Punta Sal, Honduras
We awake in the calm waters of a snug anchorage off the mainland of Honduras. Slate blue mountain silhouettes backdrop cliffed ridges bristling with Cohune palm trees. The distant rain forested peaks send the water they have wrung from the trade winds back to us with a little of their soil included, giving rise to the aptly named Rio Tinto. It is our morning destination, but first we must cross an ominous line of breaking waves that guard the river mouth and threaten to prevent Zodiac access to the rainforest sights and sounds. We wait our chance, run between wave sets and we are in.
We are immediately rewarded. Nest building oropendulas, roosting night herons, dugout paddling children, and flowering water hyacinths greet us in the first five minutes. It only gets better. Jacanas pace the burnt umber river banks with long, slender toes while a makeshift children’s band, comprised of two buckets drums accompanying six vocalists, fills the still cool morning air with the sounds of youth. Kayakers enjoy shaded side channels while some of us in Zodiacs lie on our backs and gaze up at circling black hawks, gliding wood storks, and hovering kites.
After a barbecue lunch we reposition the ship into “Bahia Escondida” and are this time surrounded by rainforest. Mid-afternoon we disembark to further explore, this time on foot. Members of a troop of mantled howler monkeys are soon being spied on through the telescope. They feed on tree buds and leaves, laze on branches, and peer back at us with surprisingly expressive, obsidian black eyes. We end a perfect farewell day with a swim in the warmest water yet. The waves caress us good-bye, and we are a little less sad to be leaving this place that has touched us all.
We awake in the calm waters of a snug anchorage off the mainland of Honduras. Slate blue mountain silhouettes backdrop cliffed ridges bristling with Cohune palm trees. The distant rain forested peaks send the water they have wrung from the trade winds back to us with a little of their soil included, giving rise to the aptly named Rio Tinto. It is our morning destination, but first we must cross an ominous line of breaking waves that guard the river mouth and threaten to prevent Zodiac access to the rainforest sights and sounds. We wait our chance, run between wave sets and we are in.
We are immediately rewarded. Nest building oropendulas, roosting night herons, dugout paddling children, and flowering water hyacinths greet us in the first five minutes. It only gets better. Jacanas pace the burnt umber river banks with long, slender toes while a makeshift children’s band, comprised of two buckets drums accompanying six vocalists, fills the still cool morning air with the sounds of youth. Kayakers enjoy shaded side channels while some of us in Zodiacs lie on our backs and gaze up at circling black hawks, gliding wood storks, and hovering kites.
After a barbecue lunch we reposition the ship into “Bahia Escondida” and are this time surrounded by rainforest. Mid-afternoon we disembark to further explore, this time on foot. Members of a troop of mantled howler monkeys are soon being spied on through the telescope. They feed on tree buds and leaves, laze on branches, and peer back at us with surprisingly expressive, obsidian black eyes. We end a perfect farewell day with a swim in the warmest water yet. The waves caress us good-bye, and we are a little less sad to be leaving this place that has touched us all.
