The Caribbean Coast to Nigaragua, down saaf...

Whatever you do when we get back, please don´t mention Whale Sharks to Mark. He is utterly beside himself that we didn´t get to see them while almost every other person staying on Utila spotted at least one to hop off a boat and swim alongside. Unfortunately we were either on a boat that couldn´t find these massive fishes or not on a boat that could. He still cries just thinking about them, so I´ll leave it there, but it was a shame that time constraints meant we had to leave Utila and its sharks of joy and head off to another Caribbean island…. Not that we´re complaining.

Although it´s Utila´s neighbour, you have to travel back to the mainland and catch another ferry to get to Roatan. The journey is far more brutal than the one to Utila, with the ferry bouncing up and down over the waves and ferry staff running about desperately trying to hand passengers sick bags before it´s too late! We weren´t sick but an awful lot of people were throughout the hour-and-a-half-long journey, so it was fantastic to step on to dry land again. Roatan is much bigger than Utila, with a lot more sandy beaches, including the paradise white-sand beach at West Bay (pic above). We spent two afternoons there sunning ourselves and snorkelling on the reef (just 10m off from the beach). It was by far the best snorkelling of the trip; we spotted a stingray, a giant grouper, loads of parrot fish and other tropical pescados, as well as an eel and all the gorgeous coral. Each time we went to the beach we debated staying on the island until just before our flight date and catching a plane from there to San Jose, but in the end we managed to tear ourselves away to make the two-day bus journey to Granada in Nicaragua, where I´m currently writing this as the afternoon rain beats down on the roof.

But before we left Roatan we couldn´t resist doing some more SCUBA dives and signed ourselves up to a total of three. The first was a wreck dive, going down to 110 feet and swimming around and inside the wreck of EL AGUILO. The pictures are from that dive, and as you can see, we were joined by some big old fish – grouper and snapper mainly. The second dive wasn´t quite as spectacular, but there were lots of interesting coral swim-throughs to keep us busy. After that dive we hired a scooter and went off on a trip to the other side of the island and back, along with our pals Fleur and Garret, before returning the trusty steels (aka Blue Thunder and White Lightning) to the shop and jumping on the dive boat for a night dive. Wow, that was something, it felt like we´d gone to another planet – so surreal was it to sit on the ocean floor breathing through a regulator in complete darkness. But the glows underwater were spectacular, little strings of pearls (which are in fact shrimp that swim up and let off a light, then swim up a bit more and let off another light etc etc) surrounded us, and every time we moved our arms we were surrounded by spots of phosphorescent lights. But the piece de resistance was definitely the octopus that we spent a good 10 minutes gawping at as it moved from feed to feed before getting sick of us and seeking sanctuary beneath a rock.

After that fully packed day we got up early in the morning to take the ferry then bus to Tegulcigalpa, Honduras´s rather grim capital. We ventured out of our room for food and then hurried back to hide there for the rest of the night before another early start and bus to Nicaragua. Last night we arrived at Granada, another old colonial city a bit biffed about by earthquakes and civil wars, but beautiful nonetheless. It´s on the shore of a vast lake and is, like the other colonial cities we´ve visited, full of brightly coloured houses and churches. We climbed to the top of the bell tower of one of the churches and took these pics looking out over the city. The people here are probably the friendliest of the central American countries we´ve visited so far, and the women who sell food from stalls all wear the daintiest of white aprons with coloured frills.

We had a good old nose around this morning and have returned to the hostel just in time to avoid the rain. Tomorrow we´re going on a trip to a lagoon before we head off once more to the coast, but this time to the swells of the Pacific.

Sorry this has been such an overenthusiastic essay, shorter one next time! Lots of love xxx

The sun has finally found his hat again...

Happy Tuesday!

Yesterday we returned from a lovely couple of days on Jewel Cay, a teeny tiny island just off the south-eastern point of Utila. Despite its diminutive size, this coral-surrounded cay was inhabited before Utila because it's free from pesky sand flies and was deemed a far nicer place to set up home, of which there are surprisingly many. Houses, a school, hotel and a few eateries take up every precious inch of the cay, and we were lucky enough to sign up to SCUBA dive with a company that operates from the hotel (pictured left) there.

At the end of the long pier at the hotel's front is a tiny stretch of water that the dive co uses to train people and where we did our refresher course before swimming out across the 20 or so metres to another tiny cay (pictured right). The snorkelling and diving around the group of cays is amazing. All kinds of colourful fish can be spotted going about their business, nibbling the coral and algae off the surrounding reef. Because I was a scaredy-cat during the refresher course, I was taken for a short dive just off the reef next to the hotel, where I was lucky enough to spot a turtle.

When we'd finished the course we borrowed the hotel's kayaks and paddled off to the other end of the cay. The sea was perfectly calm and we had great views down to the reef below. A school of flying fish even whizzed past us at one point, zooming across the top of the water so that we expected a couple to wind up in our laps. It really felt like we were in the middle of a David Attenborough programme, surrounded by gorgeous little desert islands, turquoise, fish-filled waters and the mountains of the mainland visible through their cloud cloaks. If only we had a waterproof camera we could have provided some photographic evidence of all this visual joy!

Yesterday the weather finally cleared and we headed out on the boat (pictured above left) for our two dives. The first one was fantastic; perfect visibility and fishies galore. We spotted a huge group of snapper, lots of very big tarpons (they look a bit like tuna) trumpet fish and all sorts of other creatures in a variety of different colours. A hawksbill turtle actually led the latter part of the dive, perfectly at ease with the eight wet-suited, goggle-eyed, bubble-making creatures following it around. When we were back on the boat and just leaving for dive number two, a silver creature leapt out of the water and underneath the boat - a DOLPHIN! - unfortunately it didn't stay to play, but it was great to see one. The second dive didn't quite match the first for creatures, but there were lots of passages through the coral that you could swim through and explore. Dives over with we headed back to the cay and sunbathed on the dock before it was time to come back to Utila.

This morning the weather was glorious so we headed to the beach (right) and spent a few hours sunbathing and snorkelling. Once again it's overcast now, but hopefully the sun will come out again soon.

Bye for now,

Soph and Mark x