....for the wind to stop !
here is a map of the part of the island where i live...... on Mamey Lane ... just north of town ... right after the Catholic Church :)
on Fridays, you can get the most incredible Orange Juice .... nothing but oranges !
this is a new friend that visits me all the time ... she is very sweet... her name is Sheeva :)
i did another volunteer morning at the Vet Clinic ... these 2 little 'rescue' puppies came in for a check up ... they are litter-mates ... the one on the left must be the 'runt' ... i didn't realize the size difference until i saw this photo ..... so cute !
they both got new collars and leashes :)
... trying to entertain myself, i went for some walks ... here is a banana field just up the road from me .....
i am not very good at doing nothing ... :(
i have to keep reminding myself: my reason for being here is to escape the cold ... it's warm and sunny here .... i am happy :)
one afternoon i ended up in ReHab ....
sorry AT Rehab ..:) .... this bar restaurant right over the water ...
it was hot, and my part of the island was without power for some reason...it happens a lot on these islands .... and sitting in my room, ...with no WiFi, ... and with no fan was not an option .... so i spent one afternoon in this hammock .... they were without power too, which meant there was no loud undesirable music playing .... it wasn't bad .... i had a couple Rum with Pineapple and Lemonade cocktails .... i was practicing my 'chilling' ... :)
i had made my decision to leave Utila, .... on 15 March, and committed to renting a place in Roatan. ...that gave me a month in Roatan and the best price on a place to stay... the longer you stay, the cheaper it is ...
13 Mar
so i was running out of snorkel-time on Utila, and the weather was still not cooperating ... but i wanted to get in the water one more time ... so i decided to get up early one morning, hoping it may be calmer then. it was calmer, but not much ... and by the time i finished, i was bobbing around in the water like a cork ... and visibility was poor ...
yes, i have another camera with me, with an underwater housing, that i use for diving because it can go down to... i was going to say 100 ft ... but since i took it to the Blue Hole, i guess it can go down 140 ft :) ....i don't like to use it because it is big and cumbersome, but ... it is all that i have now ...
i must admit, i was a bit skeptical about taking another camera underwater ... :( .... but it was fine ...
2 Blue Chromis .... if i got in close ... the visibility wasn't too bad ...
there were a lot of small fishes swimming around this grouping of coral .... as i have shown before, many times the young fish bare little resemblance to their adults .... Blue Tangs are totally Yellow when young .... but there were a couple tiny Spanish Hogfish here that are just little miniatures of the adults ... i've never seen baby Spanish HogFish before ... and they were so cute ....
Juvenile Spanish HogFish...
a tiny Neon Goby over Brain Coral ...
a SpotFin ButterFly Fish ...
eerie underwater scene ....you can see.... visibility was pretty bad ...
Blue Head Wrasse ...
these 2 Sergeant Majors were intent on protecting their home in the coral ...
someone wasn't very happy when their expensive hat flew off their head .... :(
obviously a perfect environment for a 'housing development' ... of Christmas Tree Worms ..
my plan was to leave on Sunday, 15 March ... but the weather had other ideas .... it is still so windy that the Captains won't make the trip across the sea to Roatan ... they haven't been out for almost a week ... it's just been too rough ... and i am glad that they make those decisions ... !
so i will be delayed by a day, the weather is supposed to calm down on Monday, and the plan is go to then ... and then of course, it will get better every day ...but too late for me to do anymore snorkeling on Utila ...
15Mar
so my last day on Utila .... Laurie said ... let's just rent those damn kayaks and go ..... i'm not much of a kayak-er, in fact, i think i've only kayaked 3 times in my life ... and only once was for more than a few minutes ... when i did this same trip across the Lagoon to Rock Harbor several years ago... and it was a very mild day. but .... Laurie is a 'professional' kayak-er ... and we were going to rent a double kayak, ... and i was desperate to DO SOMETHING ... so i agreed ...how bad could it be... really ?
getting across the open Lagoon to the channel was a bit challenging ... it was into the wind, but we made it fine ... it should be a piece of cake on the way home :) .... i even was able to take my turn and navigate the sometimes very narrow passageways through the channel ...
but when we got out to Rock Harbor ... which is protected by a reef ... and should be quite calm ... it was a different story ... it was VERY VERY windy .... Laurie decided it would be calmer all the way on the OTHER side of the Harbor .... but it was so difficult paddling .... she got out and pulled us .... yes, me, the queen, sat in the kayak :)
you can see the 'other side' to the right of Laurie ... way in the distance !
we finally made it to the other side, and it was calmer .... i got out and snorkeled around a few patches of coral ... but the wind had picked up even more .... and it was too rough to hold the camera still :(
after about 20min we decided to head back .... which should have meant the wind was at our back .... but the wind had shifted ... and picked up even more ... we were both paddling with all our strength ... i turned around to look at Laurie and saw this 2' swell coming right for us .... there were several of those, but we made it ok .... it was quite intimidating for me .... and Laurie said that i had now experienced real Ocean Kayaking ...
the trip back through the channel was easy going; but when we reached the opening to the Lagoon .. the wind shift had a surprise for us .... we were again going against the wind :(
we finally arrived back.... we were struggling to pull the kayak onto shore ... they are not supposed to be this heavy .....we realized it was full of water !!!!!! ..... Laurie said it was amazing we made it at all ... and that it would have been so much easier without all that water in the kayak :)
we went to Mango Tango for dinner that night .... it's another new restaurant on Utila ... wish we would have gone there earlier ....... it was right over the water, probably the best-located restaurant on the island .. and the food was great ...
good bye to Laurie, fun spending time with her ....and good bye to Utila .... sorry i didn't get to spend as much time in the water as i would have liked.
7am departure tomorrow
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