18 Feb, Fri.

Fri, 18 Feb. it rained during the night again, but was clear this morning. the rest of the group went out to one of the islands on the 'keys' to the school for their project. they talked to the children about which fish/marine life are the 'bad' (endangered/threatened), and which are 'good' (sustainable) to fish, kill, and eat. trying to get them to understand the concept. they said it was interesting, coz some of the boys were 'tattle-tailing' on each other, pointing and saying, 'he takes turtles!'. so maybe 'peer pressure' will play a part in the education process too. i asked if i could be relieved of my 'office' time this morning to go out again and talk to more business. Pamela said yes, so off i went. it's hard for me to do this, i'm kind of shy :) ... it was easier yesterday coz Abi and i were together. but because i believe in it, i'll learn to do it alone too. i challenged myself and went into a small bar. the owner only spoke spanish, but a guy there, was kind enough to translate. eventually, i got the concept across, and they agreed. the owner, another local, even bought a recycle bag, ... for herself! i hit 2 more spanish markets and both understood and agreed. one guy said he would have his son do the collecting and transporting. the markets get a LOT of cardboard boxes with their shipments, they seem especially happy to have something to do with it! at Mermaid's, Herbert even bought TEN bags to sell in his store. said he would only charge what he paid for them, he didn't want to make any money from it. it really is exciting. i end up spending about a 1/2 hr with each one, so i am getting to know them as well. it was a hot day, and around noon i saw Chris and Nicole. they had returned from the schools and said they'd been given the rest of the day off and that Abi was going diving! me too, i want to go too! i hurried back and asked for the rest of the day off too and Abi and i signed up for a dive. i am still pretty apprehensive about assembling my gear, but the staff was really helpful, and i was pretty comfortable in the water; except that my mask leaks a little water and it's annoying. although i'm still not comfortable enough to take my camera, so still no photos :( visibility was horrible because of all the rain we had the night before; but it was still fun. we didn't do the second dive coz we thought we'd save our $$ for better conditions. i snorkeled while they dove. and took my camera. i've seen Trumpetfish before. but i've never seen one this color! he had a beautiful blue/purple head with colorful stripes. i just read in the book that this is more unusual color for them! ...and i saw it ! Parrotfish, parrotfish, parrotfish! there are so many different kinds, and i didn't have a photo of this one. it think it's a Blue Parrotfish. This is a Parrotfish as well, but it's a Stoplight Parrotfish. it is distinguished by the bright yellow spot at top of gill, and yellow area at base of tail, and salmon/yellow crescent on tail. a school of Blue Tangs: a Queen Angelfish ... someday i'll get a 'proper' photo of her. she is so colorful ! These are Blue Chromis Fish. we actually saw them on our dive first, and i'd never seen them before. they are brilliant blue, and from a distance, have a dark blue or black nose. they are really pretty when you see 20-40 of them swimming in the blue. i guess i've never seen the bubbles made by divers because i've always been below them. but since i was snorkeling when our divers surfaced i noticed how unusual they were ! they are shaped like upside down shallow bowls, ... and they are twirling around as they rise to the surface. they were fastinating ! came home, showered, and stayed in for the night. Abi and i booked another dive trip for tomorrow morning. Hopefully it won't be raining .. and Hopefully we'll see a Whale Shark !

16 Feb, Wed

Wed, 16 Feb. it was not raining this morning. ...yeahhhhhhhhh! so Abi, Chris, and Nicole left at 7am to meet the boat to go Lionfish hunting. an hour later they were back :). visibility was so bad that they couldn't see anything and had to return. we worked through the morning and i found out i could meet with Michele from the 'municipality' to talk about the Recycling Program. at 2:30 i headed down there. it's good news! Abi and i will be going around to all the busineses in Utila and asking them if they would be willing to separate and recycle their #1 and #2 plastics, tin, aluminum, and cardboard! Michele has made arrangements so they can get paid for them! and, it starts immediately! we will also ask them if they would be willing to charge a small fee to their customers for the plastic bags, thus encouraging people to not take a bag. And, we will ask them if they would be willing to buy our cloth reusable bags that they would sell to customers. i am really excited about this. it's a start and i hope we can convince the businesses that it's worth their time and effort. it has to start somewhere! after i got back, Tim, Chris, Nicole, Abi and i took a walk to the beach. it was too late to swim or snorkel ... we just needed to get OUT! while in town i saw one of the restaurants was advertising coconut shrimps. everyone else was eating in, so i went down there for dinner by myself. it was not like the Coconut Shrimps on the Idler in South Haven! ...but they were good.

