coolest experiences I've had here so far have both come while going to dive on the North side of the island—the best diving here, but also unfortunately the furthest from town, so I've only managed to make it a few times so far. The first experience happened last week. We didn't have any divers at watersports so Angie offered to let me tag along with her diveboat from Laguna beach resort. We were headed out to the first divesite when Angie got a cell phone call that a whale shark had been spotted. We headed over to the spot, where there was a large 'boil' in the ocean—a spot where lots of fish were jumping up from the surface and churning up the water. We were instructred to sit on the back edge of the boat with our masks and fins on (not dive gear) and await the captains signal that it was ok to jump in. Whale sharks are the largest fish in the world—so mammoth that they can readily be seen underwater from the boat. From my vantage point sitting on the back, however, I could only see the water with light reflecting off the surface. When I got the signal from the captain, however, I jumped off the boat. When I got underwater, I immediately realized that I had forgotten to take a breath. I swam to the surface, blasted the water from my snorkel, then turned my head back downward. Swimming right below me, less than 20 feet away, was a whale shark swimming slowly, in no particular hurry, but also not waiting around for me to gawk. It was about 25 feet (8m) long, with a dark blue black body and yellow spots. It was close enough that I could clearly read the yellow tag placed on its back by local researchers. It probably would have even been close enough for me to swim down to and touch, but there's a strict code of behavior for encountering whale sharks here, so I kept my distance and was content watching it swim away, slowly moving its tail back and forth, into the blue. We got back on the boat and tried to find it again. We were in luck because less than a minute later we once again got the call to jump in. This time I remembered to take a breath before going under the water, and was rewarded by another spectacular view of the same shark swimming slowly by. This time I tried to follow while it swam away. Soon, I realized the boat was getting further and further behind. Since I wasn't even a paying customer, I decided it probably wouldn't be a good idea to have everyone waiting for me back on the boat. I saw Angie waving and thought she was signaling for me to head back to the boat. I started swimming, but then realized she was actually signaling for me to keep swimming further. “Swim over there” she shouted, pointing to my right. I dipped my head back under the water and began swimming where she was indicating, and a few seconds later saw the shark come back into view, this time headed right towards me! It swam right past me, and this time I got a great view from the front, including its mouth, which was wide open as it filtered the water for the tiny krill which it eats. It once again floated gracefully away, and I headed back to the boat with a huge smile, more than thrilled with what I had just experienced.

Early this morning we headed out to the north side again. We went to a site called Duppy Waters in Turtle harbor, where the best sites on the island are located. A vertical wall drops to over 1,000 feet, and when we got in the water it was crystal clear. I was in charge of guiding 5 divers. Since I had never dove the site before my only reference was the map I had looked at back on the boat. We followed a sand channel below the boat for a few minutes. The sand was surrounded by coral sloping gently upwards in both directions, and gradually narrowed to a thin opening wide enough for just one diver at a time to swim through, with vertical walls of coral on either side. After a short swim the passage opened up again to the brilliant blue of the open ocean. Below, the coral sloped down before sharply dropping off to a vertical wall into the abyss. I waited until all my divers made it through the passage, made sure everyone was ok, and continued out along the wall, marveling at the coral, schools of fish swimming by, and just the wonder of the situation.

On our way back to Utila after the dive, I was sitting on the front of the boat, watching the water. I noticed some fish breaking the surface a few hundred yards away. As we got closer I realized there was something there bigger than just a few flying fish. I saw a dorsal fin break the surface, then go back under, then another, then another, then many more. “DOLPHINS!” I shouted at the top of my lungs. Everyone rushed to the front of the boat as we approached, and we soon realized that we were in the midst of a pod of at least several dozen dolphins. I didn't even try to count the number of dorsal fins that were breaking the surface. I looked off the front of the bow and realized a group of at least 5 dolphins were swimming along with the boat, directly beneath the surface, jumping up out of the water every few seconds. I looked back out to the main group and suddenly saw a dolphin shoot from the water at full speed, spinning around like a top. It had enough momentum to completely emerge its entire body before plunging back under. Another dolphin breached, crashing back into the water with a huge splash. Several more followed suit as those of us on the boat just watched in awe. I was torn between staying to watch and running to grab my camera, but after a few minutes ran back to my bag, fumbling for my camera. I hustled back to the bow and snapped several shots and video clips. I tried to capture one of the incredible helicopter breaches, but they happened so quick and suddenly I wasn't able to time it right. After a few minutes, Maya, the veteran instructor who was apparently used to this sort of thing, told us we could go put our snorkel gear on if we wanted. I snapped a few last pictures and videos before quickly going to switch my camera for my mask. (I didn't bring my underwater housing for the camera but it's just as well since I wouldn't have wanted to deal with getting it set up anyway). It was the same drill as with the whale shark, sitting on the back of the boat waiting for the OK to jump in. The thing I will always remember about jumping into the water is the sound I immediately heard. It was a sound I had only ever heard before on TV, but the high pitched squeaks of dozens of dolphins calling back and forth to each other was unmistakable. Dolphins darted past in all directions. While not as friendly as Flipper, they certainly didn't seem disturbed by our presence. When we finally got back on the boat we couldn't believe our luck.

My Dad and stepmother are coming to dive with me later this week. From Utila we plan to rent a car (after taking the ferry back to the mainland!) and drive to the Copan ruins before flying home. I'll then have about a week to prepare for my next trip to Costa Rica for 2 months, but not before meeting up with some old friends and making some new ones at Broadreach staff training in North Carolina!