Sat, 12 Feb.
alarm went off at 6:30am for Abi and i to go diving. it rained all night last night and it's still raining. we decided it was a 'no go' for us. we'll be here awhile, we don't HAVE to dive when it's raining :). By the Way, this mentality was reinforced by my father when he came to Michigan one summer, we had set up a golf day. it was raining that day, but i thought we'd go anyway, i was still working and had taken a precious 'vacation day'. But he informed me, "Donna, i'm retired; i don't HAVE to play golf in the rain". so i felt justified in our decision! by 7:30am the sun was shining .... whoops .... oh well, too late now, and we reinforced our decision that with all the wind and rain, visibility wouldn't be that good anyway. i went to pick up my laundry and stopped at my new favorite bakery to have a piece of quiche. it was very good. came back and got snorkel gear around for our day at our own little private island, Water Caye. Water Caye is a small uninhabited island off the west coast of Utila; a 'must do' according to the guidebooks. with a little luck, we'll have the island all to ourselves ... especially since the weather still looks threatening. we met Payton and Stephen at their hotel; they had secured the services of Capt Jake, and were still game if we were. we grabbed some sandwiches to go.
Capt Jake already had the boat at the dock waiting for us. it was a small boat and Capt Jake was very quiet and sweet. on the way to Water Caye, he threw out a line, literally .... and a few minutes later was asking Stephen to pull it in, he had a fish!
he pointed out a beautiful piece of property (that now has a home on it), on the south side of the island, with sandy beaches and lapping waves. he said his grandmother owned that and sold it for $4,000, over 20 years ago; today it's worth millions. he said that $4,000 was a lot of money back then and didn't seem to have any hard feelings about it. i love listening to the local Utilians here. they have a wonderful accent that is so soft, rhythmic, and calming. i was told by a woman i met at the Vet Clinic that has been coming here for 20 years that when they started coming here the entire island was caucasian Utilians, quiet and wonderful.
we arrived at Water Caye in about 30min, it was a nice smooth dry ride. what a perfect little island.
this side is sandy, Capt Jake pulled the boat up here.
this is the north end of the island, complete with palm trees.
and me, 'owning' the island.
this is the side the coral reef is on, you can see the variations in color. snorkeled here the whole time we were here ... no surprise, huh?
unfortunately, there is a lot of dead coral here too. wish i would have found this reef 20 years ago. i'll bet it was absolutely beautiful with colorful corals of all types and shapes.
here are a few pictures of what a few nice parts looked like; but mostly it was gray and dead.
The other day Pamela was explaining how Fire Coral can 'invade' other corals on the reef. the Fire Coral here is brown with white tips. You can see it (small) in it's original form, on the rock on the bottom left. Here is an example of how it has just taken over what was a beautiful purple Fan Coral. you can see the white tipped spikes are growing on the Fan Coral which is now totally brown. and you can see on the left, the next Fan Coral victim is already turning brown. and the one on the right will be next.
a small Butterfly Fish.
saw this large Stingray. it kinda reminds me of Darth Vadar. you can see on either side of the ray a cloud of sand that it is making while it 'roots' into the sand looking for food. this cloud of sand can become so large that visibility goes down to zero.
or ... it reminds me of an elephant's ears.
the weather started looking threatening, so we got in the boat and got rained on just a little; but made it back pretty dry. we went home, cleaned up and then met the guys at La Picante. a nice restaurant over the water .... Mexican of course. when Abi and i walked in, we saw 2 people from the Dive Shop. they informed us that they got in the water 3 times with the Whale Sharks this morning .... :( ...i put this fact out of my mind.
we had a nice Mexican dinner, nachos were awesome, ... and complete with Margaritas, with our new friends.
they were leaving on the 6:30am ferry in the morning. and Abi and i said we might dive at 730am ... so we bid farewell and safe travels to Stephen and Payton. you meet such nice people traveling !
Abi and i got in just before it started pouring !
Capt Jake already had the boat at the dock waiting for us. it was a small boat and Capt Jake was very quiet and sweet. on the way to Water Caye, he threw out a line, literally .... and a few minutes later was asking Stephen to pull it in, he had a fish!
he pointed out a beautiful piece of property (that now has a home on it), on the south side of the island, with sandy beaches and lapping waves. he said his grandmother owned that and sold it for $4,000, over 20 years ago; today it's worth millions. he said that $4,000 was a lot of money back then and didn't seem to have any hard feelings about it. i love listening to the local Utilians here. they have a wonderful accent that is so soft, rhythmic, and calming. i was told by a woman i met at the Vet Clinic that has been coming here for 20 years that when they started coming here the entire island was caucasian Utilians, quiet and wonderful.
we arrived at Water Caye in about 30min, it was a nice smooth dry ride. what a perfect little island.
this side is sandy, Capt Jake pulled the boat up here.
this is the north end of the island, complete with palm trees.
and me, 'owning' the island.
this is the side the coral reef is on, you can see the variations in color. snorkeled here the whole time we were here ... no surprise, huh?
unfortunately, there is a lot of dead coral here too. wish i would have found this reef 20 years ago. i'll bet it was absolutely beautiful with colorful corals of all types and shapes.
here are a few pictures of what a few nice parts looked like; but mostly it was gray and dead.
The other day Pamela was explaining how Fire Coral can 'invade' other corals on the reef. the Fire Coral here is brown with white tips. You can see it (small) in it's original form, on the rock on the bottom left. Here is an example of how it has just taken over what was a beautiful purple Fan Coral. you can see the white tipped spikes are growing on the Fan Coral which is now totally brown. and you can see on the left, the next Fan Coral victim is already turning brown. and the one on the right will be next.
a small Butterfly Fish.
saw this large Stingray. it kinda reminds me of Darth Vadar. you can see on either side of the ray a cloud of sand that it is making while it 'roots' into the sand looking for food. this cloud of sand can become so large that visibility goes down to zero.
or ... it reminds me of an elephant's ears.
the weather started looking threatening, so we got in the boat and got rained on just a little; but made it back pretty dry. we went home, cleaned up and then met the guys at La Picante. a nice restaurant over the water .... Mexican of course. when Abi and i walked in, we saw 2 people from the Dive Shop. they informed us that they got in the water 3 times with the Whale Sharks this morning .... :( ...i put this fact out of my mind.
we had a nice Mexican dinner, nachos were awesome, ... and complete with Margaritas, with our new friends.
they were leaving on the 6:30am ferry in the morning. and Abi and i said we might dive at 730am ... so we bid farewell and safe travels to Stephen and Payton. you meet such nice people traveling !
Abi and i got in just before it started pouring !
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