Cuero y Salado National Wildlife Refuge and Utila, Honduras
This morning the clouds hung lightly between land and Pico Bonito, at a height of 7,300 feet on the mainland. We had arrived into Honduras, our third and last country on this week’s adventure, and chose Cuero y Salado National Wildlife Refuge for our mornings explorations. Kayakers followed by Zodiacs cruised the mangrove-lined waterways. Meanwhile, numerous local fishermen in low-slung “cayucos” (dugouts) paddled slowly out past the Sea Voyager’s anchorage, their sole occupants drawing slim hand lines out behind them. The sea was flat calm and they went far from shore, as I’m sure they have done in these parts for generations of Garífuna. On the shore circular nets were thrown again and again for whatever fish might be close inshore, very likely mullet.
Two hours away, after lunch, we closed in on the dock at the town of Utila, where a different culture abides. Because of the continuing calm weather conditions, snorkeling was superb, as we moored the Zodiac to one of the outermost buoys on the reef just a few hundred meters off our stern. Clear water showed the edge of the reef wall, which dropped down to around 90 feet below. Gorgonian fans wafted between hard and soft corals, queen and French angelfish peered out from clefts and ledges, while blue chromis made the water sparkle underneath us.
There was time on shore for all in the late afternoon, and a supply boat from the mainland arrived to moor on the other side of the dock from us. It was carrying construction material to the island which turned out to consist almost entirely of bags of sand, sand brought from the mainland, near the coastal town of La Ceiba, from it’s river. The details one never thinks about!
The dock seemed the center of activity for the small community here. Closets, dining room table and chairs had also arrived, and were being removed with care to the back of a pick-up for delivery home. Of course having a ship of our size (though small by some standards), was a treat for many…some swam out from the neighboring dock, bobbing heads much lower than portholes, however. It was obvious that not too many ships our size pull into port every day.
This morning the clouds hung lightly between land and Pico Bonito, at a height of 7,300 feet on the mainland. We had arrived into Honduras, our third and last country on this week’s adventure, and chose Cuero y Salado National Wildlife Refuge for our mornings explorations. Kayakers followed by Zodiacs cruised the mangrove-lined waterways. Meanwhile, numerous local fishermen in low-slung “cayucos” (dugouts) paddled slowly out past the Sea Voyager’s anchorage, their sole occupants drawing slim hand lines out behind them. The sea was flat calm and they went far from shore, as I’m sure they have done in these parts for generations of Garífuna. On the shore circular nets were thrown again and again for whatever fish might be close inshore, very likely mullet.
Two hours away, after lunch, we closed in on the dock at the town of Utila, where a different culture abides. Because of the continuing calm weather conditions, snorkeling was superb, as we moored the Zodiac to one of the outermost buoys on the reef just a few hundred meters off our stern. Clear water showed the edge of the reef wall, which dropped down to around 90 feet below. Gorgonian fans wafted between hard and soft corals, queen and French angelfish peered out from clefts and ledges, while blue chromis made the water sparkle underneath us.
There was time on shore for all in the late afternoon, and a supply boat from the mainland arrived to moor on the other side of the dock from us. It was carrying construction material to the island which turned out to consist almost entirely of bags of sand, sand brought from the mainland, near the coastal town of La Ceiba, from it’s river. The details one never thinks about!
The dock seemed the center of activity for the small community here. Closets, dining room table and chairs had also arrived, and were being removed with care to the back of a pick-up for delivery home. Of course having a ship of our size (though small by some standards), was a treat for many…some swam out from the neighboring dock, bobbing heads much lower than portholes, however. It was obvious that not too many ships our size pull into port every day.