15 Feb, Tues

Tues, 15 Feb more rain, and more rain, and more rain ! thank God this isn't snow ! just when we think it might stop, we hear it pouring again .... here are some nice photos just so you know it's not all perfect here in paradise :). today was a repeat of yesterday ... B-O-R-I-N-G .. we are all feeling it. this just ain't right ! we all worked inside again on our projects. we are so spoil't ! when evening came, it had finally stopped raining, so Julia and i took a chance and walked into town. it seemed like everyone was experiencing 'cabin fever' for the last few days, coz town was really busy. we got something to eat and then went to Tranquila Bar and sat out on the upper deck and actually saw stars and the moon ! hopefully it will be a good day tomorrow !

14 Feb, Mon

Mon, 14 Feb. i had an 8am meeting with Pamela, Tim, and Julia. Julia is our new volunteer from Germany who just arrived. i woke up, i figured it was about 6:30, went back to bed and waited for the kids at the school right next door to start screaming, as they do when they get to school at 7am. a few minutes later, Pamela knocked on the door ... it was after 8am ! it was raining, so it was darker than usual, and obviously, the kids were indoors and quiet :( the meeting went well and we reviewed my projects. i need to meet with Michele, the woman in charge of the 'municipality' regarding the Recycling Project. the rest of the day it continued to rain and be miserable. we worked in our 'office' and actually it is quite nice all being in there together .... especially on a dark, dreary, rainy day :) i had ice cream with chocolate sauce when the work day was finished :) worked on my blog and that was Monday Monday, ...... just like the song. oh ...Happy Valentines Day everyone !

13 Feb, Sun.

Sun, 13 Feb. alarm off at 6:30am again ... it was raining and we went back to sleep .... no diving today either! it rained all morning and most of the afternoon. since it cooled off quite a bit, Abi and Nicole baked brownies. in between storms, i went to the store and bought ice cream and chocolate syrup. it was a special day :) most of the day i worked on my blog and underwater photos. in the evening Nicole, Chris and i went to get something to eat, then Abi joined us a the 'theatre'. a cute little theater in the village. we watched the movie, Black Swan. WoW ... that was a confusing and exhausting movie. still not sure what happened.... what was real, and what was imaginary ? right after we got home, it started pouring again. we've been really lucky not to get caught in it .... yet !

12 Feb, Sat.

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 !

