1 Feb, Mon.

Tues, 1 Feb. to the Vet Clinic at 10am with Monica. i did not go into clinic, but stayed outside to sign in the animals; owners name, pets name, age, sex, weight, and what they needed. the clinic is open 2 days per week for walk-ins: spay, neutering, flea meds, other meds, and vaccinations. it was interesting to meet the vet and her husband, and all the people who came with their pets. mostly locals, one guy from Poland, and some girls from a resort with cats they had found and wanted to find homes for. before they left, they had found a home for both cats ... and one of the girls just broke down into tears .... she wasn't prepared to have them go so soon ... and then i started crying ... i know how attached you can get to an animal in a very short period of time. big help i am! while there is watched several butterflies eating a 'rotten banana'. this one was especially pretty. and saw this mother chicken with her little chics on my way home. this is HotPot just down the road from us that i like so much.... great structure! wheni got back around 1pm, i saw that BICA was hosting a meeting for all of the Dive Shops on Utila regarding the 'Report Card' of the Reef. i attended and the results were not good news, but not surprising. the health of the reef continues to decline. after the meeting i did some research on Eco Tours. i am not getting very far with my projects. :( today Nicole and Chris went out Lionfish hunting. one of the guys that went with them saw a Bull Shark, 9 ft long .... INSIDE the reef where they were snorkeling! now THAT is news! being first-time snorkelers, they were not very excited to hear this. and Tim was REALLY not excited to hear about it ! around 3pm, we met Pamela, pronounced Pam-el-ah, with the accent on the 'el', and she gave us our orientation on how to hunt and kill the Lionfish. i mentioned that while i was in Caye Caulker i saw a Lionfish and gave you the background on it. see 18 Jan blog for a review. so i won't repeat it here, except to correct that they are from Indo-Pacific waters. the Lionfish population is not believed to be as large around Utila, as other places, including our near neighboring island of Roatan. so they are hoping to keep the populations down by actively hunting and killing them. i really like her, she is knowledgeable and fun. we had a great time with her, and watching and listening, as she talked about jellyfish, moray eels, stingrays, and baracuda in response to Tim's almost hysterical queries. she put him in charge of bringing 'vinegar' in case he got stung by a jellyfish. he said he had a first aid kit. she said 'i have no doubt that you do'. she'll be going out with Abi, Tim, and me in the morning to kill the little invasive 'buggers'. Abi and i are really looking forward to it! Nicole, Tim, Chris and i went to dinner at Evelyn's in town. i had tuna ... it is allowed. such a disappointment after all the lobster in CayeCaulker! it was another huge meal though, you don't go away hungry here, ...complete with some really good heavy brown bread. After dinner we went back to Main Street, but not to have shots ... the other night we saw they had very chocolately cake, with vanilla ice cream, and chocolate syrup! that was wonderful !!!!!!!!!!!