Utila Island and Punta Sal, Honduras

This morning we had a chance to explore the small, but interesting community of Utilla. This is a low-key town with a few tourist facilities to accommodate primarily the European diver, and many of us visited the one and only gift store. We also continued our underwater explorations with a fantastic site for both snorkeling and diving. One of the more colorful of the numerous reef fish was this dramatic terminal phase stoplight parrotfish, Sparisoma viride. This is one of the more common of the parrotfish that we see on the reefs of Honduras and Belize. We were also fortunate to see the shy scrawled cowfish and some feeding swarms of tangs as they foraged along the reef. Parrotfish are partly responsible for the sandy beaches of the area, with some estimates of one parrotfish creating 1 ton of sand in a year by grinding down the corals as they pass it through their digestive tract.

After a morning at Utilla it was onward to the national park of Punta Sal as we explored one of the rivers, the Rio Tinto. We explored with Zodiacs and also by kayaks and we were rewarded with great views of numerous birds such as the brown jay, parrots, anhinga and little blue herons. As the sunset and darkness rapidly approached we returned to the Sea Voyager for cocktails, recap and another fantastic dinner and then it was onward to Guatemala for further adventures.