5-7 August - Tela and Garifuna Villages

Hey all, still Phil here... Karen and I had a dodgy pizza last night, (we´re feeling okay) but we´re staying an extra day in Tela than we planned... best to be close to ¨facilities¨, if you know what I mean..... Enough said.

We´re now in Tela, which is on the Caribbean coast (North coast) of Honduras... it´s a seaside town, pretty nice, I´ve now bought another (actually, our third) hammock... the other two are on their way home in the mail... all different styles of course.

Yesterday, we went to Tornabe, a Garifuna village west of Tela. The Garifuna are black carribeans who settled here about 200 years ago, and retain their own language, their own customs, and still hold Garifuna style traditional dances. We visited through the day, so no dances were on but the town´s, particularly the town Miami, is predominantly constructed of traditional materials... banana leaf thatched roofs and the like... and Miami has no power or running water. Definitely back to basics. Karen loved this particular beach, shady groves of coconut palms, and a beautiful clean beach with a sandbreak all the way along.

It´s official... I´m doing my Scuba Instructor Course in Utila with Utila Dive Centre. I´m going to be there for 3 weeks, the first doing some DiveMaster work, then the next two in classes... culminating with the Instructor Examination (IE) on 29/30 Aug. Karen´s doing her Open Water with me...I´ll be the DM on her course, and then while I´m studying, Karen is looking at doing another week´s Spanish Course, this time in La Esperanza... things are a bit fluid, we´ll let you know any changes.