November 21/22, 2024
We worked a regular day today. I had pretty much done everything possible to prepare for vacation..my jury summons for the day we get back? I hope I’ve done everything possible to prep for that. Nathan worked until 3 pm in Boulder, then drove home, picked up the dog, and took him to the kennel.
The airport shuttle arrived right on time, and whisked us to DIA. We were through security and at our gate with over an hour to spare, so we sat at a bar to have a drink and decompress.
We boarded our flight at about 8:30, and settled in for the too short ‘overnight’ flight to Panama City. We slept rather fitfully, and landed early in Panama at 4:40 am.
Now the hard part begins. We have until 11 am to hang out at Tocumen, and we’re beyond tired. Add to that that there are literally no comfy chairs at the Panama City airport. They are all hard plastic with immovable arms. So we sat, walked, roamed and otherwise tried to stay awake. We found a nice out-of-the-way restaurant for breakfast that had oversized booths, and we stayed for hours.
Our flight to San Pedro Sula, the one time “most dangerous city” in the world, was uneventful, and we landed early to a handful of Whatsapp messages. The Utila tuk tuk driver Chover, and Dennie Bush, the owner of the charter plane company, both want to know if we’re arriving as planned. Heck, yeah!
The immigration and customs process was more painful than last time, primarily because the forms are online, with both the wifi and forms accessible by a QR code my old phone won’t read. We managed, with minimal, but not non-existent snips at each other. Cleared immigration, then customs, collected our bags, and walked into the large ‘great hall’ area of the San Pedro Sula airport. We’re to meet our pilot at the Dunkin Donuts at 2 pm and we’re early. So when a fellow in an airport logo’d construction flagger style vest asks “Utila?” Nathan just walks right on past. I said Yes, and the fellow snickered at Nathan for walking past. He’s got copies of our passport picture pages, and he probably saw us coming a mile away.
He takes us outside of the airport to a waiting car. This part was not explained to me, but we go with it. Sure, maybe we’re being abducted, but it was a good 46 years so far…
The driver takes us to the civil air terminal, where we are walked inside and clear the security. The pilot and copilot meet us at security and walk us out to the Cessna 206 on the tarmac. We all get in, and prepare for the 35 minute flight to Utila (Oo-teel-ah).
Now we’ve been in small 10-16 seaters before, but this takes the cake. The pilot walked us through the safety features, the life vests, and maybe a life raft and the exits, and then they closed the windows and we were off. We waited for an Air Europa Dreamliner to depart, a private helicopter to land, and then it was our turn.
The flight was neat, a little scary, but uneventful, and before you know it we’re on the ground waiting for Chover to pick us up. He arrives, welcomes us, hugs me, and we’re off to Coco Cabana, our lodging for night 1. Camilla welcomes us, gives us the lay of the land, and we quickly pack a bag and set off into town.
First stop is the dive shop, and at 4:20, they’re open, and Mariam recognizes us, hugs me (I’m clearly losing this anti-hug war), and we get a few dives on the calendar.
Next stop is Bush’s supermarket for basic provisions for the night, and we head back to the Cat Room at Coco Cabanas. I fix us a drink to have on our porch, and we decompress before dinner. We’ll not win any brainy competitions tonight, but we’re doing just fine. Tonight’s dinner is sushi and lionfish ceviche at Mister Buddha, and we’re having a lovely time.
