Diving, diving and more diving – choosing a school and other logistics

Why didn’t I actually explore Honduras? One word. Diving. Really? Is it that obvious? 

Two and a half years ago, my travel partner, Sam, and I booked our PADI Open Water course on the Thai island of Koh Tao. We loved it so much that we also completed the Advanced course. This has equipped us with the skills to be able to dive up to thirty metres in depth.  

The poster for Dreamgate’s cenote near Tulum Mexico. The hardest cenote to navigate. 

A couple of years on, and I proudly have thirty-two dives under my belt, ten of which were in the cenote caverns near Tulum in Mexico. Quite the achievement for someone that suffers from claustrophobia.

Me diving in a cenote

So what is that draws us to the dangerous impossible world below the depths of the ocean? The keyword here is ‘impossible’. Because impossible it is not. Not anymore. Modern day dive equipment is lightweight, (let’s forget about the oxygen tank for now…) streamline, and with professional yearly servicing, safe. The bottom line is, humans are not meant to breathe underwater, but with the combination of science and technology, we have access to a calming, tranquil environment, and the ability to observe the bizarre creatures that share the planet’s treasures with us.

Carwash – my favourite cenote

Entrance to Dreamgate

Diving can be an expensive hobby. It requires a range of equipment that is not compact and not really fit for travel. Here’s a list of the basics you need to dive:

• BCD (Bouyancy Control Device)
• Regulator
• Mask (with snorkel)
• Fins
• Wetsuit or drysuit (temperature depending)
• Weight belts and weights
• Oxygen tank

That’s quite the list, right? And that’s assuming you’re simply fun diving with a dive master to guide you. They will have other added extras equipped, such as a dive computer (this looks like a big waterproof watch) to monitor depth, time and navigation.

Oxygen tanks on our dive boat

So how exactly are we able to freely access this sport? Renting of course! The equipment is often included in the price when you book your fun dives or courses, but this is not always the case, so be sure to check. Even though it’s unnecessary for you to have your own gear, it is recommended that you purchase your own mask. There is nothing worse than not being able to find one that fits your face. An ill-fitting mask can lead to water leakage and an uncomfortable dive experience. It’s not much fun when your spectacles are too foggy or you have to keep stopping to clear them of flooding.

So you’re in a new coastal town and there’s a vast array of dive centres to choose from. Take your time to shop around. Check their online reviews, prices and photos. Go in and talk to them directly. Ask to see the equipment. Sometimes, it’s better and safer to pay more for your dives if the rental gear looks well maintained. You could even go as far as discussing the different dive sites they will take you to and what you might be able to see.

Sometimes, it simply pays to go with the cheapest option around, and after spending over $600 on ten fun dives in Tulum’s cenotes, I was looking for a bit of light relief on the purse strings.

As recommended by many, the island of Utila, an hour’s boats ride North of Honduras, is one of the cheapest places in the world to learn and enjoy diving. After extensive research online and a number of emails requesting prices/details, I chose the least expensive dive centre on the island. $210 for ten fun dives with five nights of accommodation and free use of their kayaks and snorkelling equipment. They even gave me an additional night free as I had nowhere to stay when I arrived. This awesome place is called Paradise Divers. It is conveniently located right next to the dock, so I didn’t even need to haul my backpack any further than a few hundred metres. Always a travel bonus.

View of Paradise from the ferry 

It was low season when I arrived, so the centre was very quiet, but they were still putting on a big barbecue for all their friends that night and had invited the diving guests. I instantly felt welcome. In a three bed dorm, I had the room to myself for the entire week. Just in front of the reception was a common area with tables and benches for you to eat, socialise, or more importantly, crack open a bottle of post-dive beer. We also had our own dock where the dive boat was moored. I loved being able to sit on the front of the boat at night and look up at the stars, feeling the gentle sway of the vessel, dreaming about what I would see among the reefs the following day.

Fabulous fresh meat on a makeshift barbecue

Every morning, a fisherman would use our dock to sell his freshly caught tuna to the locals. I bought a pound of fully filleted tuna for the equivalent of £1.77! I ate like a backpacking queen for two nights in a row.

Our friendly local fisherman at the dock

The best part of my day was talking to my dive master, Negro, after a morning of exploring Utila’s plentiful reefs. He would excitedly sit beside me with a marine book, specific to the area, and point out all the sea life we’d encountered. His oozing passion inspired me to compose a list (see next blog post for said list, and my own, ‘National Geographic’ worthy, photography) so that I never forget the names of each fish, shrimp or eel that we were lucky enough to meet.

