Southwest Cay and Rio Tinto, Honduras
Turquiose water intertwined with deep aquamarine along the flanks of Southwest Cay, our morning destination. Snorkelers and swimmers paddled away from the beach of white sand and crumbled coral. Swimmers with and without inner tubes splashed along the shoreline, and other travelers lounged in the shade of the palm trees. A sheltering reef lured divers for one last time into the frenzy of activity beneath the surface. Many of the fish species now looked familiar, but the coral that graced the seafloor was exceptionally beautiful here.
During lunch the Sea Lion motored on towards the Rio Tinto, where we spent the rest of the day exploring by kayak and Zodiac. The scenery along the river was nothing like our previous river trips. Densely forested slopes dotted with cahune palms and bronze-colored gumbo limbo trees rose from the quite water. The local people had hauled dugout canoes up onto the muddy banks where banana trees, small huts, and farmland interrupted the wilder landscapes. We slowly cruised past curious cows attended by cattle egrets and were treated to keel-billed toucans, Montezuma’s oropendulas, and a bat falcon that flew overhead. A narrow channel meandered away from the main river and enticed us back into the lush forest, as you can see in the photo. As we returned to the ship, towering clouds turned golden in the evening light, and the sun slipped behind the horizon for our final evening on the ship.
Turquiose water intertwined with deep aquamarine along the flanks of Southwest Cay, our morning destination. Snorkelers and swimmers paddled away from the beach of white sand and crumbled coral. Swimmers with and without inner tubes splashed along the shoreline, and other travelers lounged in the shade of the palm trees. A sheltering reef lured divers for one last time into the frenzy of activity beneath the surface. Many of the fish species now looked familiar, but the coral that graced the seafloor was exceptionally beautiful here.
During lunch the Sea Lion motored on towards the Rio Tinto, where we spent the rest of the day exploring by kayak and Zodiac. The scenery along the river was nothing like our previous river trips. Densely forested slopes dotted with cahune palms and bronze-colored gumbo limbo trees rose from the quite water. The local people had hauled dugout canoes up onto the muddy banks where banana trees, small huts, and farmland interrupted the wilder landscapes. We slowly cruised past curious cows attended by cattle egrets and were treated to keel-billed toucans, Montezuma’s oropendulas, and a bat falcon that flew overhead. A narrow channel meandered away from the main river and enticed us back into the lush forest, as you can see in the photo. As we returned to the ship, towering clouds turned golden in the evening light, and the sun slipped behind the horizon for our final evening on the ship.
