7 Apr--Day and Night Snorkel at Coral View

Sat, 7 Apr .... last day on the island .... my plan was to go snorkeling early in the morning ... but i didn't get up early, and .... whatever .... i got out to Coral View around 9:45am.... not too bad :) ..... and didn't get out of the water until 12:45 ... and that's a pretty long snorkel .... i'm happy :) i actually saw lots of cool things today ! .... yes .... here in Utila :) ...so maybe i shouldn't be so critical ! first this ParrotFish smiled at me ... actually, he is at a "cleaning station" ... you can see the small fish to the right .... that is one of many different 'cleaner fish' ... and many fish, come to a 'cleaning station' and those little fishes clean 'stuff' off of them ... they even open their mouths, so those little fishes can clean inside their mouth ... then my first surprise was TWO Ocean TriggerFish .... i love how his eye seems to be watching me ... warily .... then this little Smooth TrunkFish ..... it has a black mouth ... you can see the difference in these 2 fish, ..... this is a Spotted TrunkFish ... it has a white mouth .... these fish are shaped like a triangle ... with a flat bottom ... you can see it in this photo swimming away from me .... and i never noticed, it looks like it has a fin on the bottom .... but i guess that makes sense .... a SpotFin ButterFly Fish .... and, another Yellow TrumpetFish !!! .... then ... a BLUE TrumpetFish !!!!!! i saw one of these last year in Utila ... someone told me that they were blue when they were carrying babies ..... but this is pretty close up ... and i don't see any babies .... with further reading i found that they are in the SeaHorse family and, like a SeaHorse, the male gives birth to the babies ... i snorkeled for awhile, and came across a large sand patch, ... i was looking to see if i could possibly see some Garden Eels ... but instead saw this Southern Stingray .... and then a smaller one, ... following close behind ... they were both busy trying to find something to eat ... when they do this, they 'root around' in the sand, and really stir it up ... so if you are snorkeling and see a lot of sand being kicked up, ... chances are, a Stingray is in the area feeding ... then i moved onto a shallower reef, and saw these baby Queen AngelFish ... i saw my first one of these under the dock in Roatan ... and there are TWO of them ! ... they are so cute .... i spent almost 20min taking photos ... i took a total of 42 pictures, plus 3 videos ... and i had to dive down to take each one .... that's a lot of breath-holding .... that is why it's difficult for me to snorkel with anyone ... because i enjoy taking photos, long after most people are ready to move on .... not to mention if i was diving :( i put my photos on my computer to edit them ... i know several times lately i've fallen asleep while i was doing the editing ... i must have deleted over half of them not knowing it ... because when i looked at them later, i was so disappointed that i had so few photos of the little Queen AngelFishes ... i knew i had taken lots of them .... so i decided to look in the 'Trash' Folder ... ahha ... there they were ! after that project, i was ready to start back in ... then i saw this HoneyComb CowFish ... i haven't seen one of these this year .... i followed it around for 15min, taking 22 pictures .... it is called a CowFish because it has little 'horns' ... you can see them better in this photo .... they look a lot like the TrunkFish ... except for the 'horns' i like the way this photo turned out ..... there are so many layers ... the fish on the left in the background .... the group of yellow fish in the middle ... and the coral reef in the foreground ... then i noticed a Porcupine Fish and started following it ... it went into a cave and came out with a friend .... the friend went back inside ... watching .... ... and didn't come out again .... these were really large Porcupine Fish ... noticeably larger than the one i photographed in Roatan ... then i saw this 'family' of Christmas Tree Worms ... and i like the softness of them in this photo ... ok, that was a GREAT snorkel day for me ... when i got out of the water, i saw Jeff on the dock. we got to talking and he asked me if i had made my reservation for the Ferry back to LaCeiba ..... hummmm ... i didn't know they took reservations, ...never did before .... but because of Semana Santa, they are .... now i'm worried ... i need to be on that first 6am Ferry .... i quickly went home, threw my stuff in the room, grabbed money and my passport and headed for the Ferry Dock. he was right .... and they were booked for ALL the early ferries, and they have added several. .... i could only get a reservation for 3:30 ... :( ......which means i won't get to Tela until after dark ... she said i could show up at 6am and stand-by .... i'll do that .... and say my prayers that i get on .... back home ... and went to the Dive Center to find Greg ... he said he wanted to do dinner again tonight .... when i got there, he asked me if i wanted to do a Night Snorkel .... ? ...i love night snorkeling ... but i thought i needed to pack since i was leaving early in the morning and didn't really want to pack wet cloths, etc. .... but in the end i couldn't pass up this opportunity ! Chad and Kelly joined us and we headed back to Coral View around 6pm .... that was the easiest 'entry' into the water when it's dark out .... what fun it was !!!!!! i wish i could show you what we saw .... but none of my photography equipment could possibly capture what we saw ..... but it will remain forever etched in my mind .... it was some type of bio-luminescence ... which is natural sometimes underwater ... and if you turn your flashlight off, so it's totally dark, you can see the light of the bio-luminescence .... but this was the most beautiful and most unusual anyone had ever seen ... it was like a dark Cathedral, full of candles ... they were all around us as far as we could see ... but instead of the 'flicker' of the light going up ... the light was cascading down like it was dripping .... i'll have to do some research on this ... it was so incredible ... i was happy to just sit there in the dark and stare ... i even forgot about looking for octupus or eels ..... i did turn my flashlight on a couple of times and saw some orange eyes, of some kind of shrimp .... and then i spotted this strange fern-like 'growth' on a fan coral ... i remembered seeing something similar while on a night dive in Belize ... Darrel said it was a Basket StarFish ..... i looked it up when i got home ... sure enough ... that's what it is .... it can live for up to 35 years and weigh up to 11 pounds ...... strange ... it looks like it has legs that are holding on at the base .... it is an animal ... a StarFish .... it extends it's 'fron-looking' arms, ... and catches food, and then it folds up, .... like some have done in this photo .... then pulls it into it's body ..... so awesome !!!!!! ...i was having trouble getting photos, but my regular macro with a flash worked well .... what an exciting day and night of snorkeling ! ..... the underwater world is absolutely mind-blowing .... ...home, cleaned up and Greg and i walked to Skid Row for pizza .... had a nice visit with him ... then some other friends showed up, so i said i needed to go home and pack .... sad to say goodbye to another new friend :(