Dive Master, Negro, blowing bubbles

I will forever sing the praises for Paradise Divers and will recommend them to everyone. Yes, the equipment is mis-matched and a bit tired but it is in full working order, and it just made me more aware of completing checks to make sure I would be diving safely. Using top notch equipment all the time doesn’t make the best diver out of you. If you’re serious about the sport, and want to explore a career option, you need to be able to recognise signs of equipment failure, learn about servicing and know how to respond in case of an emergency.

Fellow diver, Logan, with instructor, Juli. Logan passed his Open Water Certification that day

Admittedly, when I was researching Utila’s abundance of dive schools, I was almost put off by a terrible review on trip advisor. I read it a couple of times and decided that the author was probably over-reacting; it was titled, ‘Almost Died’, which, under the expertise of the staff, I know would never have happened. So I took a chance and booked my ten fun dives with them. The day before I got to Utila, I met a couple from England that had steered clear of Paradise due to the same review.

Clara from Paradise, showing me the beautiful reefs that Utila has to offer

Please think carefully when writing your opinions online as they can be really damaging for a company, especially those smaller struggling business. If you have a genuine concern about a service, try to speak to the manager/owners directly, before tarnishing their reputation on the internet. We don’t want to live in a world of Monopoly do we? We want to live in a world of choice, fairness, and sustainable tourism.


This post was written in El Tostador, a café in the centre of San José, Costa Rica. Their double espressos are like liquid gold. I had a breakfast of huevos revueltos con tostadas y guanabana batidos en agua (scrambled eggs with toasts and a soursop smoothie with water).

So what did I see below Utila’s ocean surface?

I wasn’t able to get a lasting image of everything I saw, so I’ll tag a link to the World Wide Web where there is no personal photography. 

The content description of each photo can be found directly below it.

Parrot Fish – difficult to get a photo of these fish because as soon as they see you, they bolt.

Mangrove Upsidedown Jellyfish – you can lift this guy up and watch the many tentacles wriggle around as it makes its way back to the seabed.

Flamingo Tounge (mollusc) – I have some very blurred photos of these, but they’re not WordPress worthy in my opinion.

Pederson Cleaner Shrimp – it took me about eight dive attempts to get a decent photo of these shrimps, they’re so tiny that the camera never seemed to be able to focus on them.

Scarlet-Striped Cleaner Shrimp – these are the kinds of shrimp you might find on sale in your local pet store.

Giant Hermit Crab – this crustacean has a pretty impressive house on its back.

Channel Clinging Crab – this guy would look really great on a plate with some home cooked sweet potato wedges. What? Who said that?

Caribbean Spiny Lobster – I do have a picture of this particular lobster but he’s hiding, so you can only see his, ‘whiskers’, as I like to call them.

Spotted Spiny Lobster – we saw a couple of these during our night dive when they’re most active. The light from the torches made it seem like they were emitting neon blue lights from the surface of their shells. Our own underwater silent disco.

Squirrelfish – these are everywhere among Uvita’s reefs, but for some reason, I don’t have a photograph.

Lionfish – these fish are beautiful, and deadly. I remember seeing my first one in Thailand. We were warned not to go near it because of the poison in its spines. We left it be. However, in Honduras, lionfish are not a welcome species. They started appearing and rapidly breeding, creating an imbalance in the marine life. They prey on a plethora the smaller fish that reside on the reef. Divers in Utila have permission to kill any lionfish that they see. I had a delightful lionfish ceviche while I was on the island.

Spotted Drum – this little critter would not sit still for its photo. They sort of wiggle  rather than swim, their long fins reminded me of a flag in the wind.

Frog fish – I did not have my GoPro with me during this dive because the casing kept flooding. The whole dive team were excited about spotting a frog fish, because they are virtually impossible to see. They are often completely camouflaged with their surroundings. They’re quite the ugly looking specimen, too.

Spotted Scorpionfish – please ignore the quality of this image. I have now purchased red filters for my GoPro so I can take brighter and more colourful snaps.

Spiny Flounder – can you spot it?! I hope so, it’s one of my better, non-blurry, images.

Shortfin Pipefish – again, excuse the blur. And I promise you this is not a stick.

