25 Feb, Sat

Sat, 25 Feb ... got up and looked outside .... it's still amazing to me that every day is sunny and hot ..... then went to work for a few hours, came home packed up my snorkel gear and headed out to rent a bicycle. ....they are closed on Saturdays :( ...so i walked ... my gear is heavy and it was around noon and the sun was beating down on me and there were no trees ..... do you feel sorry for me yet? ......didn't think so :) i found Ronnie's yellow house and he was there. we walked across the street and looked at the beach; but he said there were better ones down the road .... did i want to see them? ... i did. .... we walked back to his house and got his motorcycle ... yes ... i got on a motorcycle ! .... sure beats walking in the sun :) .... we stopped at this spot .... this is known as the Iron Shore because of the color of the rocks and coral here he started to walk out into the water, i had on my crocs and he had on some rubber-type sandals. all of a sudden he makes a noise .... i look over, and he's holding his foot ... i look down .. and see Long Spined Sea Urchins like these... except the ones he stepped on where tucked down in between the rocks ... OUCH ! ... he stepped right on them .... luckily he had sandals on .... HAD sandals on ... his sandal was gone and it didn't float away ... i think the Sea Urchin sucked it in somehow .... it was no where to be seen! poor him ... that's pretty painful ... there aren't too many sandy beaches around the island, so it was nice to see this one ... so then we got back on the bike and drove into an area that made me forget that we were in Utila ... there were homes here that looked like they belonged in California. this is definitely the 'high rent' district of Utila! ....they have a nice beach area with a pretty big bay in front .... there are pretty strong waves on this side of the island; but i did a little bit of snorkeling and took a few photos. since it was pretty wavy, there was a lot of sand being kicked up in the water, so visibility wasn't very good, especially for taking pictures ... this is the first picture this year i've been able to get of a Squirrel Fish ... they like to hid under the rocks; ...but i caught this one, even though it's not in focus and the light caught a lot of the sand particles .... am still trying to get a picture of a pair of ButterFly Fish swimming side by side ... i'll keep on trying .... these are SpotFin ButterFly Fish.... a Blue Tang .... i think you must be pretty familiar with these by now :) and TWO Queen Angelfish ... swimming away from me, of course .. here are some French Grunts with the stripes ... and in the back a Spanish Hogfish that is orange with a blue back ... i need to do some further research on this fish. it has beautiful red markings and a big eye ... and was hiding deep in a crevice. ... i knew Ronnie was waiting for me, so i didn't want to stay out there too long .... or i would have kept trying to get a better photo so i could ID it ... we visited for awhile sitting in the water's edge, then he gave me a ride on the bike back into town .. it was nice not having to walk. i'll try to go back out there again and snorkel at the first spot we stopped. it will be calmer there with less waves since it's in a protected area went to Mermaid for dinner for fish and chips and used the internet