6 Apr, Fri

Fri, 6 Apr .... what to do today???????? ... the weather is still really hot, with no breeze .... i saw Annie, the daughter of Annie, the owner of Hotel Utila ... i asked if i could take a picture of her, James, and her daughter Aleah .... out by their newly landscaped beach area ... nice people ... then i decided to go for a walk .... in the heat of the day ... i did take water :) ...someone had told me that you can walk past the Iguana Research Station and up a hill path and have a great view of the island ... so i thought i'd try to find that path ... i walked for quite awhile .. and ended up at a dead end fence ... backtracked, and found another road ... that lead up to this yet-unopened-restaurant ... nice sign :) .... so i walked back to the Iguana Research Station to ask them ... Jeff (one of the other volunteers from the Whale Shark office) was volunteering there! ... he asked, and then we crawled under a barbed-wire fence and found the path ... it was REALLY hot up on that hill !! ... it's called Stuart Hill and there is a huge water tower at the top. Jeff and i climbed up the ladder for the beautiful view ... this is the bay that Utila Town is on ... and in the upper right corner, you can barely see the rock and harbor that Greg, Heather, and i kayaked out to a few weeks ago... the locals will tell you that THIS is the REAL Utila ..... all green and forested ... NOT that loud noisy street down by the water .... it is pretty up here .. stopped into the Dive Shop and found Greg and asked him if he wanted to go somewhere for dinner tonight ... he agreed ... and of course, it is Karaoke Friday ... it took awhile to get organized after he got off work at 7pm .... had to stop into the Lodge Bar for a drink, and got talked into a shot of tequila :( ... then we finally walked to the other end of the island for dinner at Fidi's ... it's a seafood restaurant on the water .... we split a garlic shrimp dinner ... it was excellent shrimp ... not over cooked, and perfectly seasoned .... then back to Karaoke .... it was busy in there, with lots of locals, ... choosing 'spanish songs' .... i didn't even get to sing tonight :( i think i called it quits around midnight ... leaving all my friends at the bar :)

