Made it to Utila.

Well, found my way through the smokey metropolis known as San Pedro Sula and have bussed to La Ceiba. With only a short wait I managed to get the ferry to Utila which seems like a bit of tropical paradise so far. In backpacker terms it's got the usual features, Bob Marley playing the background of a hotel cum hostal that has dorm beds for $3US a night - it's quite a funky place to be though the guide book did warn that it tends to attract the younger backpacking crowd. It's a lot more expensive here than the mainland. Last night the supermarket was L10 for a bottled beer in the supermarket and here it's L25. A sharp jump up, though for the tropical paradise that it is, it's cheap I guess.

I made an effort to get to a couple of the museums in the centre of San Pedro before leaving which were not bad in some respects. I did feel that artefact was just a little bit of a stretched concept. In some respects I don't like museums in the UK that don't reflect 20th Century history and this one did - there were 1960s TVs and his masters voice gramaphone record players which to me felt a little out of place alongside the ceramics and jewellery from 250AD to 800AD Mayan dominance of the area. It was interesting to see another 'rave' generation influence in the form of exhibits which highlighted the process of insetting jade into teeth which I've seen in a couple of 'ravers'. The sound of the wooden xylophones from the area played in a monotonous type manner and a few other things regarding the nature of tribal culture do make me wonder if there was an intentional aim at getting Westerners to find an affinity with the Mayan ways.

The second museum in San Pedro looked very dated, in terms of its design and layout at least. It was another place that was designed in the sixties or seventies and had not been updated massively since. In terms of exhibits, it did not really have much in the way of there being anything that I could state I found that reflective of the culture of the area. It did lack a certain amount of invention though it is difficult to convey how elements of culture can be stable whilst other elements change within a particular area. I also had a bit of de ja vu in the Museum of Anthropology as I did in the hostal last night, although I can't recall if this was due to having seen them in a photograph at SBPS, in a video or DVD or actually having been there before. I didn't bother to take shots of the places where this happened, I guess it happens to a lot of people.

The Cathedral in San Pedro is not highly recommended by the guide book, although, it does have a different type of atmosphere than any other I've been in. It did feel a little like a 1960s dole office to me, though those are not intended to be harsh words. I'm sure the atmosphere is very different during a service.

The bus journey went without hitches and I managed to get to the island after taxi-ing along to the ferry port. The weather changed gradually as we approached the coast. It wasn't a bad crossing by any stretch of the imagination. Don't know if I can really say that I've explored the area but I guess that there are more than a few attractions to explore. The diving is the main reason that people come here, though I don't wish to do a huge amount as I've not done any since becoming an Advanced diver in 1997. I'll see how things go.

The shot above is of the police who were discussing a few issues in the Central Parque area of San Pedro last night. I didn't stop to ask them what they were talking about...