10 Feb, Thurs.

Thurs, 10 Feb. today was our first day in 'jail', no, really, it felt like we were back in grade school ... being monitored by the nuns! we all sat at one table from 9am - 12noon and did our work. my little brother reminded me that it could be worse, (thank you Wonnie). i could be sitting in Michigan in 1 degree weather with snow up past my door so high that my sister had to step DOWN to get into my house. this seems impossible to me, but it is probably no surprise to most of you! it is important to look on the positive side! after that, i gathered some of my dirty clothes and took them into 'town' to Annie's Laundry. i can pick them up tomorrow afternoon all nice and folded. :) then i continued to work on my projects. i am still trying to find local producers or distributors of bio-degradable products, without much luck. so i had an idea. i am contacting all the resorts in Central America who 'claim' to be "Eco" resorts; and asking them who they get their products from. now we'll see who is really "Eco" ... Abi was feeling better, so we walked to Alton's Dive Shop and booked ourselves for a 2-tank dive at 7:30am, Sat morning. on the way back we stopped at The Jade SeaHorse. i saw this place my first day here and took this photo of the entrance, with the promise to return to see what it was all about. The Jade SeaHorse is the result of the efforts of a couple from Los Angeles in the late 1990s beginning with a restaurant. in 2000 they began working on the structures. WoW! i had no idea what to expect, but nothing to this degree. this is the first structure that you see, ...bottles, glass, tiles, plates... arch to the stairs, leading up to the cabins. this is one of the 6 cabins that you can rent. 2 double beds, 24hr hot water, tile all the way to the ceiling, and the most unusual decor that you'll never forget. a world of art, unframed ... i couldn't help but think of all my 'artsy' friends and how much they would enjoy and appreciate this unusual garden. i knew it was a mosaic masterpiece, but never expected it to be on this scale. these steps aren't finished yet, .. still a few at the bottom uncompleted. detail of one of the walls. there was this walk-through cave with the ceiling filled with coral and shells and blue and green colored glass; which gave it a feel of an underwater cave. the botanical gardens themselves are something to be jealous of, it's like a tropical paradise. this is going into the 'underwater cave'. door to the 'Ladies Room' , all glass and tiles. lotsa crazy little figurines, dolls, and toys stuck in the designs. not even the men's bathroom escaped decorating. there is also the Tretanic Bar, a 'ship' wrecked in the branches of several mango trees. this view is taken from the top of this bar. here you can get a really good look at all the plants and the full layout. it is a fairy land of mosaic of marbles, bottles, fused glass, stone, plates, shells, toys, etc. .... all organized and planned out in grand form. it goes on and on, and with each turn, you can't believe your eyes. another set of stairs. down the street, sits this unusual structure, built by the same man. it was funded as an art gallery, built, ... and now stands vacant and empty .... ? i guess he got too busy with the Jade SeaHorse....

11 Feb, Fri.

Fri, 11 Feb. we were back in our offices this morning, when Abi got a phone message .... that's strange, no one calls us...... it was WSORC, they were going out on another Whale Shark Excursion and needed our help again. 'proper procedures' still had not been worked out for us helping them out, ... so there were more tense moments and discussions. but again, we were released with the promise that it will be handled differently in the future. but this is something that WSORC and BICA needs to do, ...not us. so Abi and i took off, excited and hopeful! our Dive Master and WSORC did most of the work this time, things were much better organized and i was more comfortable since i was now 'experienced'. at 1pm we head around to the north side of the island this time. after about an hour we saw a small 'boil'and birds. we all lined up in the back of the boat on the floor, 'tobaggan style' one behind each other with our fins, mask and snorkel in place. ....and waited. Capt Willy could see the Whale Shark in the distance from his vantage point up in the 'crows nest' of the boat. but it never came close enough, nor surfaced again. so, we got back to our seats and took off again towards Roatan. at about 3:30 we headed back home, ....skunked! we had been seeing some threatening skies all day but it wasn't rough. now, the seas had dramatically changed since going out, it was rough, choppy, and there were huge swells. we were in a big boat, but the waves seemed bigger. we were all totally drenched by the time we got back. once we got into the 'bay' it was calmer of course, and we picked up a pod of dolphins. they were swimming in front of the boat, right against the hull. strange ... with Janny and Alex off Pine Island, they usually surf the wake at the back of the boat. so, all was not lost, at least we saw some marine life. ...and there will be more opportunity to see Whale Sharks :) Abi had made friends with 2 guys that were on the boat trip from Texas. we all decided to get something to eat. ....but first, that hot tub on the end of the dock would feel good. ....it was empty :) but there were these cool 'fish' chairs out there next to the hot tub, that was not. so we decided to watch the sunset .... there was none :( next plan.... we got a drink from the bar, and headed to get something to eat. RJ's is way at the other end of town, has been on Utila a long time and has a reputation for good beef. we all decided to have fish :) i just can't bring myself to eat beef here; but what they had on the grill smelled pretty good. Payton, on the right, has done a lot of missionary work and is currently working in Honduras. Stephen came here to visit him from Dallas. we had a great time with them. so much fun, that we decided that in the morning, while we were diving; they would secure a boat to take us to Water Caye for the afternoon. we got a plan! we left the guys and got home just as it started pouring .... first rain since i've arrived.