Longsnout Seahorse – we were fortunate enough to see three of these beautiful creatures. An orange one, a yellow one and a black one, two of which were pregnant. 

Porcupinefish – I always look at these fish and think they just look super angry.

Sharpnose Puffer – do not eat me! I’m highly poisonous.

Smooth Trunkfish – these were also quite difficult to catch on camera, but they’re pretty much everywhere around Utila so I had lots of opportunities. This was my best snap out of about thirty.

Black Grouper – these fish look big and angry, but they’re harmless. Well the one we encountered was.

Trumpetfish – we saw lots of these, and the sign language underwater is literally the motion of playing a trumpet. Simple is effective.

Barracuda – I saw some small barracuda in Thailand, but the one we found in Utila was much bigger.

Brown Garden Eels – look closely to the rear of the image and you’ll spot them. These eels are hilarious. Their bodies are buried below the sand and they poke their heads out above the bed. It’s quite difficult to take a photo of them because as soon as you approach, they disappear; like they’re being sucked into the earth. They made me laugh out loud. Is this even possible underwater? I’ve added a link to this description, too, as someone has managed to sneak a lot closer than I.

Green Moray – these are amazing to watch. They snake their bodies in and around the coral, so you can normally only see their heads. I managed to find one that was completely exposed; a real treat.

Spotted Eagle Ray – this was one of our best dives. We didn’t just see one Eagle Ray, we found three, swimming together, which is apparently quite unusual. Such a lucky day.

Southern Stingray – unfortunately I don’t have a photo of this beautiful creature, and I am gutted, because rays are my favourite ocean dweller. Nevermind, next time.

Hawksbill Turtle – fortunately, I had my GoPro with me during this dive. I’ve seen so many photos of sea turtles on other people’s social media and have always been jealous. So I’ve finally seen one in the wild, with my own eyes.

Gray Angelfish – I really liked taking pictures of the Angelfish. This one quietly swam around and ignored me rather than bolting as soon as it sensed my presence.

Sergeant Major – these fish would often shoal around the boat, so I took a quick snap before surfacing. 

Chain Moray Eel – I got quite close to this eel, but when we surfaced I was told that it could have snapped the camera straight out of my hand. Oops!

Nurse Shark – I saw this amazing creature on my birthday. It was the best dive and the best present ever. Again, forgetting about all aspects of personal safety, I tried to get as close as possible for the best photo, and it paid off, kind of. I’ll add a link to this one so you can see it in its full glory.

Bearded Toadfish – this guy was so camouflaged that the camera wouldn’t focus on him, good old modern technology was more interested in the background coral.

Caribbean Reef Squid – we spotted this shoal of Squid just as we were about to surface, so we hung around to watch them swim around the bottom of the boat. As we hovered, the squid, in perfect unison, all turned to look at us. It was very bizarre and eerie. Nobody knew how to react. Luckily, they just swam on their way.

Banded Coral Shrimp – it is easier to see these during a night dive because the light from the torches makes their eyes light up in the dark. A bit like a cat in headlights.


This blog post was written among the gentle buzz of the relaxing Tucan Hotel atmosphere in Uvita, Costa Rica.

…Advanced Course!

So I just found this blog post on my Kindle. I suppose I should upload it. Yeah.

Once we got back to DJL reception, signed our dive logs and had an attractive photo taken for our dive licenses, Sam and I decided to book the advanced course, starting the following day. At roughly 8000 baht, £145, (we received a helpful ten percent discount for taking the PADI course) and with a couple of days to spare before we had to be in Bangkok, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity for more time with the fishes. But first, we had to attend the Koh Tao pub crawl to celebrate our open water diving success. If you head to the island yourself, I definitely recommend the lady boy cabaret show. It’s brilliant.

Anyway, back to the diving. The advanced course consists of five dives in the space of two days. It’s pretty intense, and there are skills that need to be completed, but they mostly turn out to be fun dives. As a group, we decided to do the following:

– Navigation dive (compulsory)
– Peak performance buoyancy (compulsory)
– Night dive
– Wreck dive
– Deep dive

As interesting as it sounds, the wreck dive wasn’t as exciting as I was expecting. My favourite was the night dive. I was initially worried about heading 30 metres below sea level at night because I thought the darkness would make me feel claustrophobic, but it actually had the opposite affect. Even though there were other divers around the site at the same time as us, (not as many as during the day, though) it still felt like we were the only people in the entire ocean. I know the sea is vast anyway, but somehow it just felt, bigger. Our instructor, Jo, gave each of us a torch, not only for light, but for communication. If any of us were to see anything of interest, we were to slowly circle it with the beam of the torch, being careful not to shine it in the eyes of the marine life.

