On 15 April, while I was in 100-degree weather in Arizona,
Neal in Wisconsin had this . . .
He was more than anxious to get back to Utila, Honduras!
So, at 3:30 a.m. Saturday, Mike Bain picked up Neal . . .
Bill Koenes & Lisa Bain
. . . and TEAM MANTA loaded up the limo/bus to go to O'Hare Airport.
Inside the bus stuffed with dive gear & luggage (and people).
l to r: 1/2 of Ken Jeep, Lisa Koenes, Lisa B, Neal in his Lucky Traveling Hat
Sean Bellinger, Kristina Niemi, Eric Johnson
Landing on Roatan
Up 'til here things were exciting, but manageable.
Once we landed, went through immigration and customs,
it took 4-1/2 hours to leave for Utila.
We were supposed to leave at 2 p.m.
We had a baggage handler, ground crew guy called "Banjo"
who expedited our travel through ticketing & baggage checking,
but he had two other people he was waiting for,
so we couldn't just get our things and leave.
We had a chance to change into our tropical clothes
and have a beer and some water. Some had sub sandwiches,
but I felt I'd rather wait for some cooked food at Utila Lodge.
Inside the puddle jumper
It took 15 minutes to fly from Roatan to Utila,
and then we had to wait for someone to take us to the Lodge.
There were 13 of us so we had to go in two groups.
On the ground (at last) in Utila - Lisa in foreground.
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