Alice in Wander-Land: Earth Day beach clean up and some underwater pictures...

On April 22nd , 40 staff and customers from Alton's, Underwater Vision and Cross Creek took to the North side to clean up one of Útila's many littered beaches, for Earth Day 2012. The beach was filthy; the rubbish washes in from the mainland and as most of the beaches on the North side are rarely visited, it builds up! We managed to collect 2 truckloads of rubbish and all the plastic bottles were taken to be recycled.

It was the furthest I've ever been on Útila; as I'm always diving, I've hardly seen anything of the island. When I finish my DM (I only have 1 skill left to complete and only I need 4 more dives!), I want to rent a quad bike and take a tour of the island. I want to see/do:

The freshwater caves

Pumpkin Hill
The iguana station
The public beach
Go paddle boarding
Kayak to the North Side
Watch the sunset from the water tower
Visit the Cayes
Play mini golf

The first truck load of eco-warriors

Just some of the rubbish covering the beach

The team at work

Just some of the rubbish we collected

A successful day - we collected 2 truckloads

We took a break from the clean up to search for the wreckage of a drug plane which crashed in 2009, along with its contents, 1.7 tonnes of cocaine:

"Again, Utila has come to the center on the War on Drugs with another Venezuelan aircraft busted with 1.7 tonnes of cocaine, but this time there was a different ending. Starting at 9:30pm the evening before, Utilian residents heard and saw aircraft circling the island. One plane, a twin engine Jetstream 30 with its lights off, the other, a large U.S military aircraft with lights on. The Military plane circled steadily around the island and, the other, like a shadow in the moonlight, circled frantically looking for a place to land. All the while the Saturday night crowds at Utila's local bars stared upwards watching the ill fated plane swooping desperately for a way out of its trap.It was not meant to be. Sometime around 3:00 am, the narco plane, running out of fuel attempted to land. Its flight path took the plane into the dense jungle and jagged cliffs just north of the airport. The plane sliced into the tree canopy cutting large trees in two. At impact, the fusilage broke behind the cockpit split in two. All three crew members were Columbian. The pilot was killed and the two crew members were wounded."

The drug plane (I felt like I was in an episode of Lost)

As we were driving down the airport's runway we realised we were staring down a plane that was about to take off.....cue swift exit to the left! Only in Útila!

I've been diving a lot recently, assisting with classes, leading fun dives and completing my DMT programmes, but today I went fun diving with Shelley, Jon and Lindsay. It was Shelley's 200th dive and so she dressed up as a hoola girl. We moved about 50ft from the boat, found a sand patch and started taking pictures...cue two of the funniest dives I've ever been on.

Here are some of the pictures: