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