A Barrier Reef Adventure: 3 Apr--Snorkeling w/Enric

Tues, 3 Apr ... Justine and Fran really did leave at 6am this morning :( .....sad parting .... sometimes a group really bonds, and this one did ... we really had fun together .... but it wasn't completely over yet .... Cristina, Enric and i had 'one more night' together ..... when we were at Thirty Turtle a few nights go, Heather's mom asked how we all knew each other ... we explained, and she looked at me and said .... 'so Donna, you are the hub' ..... i brought the two groups together .... so in the morning i walked down to the Dive Shop to find Greg ... Greg and i were going back to Utila in the morning, and Heather was also leaving .... so i wanted to do dinner with everyone tonight .... we will try to coordinate this large group ... who will all be doing something different during the day ... a challenge ... we hauled all our stuff back up the hill to the 3-bed dorm .... :) ....Cristina needed to go to the airport to sort out her travel plans ... i wanted to go to West Bay to snorkel for my last day in Roatan ... Enric said he'd go with me ... we took the water taxi at 10am .... and i actually got a photo of my S-L-O-W sign

another fun day of snorkeling .... since Enric is from Spain, he's spent most of his underwater time, ... not in the Carribean .... and there are different species of fish in Spain than we have here ... so i was 'educating' him on the names of the fishes here .... it was fun .... he learned this Indigo Hamlet

he was practicing his deep diving

and i was just practicing my underwater posing ....

there is a large sand patch that we crossed between 2 sections reef .... i looked down and saw a Sand Dollar ... i have never seen a Sand Dollar here ... Sea Biscuits ... but never a Sand Dollar .... i dove down to get it ... it was perfect ... and another 'first' for Enric ...

after over TWO hours of snorkeling, we were getting cold, ... we decided to get something to eat and drink ... it's always fun to see what you find in the shallows when you've decided to quit ... this time was no exception .... we came across this Peacock Flounder .....

then ... this Ocean TriggerFish swam by ..... i got a few quick shots .... you can see that he is in quite shallow water ...

but he didn't swim away, .... and i just quietly followed him around for another 6-7min .... i've only seen 2 of these before, and they were always swimming away from me, and at a distance ... they've always looked very plain .... they are large ... but don't have distinctive markings ... however, up close .... they are really quite beautiful ...

and actually do have subtle markings in certain lighting ...

a 'top down' view ... you can see how his dorsal fins go in the opposite directions when he swims ...

i loved it ... again ... up close with nature ...

also saw another Split Crown Feather Duster

of course we stayed later than we should have .... Cristina found us as we were walking to the Water Taxi .... home, cleaned up, went to the Sundowner to find the rest of the group .... we called Greg .. they were at Coco Lobos .... he would try to get his group moving ... but it was going slowly ... we decided to walk to meet them ... found them ... i suggested dinner at The Lily Pond ... where i went with Ron and Patricia ... i knew it would be quiet, more private, and away from the noise and craziness on the streets ! there was a deck 4 stories up .... so we had to go up there .... then there was another small deck on top ... and we had to go there too ... there wasn't a ladder or stairs, so it was no small feat getting there ...