5 Apr--Snorkeling at JayJays

Thurs, 5 Apr ... stopped into the Whale Shark office ...... it's a different place. ....one of the Dive Masters has taken over the responsibility for the office, .... yes, another new 'director'. ...we talked briefly ... he has lots of good ideas, and knows he has a long road ahead of him. ...they still have no 'confirmed' reportings of any Whale Sharks .... TWO months with no sightings ... amazing ! ...there was a rumor last week ... but no photos :) .....Whale Sharks ? ...a myth !!!!! ;) stopped at the Dive Shop to see if there were any plans for tonight ... yes, there is a Full Moon Party at Bandu Beach ... lots of drunk people and techno music ... it will be an early night again for me tonight .... nothing else much to do ... so i got my snorkel gear together and headed for the east/south side, since it's rather calm out today. ...i stopped into the place where Ronnie and i went a month ago. JayJay was there, i reintroduced myself and he said i could leave my bag there. i had a nice snorkel ... anytime in the water is a good time for me :) ...i saw all the usual suspects, ... ParrotFish.... hiding behind the coral Yellow-tail Damsels .... this is StagHorn Coral ... nothing really extraordinary .......... i covered 3 dive sites .... finally i spotted this YELLOW Trumpetfish ... i have never seen a Yellow one before ... they've always been browns / reds, blending in with their surroundings .... but this one was just Yellow, where-ever it went ... it was Bright Yellow ! it didn't seem to concerned about camouflaging itself ... hanging out in the open like that ... a little while later i saw these 2 Flamingo Tongues ... TWINS ..... using my macro lens again .... nice colors on the purple Fan Coral back home, cleaned up, and went to Driftwood for something to eat. after a while Kelly came in and we both got a fish sandwich ... then stop at the store and spent quite a lot of time with Valentine ... made myself a couple rum and cokes, worked on my blog ... then to bed

4 Apr--Back to Utila w/Greg

Wed, 4 Apr ... Enric got a job as a Dive Master at Anthony's Key Resort ... so we said goodbye early in the morning ... :) ....Vern's Catamaran didn't leave Roatan until 1pm ... so i had time to pack and do some work on my blog. i said goodbye to Michelle and thanked her again for being so accommodating to our ever-changing needs ....she had her new little rescue kitten on her shoulder what a tiny one ! ... met Greg on the Catamaran, along with 14 other people ... it was a little crowded ... but a rather smooth ride to Utila ... Vern dropped me off at the Dock at Utila Lodge .... Kelly, the volunteer from the Whale Shark office came out to the deck to greet me ... as well as 6 other people, saying 'welcome back' .. and 'we missed you' ... what a nice welcoming home :) i checked into Hotel Utila ... room #6 this time ... still with 3 beds .... :) .... they've been busy while i was gone .... they created a very nice 'beach-side' area out front of the hotel.... this was previously just a bunch of trash, ... but before i left i noticed they were kind of straightening it up a little. .... i had no idea they had such grand plans .... it's very nice !!!!! first things first .... i went to find my little Valentine ... i saw her in the doorway of the store; but there was so much noise and activity that she ran away ... i went back later and we spent some time together ... she is still so small! ...especially compared to the giant cats at Georphi's ! got organized, worked on my blog, then went out for something quick to eat .... Damn ... i hate this street !!!!!!! ...it was so much quieter in Roatan ... it's just nuts here ... really makes me not want to be here ....did every person that came here, bring their motorcycle with them !!!!!!!!! ??????????? i should have gotten out earlier and found the rest of the group ... but i didn't .... so i walked around and finally found them walking down the street ... they heard the BareFoot Band was playing at Coco's, so we went to see ... .... before we even got there, i could tell the band wasn't playing ...... it was crazy ... i left and went home ... i miss Roatan :( ...why am i here again ????????????????

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 ... but we prevailed ... back at the table ... we noticed that there were a lot of bats ... and they were feeding at the Hummingbird Feeder .... amazing ... we had a wonderful meal ... i had the Sea Bass ... and it was excellent ... it's so nice to find a place that has GREAT food !!!!!!!!! it was a great choice ... and a great last day with great friends ..