I don’t think I’ve ever come across a feeling that night diving instilled within me. It’s one of those places that you would go to put issues and worries on hold, because you just don’t tend to think about crap like that when you’re able to bob along next to the colourful wonders of the ocean floor with your newly acquired buoyancy.

So, £320 later, and I am officially an advanced open water diver. I didn’t think I’d ever take to island life. I’m not really a beachy person. But it was very difficult leaving Koh Tao. Diving isn’t just a sport or a hobby, in the six days that I spent in the company of divers, I realised that it’s a way of life. Getting up early for a 6am dive is never a problem when you know you’re going to be heading out on a boat for the day. Thank you Davy Jones. Thank you very much.

Koh Tao Take Two

Okay, so I’ve just realised that I’m behind by roughly twenty-four blog posts, and now that I’m editing this, it’s probably more like thirty. I better get started.

This time, I will actually write about Koh Tao.

Four hours after arriving in Thailand from Kuala Lumpur, we boarded the 10pm sleeper ferry from Chumphon. Despite the Hobbit sized beds, the mattresses were comfortable, and I managed to sleep for the full six sailing hours. I would recommend this mode of transport, that is, I would have, if we hadn’t arrived on Koh Tao at 5am, four hours before we could check into our accommodation. If you should choose this option over the high speed catamaran, I can however, recommend a top notch stone bench outside Davy Jones’ Locker (where my dive journey begins: http://www.davyjoneslocker.asia/ ).

After observing the early morning island life of divers heading out to the longtails with their gearbags, and drunk backpackers stumbling the wrong way home, we checked in, paid for the dive course, and hit the beach. Not before I slapped on the factor fifty, though.

The course started at 4pm that same day. Who needs to nap when your first lesson is in the classroom, watching videos?

For future information, (because I know you’ve all going to want to take a dive course after this) our Padi followed this syllabus:

DAY 1
– Classroom: watching videos and filling in questionnaires (roughly 3 hours)

DAY 2:
– Morning pool session: instructors distribute health and safety information which is then implemented in the pool. Here you will learn and practice the Padi skills (3 hours)
– Break for lunch
– Back to the classroom: last few videos and questionnaires. (You are often given the option to do the exam, too. As a whole group we decided to get it out of the way. so our session took about 3 hours)

DAY 3:
– Two dives and basic skills

DAY 4:
– Two dives and basic skills
– Qualification! (You have to have your photo taken for your dive license. I recommend having it straight after the dives, it’s more authentic that way. You may not even have a choice either way).

Side note: I am claustrophobic and my biggest fear is drowning.

The first dive is always going to be pretty daunting. So why was I the only one that looked like I’d forgotten how to breathe and speak? Like a line of ants, we descended a rope at the end of a fellow dive boat. I probably hadn’t even reached the five metre mark before my ears started compressing. I tried all the techniques I knew to equalize, wiggling my jaw, blowing against the ear drum, etc. Nothing worked. I stopped breathing. A diver should never stop breathing. Ever. It’s the number one rule. I panicked. Without realising, I’d ascended to the surface. Fortunately, our dive master trainee, Arno, followed me. He calmed me down. It took about ten minutes for the pain to subside.

“Do you want to try again?”
“I don’t know. I want to. I’m nervous.”
“Five more minutes?”
“Okay.”

We floated in silence.

“I want to try again.”
“Okay.”
“Slowly?”
“Very. Equalize every time you move down the rope.”

With Arno’s guidance, I successfully made it to the bottom where my group sat waiting.

At this point, I’ll give you a handy hint: it’s not a very good idea to smile when your knees touch the sand, no matter how proud you are of yourself. You don’t want your mask to flood before you’ve even attempted it as a skill.

I’ll never forget that first trip out on the boat. I generally felt ready to quit before I’d completed one dive. Without my patient safety net, Arno, I wouldn’t have given myself the opportunity to become addicted to the hobby I never thought I would be able to try in the first place.

Oh, and before I go, yes, I did qualify. I may have also splashed out on another course, the…