life in the city!
HONDURAS | Sunday, 8 August 2010 | Views [449]
San Pedro Sula to Utila:
At last we find ourselves back in civilization again. The hostels are more expensive here, but they come with the added luxury of AC that we haven't had since our trip began. I actually passed through San Pedro last time I was in Honduras traveling to Utila with Kim, so I was familiar with a part of city. Brett and I showed up to the city with no idea where the bus was going to drop us off and no idea where we were going to stay. Luckily, we got dropped off at the same bus station that I'd been to the time before and knew a hostel, Los Molinos, that was nearby. The hostel was a couple blocks down from a big shopping mall. After finding the hostel and settling in, we headed straight for the mall to do look for a couple of things we'd been needing. The mall is called City Mall and a lot of the signs inside the mall are in English. We thought this was weird as a lot of the people in the city don't speak any English.
We got to the mall to see all the chain restaurants that we're used to from the states and settled down for dinner at a Subway. I miss Subway! Afterwards, we headed to the movie theatre in the mall. I finally finished the 3rd Twilight book, Eclipse and I'd been holding out on seeing the movie until I finished the book. We had already tried watching it at an outdoor theatre on Caye Caulker, but one of the many rainstorms kicked up and they had to shut down the projector and we didn't get to finish watching. At the mall, they had a later showing of the movie so we did some shopping and headed back to see it. We got two tickets, a popcorn and a drink for $11. This is less than the cost of 1 ticket at some theatres in the states and made the movie even more enjoyable. ;) Because it is an English movie that hadn't been dubbed, we got to follow along with the Spanish subtitles the whole time. Watching movies like this is definitely a good way to improve your Spanish. I thoroughly enjoyed the 5 hours we spent in the mall that night. I'd been needing a little taste of the American comforts that we enjoyed and took for granted back home.
The next day we were planning to leave for Utila in the afternoon after some morning shopping. Geraldo, the man who checked us in at the hostel, suggested that we catch an earlier bus because of the traffic coming into Utila for Sunjam. He wasn't sure if we'd be able to get on the ferry that we needed to take to Utila. Sunjam is an annual festival where DJs from Europe come and spin on Water Caye, a tiny island adjacent to Utila. You have to take a boat over for the show and because the island is so small with no accomadations, then you have to wait for the boats to come and pick you back up in the morning starting at 7am. This show is an all night commitment. Brett and I had been toying with the idea of going but when we finally arrived on the island people were already heading over to catch their boats to the show. Plus, we really couldn't afford to dive and go to the show. Saving our money was a good idea because just today we signed up to start the Advanced scuba diving course. We start tomorrow with a deep dive (down to 30m) and a navigation dive. We're also getting to do a night dive which is something I've always wanted to do. I'm really excited! Just today we got set up with a room with AC and this has to be the best news all week.
Until next time,
Sophia
